@Katzztar:
I grew up in N.E. Texas and don't know difference of 'lowland' & 'highland', but I agree with hieracy.
Moved up to NC Plains (Wisconsin) was 40 and get people looking at me odd when I greeted them with "How ya doin, Ma'am?" and "Are ya findin everythin' allrigh', suir?"
(was retail salesperson at Wal-Mart - and yes I DO still have that Texan twang, just don't write like it, theun hardly nun of ya'll be able ta udderstan me)
Even before I moved out of Texas, I had people say "don't call me ma'am, I'm not that old!" I had to explain to them its not an age thing, its a matter of showin respect or just being down right polite-like. It was how I was raised.
Ah and that explains the question I had above had about lowland/highland.
Still not sure where Texas fits into that though - or at least the Eastern side of Texas. its so frickin big! I know there was a big settlement of Irish and in central Texas there was a town of German settlers
Texas was settled by different groups so it probably varies a lot.
I think East Texas is basically just like the lowland South, but other areas were settled by the Appalachia people.
By Irish we mean Ulster Scots right?
Pretty sure Irish Irish are rare outside the Northeast, though lots of people who report the ethnicity don't know the difference (boy would they be taught quickly if they visited Northern Ireland :/).
I think it's easy to tell though by just checking what religion they are. Irish Irish = Catholic, Scots or Anglo Irish = Protestant.
–- Update From New Post Merge ---
If you're from Appalachia or it's over-mountain lands (most of Tennessee, Kentucky, most of Indiana, West and Central Texas, Oklahoma, Missouri, most of Arkansas, southern Illinois etc). Maybe you sometimes look at us hyphened up motherfuckers in the NE gabbing about our hyphens and say "fuck dude, i dont even know what part of whitonia I'm even from".
Well these two groups are probably your great grancestors.