[geeks] English language [was: power (was Mr. Bill)]

[Sandwich Maker]

" From: Mike Meredith <very at zonky.org>
" 
" On Fri, 19 Sep 2008 13:16:25 -0400 (EDT), Sandwich Maker wrote:
" 
" > yes, i know it's not goidelic like irish/scots 
" 
" Probably not a good idea to imply ("welsh gaelic") that it is then.

my mistake, then.

" > the origin of brittany - when the saxons invaded britain, displaced
" > britons were invited in by their cross channel cousins [armoricans?],
" > but so many came that they changed the name...
" 
" It may have been a bit more confused than that. There's theories that
" Brittany was occupied by large numbers of Romano-British soldiers well
" before Saxons started occupying Britain. And a second wave that came
" when the Saxons started kicking out the Brythonic ruling classes
" (personally I think it is doubtful that many Brythonic peasants made it
" to Brittany ... they were more likely to escape West or North;
" certainly the Welsh were very slow to admit that they didn't rule
" Britain as the native word for Wales (Cymru) is quite late in origin).
" 
" A more gruesome theory was that Brittany was settled by Welsh
" mercenaries who married locals and tore out their tongues to keep their
" language pure. The Welsh word for Brittany (Llydaw) has its origins in
" the phrase "half silent".

ick.

'half silent' could also refer to mutual intelligibility of divergent
dialects.

" > ireland, into a land already full of british celts.
" 
" Ouch! That implies that they were Brythonic celts 

afaik yes

" and the ancient Irish would have been less than happy about that!

they supposedly did recognize the britons they met as cousins of a
sort.

" > not really fair, but does that count place names?
" 
" Nope. "Landscape features" would be a better phrase (some of which
" later became place names) simply because they're less likely to change.
" There's plenty still around, including my favourite ... the many river
" Avon's ...
" 
" Saxon Invader: Oi! You. What's the name of this river ?
" Brythonic peasant: (speaking slowly in the way that will be very
" familiar to anyone used to the English trying to communicate to someone
" who doesn't speak English) That's a _river_ (Afon in modern Welsh)
" Saxon Invader: Ah! The River Avon (meaning River River).

that's a good one!
________________________________________________________________________
Andrew Hay                                  the genius nature
internet rambler                            is to see what all have seen
adh at an.bradford.ma.us                       and think what none thought