OFF: 'Scots'/'Scotch'

[J Strobridge]

*** WARNING - Seriously off topic subject  ***


Mike Parkington writes:

> Jill writes:
> - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
> British (now defunct)
> - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
> I've never heard of this one, tell me more.
>
> M

It was the language spoken by the Britons (probably akin to Welsh) when
the Romans arrived - Britain at that time being occupied by a mixture
of various tribes of Iron Age folk all of whom spoke a variation of the
Celtic language (hence they have come to be culturally known as Celts).
Gaulish was another Celtic language around at the time which was later
overwhelmed by the French language in much the same way as British
became overwhelmed by a combination of Latin, French and Anglo Saxon.
Whether it lurks quietly in the linguistic backwaters of geographical
names such as rivers or hills or placenames is very much open to
question but there are the occasional odd appearances of double L and
names beginning with Pen, particularly in the remoter areas of England
that could be survivals I'd hazard.   Sadly the Celtic speakers had some
religious prohibition about writing anything down - everything had to be
memorised - which made them very persuasive and eloquent speakers with
one of the finest oral literary traditions around but did nothing to
preserve their language!

sigh

jill


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J.D.Strobridge at ed.ac.uk                         eset08 at tattoo.ed.ac.uk
                                                ELIJSA at srv0.arts.ed.ac.uk

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