LL-L "Celtic connections" 2003.05.30 (04) [E]

[R. F. Hahn]

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L O W L A N D S - L * 30.MAY.2003 (04) * ISSN 189-5582 * LCSN 96-4226
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From: Gavin.Falconer at gmx.net
Subject: LL-L "Songs" 2003.05.30 (01) [E]

Dag,

I'm sure there will be other answers to this, but here goes.

Breton is a P-Celtic or Brythonic language related to Welsh.  They are
both
descended from British, the language spoken in most of Britain before
the
Romans came, although the natives of Brittany may still have spoken
Gaulish,
also a P-Celtic language but without the typical Celtic mutations,
allowing them
to learn British more easily when the British started to arrive, which I
think was about AD 500, but I no doubt I'll be corrected if wrong.
There is
also one other Brythonic variety, Cornish, which died out in the
eighteenth
century but has been revived more recently.  Breton has obviously been
influenced
by French and Welsh by English, though they share a common core.  I was
once
told by a Welsh-speaker that she could understand Breton when she was
drunk.
 Apparently the origin of the term "Great Britain", despite occasional
folk
etymologies based on politics, was to distinguish it from "Little
Britain" or
Brittany.

Those who conquered England in 1066 were not Breton but Norman, so
called
because they were the descendants of Norsemen, though they had adopted
the
local form of French before they conquered the English.

--
All the best,

Gavin

Gavin Falconer

Belfast: 02890 657935
Dublin: 00353 (0)1 831 9089
Work: 00353 (0)1 618 3386
Mobile: 0779 173 0627
Fax:  001 954 301 7991

"Wovon man nicht reden kann, darüber muss man
schweigen."

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From: "Daniel Ryan Prohaska" <daniel at ryan-prohaska.com>
Subject: LL-L "Songs/Breton" 2003.05.29 (05) [E/LS]

Dear all,

Breton is a Celtic language belonging to the Brythonic sub-group of this
language family. Its closest relatives are Cornish and Welsh. All other
living Celtic languages belong to the Goidelic-group (Irish, Scottish
and Manx Gaelic).

South-Western Britons emigrated to the Armorican peninsular (Brittany
today) in the 4th to the 7th centuries, owing to economic pressure, the
Roman withdrawal, and the increasing threat of various peoples, the
Saxons from the east, the Irish from the west etc.

As you can see, it's quite a bit more complicated, and a very nice
topic.....

A galon,

Dan


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