LL-L "Language varieties" 2004.09.21 (02) [E]

[Lowlands-L]

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L O W L A N D S - L * 21.SEP.2004 (02) * ISSN 189-5582 * LCSN 96-4226
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A=Afrikaans Ap=Appalachian B=Brabantish D=Dutch E=English F=Frisian
L=Limburgish LS=Lowlands Saxon (Low German) N=Northumbrian
S=Scots Sh=Shetlandic V=(West)Flemish Z=Zeelandic (Zeêuws)
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From: john feather <johnfeather at sceptic1.freeserve.co.uk>
Subject: Language varieties

I've just seen a TV programme by one Francis Pryor about the supposed AS
settlement of England. I think he has made a career out of historical
revisionism. His basic thesis is that the V Bede invented a myth about the
origin of English Christianity - that the Roman church converted an island
of AS heathens, whereas in fact Romano-British Christianity was already here
in the form of the Celtic/Irish Church. He therefore had to create an origin
for these heathens.
.
Drawing on recent work by a variety of academics Pryor argued that there is
no evidence for the sort of fighting and breaks in continuity of land use
which invasion would imply. Apparently genetic evidence will currently
support the idea that the main bloodlines were Germanic and that they were
Celtic. Pryor chooses to believe they were Celtic and the shifts in culture
and language arose because after the Romans left the Brits decided to adopt
modern Continental ways. There was a curious statement that the loss of
grammatical endings [picture of word endings printed in red washing away]
and the shift to dependence on word order were a result of Celtic influence
but no attempt to deal with the fact that written OE is highly inflected
right up to the end of the 11th century (though of course writing is highly
conservative), that Norse influences are generally invoked to explain the
reduction of case endings, that Mid E is still inflected, that even in Greek
and Latin word order was in practice much less flexible than the grammar
would permit, that reliance on word order also dominates the modern Romance
and Scandinavian languages, etc. Above all, where is the Celtic vocabulary?
The culprit is Dr Katie Lowe of the English Department, University of
Glasgow, an OE specialist.

John Feather johnfeather at sceptic1.freeserve.co.uk

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