I don't want to learn Queen's English

Fredrik from Norway   Thursday, January 20, 2005, 18:00 GMT
But only children (people under16 years) have the right to fish for free in fresh water!
Kelly L.   Thursday, January 20, 2005, 20:45 GMT
I've heard Madonna on MTV Europe speaking with a Queen's accent?
Very weird...
Valley Pearl   Friday, January 21, 2005, 12:32 GMT
She is totally British now...
that's like, totally awful!!!
aww   Friday, January 21, 2005, 12:35 GMT
Her British accent is fairly fake.
Sal   Friday, January 21, 2005, 13:25 GMT
She's really British now (albeit with a fake accent)? You mean she's not coming back? *laughs and points at the UK* mwahahaha!
Fredrik   Friday, January 21, 2005, 17:21 GMT
Thanks for the link and your comments about Britain and it's ancient laws etc....some of which are still officially on the statute book (i.e. still valid in law) but of course, they have never been amended or actually put into effect. They will never be exercised becaue the world is so different today, even though technically they could be.

An example...it is still "legal" to shoot a Welshman in the grounds of Hereford Cathedral, in the West of England, as long as he is no more than 100 yards away from the edifice, and the act is carried out with a bow and arrow and it is not a Sunday. I would not advise anybody to try it out, however angry you are with Taffy, and even though capital punishment was abolished in the UK yonks ago.
Damian   Friday, January 21, 2005, 17:29 GMT
I don't mind if Madonna is over here in the UK permanently as long as she doesn't venture north of the border into God's wee acre.
Joanne   Friday, January 21, 2005, 17:48 GMT
It's only a matter of time before she "discovers" the Clan Ciccone tartan, and treks over to the Highlands screaming, "Erin Go Bragh!!!" Then it would be a year before someone taps her on the shoulder and tells her, "You're not in Ireland, poser. It's 'Alba Gu Bra'."
Damian   Friday, January 21, 2005, 23:29 GMT
Joanne: ;-)

To the lady in question: haste ye back fae whence ye came...
Fredrik from Norway   Monday, January 24, 2005, 00:54 GMT
Erin Go Bragh
&
Alba Gu Bra

Erin is Ireland?
Alba is Scotland?

But the rest?

And why are the Celtic names for Scotland and England (Alba and Albion?) so similar?
Fredrik from Norway   Monday, January 24, 2005, 00:56 GMT
Personally I find the name Caledonia the most beautiful for your auld nation. (Though in Norway it is connected with a terrible hotel fire in the 80s)....
Siobhan   Monday, January 24, 2005, 01:00 GMT
Erin go Bragh or Éireann go Brách loosely translates to "Ireland Forever".
Siobhan   Monday, January 24, 2005, 01:06 GMT
"The earliest evidence of people in Scotland is dated to about 8500 BC, but the earliest known written reference to Britain is found in the writings of Greek philosopher Aristotle (384-322 BC), in which the larger island (Britain), is called Albinn (the Latin name is Albion). To the Greeks Albinn was the name applied to Scotland, England and Wales, and the smaller island they called Ierne (Ireland). In the ancient work known as 'De Mundo' it is written, 'Beyond the Pillars of Hercules is the ocean which flows round the earth, and in it are two very large islands called Britannia, viz., Albinn and Ierne'. The Scots were well known to the ancient civilisations, there is even a Latin inscription on the walls of one of the Christian Catacombs in Rome that reads, 'Quid Scoti hic fuerunt' - which translates as 'Some Scots exist here' ie. - 'The Scots were here'. The old language spoken in much of Scotland in ancient times- but never spoken throughout all of the country - is Gaelic, and the Gaelic name for Scotland to this day is Alba - similar to the Greek Albinn. The Greeks called the people of Albinn 'Albiones', which in Greek translates as 'white people', (same root word as 'Albinos'). Some scholars think that the Greeks and Romans possibly got the name from the Gauls (French), in whose Celtic language Alba or Albion would mean 'mountain land' or 'white land' from 'alp' meaning 'high' or 'white'. If that were true, then the name Albion is possibly related to a Celtic root word that gave the name to the dominant mountain range in Europe - the Alps."
Ed   Monday, January 24, 2005, 02:14 GMT
<<It's only a matter of time before she "discovers" the Clan Ciccone tartan, and treks over to the Highlands screaming, "Erin Go Bragh!!!" Then it would be a year before someone taps her on the shoulder and tells her, "You're not in Ireland, poser. It's 'Alba Gu Bra'." >>

And the person who tells her she's not in Ireland will be Joanne! And please Joanne make sure after you tell her, you punch her in the face! hahahaha
Fredrik from Norway   Monday, January 24, 2005, 02:56 GMT
Thanks, Siobhan!

What is Norway called in Gaelic?
I once read it was "Lochlann"?
And "An Iorua" in Irish Gaelic?
And "Nirribhidh" in Scottish Gaelic?

What does these names mean? Maybe Nirribhidh is the Gaelic form of Nordvegr=northern way=Norway? But An Iorua?

There has really been some funny interchange between Gaelic and Norse. On the isle of Skye, for example:
Torscavaig = Torskavåg = Cod Bay

(Isle of) Jura = Djurøy = Deer Island