UK Government ignores Cornish Language

Lazar   Monday, April 11, 2005, 04:08 GMT
<<Breton was spoken in Galicia for centuries like in Brittany (LIKE IN ENGLAND! England is a Celtic country too!!!). Many people like me are learning our medieval celtic language, that is breton.>>

I think you have your terminology confused. Breton is the language of Cornish people who fled across the English channel into northwestern France to escape the Anglo-Saxon invasion. Breton has only ever been spoken in France.

But I don't dispute that a Celtic language was spoken in Galicia. In fact, Wikipedia says it was spoken until the 15th century.
greg   Monday, April 11, 2005, 07:29 GMT
Lazar : there are more theories about the Breton language crossing La Manche. I don't remember exactly, but the Roman army may have decided to move populations from Cornouailles to Armorica. I'm not sure. I think there is a post or thread about that story.
Brennus   Monday, April 11, 2005, 07:45 GMT
I am one who believes that the Armorican peninsula has always been Celtic speaking, that it was only feebly Romanized, and that Breton is a Gallic descendant. The similarities between "Breton" and "Briton; Britain" is not in itself, proof that the Bretons came from Cornwall or Wales. For example, in the 3rd century B.C. there was a Celtic tribe called the Britogalli living in what is now northern Romania and Moldavia (Moldova). I have also read that the British origins theory for the Bretons dates only from the 19th century and that prior to that time, most European scholars believed that the Breton language was a remnant of pre-Roman Gaulish.
Lazar   Monday, April 11, 2005, 07:49 GMT
I haven't read that much about the subject - you may be right.
greg   Monday, April 11, 2005, 07:53 GMT
Brennus : "There was a Celtic tribe called the Britogalli living in what is now northern Romania and Moldavia".

True. I read there are more Celtic or Gaulish settllements in Asia Minor for example (words containing <Galata> or <Galatè>). Besides, I'm wondering about the origin of the province names as Galice (Poland) and Galicia (Spain).
Lazar   Monday, April 11, 2005, 07:57 GMT
<<True. I read there are more Celtic or Gaulish settllements in Asia Minor for example (words containing <Galata> or <Galatè>).>>

As in the Galatians (and Paul's letters thereto).
Adam   Monday, April 11, 2005, 17:07 GMT
So why does the French government refuse to give Brittany its own Parliament?
Adam   Monday, April 11, 2005, 17:24 GMT
"To many in the UK ‘nationalism’ has become a dirty word associated with racism and extremism"

No. Most people think it's okay for the Scots and the Welsh and CERTAIn English people (such as the Cornish) to be Nationalistic. The Scots and Welsh moaned and whinged at the Government until they got their Parliaments. But whenever the English (except the Cornish) become Nationalistic, the Scots, Welsh and other nationalities then call us racist and that we should join BNP (even though BNP are British nationalists and not English nationalists), which is hypocritical. If the Scots and Welsh are able to get their own parliaments then I think it's wrong if they complain that the English or any other oppressed peoples in the world also demand their own Parliaments. The Scots and Welsh need to realise that they aren't the only being in the world who are "oppressed."

Saying that the English are "racist" or "xenophobic" just because they want their own Parliament is a bit like saying the American colonists were racist when they demanded to have their own Parliament separate from Britain.
Travis   Monday, April 11, 2005, 18:17 GMT
Sorry, but the Welsh have an *assembly*, not a *parliament*, unfortunately, Adam.
Damian   Monday, April 11, 2005, 18:28 GMT
<<Sorry, but the Welsh have an *assembly*, not a *parliament*, unfortunately, Adam>>

That's so funny! An American putting an Englishman to rights on a British issue. LOL ADAM: time to do a revison course on the British Constitution!
Adam   Monday, April 11, 2005, 18:47 GMT
"Sorry, but the Welsh have an *assembly*, not a *parliament*, unfortunately, Adam."

That's still a lot more than the English have.

Those poor, hard-done by Welsh. They only have an "Assembly" rather than a "Parliament."
Adam   Monday, April 11, 2005, 18:54 GMT
"That's so funny! An American putting an Englishman to rights on a British issue. LOL ADAM: time to do a revison course on the British Constitution! "

Not really. I know the Welsh have an Assembly, but I always call it a Parliament.

Same thing in my book.

The Welsh have an Assembly as well as the UK Parliament and the Scots have a Parliament as well as the UK Parliament but the English don't have a parliament, we just have the UK Parliament.

The American should like to know that if a similar situation exists in the US it would be like all the states having their own Parliaments (which they do) as well as each having the US Federal Parliament in Washington DC, EXCEPT, let's say, California, which doesn't have its own Parliament like all the other states but just has the Federal Parliament in Washington DC, so the Californians would say "Why can't we have our own Parliament like all the other states? Why should Texans have a say in how California's Health Service is run buy Californians have NO say in how Texas' Health Service is run?"

THAT is like what is happening in the UK right now.
greg   Tuesday, April 12, 2005, 06:42 GMT
Adam (now trying questions rather than swollen invective) : "So why does the French government refuse to give Brittany its own Parliament?"

1/ The French governent doesn't refuse to give Brittany a parliament : Brittany didn't ask.

2/ There is a Corsican assembly but there can't be anything like a parliament except the French parliament : France is a nation (see constitution), not a patchwork of nations (like in the UK).
Brennus   Tuesday, April 12, 2005, 07:49 GMT
Greg,

Re: I'm wondering about the origin of the province names as Galice (Poland) and Galicia (Spain)?

The conventional wisdom is that these are names that attest to Gaulish wanderings. Mario Pei even talks about it briefly in his "Story Of Language "(1949/1960). I would like to believe it myself.

As usual, there are a few dissenters. Someone I read once tried to attribute an Iberian *Kalikia as the source of Galicia in Spain though I have read more often that it derives from the name of a Celtic tribe called the Galaeci. A Slavic Halica or Halitsa has been proposed as the source of Polish Galicia according to one etymology I read. However, a Celtic origin is not impossible. Nearby Czechoslovakia was a Celtic stronghold before the Germanic Marcomanni began moving in there in the 1st century B.C.The Marcomanni (Marcomans) were, in turn, later expelled by the Slavs.

Celtic place names in Asia Minor sometimes end in -briga (Eccobriga) and -brogen (Ipetobrogen) just like they do in Europe i.e. Segobriga>Segovia (Spain) and Lindobrogen>Lynden (The Netherlands). One place name in Galatia, Dryïnon or Drouina means "Oak temple" according to once source I read. Anyhow, it's obviously related to Welsh derwen "oak".
greg   Tuesday, April 12, 2005, 08:26 GMT
Thanx Brennus. Many Gaulish tribes had their names ending with <broges> indeed.