"Welsh" isn't a Celtic word that means "foreigner" It's an Old English word that means "foreigner" and is what the Anglo-Saxons called the people who are now Welsh.
do all Scottish, Irish and Welsh speak English?
Apparently the idea of English being in some way influenced or related on a noticable scale to Celtic languages is one that gets around. I have a couple of friends who insist that it is so and I tried to explained to them that this just isn't the case, they still don't believe me. Other than a handfull of words which appear in English there is no connection at all.
Beir bua agus beannacht
Beir bua agus beannacht
Well the fact that english has a progressive tense, which no other germanic languages have, and which all the celtic ones do, could be inidcative of welsh influence on english. As well, the tendency for english to us the verb do as well as an auxiliary verb (do you want to go home? i didn't eat the cake) is said to come from welsh. This is found in no other language but brythonic-based languages and english.
Remember the anglo-saxons did not slaughter the celtic-speaking inhabitants in england but rather it was a case of imposing their language on brythonic, so a pidgin variety using a mix of grammars and vocabulary was bound to occur.
As regards the statement that the English were converted by Rome and not from Ireland, I pose this question. Which would be more successful, 60 roman missionairies in southern england, or hundreds of Irish in the North? Which was the most culturally advanced christian kingdom in England in the 7th to 8th centuries and who had converted it? What was the centre of christian culture in Britain in the 7th and 8th centuries and who founded it?
Remember the anglo-saxons did not slaughter the celtic-speaking inhabitants in england but rather it was a case of imposing their language on brythonic, so a pidgin variety using a mix of grammars and vocabulary was bound to occur.
As regards the statement that the English were converted by Rome and not from Ireland, I pose this question. Which would be more successful, 60 roman missionairies in southern england, or hundreds of Irish in the North? Which was the most culturally advanced christian kingdom in England in the 7th to 8th centuries and who had converted it? What was the centre of christian culture in Britain in the 7th and 8th centuries and who founded it?
having read the comments here and my own personnel veiw is the welsh are a great nation and i only think its envy on our part that they are patriotic to the max, i saw this on holiday recently when locals asked where they were from they said wales and went on to describe the location everytime, we english could learn alot from this proud nation
Why is it that the comments and responses seem to continually 'ping-pong' between nasty and patronizing? ..please, just a retortical question ...:) Surely most of us are now past getting an ego boost from the mere fact of our birth language/nationality. I think trying to get to the truth about any language with its beauty and its warts is much more valuable...
According to the current concensus among linguists...and surely, academic linguists with their combination of empirical techniques and intuitive hypotheses are more convincing than a native language speakers who is either offended or get an ego boost when someone else comments on his/her language...
Anyway the point is English and the various Celtic languages are related, but not until you are well past the proto-germanic level...3,500/4,000 years or more ago??? But then when you get back far enough they tell us Greek, Russian, Punjabi, and more are also related... Now take Finnish...that's the language I recently decided to try to teach myself... Most of the germanic and romance languages I can usually pick my way through to some degree or get a sense of what is being said...but not Finnish...at first it was absolutely incomprehensible, but now it's at the level of merely being impossible...:) Finnish, of course, is from a different language family than any of the languages I mentioned above....
According to the current concensus among linguists...and surely, academic linguists with their combination of empirical techniques and intuitive hypotheses are more convincing than a native language speakers who is either offended or get an ego boost when someone else comments on his/her language...
Anyway the point is English and the various Celtic languages are related, but not until you are well past the proto-germanic level...3,500/4,000 years or more ago??? But then when you get back far enough they tell us Greek, Russian, Punjabi, and more are also related... Now take Finnish...that's the language I recently decided to try to teach myself... Most of the germanic and romance languages I can usually pick my way through to some degree or get a sense of what is being said...but not Finnish...at first it was absolutely incomprehensible, but now it's at the level of merely being impossible...:) Finnish, of course, is from a different language family than any of the languages I mentioned above....
Of course...I probably haven't gone into enough detail in my post above...languages do influence each other with words and gramatical structures in the form of various borrowings...but...not being a linguist... I don't know if that means they are related or not... Apparently Celtic languages have affected such germanic languages as Icelandic and Faroese...I've heard that a lot of the early female settlers were Celtic...no surprise in the days of the Vikings...
"we english could learn alot from this proud nation"
We could elarn a lot from the Welsh?
I think you must have had a bang on the head.
The Welsh aren't proud of their nation - what HAVE the Welsh to be proud of? The English are more proud of English than the Welsh and Scots are of their nations, but because we aren't insecure or have chips on our shoulders about any neighbouring country we don't have to show our pride as much as the Taffs and Jocks do. We don't have to wear silly national fancy dress or keep waving our flags. We know who we are and don't have to show it to everyone.
We could elarn a lot from the Welsh?
I think you must have had a bang on the head.
The Welsh aren't proud of their nation - what HAVE the Welsh to be proud of? The English are more proud of English than the Welsh and Scots are of their nations, but because we aren't insecure or have chips on our shoulders about any neighbouring country we don't have to show our pride as much as the Taffs and Jocks do. We don't have to wear silly national fancy dress or keep waving our flags. We know who we are and don't have to show it to everyone.
adam,adam,adam tsk tsk tsk , reading your comments i think you are dying to be cymry but by a twist of fate you belong to a nation who are frowned opon for showing anysigns of patriotisum by your own people for fear of upsetting someone,have very little culture if any to speak of,totally ignorant to anybody who does not speak the same language as you and live under the lie that eng-erlund is better than everyone else because it should be! things to be proud of?
on waking up i give thanks daily i'm welsh i feel pity for you as you cant say the same.PITY not more like english bob, thanks again bob.
on waking up i give thanks daily i'm welsh i feel pity for you as you cant say the same.PITY not more like english bob, thanks again bob.
As for patronizing and unkind comments there are plenty of them here to be sure from more than one person. I'm merely here to obtain more acounts of people with limited English in the Celtic nations. My list has 33 acounts, one of which is from someone I know about someone she knows well.
Beir bua agus beannacht
Beir bua agus beannacht
hi guys. does anyone actually know the precise figures of nonenglish speakers or any precice facts about areas where they don't use english at all?
A James a chara,
According to my rather amature but semi-therough research I've written down 33 cases from the 70s to today in which the people mentioned had little or limited English. Most of the cases I've noted are in the 90s and today because they seem more valid to any modern perspective. I've obtained these situations from firsthand acounts of people I know and from websites on the Internet, thus the material is not 100 percent fool-proof. I do know though that despite the vehiment claims that all Irish people speak fluent and unbroken English, there are people out there for whom this isn't the case. I've sort of become very attached to the project and I always like to hear of new people to add to my list. I don't know exactly what I'll do with this list, it would probably be of no use to other people but I have worked hard at it. As for any other figures for other Celtic languages I couldn't tell you anything of consequence.
Beir bua agus beannacht
Riona
According to my rather amature but semi-therough research I've written down 33 cases from the 70s to today in which the people mentioned had little or limited English. Most of the cases I've noted are in the 90s and today because they seem more valid to any modern perspective. I've obtained these situations from firsthand acounts of people I know and from websites on the Internet, thus the material is not 100 percent fool-proof. I do know though that despite the vehiment claims that all Irish people speak fluent and unbroken English, there are people out there for whom this isn't the case. I've sort of become very attached to the project and I always like to hear of new people to add to my list. I don't know exactly what I'll do with this list, it would probably be of no use to other people but I have worked hard at it. As for any other figures for other Celtic languages I couldn't tell you anything of consequence.
Beir bua agus beannacht
Riona
beth sy'n mynd ymlaen te? ble mae cymry ma? dewch ymlaen bois dweudwch pam yn ni casau yr season....
I'll state again the welsh scots and irish are grate it dos'nt matter what they have achieved the fact is they're still here next to a huge global influance which is england, ask yourself why they're distict differances between us, my answer to this is because they deserve to be and we should embrace this and be humbled after all we can't say the same. imagine everyone in england speaking german! it was almost so.
Britain was beset by the wars of the Roses and on 8 August 1485 Henry Tudor and his Uncle Jasper landed at Milford Haven. They raised a Welsh army and marched against Richard III. On 21 August 1485 Henry Tudor's army flying the Red Dragon banner of Cadwaladr won the day. Richard was slain and Henry Tudor was crowned on the battle field. This Henry VII ‑ Henry Tudor ‑ a Welsh prince ascended the throne of England.
This brought nothing to Wales and in 1536 his son Henry VIII granted the Royal Ascent to the Act of Union. This Act brought Welsh law and administration into line with England. The policy of the Tudor Government was to incorporate Wales into England by removing all differences, especially the language. Six years later, the 1542 Act set out to "extirp" the Welsh language and to exclude monoglot Welsh speakers from holding office under the Crown.
Interesting how history can be twisted isnt it. So Henry VIII son of a welsh prince who could speak welsh himself is the evil ENGLISH oppressor.
This brought nothing to Wales and in 1536 his son Henry VIII granted the Royal Ascent to the Act of Union. This Act brought Welsh law and administration into line with England. The policy of the Tudor Government was to incorporate Wales into England by removing all differences, especially the language. Six years later, the 1542 Act set out to "extirp" the Welsh language and to exclude monoglot Welsh speakers from holding office under the Crown.
Interesting how history can be twisted isnt it. So Henry VIII son of a welsh prince who could speak welsh himself is the evil ENGLISH oppressor.