do all Scottish, Irish and Welsh speak English?
Sorry to disappoint you, Damian "Anyone But England", but I suspect that the great majority of us English really couldn't care less who wins the World Cup now that our interest is finished (deservedly, BTW...) - as long as they win it with grace.
Next time the Scotland, Wales, N. Ireland or for that matter the Irish Republic team qualify, I'll be happy for them to do well in the competition, as long as it's not at England's expense.
I just don't have time for such pettiness, but you evidently do - in abundance. You might just try getting off your knees and moving on - it'd be a liberating experience.
Good luck.
Graham
A mate of mine went down to Brittany a couple of weeks ago with a dance team..staying the weekend in this farmhouse place. He said that it looked very much like Cornwall (part of the Celtic fringe) in so many ways, and many of the signs were bi-lingual (French/Breton). This mate and I went down to Cornwall together nearly a year ago now. Breton really looks similar to both Cornish and Welsh in a lot of the words....eg. the word for beach is "traeth" is all three Languages, and word for Church is "eglwys" in Welsh and "eglos" in Cornish and Breton.
Bretons love having visitors from the Celtic fringes of Britain......Scotland, Ireland, Wales and Cornwall, and mayebe, I don't know for sure, the |Isle of Man, Cumbria or other more unknown parts of the Celtic Fringe.
« We all Know that Irish, Welsh and Scotish are to a high degree mutually understandable. »
No. Irish and Scottish (and also Manx) are mutually intelligible to a great extent. Welsh, on the other hand, is very different from the above three — instead, it is similar to Cornish and Breton.
Oh okay, thanks
Could you say that Irish and Scotish developed alongside each other while the other celtic branched languages remaind more isolated and retained a higher degree of a older form of celtic?
"Cant be bothered reading all of that, my boolock radar was going mental...but Adam, it was the Irish who christianised the English from lyndisfarn a few hundred years after they became christianised....St.Patrick was Welsh...... "
King Ethelbert, who was an Anglo-Saxon, and Augustine introduced Christianity to the English. We introduced to ourselves. I don't know where you get the idea that it was the Irish, who were just a bunch of savages like the other Celts, who introduced Christianity to England.
"Two english soldiers died while occupying Afghanistan the other day. Awe, what a pity. LOL! "
It's the British Army that is in Afghanistan, not an English Army because there is no such thing as an English Army.
And Britain is not "occupying" Afghanistan. The British are there as part of NATO to fight the Taliban to control the poppy harvest as around three quarters of the world's heroine is produced in Afghanistan.
Adam, Afghanistan has been producing heroine for the last number of decades so why didn't America and her lap dog England go in ten years ago or why did they support the Afghanis against the Russians. Surprisingly when they fight the Russians they are not terrorists but when it's time to face the Americans, it is a different story. By the way, another Brit dead toady, a para, my favourites.
Thanks Graham...and for your good luck message.
If Scotland DO qualify next time round then I too will be more than happy for them to do well! Not at England's expense, of course!
Best wishes from North of Hadrian's Wall! :-)
Peace breaks out between Scots and English...
Thank you for your good wishes from North of Hadrian's Wall, received West of Offa's Dyke.
The expression of anti-English feeling here in Wales that the World Cup has brought out (I won't say "caused", as it's always there, just beneath the surface) has been noticeable, to say the least.
If I'd been entrepreneurial, I could have cleaned up on the sale of Portugal shirts. But I'm not.
It got to the point, though, where the Deputy Chief Constable of the North Wales Police (albeit an Englishman) warned of the possibility of racist abuse and violence because of people flying Cross of St. George flags on their cars in large numbers, as the Welsh would find this insulting. (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/5058132.stm)
So much for freedom of expression, then.
It could only be construed as insulting if the flags were in some way directed against the Welsh, which of course they weren't. It's taken a long time for the English to find our identity in an increasingly cosmopolitan and multi-cultural society. We have only just reclaimed our flag from the racist BNP. We don't fly it all the time, like the Welsh fly theirs, so when we do, it's in celebration of something that brings us together. We invented the modern game of football, so it's entirely appropriate that we fly our flag when we're involved in a top international tournament.
If English visitors took fright because of an outburst of racist violence against them, and took their tourist revenue away from North Wales, thats the local economy screwed. That would our fault too. naturally.
Of course, it didn't happen, but the recognition at that level of anti-English feeling spoke volumes. Perhaps we can learn a valuable lesson from being on the receiving end of such racism. I hope so. We'll grow as a culture, if we do.
Seriously, I really do wish the other home nations well in any international event.
Sad to say my grandparents lost the Gaelic before they left the highlands. I wanted my grandfather to teach me but he had no words at all though he said the Gaelic was his mother's first language until she went into service. They migrated & there was no-one else in their farming community who spoke the language & what little they knew was lost. Part of the trouble with my grandfather was he had a chip on his shoulder about conditions in Scotland when he left & he was out here 60 years before he ever went back & all that time he had just 2 words to say about Scotland - cold, wet! It was warm & sunny when I visited so maybe I was just lucky. People have to care enough to use a language & protect it when it is struggling against a more powerful language but language is a living thing & will change & evolve through usage & that doesn't make everyone happy. Ask the French! They have laws about it!
I totally support the Scots, Welsh and English in their desire to recognised as nations and to have autonomous rule if that is what they want. Many Cornish people look forward to the day when there will be a reasonable English nationalist party that will work alongside the other Celtic nationalist parties of these isles as opposed to against them.
http://www.independence1st.com/
30th September 2006 in Edinburgh
http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,1818194,00.html
Welsh certainly is not dying.
From where im from you're lucky if you here a word of english so i would like it if you who's written what you've written to write correct statements next time. Felly defnyddiwch eich penai a gwna rywbeth ambwyti hyn osgwelwch yn dda. CYMRU AM BYTH
IECHYD DA POB CYMRO
TWLL POB DYN IR SAES.
Cllytg llwyddion am pwllchgwynchwrw speako sillyo languagellyn cwmbrwytg llanstantfraidd clwydd llanffionpwllgelly.