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To: blam
In the book The Story of English they make the point that the Welsh and the people of Normandy can make themselves understood with either of them speaking the others' language. How does this figure in?
63 posted on 07/04/2002 7:12:12 PM PDT by CaptRon
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To: CaptRon
Actually, didn't they discover the grave sites of some caucasians in China not long ago? I seem to remember some Discovery Channel documentary that mentioned some of them had plaid clothing and one or two of the women were buried with pointed hats.
68 posted on 07/04/2002 7:17:25 PM PDT by dr_who
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To: CaptRon
"In the book The Story of English they make the point that the Welsh and the people of Normandy can make themselves understood with either of them speaking the others' language. How does this figure in?"

Sorry, can't answer your question. However, I saw an article (DNA study) that stated the Welsh and the Basque are closely related...also the Irish too.

71 posted on 07/04/2002 7:18:17 PM PDT by blam
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To: CaptRon
The only way the Normans and the Welsh these days can readily communicate is through English. Back in the 500-700 period they would have both spoken the same set of Gaelic dialects. Somewhere about 900+ the folks in Normandy, Eastern Brittany and along the Loire, began speaking several Gallo dialects.

It looks like French, but it's not!

With the Welsh speaking two different Gaelic languages (one cognate to Irish and the other cognate to Breton), and the Normans speaking Gallo and French, they would be mutually unintelligible.

Bretons and Welshmen, however, do, at least in part, speak the same language!

76 posted on 07/04/2002 7:28:10 PM PDT by muawiyah
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To: CaptRon
Tuesday, 3 April, 2001, 13:11 GMT 14:11 UK

Genes link Celts to Basques

The Welsh and Irish Celts have been found to be the genetic blood-brothers of Basques, scientists have revealed. The gene patterns of the three races passed down through the male line are all "strikingly similar", researchers concluded.

Basques can trace their roots back to the Stone Age and are one of Europe's most distinct people, fiercely proud of their ancestry and traditions.

The research adds to previous studies which have suggested a possible link between the Celts and Basques, dating back tens of thousands of years.

"The project started with our trying to assess whether the Vikings made an important genetic contribution to the population of Orkney," Professor David Goldstein of University College London (UCL) told BBC News.

'Statistically indistinguishable'

He and his colleagues looked at Y-chromosomes, passed from father to son, of Celtic and Norwegian populations. They found them to be quite different.

"But we also noticed that there's something quite striking about the Celtic populations, and that is that there's not a lot of genetic variation on the Y-chromosome," he said.

To try to work out where the Celtic population originally came from, the team from UCL, the University of Oxford and the University of California at Davis also looked at Basques.

"On the Y-chromosome the Celtic populations turn out to be statistically indistinguishable from the Basques," Professor Goldstein said.

Pre-farming Europe

The comparison was made because Basques are thought by most experts to be very similar to the people who lived in Europe before the advent of farming.

Genetic tests have identified key gene groups

"We conclude that both of these populations are reflecting pre-farming Europe," he said.

Professor Goldstein's team looked at the genetic profiles of 88 individuals from Anglesey, North Wales, 146 from Ireland with Irish Gaelic surnames, and 50 Basques.

"We know of no other study that provides direct evidence of a close relationship in the paternal heritage of the Basque- and the Celtic-speaking populations of Britain," the team write in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Viking TV

But it is still unclear whether the link is specific to the Celts and the Basques, or whether they are both simply the closest surviving relatives of the early population of Europe.

What is clear is that the Neolithic Celts took women from outside their community. When the scientists looked at female genetic patterns as well, they found evidence of genetic material from northern Europe.

This influence helped even out some of the genetic differences between the Celts and their Northern European neighbours.

The work was carried out in connection with a BBC television programme on the Vikings.

77 posted on 07/04/2002 7:30:23 PM PDT by blam
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To: CaptRon
In the book The Story of English they make the point that the Welsh and the people of Normandy can make themselves understood with either of them speaking the others' language.

I think the point must have been made about the people of Brittany, not Normandy. Norman dialect now is just a form of French. Originally, in the Middle Ages, Normandy was settled by Norsemen, but they quickly adopted French as their language. By the time they conquered England in 1066, I don't think there were any traces left of their original Scandinavian language.

215 posted on 07/05/2002 1:54:17 PM PDT by aristeides
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To: CaptRon; blam
In the book The Story of English they make the point that the Welsh and the people of Normandy can make themselves understood with either of them speaking the others' language. How does this figure in?

Welsh, Cornish and Breton come from the Brythonic branch of Celtic languages. When I read Breton, I perceive it as a mix of French and Welsh. Fortunately I know a fair bit of both, thus I find it mostly understandable. The last native Cornish speakers died about 15 years ago. We may have lost that language.

The Goidelic branch of Celtic languages include Manx, Scots Gaelic and Irish Gaelic. There are word similarities between Brythonic and Goidelic branches. Welsh for Christmas is "Nadolig". In Irish Gaelic it is "Nollaig". Welsh numbers count, "un, dau, tri, pedwar, pump, chwech, saith, wyth, naw, deg". In Irish Gaelic, "aon, do/, tri/, ceathair, cu/ig, se/, seacht, ocht, naoi, deich". People who use e-mail in Celtic languages find a need for various diacritical markings that "travel well" in e-mail. I used a slash trailing certain vowels to indicate an apostrophe over the vowel. Welsh requires the caret symbol for certain vowels. A UNICODE alphabet is due soon to remedy the omissions in the typical Latin alphabets.

306 posted on 06/24/2003 9:42:27 PM PDT by Myrddin
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