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LadyEllen -> RE: Official Languages (6/6/2007 1:15:08 AM)
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quote:
ORIGINAL: minnetar
That is funny as i never thought the Irish had a different language than the British English. Excuse my total ignorance. i found how the Welsh speak English probably the most difficult of anyone.
minnetar
Your post caught my eye Minnetar.
The British Isles have several indigenous languages. English is the primary one, having been forced onto other parts of the Isles during Empire, with accompanying suppression of the local languages - children at school would be beaten mercilessly for using anything but English. The reasoning being, that a single language for the Empire was a necessity, and that the Empire started at home.
English as we know it in the standard form however is a construction for this latter purpose, and there are two main forms of English - English English and Scots English, which Robbie Burns wrote in. Scots is not a dialect of English, its a separately evolved form of the language brought to Great Britain by the Anglo Saxons, though in decline since Union, who settled around Edinburgh (which is itself an Anglo Saxon placename). In addition, English within England was formerly split into dialects, most of which have disappeared to be replaced with the standardised version of the language. Strong regional accent and especially the use of dialect bespoke someone lower down the social order, and still does to an extent today.
The next most widely spoken language here is Welsh. This isnt English with a Welsh accent mind, but an entirely different language in the Indo European group. It survived well in the mountains of the north of Wales and in the more rural areas and there are still plenty of mother tongue speakers. It did less well in the southern cities where industry and commerce were at their highest. It is now taught compulsorily in Welsh schools and this has helped it become more widespread, alongside several Welsh language TV stations, radio stations and newspapers. One also finds road signs in Wales are written in Welsh and the Welsh legislature uses it alongside English as an official language. Interestingly, the word Welsh comes from an Anglo Saxon word meaning foreigner, and the Welsh to this day refer to we English as "saesneg" meaning Saxon, similar to the Gaelic "sassenach".
Closely related to Welsh is Cornish, which is a very small language with no remaining mother tongue speakers. Enthusiasts though are busy reviving it. The Cornish and the Welsh are the displaced Romano-British population from the times of the Anglo Saxon invasions, and Cornwall was known as South Wales at one point, before its incorporation into England. It has its own national flag and a strong sense of separateness though has been heavily influxed by English people - Cornwall is a very beautiful place. The remainder of the Romano British that were not assimilated by the Anglo Saxons found themselves in southwest Scotland and the English lakeland neighbouring it (Cumbria, which mean Wales from the Welsh for Wales, "Cymru" and also displaced to Brittany in northwest France where their language is also being revived. I'm convinced that the area around the Tyne/Tees rivers must also have not been displaced heavily, due to the accent in that region, but thats a personal opinion.
Moving into Scotland, Gaelic is now in resurgence too from a very low base of remaining mother tongue speakers, in the same way as Welsh is in Wales. Gaelic and Welsh are alike in the same way that Danish and English are alike - related but not necessarily mutually intelligible above a few words. Gaelic was never the language of the whole of Scotland however; aside from the Anglo Saxon and Welsh populations in the south, the far north and the northwest islands were settled by Vikings, some of whose language survives in local dialect form mixed in with English.
Then we move to Ireland, where the original language is the Irish form of Gaelic - close enough to the Scottish version to be mutually intelligible, but distinct. Again, English, brought by English and especially southern Scottish settlers, almost wiped Gaelic out in Ireland in the days of Empire, but it survived well enough in the more remote areas so that it has been able to make a resurgence alike to that in Wales. Northern Ireland though is always a special case, and aside from in certain areas, speaking Gaelic is likely to get one in a lot of trouble.
Its great that all these languages are on the rise again - but we must also be cautious. What made the British Empire possible and what made it strong, was the use of a single language in the "home countries". What led to so much conflict before the Empire between the tribes living here was not helped by the use of so many languages. What made it so much easier to massacre and ill treat non English speakers in Wales, Scotland and Ireland was an inability to understand them. Languages divide in a very real way.
E
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