Thanks to Richard for his detailed reply. But this has made me worry about a meta-question:
why, at a time when archaeologists and historians are busy telling us that the ancient
Britons were not Celts, are the linguists finding ever more evidence of
so-called Celtic language on English? Is the word `Celtic' being used here in a
purely conventional way? On the other hand, I have read two recent books* on
Gaulish which have all the latest inscriptional evidence, and many similarities to
Welsh are evident. Surely either British and Gaulish must both be Celtic, or neither?
* P-Y Lambert, La langue gauloise; X Delamarre, Dictionnaire de la langue gauloise (both Errance 2003).
Keith
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