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From: smaill@dcs.ed.ac.uk (Alan Smaill)
Subject: Re: Anglo-Saxons & Celts
In-Reply-To: dnb105@psu.edu's message of Wed, 22 Mar 1995 09:21:32 GMT
Message-ID: <SMAILL.95Mar23093903@papa.dcs.ed.ac.uk>
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References: <1995Mar17.154647.9595@onionsnatcorp.ox.ac.uk> <dnb105.127.2F6FEC1C@psu.edu>
Date: Thu, 23 Mar 1995 09:39:03 GMT
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In article <dnb105.127.2F6FEC1C@psu.edu> dnb105@psu.edu (Ferret) writes:

   In article <1995Mar17.154647.9595@onionsnatcorp.ox.ac.uk> gmb@onions.natcorp.ox.ac.uk (Glynis Baguley) writes:

   >Bringing the subject back to language, I believe (I'm not an expert)
   >that the traditional belief - that the English invaders drove the
   >Celts into Cornwall, Wales and Cumbria so that there was very little
   >contact between the two - has been modified somewhat, and it's now
   >thought that there was more mingling. But the fact remains that
   >English shows very little trace of Celtic influence: if there was more
   >contact than we used to think between Anglo-Saxons and Celts, it
   >appears that the former dominated linguistically at least.

   The alternative is that the Brittons dropped their native tounge for the 
   conqueror's. The inverse occured in Gaul, There is little trace of the  
   original Frankish (germanic) language appearing in the provencial Latin nor 
   medieval French. Had we no more than the French language to go by we would 
   never suppose that Francia was a Germanic country from circa 500 AD to 900 
   AD (Mergovingian and Carolingian periods).

The closer parallel is presumably with the original gaulish, Celtic
language, however.  Likewise there is little trace of this is
contemporary French. However, I've not heard it suggested that the
population there was displaced.

To what extent was Frankish ever the language of the people in
Gaul/France?


--
Alan Smaill                       email: A.Smaill@ed.ac.uk
LFCS, Dept. of Computer Science   tel: 44-31-650-2710
University of Edinburgh           
Edinburgh EH9 3JZ, UK.            
