Book & site list

[Boreades]

Did I miss something? Who's said that?

[TisILeclerc]

Well, Borry I didn't say it and I don't think you mentioned it.

Although many Scottish Gaelic speaking children were educated in English and with the approval of their parents who saw the English language as providing an escape into a world of greater opportunities. So it wasn't all one sided.

I doubt if the nineteenth century education system would have led to a complete loss of ancient poetry.

There are works such as the Mabinogian and others and you yourself introduced us to Tieslio if that's his name. And during the years of the great Welsh revival and fabrication there should be many more. Not to mention the period of the Tudors and a search for everything Welsh. And the Plantagenets were into that game as well.

As for Hvered's mention of English coming from a foreign language, I'm not sure about that. In any case there are so many connections between English and Gaelic that the laws of coincidence should be redrawn and rewritten.

For example neither language has an infinitive although English should have assuming it is a mixture of Germanic and French.

Both languages create continuous tenses through the use of the verb 'to be' and a participle.

The verb to 'be' in Gaelic is 'bi' pronounced 'be'

The word 'me' or 'I' is 'mi' pronounced 'me'

You singular or familiar is 'thu' pronounced 'oo'

'He' is 'e' i.e. 'he' with the 'h' dropped. The word 'e' is pronounced 'eh'.

'She' is 'i'. In other words drop the 'sh' and pronounce the 'e' as 'ee'. As with mi and bi.

That's not to say the languages are the same but it seems strange to me that they should have many similarities which is strange considering that Gaelic is supposed to have come from somewhere in the Eastern Mediterranean if we are to believe the Declaration of Arbroath and other legends native to Wales, Ireland and Scotland.

[Boreades]

Cornwall County Council has updated its Interactive Map. It has a useful layer that shows Scheduled Monuments in good detail.

http://map.cornwall.gov.uk/website/ccmap/

For example, the Giants Hedge, Lerryn to Lanreath, which I'd never heard of before. It seems there's a few.

We know of three in Cornwall, the Giant's Hedge across the Lelant/Long Rock isthmus following, roughly, the A30road and visible today at Varfell; Bolster Bank Giant's Hedge at Varfell across the St Agnes headland; and the ten-mile Giant's Hedge between Lerryn and the West Looe river that was, in Borlase's day,seven feet high and twenty feet wide in places.

http://www.cornishhedges.co.uk/PDF/mediaeval.pdf

[Boreades]

Oh, by the way, TME readers will notice the obvious problem with the title of http://www.cornishhedges.co.uk/PDF/mediaeval.pdf - they say "MEDIÆVAL HEDGES IN CORNWALL (AD450–1550)"

The period from the departure of the Romans to the dissolution of the monasteries by Henry VIII, is often called the mediæval period. It spans the final eleven centuries of the Cornish people's running their own affairs, with an increasing settlement by the English into east Cornwall. During this period, Cornwall still had its own language, legal system, weights and measures and agriculture. The Magna Carta in 1215 confirmed that Cornwall was separate from England. The mediæval maps (upto 1538) show Cornwall as a nation of Britain and not as a county of England.

But then elsewhere on their website they say

In Cornwall there are still about 30,000 miles of hedges, and over three-quarters of these are anciently established. The earliest Cornish hedges enclosed land for cereal crops during the Neolithic Age (4000-6000 years ago). Prehistoric farms were about 5-10 hectares, with fields about 0.1 ha for hand cultivation. Many hedges date from the Bronze and Iron Ages, 2000-4000 years ago, when Cornwall's traditional pattern of landscape became widely established.

http://www.cornishhedges.co.uk/different.htm

[Boreades]

TME likes maps. I love maps. So I'm sorely tempted by a special offer from Memory Map. One can get the whole of the UK in the 1:25,000 Explorer scale for £180 on a DVD or as a download.

http://www.memory-map.co.uk/2015-os-exp ... omplete-gb
or
http://www.memory-map.co.uk/2015-os-exp ... e-download

I just need to convince my Financial Director that this would be a good investment, because, err...

[Mick Harper]

Be a man! Nick the money from her purse.

[Boreades]

I'm too late, the Boreadettes (ankle biters) have beaten me to it.

[Boreades]

if folks have tired of megalithic meanderings, may I boldly go onto mention another quest?

The Maranatha – Et in Arcadia Ego Puzzle.

Details on the Mysterious Writings site.
http://mysteriouswritings.com/maranatha ... go-puzzle/

It's a bit of a mystery what happened to the book. Was it cockup and muppetry? Or did they fly like moths too close to the Prior Of Sion flame?

Grael Associates may offer other explanations.

[Boreades]

Metal detectorists get a mixed review from historical/archeo types who are precious about the sanctity of our history. "Nighthawkes" seems to be their favourite derogatory comment.

Even so, ... Archi UK has published an interesting article: The Secrets of Field Names (Treasure Hunting January 2015)

http://www.archiuk.com/archi/TH_secrets ... _names.pdf

More here as well: http://www.archiuk.com/archi/archi_articles.htm

[TisILeclerc]

I mentioned this somewhere else on this site some time ago.

We are often told, or rather always told, that we have no literary texts from the past as people were illiterate so we have no way of knowing what they thought.

The complete opposite is true because we get our language from them and all our industries, trades, crafts are full of their descriptive language.

Take the word 'spindle'. It is rather obvious that it refers to something that spins. So their thought process in the naming of parts would presumably be 'don't think of something fancy, call it something that it does'.

In other words don't talk about 'gigot de something or other' just call it a 'lamb chopped in bits, or a lamb chop for short'.

Perhaps a degree in Linguistic Historical Analysis could be set up and attract millions in funding by interested parties.