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[Mick Harper]

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.

Field names are not very helpful if you believe (as orthodoxy does) that all the names are Anglo-Saxon in origin. Ortho's are a bit shifty about whether the fields are themselves Anglo-Saxon given that a) the Anglo-Saxons had no expertise in agriculture and b) the previous inhabitants had been using fields for about four thousand years. But anyway the names are Anglo-Saxon and since nobody in their right mind would rename an existing field (how would anyone know what you were referring to!) it follows that the Anglo-Saxons must have made them. If English was introduced by the Anglo-Saxons of course.

Notice though that it doesn't make any difference whether anybody is literate or not. "You'll find 'em in Brookside Meadow." "Can you spell that?"

[TisILeclerc]

What I was thinking was perhaps more general in taking the words a step further into meaning.

We know that we have lots of Barry, Borry, oops, Burh, Burgh, Borough Borrow, Barrow place names etc.

This must mean something for it to be so specific. It is found all round Britain irrespective of local languages.

Burg could be cognate with Berg. They may be completely different in scale but there is probably a linguistic connection perhaps to do with being high, rocky, a place of defence or a viewpoint etc.

Once it's agreed that there is a common meaning and what that meaning may be then we have a word for the dictionary.

And so on. From placenames we get into language in general which because of the age of these places will obviously not be Anglo Saxon whatever that means.

It's also noticeable that the only people who call the English, as far as I know, are the French with Angles. Hence we all come from an Angle in Denmark.

Germans call us Englander, Spanish Inglesi or something which is closer to our own pronunciation. Even the Scots called themselves and their language Inglis very early on. We are told that 'Ing' is an old English word describing a tribe or group of followers. So really the Angles are really just the Ings or a tribe of people. Their real description presumably comes with the extension telling us what kind of 'Ings' they are.

[Mick Harper]

You'll have to be cuter than this.

It's also noticeable that the only people who call the English, as far as I know, are the French with Angles. Hence we all come from an Angle in Denmark.

But that is precisely what the French are calling us -- the people who came from Angle-land ie the place in Denmark. But that's not actually 'us', that's the people who happened to give their name to this piece of territory c 700 AD and who are being referred to by the French.

And just to prove it we have done exactly the same to them. We call them the French ie the Franks ie the people from Franconia in eastern Germany even though the actual people of France have nothing to do with Franconia. It's just that the Franks-from-Franconia happened to be in charge when the name stuck. Just as the Angles-from Angleland happened to be in charge here when the name stuck.

[Boreades]

And the same for Brittany? Presumably it was the Brits from Great Britain that moved into Little Britain and happened to be in charge when the name stuck? The aboriginals don't get a mention.

[TisILeclerc]

Breton speakers refer to French speaking Bretons to the east as Gallos.

I wouldn't be surprised to find that Bretons were always there and trading with their cousins in Cornwall.

They did call their westernmost area Cornouaille after all. Which is strange considering that Cornwall is supposed to be the Welsh in the Horn or something like that. Welsh supposedly meaning foreigner. Why would the Cornish move to Brittany and call themselves 'foreigners' after an English insult?

Their preferred name for where they live is Armorica. A bit like America but with a 'Gallic shrug' perhaps.



Taken from Wiki

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armorica

[Boreades]

Armorica. A bit like America but with a 'Gallic shrug' perhaps.

Or a bit more Amor?

[TisILeclerc]

Ooh Borry, you are naughty but ...

They managed to get the Cotes du Nord renamed to Cotes d'Armor in the nineties.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C%C3%B4tes-d'Armor

[Boreades]

Another date for the TME diary.

Folks at the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford tell me they are preparing an exhibition to be called "Storms, War and Shipwrecks" for June 2016. It's not on their official list of events yet.
http://www.ashmolean.org/exhibitions/current/

But the BBC says "Ashmolean to display 'flat pack' church"
A Byzantine church raised from a Sicilian shipwreck is to be reconstructed for an exhibition at the Ashmolean museum next year.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-34793091

The relevance to TME is (of course) how large amounts of stone were moved around by ships at sea.

Tisi, can you get the TME Team Charabanc fixed in time? I'll bring the sandwiches, perhaps a few bottles of appropriately-named wines from Chateau Boreades' family vineyard as well.





Just make sure Mick and Hattie don't get wrecked again.

[TisILeclerc]

It would appear that specialisations took place all over the shop.

Imagine ordering a church with all the fittings. I wonder if there had been an earlier trade in stone circles made to order?

Send the wine samples up first then I'll get on to the charabanc. I assume I'll be able to drive straight on to the Golden Rivet.

You are a computer wizz kid Borry, could you invent a kind of 3D printer for liquids? You could then email the wine and I'll print it out at this end.

[Boreades]

I'd willingly email you the wine, but you never know who might syphon it off on route. (Like posting cash). But maybe I could fax it to you? Or you can try it online here: http://www.sanctuaryvineyards.com/winemaking.html