Our tongue was once heard across Britain
IN YOUR report (February 18) regarding the dismissal of Iceland director, Keith Hann, for racist remarks regarding the Welsh language, he is said to have written in a blog: “I regret to say we are only about two miles from Wales, thanks to the border lurching east from the natural boundary of the River Dee, and taking a bite out of England etc etc.” In that statement, he displays a profound ignorance of British history that is shared by millions in these islands.
The term “Wales” derives from “Wealas”, the Anglo-Saxon term for the original British of these islands. Their language was a P-Celtic tongue called Britonnic/Brythonic or simply “British”! It is early Welsh and was spoken throughout much of what is now Scotland and all of England for at least 1,000 years, before the Scots came from Ulster and the Anglo-Saxons from Germany in the fifth century, after the Romans had left York circa AD 410!
The oldest existing Welsh poetry, Y Gododdin, was composed circa AD 600 in Welsh-speaking Din Eidin, now called Edinburgh. Glasgow (from Glas gau for “green hollow”), Lanark (from Llannerch for “glade”) and Perth (a hedge or thicket) are all examples of Welsh place-names in Scotland. Read “Welsh Origins of Scottish PlaceNames” by WD Oxenham (Carreg Gwalch). Similarly, there are hundreds of English place-names like Morecambe, Malvern, Dover and Avon, that reveal their Welsh origins.
So, Mr Hann, the Welsh border has not moved eastwards at all! Instead, the English border has crept westwards over centuries since the Angles and Saxons arrived only 1,500 years ago. As Saxons spread west, dozens of Welsh enclaves in England were called Walton from “WealTun”, “town of the Welsh”.
Furthermore, Wealas/Wales referred to a “people” not actual land, just as Essex was “East Saxons”, Sussex was “South Saxons” and Norfolk was “North Folk”... all peoples inhabiting an area... and all once inhabited by the British, aka Welsh, for the previous millennium.
As for Welsh being “gibberish”, the Parliamentary Prayer Book Act of 1662 refers to the “Welsh or Brittish tongue” – and no later Act of Parliament has ever changed that legally correct, official designation. Check it out online!
English has never been the “British tongue” because it is a west Germanic language, like German, Dutch and Friesian.
LJ Jenkins, Gwbert, Aberteifi
A coat of paint will spruce up your front door beautifully, creating a good first impression when guests are allowed back. The attractive shade on the front door in the picture is Clover Leaf from Sadolin (www.sadolin. co.uk). While you are painting your front door, take the opportunity to give everything else at the front a once over. Sweep up dead leaves and other debris, replace the door mat, pot up some spring flowers such as daffodils and hyacinths to create a bright, and fresh look. Repaint your gate and railings, but leave trimming the hedge until the growth gets going properly in April.
QI PLANTED a young Buddleja last year. Any pruning advice or do I just leave it alone?
AAnne
BUDDLEJAS flower on new growth so you want to encourage lots of fresh shoots and the best way to do this is a good hard pruning in spring.
By this, I mean get out your loppers, not your secateurs, as you will prune right back to the woody base about a foot off the ground.
Left alone, buddlejas become tall and sparsely flowering – prune properly and you’ll get lots of those beautiful violet-blue flowers in the summer.