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Subject: but you still don't speak it


Author:
Andrew
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Date Posted: 16:22:41 01/06/05 Thu
In reply to: Dave (UK) 's message, "Because I live in Scotland..." on 16:11:10 01/06/05 Thu

"and I see lots of Gaelic programmes on T.V where English words are used frequently to describe the modern world, where no Gaelic word exists."

Actually you're wrong. All this shows is that the speaker doesn't know the Gaelic word, not that the word doesn't exist. In many cases it does. I once saw a programme where the speaker used the word "ferry" and "cousin", yet when I asked someone else, I found there was several words for both. That just shows up the fact that the state never educated speakers properly in their native tongue, not the lack of words.

"However, Gaelic only seems to borrow words from one language - English. This begs the obvious question: Why not borrow all the words and speak English?"

Yet a quick bit of research shows that it has borrowed words from French, Latin, Greek and Norse... hmm. Perhaps you need to do some reading up.

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Replies:
[> [> [> [> [> [> [> [> [> [> [> [> Subject: OK, I'll rephrase...


Author:
Dave (UK)
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Date Posted: 16:33:55 01/06/05 Thu

I meant that Gaelic tends to borrow new words from English. I was not referring to the the source of old words.

With regard to the T.V programmes, you think it is more likely that presenters from the Western Isles do not know the word for computer, rather than the word simply being borrowed from English? Supposition, don't you think?

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[> [> [> [> [> [> [> [> [> [> [> [> Subject: The state?


Author:
Ed Harris (London)
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Date Posted: 16:56:23 01/06/05 Thu

Crikey, the State is supposed to be educating people now, is it? Gawd help us.

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[> [> [> [> [> [> [> [> [> [> [> [> [> Subject: Opera vs welsh


Author:
Andrew
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Date Posted: 17:11:50 01/06/05 Thu

"Crikey, the State is supposed to be educating people now, is it? Gawd help us."

I mean "education" in the broadest sense of the word. The 1872 Education act meant that effectively all education had to be done through English, whether or not the child spoke it or not. It's only recently that's been reversed. It would have been far better to teach them English through their own language than give them teachers who spoke nothing else and used corporal punishment to enforce it. The only reason there's any Welsh tv is due to hunger strikes. More people speak Welsh than are interested in opera, but the BBC had no problem showing opera from the year dot.

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[> [> [> [> [> [> [> [> [> [> [> [> [> [> Subject: Welsh more popular?


Author:
Owain (UK)
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Date Posted: 17:32:50 01/06/05 Thu

Less than 40% of the Welsh speak Welsh, less than half of that as a first language. Speaking Welsh does not mean one does not like Opera and it would be silly to think the majority of Welsh speakers (those that have it as second language) prefer to watch those frankly rather poor quality Welsh-language sitcoms other than as extra revision on spekaing.

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[> [> [> [> [> [> [> [> [> [> [> [> [> [> [> Subject: Opera or Wpyra?


Author:
Andrew
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Date Posted: 17:49:18 01/06/05 Thu

Owain, as you know, Opera is a mainly upper class minority interest, yet it has always been publicly funded up to the eyeballs. There's been no deliberate attempts here to wipe it out. Yet I think it's a fairly good bet that more people know a good deal of Welsh in the UK than are hardcore opera fans.

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[> [> [> [> [> [> [> [> [> [> [> [> [> [> [> [> Subject: I seriously doubt that


Author:
Owain (UK)
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Date Posted: 18:24:34 01/06/05 Thu

There are more upper class Englishmen than there are Welshmen let alone those that speak Wlesh so I find that unlikely.

Oh and at the Welsh "national" opera they have operatic performances in Welsh.

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[> [> [> [> [> [> [> [> [> [> [> [> Subject: Really


Author:
Andrew
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Date Posted: 17:14:05 01/06/05 Thu

"I meant that Gaelic tends to borrow new words from English."

When a Gael talks about spaghetti is that English or not? I tend to think it's Italian. English has no word for tomatoes, bananas, potatoes, oranges, automobiles and dozens of other everyday things.

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[> [> [> [> [> [> [> [> [> [> [> [> [> Subject: *Sigh*


Author:
Dave (UK)
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Date Posted: 17:28:55 01/06/05 Thu


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[> [> [> [> [> [> [> [> [> [> [> [> [> Subject: Once again: Dear God!


Author:
Ed Harris (London)
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Date Posted: 17:33:13 01/06/05 Thu

I think that this ends the debate for me. All words come from somewhere. "Orange" can be traced back to arabic, along with giraffe (ziraffa) and gazelle (ghazahl). Heaven knows where "tomato" comes from. "Potato" is, presumably, a Native American word.

The point is that these exist in different forms in different languages. You might as well say that the French "Eglise" for 'church' is not French, it is Greek, because it comes from "ekklesia" meaning 'assembly'.

There was someone else on this forum who argued that English didn't really exist because 'admirable' was clearly just the Latin 'mirabile' in disguise, and other such nonsense.

Enjoy the rest of your debate - it has become a little absurd for my tastes.

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