Re: The Brzhona.

[raybrown@macline.co.uk (Raymond A. Brown)]

At 11:27 24/6/98, Frank George Valoczy wrote:
[.....]
>
>Well.  I used Breton as the Celtic base; wheter this is Brithonic or
>Gaulish, I don't know.  I'd figure the former (Brezhoneg).  I might have
>made a rather large blunder,

No you haven't.  Breton is most definitely Brythonic/Brittonic, being
closely related to Cornish.

The only controversial question is why they fled SW Britain to settle in
Armorica; it used to be claimed that they were fleeing the nasty Saxons,
but modern scholars think the activities of Irish pirates & raiders is a
far more like cause.   There is no evidence that the Gallic language
survived the Roman period at all.

>>
>> What impelled them to leave Brittany for the nascent Low Countries?  You
>> said _most_ of them left; what about those that stayed behind?
>>
>
>Having had that little taste of self-rule, they didn't particularly like
>being ruled over by the French, who didn't really treat them all that well
>either, so they took off to somewhere new.

I must confess I haven't read the 'alternate history' closely, but *here*
Britanny wasn't finally brought under centralized French control until the
Revolutionaries closed down the Breton parliament.

[......]
>
>Alright.  Vowels:
>
>a, e, i, o, u = like Spanish (basically, the "normal" values for these)
>w = French "eu", German "o-umlaut"
>y = French, Dutch "u", German "u-umlaut"

Same range of vowels as Breton, tho spelt differently  ;-)  Do the Brzhona
also have nasalized varieties like the Bretons?

>
>Consonants:
>
>b, d, f, g, k, l, m, n, p, s, t, z = like English
>dl = I can't remember what it's called, but it's a "d" and an "l"
>   articulated simultaneously

Been trying to make this sound!  Is it a voiced lateral affricate?

>dhl = voiced counterpart of Welsh "ll"  - ah, yes, the Zulu & Xhosa dl.

Ray.