Language

"Yan, Tan, Tethera, Methera, Pim."
A Cumbrian Shepherd counts his sheep.

Why do people speak English in England?

The success of English over Celtic languages in England is by no means total. One of the indicators of a Celtic nation in some peoples perception is a surviving Celtic tongue.

England has a growing revival in Kernewe which is easy to learn on the internet. Hopefully this can bring Celtic reinvigoration to the English, rather than cause Kernow to seek a more separate identity. Some work is being done into Deunansek too.

Cymraeg can also be learnt easily, and is a language that is close to the tongue of the inhabitants of Albion when the Anglo-Saxons arrived. A further Brythonic language, Cumbrian is thought to have been spoken in parts of North England until the 10th Century, and elements (such as the counting scheme quoted above still exist in modern England).

Despite these opportunities English has become the dominant language.

Bilingual Society?

Some historians suggest that Anglo-Saxons practiced a form of apartheid, keeping themselves separate from the Celtic Britons they had conquered. However linguists are now beginning to consider The Celtic Roots of English. When two languages interact Pidgins and Creoles form, which feed back into the languages in general, or form a new common language. in the case of English and Celtic the effect of these does seem to be minimal, but linguists are now suggesting they are there. In a sense it is possible that because the accepted view was that the English population were Anglo-Saxon and the Celtic Britons were driven out nobody looked for Celtic influences on the English language. One theory is that the Anglo-Saxons strong holds were where the Celtic language was most weakened by common Latin.

A Broader English?

English however is by no means a Celtic language, and it is still something of a mystery how it became so much more prevalent than the Anglo-Saxons genes. It is a language that received significant input from the later Scandinavian invaders and immigrants and long after the Norman conquest from French. Perhaps we are now beginning to see how it has also been molded by the Celtic languages of Britain and Eire. Hopefully in all its variations it can become something that all its speakers can be proud of.

However it would seem that for the English it is beneficial to have at least some understanding of a Brythonic Celtic language, either Kernewe or Cymraeg, or possibly even a Goidelic language. With English being so widely spoken perhaps it is time that the English put something back by trying to preserve the other languages of The Isles spoken by their ancestors.