Countdown to Open Beta - Casse

[Ranika]

Ranika,

some of those Gaelic speaking islands off the west of Ireland were settled by Cromwells soldiers.

All of the languages you mentioned as influences on Welsh have been influences on Gaelic too (as well as Scandinavian and Welsh influences on Gaelic).

However, I doubt that either language could be described as uninfluenced by other languages (I don't like the term corrupted as outside influences show up in all but the most isolated linguistic communities and tend to go both ways).

I'm aware, but certain islands were much more isolated; some still had traditional Irish clothing into the late 1900s as the standard of day-to-day wear. I am aware some were settled by soldiers from Britain though. Simply saying that more influence, I'd expect would be on Welsh. I'm fully aware of the influences on Irish (I never said it was uninfluenced; more that I believe parts of it can be described as substantially less so), my sticking point of study has always been linguistics; also, Saxon has no great influence on Irish except through English; Saxon itself is a seperate language, and any affect it'd have on Irish (before it became what we recognize as early/old English) would be far more minimal than its influence on Welsh, though it does have a pronounced affect on the Scottish language (as they had substantially more direct dealings with Saxon speakers). The more Welsh is picked apart these days, the more we seem to find it is influenced by things we hadn't originally expected, and in more heavy a way. It is clearly still a Celtic language (as are the Gaelic languages and Bretonic), and so long as it's spoken it'll be recognized as one. It's just a matter of development. Calling any modern Celtic (or any other) language truly 'pure' of external influence is without merit; it's simply not possible. Modern Celtic languages do experience, in general, much less external influence than a lot of better known languages, but that's a matter of placement and regularity; they're not major languages in multiple nations, where they would be absorbing all manner of local slang, other local languages through loanwords, and local accents through which one develops a seperate style of pronunciation, and thus dialects.

As to Celtophilia; I think it's fine to take an interest in things, but I think it does a great dishonor to the people you find interesting to believe things of them that you shouldn't. The peaceful, mystic interpretation of Celts does them a great disservice, as it ignores their quite blatantly violent behaviors to outsiders, and their understanding of sciences and other completely non-mystical factors of life; it ignores that they were a real live people, and does them a disservice by turning them into some fantasy beings (in either a positive or negative light). And the problem isn't just with Celtophilia, but with any culture worship; it's completely unnecessary. Rather than extrapolate the merits they have, people often change or create merits (like the mystical thing) that fit better with what they want, while totally ignoring truly good things.