Speed differences between MC and Rev and the origin of the English language

[Dave Cragg]

On 21 Sep 2006, at 20:40, Wilhelm Sanke wrote:

>
> The Roman emperor Hadrian had built his Hadrian's wall across  
> England from Newcastle to Carlisle because he did not like bagpipe  
> music and kilts. When the Roman empire broke down in the 4th  
> century, the revolutionaries from Edinburgh again annoyed the  
> Celtic population South of the Hadrian's wall. Then the British  
> Celts asked two former Roman mercenaries, namely Hengist and Horsa,  
> to help them against the Scots. Hengist and Horsa happened to  
> belong to the Anglian tribe in the land "Angeln" and asked their  
> relatives and more tribesmen over to Britain. The Saxons - South of  
> the land "Angeln" - and the Jutes to the North joined them and  
> established their kingdoms (and languages) in the new country. The  
> last Celtic king to fight against this invasion was the legendary  
> King Arthur from Tintagel in Cornwall.

At the risk of going way off topic...

Wilhelm, I agree that the origins of the speed issue probably lie in  
Edinburgh, and I'd be happy to see you and your Angeln friends sort  
this out. But the people whose troublesome invasions Hengist and  
Hrosa were invited to resist were Picts and not Scots. The Scots had  
not yet arrived in Britain in great numbers at that time.

The people of Edinburgh and the area to the south east did fight with  
the Angles of Northumbria. But these were neither Picts nor Scots.  
They were Britons who spoke what today would be recognised as Welsh.  
Interestingly, these battles are more remembered in Welsh history  
than in Scottish history. (Also, some people think Arthur was the  
leader of a tribe of Scottish Britons, and that he fought against  
both Angles and Picts.) Eventually, the Angles dominated south east  
Scotland and the Scots and Picts dominated the remainder of the  
country. The use of "Welsh" in Scotland died out.

It is rumoured that there are many missing libraries of that period,  
thought to be hidden in southern Scotland somewhere. It may be that  
one of these libraries has got buried in the Rev IDE. (Some of those  
scripts look like Welsh to me.)

I also read somehwere that the Romans introduced the bagpipes to  
Scotland, but left before they taught people how to tune them.

Cheers
Dave