Transhumance

The geography of the land will often help define the cultures that have settled upon it.  Hills, valleys, rivers, low lands and uplands will allow certain activities that give advantage to some, and a disadvantage to others. Understanding these factors will give an insight to the realities of life of the ancestors.   The drawing to the right is an outline of my families homeland.  The head waters of the rivers (Dee and the Severn) are shown, allowing a land bridge to form from the highlands to the low lands.  Cattle, sheep, goats, and those animals necessary to life would find their way along this land bridge to the summer grazing.  The seasonal movement of livestock between mountains and lowland pastures would of course be accompanied by herders or their owners who made this activity a part of life.  From the east to the west, and back again, would be the direction of this pattern.   Pathways are roughly shown on the drawing, giving an idea of  how this might have worked.  The hillforts are shown along the ridges of the high ground.   A summer home, a winter home is the idea.   Transhumance it is called. It would work reasonably well until someone put up a fence. [Shown in red.]   Perhaps this was the primary reason for such a fence...to change the culture you wished to conquer.  That Offa did not completely get his way.

Words of Life

Language is one part of a culture that defines its existance. Words express emotions, demands, descriptions, wants and desires, and become the words of life.

The following table list some foundational words of life. In our English language the word "life" come from the Anglo-Saxon "lif". In the Greek, it is "zoe" where the word zoology comes. In French it is "vie", and in Latin it is "vita". In the Welsh it is "bywyd".

The table shows other words of life from its beginnings. Birth, baby, infant, and child are shown for the English, Welsh, Latin, French, Greek, and Anglo-Saxon. Latin (Romans), French (Normans), and Anglo-Saxon all had something to do with the land of the Welsh. The Welsh words clearly show a difference in their structure, apparently not influenced by all these other cultures. They are words of the lips..."B" words, or bilabial. This shows the Celtic influence of its "P-Celtic" roots. [See post "Mind your P's and Q's", August 5, 2010, http://thejonessurname.blogspot.com ] I guess when they saw one of those heads start to pop out, the "gaw" factor took over!

Words of life, spoken differently though the tongues of men. The Welsh had their own way.

Labor and Delivery

The two hundred years following Roman withdrawl from our island could be considered the "labor and delivery" of several new cultural groups. [Having delivered over 800 babies during my medical practice years, I have experienced first hand the blood, sweat, and tears that are involved in such a process.]

The Irish had the upper hand since they did not experience Roman occupation. Their Celtic roots expanded more quickly forming first the script called Ogham (Ogam). This writing used short horizontal or diagonal lines on stone slabs recording names, and imagine this...genealogies! This script has been found on the Isle of Man, Scotland, and Wales, showing the extent of early Irish influence around what I would call the "Celtic Mediterrian". [Irish Sea] By this time, Christianity introduced Latin, and some stones in Wales shown both Ogam and Latin. The Irish language formed through a branch of the Q-Celtic giving rise to the Galic tongues.

Irish expansion is also credited with the settlement of the south and south-west coast of what was to become Scotland. One of their major influences was the continuation of the Q-Celtic language in spite of Roman occupation south of Antonine Wall.

The Anglo-Saxon nation begins its history on our island starting 446. In their chronicles they use the term "Britons" until 465, where the name "Welsh" first appears. This was the Anglo-Saxon term used to describe those who spoke Latin and a Celtic tongue. The Welsh nation was still yet to give birth.

Wonderful references are found:

"The Celtic Realms", by Myles Dillion and Nora Chadwick, Castle Books, 1988.

"The Celtic World", Edited by Miranda Green, by Redwood Books, Ltd., 1996.

"A History of Ireland" by Peter and Fiona Somerset Fry, Barnes & Noble, 1988.

"The Course of Irish History" Edited by Moody and Maritn, The Mercier Press, 1984.

"The Anglo-Saxon Chronicles", translated by Anne Savage, Crescent Books, 1995.