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Are the Irish related to an Atlantic seaboard people

BabyE · 2016-10-14 14:25:15

Stretching from Spain and Portugal up the coast of France, to Brittany, onto Cornwall, to Wales and finally Scotland. Has it been established or is too ambiguous? I know the first inhabitants came here 10,000 years ago but there seems to be a gap of about 5000 years, what happened to these original people? Did they just…

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#32 26-10-2016 2:47pm
tac foley

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The well-known writer and broadcaster Sir Melvin Bragg grew up speaking Cumbiran dialect - his example, quoted in his book is 95% incomprehensible to the average English speaker, and appears to have close affinities with the Norse inclusions commonly found in Northumberland. It bears no connection to Cumbric, though. You may have read his account of coping with standard English speakers in his book 'The adventure of English'. BTW, I've ordered the book you mentioned, thanks.

The main 'backdrop' language to modern vernacular English is Fries, again as noted in Bill Bryson's book 'Mother Tongue' and others.

However, this gets us nowhere along the path of establishing where the Irish came from.

tac

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