alternatehistory.com
20
Sweet!
Getting to the language piece again, my personal preference (for what it's worth) is that British and Medieval Latin won't replace Brythoneg, but influence it to the degree OTL Norman changed English. To wit, the grammar/phonology/essential daily vocabulary would remain P-Celtic, but more advanced/complex words and orthography (to a degree) would be Romance. Thus you could have fairly technical dialogue be semi-intelligible to a Romance or affluent Anglo-Germanic speaker, but a casual working-class excerpt would go over said person's head (Maltese is like that too, a Semitic dialect overladen with Italian elements). It might even be described as the inverse of Brithenig, a Romance-looking Celtic language instead of a Celtic-looking Romance one.
EDIT; This could also help differentiate Coeling language a la OTL Scots/Northern English to Southern dialects by retaining more non-Latinate vocabulary and pronunciation. I do wonder what would become of consonant mutations in Brythoneg though. On one hand, it's an OTL staple of Celtic languages with morphological utility. OTOH it's a pain to account for in dictionaries AIUI, and Latin influence might not brook its survival. Perhaps it's a spoken element only, or dialectal/vulgar in nature?
Getting to the language piece again, my personal preference (for what it's worth) is that British and Medieval Latin won't replace Brythoneg, but influence it to the degree OTL Norman changed English. To wit, the grammar/phonology/essential daily vocabulary would remain P-Celtic, but more advanced/complex words and orthography (to a degree) would be Romance. Thus you could have fairly technical dialogue be semi-intelligible to a Romance or affluent Anglo-Germanic speaker, but a casual working-class excerpt would go over said person's head (Maltese is like that too, a Semitic dialect overladen with Italian elements). It might even be described as the inverse of Brithenig, a Romance-looking Celtic language instead of a Celtic-looking Romance one.
EDIT; This could also help differentiate Coeling language a la OTL Scots/Northern English to Southern dialects by retaining more non-Latinate vocabulary and pronunciation. I do wonder what would become of consonant mutations in Brythoneg though. On one hand, it's an OTL staple of Celtic languages with morphological utility. OTOH it's a pain to account for in dictionaries AIUI, and Latin influence might not brook its survival. Perhaps it's a spoken element only, or dialectal/vulgar in nature?
- FleetMac
- Word Count: 200