Maggie's Farm

We are a commune of inquiring, skeptical, politically centrist, capitalist, anglophile, traditionalist New England Yankee humans, humanoids, and animals with many interests beyond and above politics. Each of us has had a high-school education (or GED), but all had ADD so didn't pay attention very well, especially the dogs. Each one of us does "try my best to be just like I am," and none of us enjoys working for others, including for Maggie, from whom we receive neither a nickel nor a dime. Freedom from nags, cranks, government, do-gooders, control-freaks and idiots is all that we ask for.

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Friday, September 11. 2009

1500 years ago (roughly)


Somewhere around 450 AD (according to the Venerable Bede), the Celtic warlord Vortigern, embattled by the northern Picts, made a decision that would change the world: He invited the Frisian brothers Horsa and Hengest to bring their warriors across the sea as mercenaries and help him defeat the Picts. After the fierce northern Germanic warriors ensured Vortigern’s victory, he tried to cheat them out of their payment, and they responded by founding a kingdom in southern England. Thus began the Anglo-Saxon migration, and soon, conquest.



The world went crazy after the fall of Rome. Read the rest. It's about the Olde.Anglosphere. As far as I know, basic English is still Frisian (except for the added Viking, Frenchy, Greek and Latinate stuff).

Posted by Bird Dog in History at 18:14 | Comments (3) | Trackbacks (0)

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Bird Dog ... We'll all be Frisian once global cooling really sets in.

Forgive me ... I couldn't resist.

Marianne
#1 Marianne Matthews on 2009-09-11 21:22 (Reply)
"i like your style dude . . . " -Big Lebowski
#2 captain curmudgeon on 2009-09-11 22:28 (Reply)
Yes and no on the Frisian equivalence to English. Remember that until quite recently English dialects were sometimes mutually unintelligible to each other, let alone foreign languages. Americans think of themselves as having sharp regional variations of accent and vocabulary, but nothing like what one would have heard traversing the Isles two centuries ago.

Still, there is reportedly significant understanding between spoken Frisian and English if the visitor will simply let himself go and absorb the sound rather than overthinking it. Two weeks vacation in northern Holland and many American children can pick up considerable fluency.
#3 Assistant Village Idiot (Link) on 2009-09-12 23:04 (Reply)

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