QUIMPER-VANNES

Update:  Quimper-Vannes has moved to a new site:  https://quimpervannes.substack.com/ This Blogger site is now an archive. New articles, extracts and launch news for the English edition and French translation will appear on Substack. I was researching possible origins for the name Douarnenez (see Douarnenez and the Two Islands ) in Finistère (Brittany) when  I happened upon a  video story called 'Dwy Ynys/Dau Hanes'  ( 'Two Islands/Two Histories')  on BBC Wales written by Marian Delyth.  BARDSEY ROBBEN ISLAND The story is written and narrated in Welsh (the script and translation is below).  The two islands in the story are Bardsey - Isle of Bards / Ynys Enlli - Isle of Currents [Wales] and Robben Island -Dutch: robben, ' s eal' [South Africa].                                 This little story speaks for itself. If you've never heard spoken ...

Update:  Quimper-Vannes has moved to a new site:  https://quimpervannes.substack.com/ This Blogger site is now an archive. New articles, extracts and launch news for the English edition and French translation will appear on Substack. When I was researching the origin of the name Douarnenez I was particularly interested in whether it might be derived from the Breton: daou , ‘two’ [in Welsh: dau/dwy ] and Breton: (an) enez , ‘(the) island’ [Welsh: ynys ; Cornish: ennis/enys ; Irish: ennis ; Scottish: innis/inch ]. The second part of the name is the most obvious. This ancient place name element can refer to a peninsula (a 'quasi'-island) as well as a real island and this matched the topography of Douarnenez. The element Ynys/Ennis/Innis can be found in the names Anglesey/Ynys Mon, the Isle of Bardsey/Ynys Enlli, Enniskillen (N. Ireland) and Inchmarnock (Scotland). The daou/ 'two' element was pushing it a bit, but conceivably we could view the peninsula ( or even...

Update:  Quimper-Vannes has moved to a new site:  https://quimpervannes.substack.com/ This Blogger site is now an archive. New articles, extracts and launch news for the English edition and French translation will appear on Substack. S quiffiec has always been one of my favourite place names in Brittany. It conjures up  squiffy -  a place where people are   'slightly drunk'; and maybe their eyes are slightly skewiff -  they've had enough (Breton cider) to make them  ' awry,  wonky' .  The Breton name for Squiffiec is   Skinvieg;  this suggests they've actually had a lot more than that: perhaps more like a skinful -  ' enough ( calvados) to make one drunk'. The name actually comes from the Old Breton:  skaw/ieg,   ' (place with) elder trees’. This is equivalent to the  Welsh ysgeifiog   found in place names such as  Ysgeifiog and  Llanfihangel Ysgeifiog.  In Cornish ...

Update:  Quimper-Vannes has moved to a new site:  https://quimpervannes.substack.com/ This Blogger site is now an archive. New articles, extracts and launch news for the English edition and French translation will appear on Substack. This article: Villagers dash hopes of a helpful hyphen to tackle Welsh tongue-twisters  suggests the introduction of hyphens to make Welsh place names easier to pronounce.  It makes sense, because the hyphens separate place name elements and clearly identify where the word stress has to be placed.  But I think it's the letters that fox most people. For example:  w for 'oo'; dd for 'th'; f for 'v'; u  for 'y'; y for 'u' (as in 'cup'); and ll for a voiceless 'l'. Many of the organizations who support the change, such as the Ordnance Survey, are already using the hyphens. Most of these names have direct equivalents in place names in Brittany.  In case you don't know, here is ...

Update:  Quimper-Vannes has moved to a new site:  https://quimpervannes.substack.com/ This Blogger site is now an archive. New articles, extracts and launch news for the English edition and French translation will appear on Substack. See:  The legend of Saint Gwen of Brittany and Dorset Saints, Myths & Relics The church of Whitchurch-Canonicorum in Dorset is dedicated to Saint-Candida (a.k.a Saint-Wite). Below the east window there is an altar tomb with  three openings which allowed devotees to reach inside the shrine in the hope of a miraculous cure for whatever ailed them.  On the top of this there used to be a 14th century coffin built into a slab of local marble. When the local vicar opened it in 1848 he found a stone box. Inside the stone box he discovered a Saint's relics.  When the coffin was examined again in 1899 another vicar found teeth, a lot of  bones resembling those of small, forty year old woman and an inscrip...

Update:  Quimper-Vannes has moved to a new site:  https://quimpervannes.substack.com/ This Blogger site is now an archive. New articles, extracts and launch news for the English edition and French translation will appear on Substack. Were one million or more Britons wiped out by the English in a Dark Ages holocaust? The place name evidence is unequivocal : there is a very noticeable absence of Brythonic place names in England, especially in the south and the east. In addition, the English lexicon has very few words borrowed from Brythonic languages.  In the   foundation story of the English nation, the Angles, Saxons and Jutes invaded and settled England from the 5th  century onwards, following in the footsteps of Hengist and Horsa who originally brought their mercenary armies to serve Vortigern, the British chief.  A few centuries later and there is a total cultural transformation. Everyone speaks English and everyone claims to be des...

Update:  Quimper-Vannes has moved to a new site:  https://quimpervannes.substack.com/ This Blogger site is now an archive. New articles, extracts and launch news for the English edition and French translation will appear on Substack. Q: “What are you doing?”                  *Q1:  “What do you do?” A: “I am making tea”              *Q2:  “I make tea”. The English present continuous (using am/is/are + the “ing” form of a verb to indicate that the action is temporary, unfinished or ongoing) is less of an anomaly than ‘do’ [see  We do use ‘do’ a lot in English, don’t we? Why do we do this?   below ]  . It exists in a few other European languages (Icelandic, Dutch and Italian) although it is used less regularly and in different ways. In most of the other European languages the imperfective/continuo...