Hi Niven
Dose that mean Cymric is now a lost language?
All the best
Kermit
Yes, except where it exists in place-names.
I have always found the study of place-names to be exciting because
they
tell us something about the 'history' of the area. For example, in
my 30
years in Africa, the first thing I would do is to find out the meaning of
a
place name e.g.
Nairobi
=river
of black water Nanyuki=river
of red water
The 'na' prefix told me that it was derived from the Masai language
whereas:
Lulindi=place
of deep water Kilindini=the
village in the place of the seep water Malindi=the
town in the place of the deep water
came from Kiswahili whilst:
Khartoum=elephant
trunk (because the spit of land where the
Blue and White Niles meet is shaped like an elephant's
trunk
Jedda=Grandmother
(hence Jedd is grandfather) Cairo=Mars
are derived from the Arabic names for those places.
Gibraltar=comes
from the Arabic "Jabil Tariq" or the Mountain of Tariq.
Tariq was the Moorish Commander who conquered Spain
and the name Tariq comes from taraqa which means
to hammer so he was the 'hammerer'
Mohammed=comes
from the Arabic hamada which means 'to praise'
so, in effect, Mohammed is 'he who is praised' in the same way
as Christ means 'the anointed one'
Quite simply, every name and place-name has a meaning which, when known,
can add immeasurably to our
knowledge.