On Fri, Sep 17, 2004 at 07:17:27PM +0100, Ray Brown wrote:
> The Welsh for England is 'Lloegr' a name which, I believe, was once
> given to the whole island but came to be used for the Kingdom of
> England.
Good to know. And such a fun word to say! But then I have a weakness for
lateral fricatives. :)
> IME "nations" is the usual term for Scotland, England & Wales -
> certainly it is among rugby afficionados who are looking forward to
> the Six Nations matches. (For Left-Pondians & others, the 6 nations
> are, in alphabetical order, England, France, Ireland [sic], Italy,
> Scotland, Wales). And Wales has its own _National_ Assembly, which
> does not make sense unless Wales is a nation. Scotland has had its own
> parliament restored to it.
Hm. That would make the UK a supernational organization, like the EU or
the UN . . . but it is legally a single nation-state, is it not?
> Our present Queen is Elizabeth II of England & Elizabeth I of
> Scotland; there was quite a lot of argument when she came to the
> throne as to whether she should be different styled in England &
> Scotland and IIRC there were even some acts of violence in Scotland on
> post-boxes bearing the royal crest with Elizabeth II on it.
Huh. I had no idea.
> Prince Charles has wisely stated that he will, if he outlives his Mum
> (and her Mum lived to be 101), be crowned 'George' - and that will the
> 7th one both in England & Scotland :)
A joke, I assume? What would the respective numbers be for a King
Charles?
> I am not Prince Charles' greatest fan, but he has been the first Prince of
> Wales for a *very* long time that has actually taken this office seriously.
> He even took the trouble to learn the language and this fact alone did
> much to boost his standing in Wales and to promote the Welsh language.
I am impressed. I only hope he speaks Welsh better than W. speaks
Spanish. :)
> In short: the three nations of England, Scotland & Wales are constituent
> parts of the Kingdom of Great Britain (Great, as opposed to (little)
> Britain otherwise known in English as Brittany); the six counties of (the
> Province of) Northern Ireland is a constituent part of the United Kingdom
> (of Great Britain & Northern Ireland).
Thank you.
-Marcos