Re: Why doesn't Brithenig or Bretanach exist IRL?

Peter Bleackley scripsit:

> I was wondering the other day, why didn't the use of Latin in Britain
> survive the withdrawal of the legions? Latin seems to have been in common
> use in Britain throughout the Roman period, but whereas in most of Roman
> Europe the use of Latin continued after the breakdown or Roman authority,
> and displaced the native languages, eventually evolving into the Romance
> Languages, the Britons seem to have reverted to Old Welsh and (except for
> the clergy) forgotten Latin entirely. What brought this about?
Well, probably the most Latinized parts of Roman Britain were precisely
the southeast, since they had been colonized the longest and even in
those days were the most economically important part of the island.
Of course, they were the parts that were most heavily stomped by the
incoming English.

After all, the legions were withdrawn in 410 and the legendary arrival
of Marcho and Blanco^W^W^WHengest and Horsa was in 449.  Not a long
period for a fully post-Roman indigenous culture to arise.

--
John Cowan  jcowan@reutershealth.com  www.reutershealth.com  www.ccil.org/~cowan
The known is finite, the unknown infinite; intellectually we stand
on an islet in the midst of an illimitable ocean of inexplicability.
Our business in every generation is to reclaim a little more land,
to add something to the extent and the solidity of our possessions.
        --Thomas Henry Huxley