Lico, leicio, licio, hoffi, coffi. Was: Okay, so it *didn't* work

From: Elliott Lash <AL260@...>


> Sally Caves <scaves@...> writes:
>
> > If you scratch the surface, it's pretty
> > Celtic.  Initial mutations, verbal nouns,
> > preverbal particles, definitely Brythonic
> > vocabulary.  If you listen to it, it has
> > some of the nasal sonorities of French.
>
> That, and the fact that <u> is pronounce /y/, so it sounds very French. In
fact, I like to describe it as incomprensible French..although I can
understand large amounts of it..if spoken slowly.
>
> > Remember that Manx, Irish Gaelic, and
> > Scots Gaelic are of the Goidelic (q-Celtic)
> > branch, and differ fairly considerably from
> > their southern neighbors, the Brythonic
> > (or p-Celtic) branch.  Breton is a dialect
> > developed from the Britons who fled to
> > the continent in their escape from invading
> > Saxons, so its affinity with Cornish and
> > Welsh (the p-Celtic languages) is much
> > stronger.  But I'm sure it's picked up a lot
> > of French vocabulary in the same way that
> > Welsh picked up a lot of English: plismon,
> > for "police man," lico, for "like," etc.
>
> Minor point:
> it's leicio or licio, I don't think lico is a word.
It sure is:  Wy'n lico coffi.  Swansea dialect.  There are
several Welsh dialects, and perhaps more "correct" ones,
but Swansea is where I studied.  Of course I didn't see
it spelled, but that's the way it was pronounced.  Strictly
pub talk.

> But Welsh also retains the original Celtic word: Hoffi "to like", for use
in some circumstances.

And I remember the Welsh of Swansea sneering at it as a
northern convention, and a "rhyme" all the traditional school
books use: Yr wyf i'n hoffi coffi! "I like coffee!  Ha ha ha ha!"

:)
Sal