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

On 8 Jan, Steg Belsky wrote:

> On Mon, 7 Jan 2002 22:40:27 -0500 Sally Caves <scaves@...>
> writes:
> > write Welsh.  And it probably is.  But the Swansea Wlpan was intent
> > on keeping us "cool."
> > And away from the Gogs.  <LOL>  That was a difficult year: I was
> > starting my dissertation
> > on the cynfeirdd, learning and speaking Wlpan Swansea Welsh,
>
> > Sal gal : >
> -
>
> Oh no!  It's more fodder for the Celtic-Semitic Connection Hypothesis!
> If i remember the "Bran teaches Will(?) to read Welsh" scene from _The
> Grey King_ in the _Dark is Rising_ fantasy book series, {w} in Welsh is
> pronounced /u/?  Which would make {Wlpan} something like /ulpan/ - and
> /ulpan/ is Hebrew for "intensive language-learning program"!

    Actually, I think that the connection is probably due to a _modern_
Celtic-Semitic connection!  ;-)  IIRC, a number of years ago, the Welsh
were very impressed by the Israeli success at reviving Hebrew as a
modern spoken language via the "ulpan" system (essentially, a total
immersion technique, with emphasis on acquiring the lang through speaking,
rather than reading [ reading is not neglected altogether --- after all,
nobody wants to turn out classes of functional illiterates! It's just that,
in an "ulpan", reading and writing are usually relegated to secondary
importance].)
    Anyhow, their people got together with our people in order
to learn the system, so as to be able to adapt it to their needs in Wales.
It's quite possible that they borrowed the Hebrew name along with the
techniques.
    BTW, "ulpan", coming from the root aleph-lamed-fe (= to highly train,
 to be an expert) means essentially a place where an expert "does his
thing". It is used mainly to describe an artist's studio,
a media-broadcasting studio, an "ulpan" language-learning classroom,
and in its Aramaic form, "ulpana", a high school for religious girls.


Dan Sulani
------------------------------
likehsna rtem zuv tikuhnuh auag inuvuz vaka'a.

A word is an awesome thing.

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