Re: 'language destroyers' (was: What to Call Non-Conlangers)

On Saturday, March 5, 2005, at 07:00 , Ray Brown wrote:

> On Saturday, March 5, 2005, at 03:44 , Sally Caves wrote:
[snip]
>> Ahem!  Think of nineteenth-century Wales.  Little miners' sons in school
>> with signs on them: "Do not speak Welsh to me."
>
> Yes, the sign was on a small wooden board, hung around the offenders neck;
>  it was known as the "Welsh Tongue".
OOOPS!! Did I write that? Sorry - it mut have been a senior moment. The
things was called the "WELSH KNOT" (being of course a pun on 'Welsh not').

> However, it has to be admitted that
> in the industrialized parts of southern Wales in the 19th century, the
> Welsh-speakers themselves for the most part pro-actively supported the
> English only policy in schools.
[etc. snipped]

The rest however is AFAIK true - it is certainly what I had been told many
times during the 22 yesrs I lived in south Wales.

Ray
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Anything is possible in the fabulous Celtic twilight,
which is not so much a twilight of the gods
as of the reason."      [JRRT, "English and Welsh" ]