XPost: soc.culture.irish, soc.culture.british, uk.politics.misc   
   XPost: soc.genealogy.britain   
      
   In uk.politics.misc Energy  wrote:   
      
   > Ironically perhaps the best and most obvious analogy would be the   
   > adoption of English as a first language by the Welsh and Irish. Without   
   > the existence of writing it would be easy to see how Welsh and Irish   
   > might not have survived. Perhaps the replacement of the original   
   > (Basque related?) Welsh and Irish languages by Celtic languages was   
      
   There is *no* relation between the Celtic languages and Basque. The   
   Celtic languages are clearly from Indo-European. Basque is not... it is   
   an oddity in Europe which nobody has been able to explain or connect to   
   another language. Many people devoted their time trying to connect it to   
   Linear B until it was shown to be Greek.   
      
   Axel   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)