From: kehoea@parhasard.net   
      
    Ar an séú lá is fiche de mí Bealtaine, scríobh Ross Clark:   
      
    > Saint Bede (OE Bæda) -- born about 672.   
    > Monk at Jarrow (present South Tyneside).   
    > Wrote more than 60 works on diverse subjects, but probably best known for   
    > _Historia Ecclesiastica Gentis Anglorum_ (Ecclesiastical History of the   
   English   
    > People).   
    >   
    > It includes a snapshot linguistic picture of Great Britain in his time:   
    >   
    > "This island at present...contains five nations, the English, Britons,   
   Scots,   
    > Picts and Latins, each in its own peculiar dialect cultivating the sublime   
    > study of Divine truth. The Latin tongue is, by the study of the Scriptures,   
    > become common to all the rest."   
      
   ‘Haec in praesenti, iuxta numerum librorum, quibus lex diuina scripta est,   
   quinque   
   gentium linguis, unam eandemque summae ueritatis et uerae sublimitatis   
   scientiam   
   scrutatur, et confitetur, Anglorum uidelicet, Brettonum, Scottorum, Pictorum et   
   Latinorum, quae meditatione scripturarum ceteris omnibus est facta communis.’   
      
   “Five language communities,” I suppose. I hadn’t realised he was so   
   early.   
   Interesting post, thanks.   
      
    > He's also the source of the tradition about the Angles, Saxons and Jutes,   
   and   
    > where they settled, though his account is difficult to interpret in detail.   
      
   --   
   ‘As I sat looking up at the Guinness ad, I could never figure out /   
   How your man stayed up on the surfboard after fourteen pints of stout’   
   (C. Moore)   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)