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Etymologieth / Etymology - What we do in the shadows...

Post diwyethek - Sowsnek a-woles/Bilingual post - English below

My re beu tamm taw dres an misyow diwedhes awos my dhe vos ow korfenna ow gradh, chanjya chi ha dalleth soodh nowyth, so nyns esa termyn dhymm skrifa war an blog ma vytholl. Mes lemmyn yth esov trevesigys y'm bewnans nowyth, ytho gwryllyn dalleth!

Hedhyw y fynnav skrifa yn kott yn-kever ger a drig y'n skeusow war arvordiryow Kernow (ha'n bys oll) - franklondya.

Ytho, pyth yw franklondya? Gesewgh ni dhe vos yn tidro dhe'n geryow unnik ma.

Frank - Hanow gnas a-vri yn Everybody Loves Raymond - ytho pandr'usi ow kul omma?  Na meur! Ger aral rag 'rydh' (free) yw frank. Kesker Kembrek hemma yw "ffranc" mes nag usi devnydhyes kemmys y'n jydh hedhyw rag styrya frank/rydh. Yma ffranc aral yn Kembrek, henn yw 'estren' po 'Frynk'. Yth yw certan y teu 'ffranc' dew yn Kembrek dhyworth an ger 'Françe' yn Frynkek a dheu dhyworth Almaynek koth rag eseli korth an Franken. Yth yw possybyl y tybis an Keltyon a-varr bos rydh eseli an kordh ma awos na veu fethys an Almanyon gans an Romanyon, avel y fia'n Vrythonyon... Yma'n ger frank yn Bretonek keffrys gans an dhew styr ma, Frynk ha rydh - mes nyns esov sur py onan yw an styr usadow rag ny gowsav Bretonek vyth.

Londya yw essa dh'y gonvedhes - Chevisyes yw an verb ma dhyworth an Sownsek 'to land'  ha ger aral ragdho yn Kernowek yw 'tira'. Hemm yw kesker a 'tirio' yn Kembrek (keffrys glanio). An dhew er ma a gomprehend an ger tir a dheu dhyworth an Proto-Brythonek tir ha'n Proto-Keltek tiros - henn yw tir segh. Junyes yw an re ma gans an Latinek terra usi dor, gwlas po tir. An Proto-Eyndo-Europek ters a styr segh. Ny yllis trovya verb a gomprehendyas an tir mayn Bretonek, mes y hwrug vy gweles an verb douarañ. Y komprehend hemm douar (Kw: dor, Cy: daear).

Ytho, yth eson ow mos war an tir yn rydh, mes rydh yn py fordh? Wel, nyns yw an feyth nag eson yn prison (yn-unnik), mes nag eson ow pe tollow-ynperthi.

Yes, ni re beu ow smuggelya! Ni ha Frank ow franklondya war lannow Kernow.

Da yw gans Kembregoryon smyglo (chevisyes dhyworth an Sowsnek) ha nwyddredeg (ponya gwara). Bretonegoryon a apper dhe wul floderezh. My a dyb hemm dhe vos neppyth avel decvyans-ponya, mes y fydh res dhe Vretonegor checkya hemma.

Nyns o hemm ow gwella post, mes my a vynnas skrifa neppyth yn skav rag diskwedhes nag yw marow an blog ma - Miscyon kowlwrys!
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I've been a little quiet over the past few months as I have been finishing my degree, moving house and beginning a new job, so I've not had the time to write here at all. But now I'm settled in ym new life, so let's begin!

Today I want to write briefly about a word that lives in the shadows od Cornwall's coast (and a lot of the world) - franklondya.

So, what is franklondya? Let's go straight into these individual words.

Frank - the name of a well-loved character on Everybody Love Raymond - so what's he up to here? Not much! Frank is another word fro free in Cornish (also rydh). This is related to the Welsh word ffranc, but this isn't used much these days to mean free. Another ffranc also exists in Welsh, meaning foreign or Frenchman. This certainly comes from the word Françe in French which in turn is descended from the Old German Franken, the name of a Germanic tribe. It is possible, therefore, that the early Celts believed that the members oof this tribe were free as the Germans were not defeated by the Romans, as the Britains had been... The word frank also occurs in Breton with both of these meanings Frenchman and free - however I'm not sure which is the mroe usual meaning as I don't speak Breton.

Londya is an easier word to understand - This verb is borrowed from the English to land and there also exists the synonym tira in Cornish. This is also found in Welsh as tirio (though more often glanio). These two words contain tir (land) which comes from the Proto-Brythonic tir and the Proto-Celtic tiros - meaning dry land. These are connected to the Latin terra which is land, earth or country. The Proto-Indo-European ters means dry. I coudn't find a verb containing tir in Breton, but I did see douarañ. This contains douar (earth) similar to the Cornish dor and the Welsh daear.

So we're going freely onto land, but how so free? Well, it's not just the fact that we aren't in priosn, but that we aren't paying our import duty.

Yup, we've been smuggling! We and Frank, smuggling on Cornwall's shores.

The Welsh like to both smyglo (borrowed from English) and nwyddredeg (run goods). The Bretons seems to like floderezh which I believe to mean deception-run but this needs checking by a Breton speaker.

Not my best post ever, but I wanted to write something quickly to show that this blog isn't dead - Mission accomplished!


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