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Good Morning Motlies- a little lazy diary today, as my shoulder is still playing up after a fall last week.
So a few weeks ago, I posted a diary about Port Isaac in Cornwall and Joni Mitchell (who unless she reads my Kos postings has probably never heard of Port Isaac) But recently Cornwall has been in the news as last week, the Cornish people were officially granted "minority status" under European Union rules. This puts them on an equal footing with the Irish, Welsh and Scots, who are all, along with the Cornish celtic people with their own languages. The other group of Celts are Bretons, from North West France, who also have their own language. Interestingly that while the languages are all share similar roots they have evolved into very distinct languages.
What is special about Celts? Well they are really the original Brits and French. When the Romans had their empire it kind of ground to a halt at the Welsh and Scottish borders, and in England never made it past Exeter in Devon. In a footnote to "History on my doorstep", I spent my childhood in both Exeter and Newport, Monmouthsire which were effectively the Western most outposts of the Roman empire, and were both known by the name Isca - but the reasons why are not clear.
It remains a mystery when these terms were first used, but hopefully more evidence will come to light. However there is one strange fact. The Second Augustan Legion at Caerleon were previously based in a fortress under modern day Exeter. This fortress too was called Isca, and this name was perpetuated in the Roman town established on the site, Isca Dumnoniorum (Isca of the Dumnonii tribe). It could be argued that the Legion brought the name Isca with them to Caerleon. However experts in early place-names disagree. According to P.H. Reaney river names such as Axe, Exe, Esk and Usk are all derived from the British word isca meaning "water". (8)
source
Caerleon.net
But coming back to Cornwall - and as in the Airplane ongoing joke - "I am probably boring you to death" here is a little video of a nice Spring tide in St Ives, a popular Cornish fishing port and resort.
So after a fairly disjointed ramble - what's on your plate today?