Saturday, November 8, 2008

A Milestone And Some Other Stuff!

Dydd-Llun, Dydd-Mawrth, Dydd-Mercher, Dydd-Iau, Dydd-Gwener, Dydd-Sadwrn, Dydd-Sul.

And what are those? Well, if you guessed "the days of the week in Welsh," then good for you! That makes Welsh, I believe, the only living language which has retained the old pagan Roman system of naming the days of the week in its entirety! In Latin, they were:

Dies Lunae, Dies Martis, Dies Mercurii, Dies Iovis, Dies Veneris, Dies Saturni, Dies Solis.

It's worth noting that Cornish and Breton also maintained the pagan Roman system, while the other Celtic languages (Irish, Manx, and Scots Gaelic) had adopted some of the Christian tradition. Cornish and Breton are, of course, no longer living languages.

All this, by the way, is courtesy of one of my students. I gave them my "Roman Calendar" spiel yesterday, and today discovered that she'd sent me a long and interesting e-mail about the Celtic languages and their days of the week. I do like it when they get into what I'm talking about!

In other news, this is the 100th post on this blog! So, to celebrate, have some 100th-post-suitable music:

4 comments:

Auntie Knickers said...

Love the music, which brings to mind a singing commercial from my childhood, "Fee-fi-fo-fum, How I love my Vitayums" (a chewable children's vitamin). Thanks for playing the band meme, great album art!

Crimson Rambler said...

much fun!

Annie's Mom said...

I love the soloist on the end who is clearly making up the words.

Stealthy Dachshund said...

Hee-hee, that's excellent music indeed. I like that it's evidently an encore for a very pleased crowd, and you can see the relaxation on the faces of the singers!

Happy Centegenaripost!