Posted on 07/26/2014 1:35:07 PM PDT by SunkenCiv
An ancient inscription discovered on a 14th century church in Spain's Galicia region has been identified as Gaelic; the first written evidence of the northern region’s Irish and Scottish heritage.
For centuries it has gone unnoticed, weathered by Galicia’s incessant drizzle but still visible to those with an eagle-eye.
On one of the granite walls of Santiago church in the small town of Betanzos, a small previously unintelligible inscription five metres above ground kept historians and epigraphists, or people who study ancient inscriptions, baffled for decades.
Researchers working for a private association called the Gaelaico Project now believe they've finally deciphered what it reads: "An Ghaltacht" or "Gaelic-speaking area".
"If our interpretation is right, the inscription isn't related to religious matters, but rather to the language that was spoken in Galicia at the time," Proxecto Gaelaico head Martín Fernández Maceiras told local daily La Voz de Galicia.
"It seems logical that the inscription was made while the church was being built (in the 14th century)."
Up to now, Galicia, along with Asturias and northern Portugal, have been informally considered part of the ancient Celtic nations (Ireland, Scotland, Wales, Brittany, Isle of Man and Cornwall) due to cultural and historical reasons rather than because of written proof.
Although researchers are hoping to get a second opinion from expert epigraphists on whether the inscription does indeed read “Gaelic-speaking area”, the chances of it being the first written evidence of Galicia’s Celtic past are high.
Despite the dominance of Latin, there are plenty of Gaelic traits still present in Galicia,” James Duran, academic expert on minority languages at the US's Stanford University, told La Voz de Galicia.
(Excerpt) Read more at thelocal.es ...
The Santiago church (Saint James church) must now be called Eaglais Naomh Seamas, I reckon. In memory of the Son of Thunder, Matamoros.
Gosh, that's almost like a cognate for the Spanish word for church!
I would have thought the great big clue to the area’s celtic/gaelic origins would have been in its very name.
Wales is “Pays de Galles” in French, the language of Scotland is Gallic, the Irish are Gaels, I’m no linguistic expert but there seems to be a bit of a link. Plus the fact that like Wales, Ireland, Cornwall, the Isle of Man, the Scottish highlands an islands, Brittany etc. it’s another one of those rugged little enclaves of northwestern Europe where the Celts all seemed to end up.
You know for such a tough bunch of guys the Celts sure let themselves be pushed out into the fringes by whoever happened to show up later in their homelands.
Who needs leprechauns when you've got the IRA?
Exactly and 'H' too.
When the briefly-toughest guys settle into the comfortable bottomlands, they grow soft in just a few generations. Meanwhile, the mountaineers get more and more counterproductively tough, until you can't do anything but kill them. (Afghans, for example.)
The Persians recognized this pattern in the early Classical age, 5th century B.C. or so. Once your warrior class moves out of the high steppes and gets comfortable, it's all over.
The closest part of France to America was Armorica. No doubt an academic would just consider that coincidental.
“Gaelic-speaking area” MEGA FACEPALM! If the area speaks Gaelic, they would not need a sign like that to tell people what language they’re speaking!
Try “Gaelic spoken here”, as in having Irish priests and/or monks, who could interpret for visitors or translate documents for business purposes.
Kind of like signs in Los Angeles banks and businesses, “English spoken here.” *<];-’)
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