{"title":"The 'Siege of the Badonic Mountain'","authors":"N. Higham","doi":"10.16922/sc.54.3","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.16922/sc.54.3","url":null,"abstract":"Gildas's brief and somewhat opaque reference to the siege of Badon provides us with one of the very few events that we can be reasonably sure occurred in Britain during the century following the ending of Roman rule. Close attention to the way that he used this conflict within his text\u0000 allows us to establish that it was included primarily as a means of fixing the year in which God's weighing up of His people ended and Gildas's present began. It was not a final battle that brought the Britons victory; on the contrary, it was the Saxons who had had the greater success in the\u0000 war. That this 'not the least' conflict was sufficiently memorable 44 years later may, though, mean that it was comparatively local both to Gildas himself and the intended recipients of his letter.","PeriodicalId":32192,"journal":{"name":"Studia Celtica Posnaniensia","volume":"27 1","pages":"29-44"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"77293164","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"“Exile from Ireland Left Him a Stranger Everywhere“: Representation of Dublin in Selected Louis Macneice’s Poetry and Some of the Stories from James Joyce’s Dubliners”","authors":"Gabriela Czernecka","doi":"10.2478/scp-2020-0002","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2478/scp-2020-0002","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract This paper discusses the representation of Dublin in the selected poetry of Louis MacNeice and some of the stories from James Joyce’s collection Dubliners. A close investigation of the city as a representative of urban space is interlinked with an examination of its role from the perspective of psychogeography. Both techniques are applied to show why and how two Irish authors portray the multi-dimensional decay of life in the city. In order to paint a whole picture of the relation between ‘space’ and ‘human’, I will also review the biographies of MacNeice and Joyce. For MacNeice, who was tormented by the experiences of domestic Belfast, going to the South was a promising escape. Yet, the change of urban setting did not bring him the expected result. MacNeice quickly became aware of the dirty, paralysed face of Dublin. Similarly, the childhood and day-to-day reality of the lower-middle-class profoundly shaped Joyce’s perspective of Dublin and, eventually, prompted him to go into deliberate exile in Europe. In his writings, however, Dublin constitutes the focal point of the structure, becoming an active participant in the events. Therefore, Dublin for MacNeice and Joyce is a place characterized by blandness, powerlessness in the face of foreign influences, and suffering caused by inertia.","PeriodicalId":32192,"journal":{"name":"Studia Celtica Posnaniensia","volume":"5 1","pages":"21 - 33"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48463931","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Genealogia Brittonum: revisiting the textual tradition of the Historia Brittonum","authors":"K. Fitzpatrick-Matthews","doi":"10.16922/sc.54.4","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.16922/sc.54.4","url":null,"abstract":"The Historia Brittonum remains a textual puzzle because of its variant recensions; printed editions generally present conflated versions of the text. The Harleian Recension is usually thought to represent the version closest to the original. The present approach to its textual\u0000 history uses cladistics to recognise characteristics shared between recensions. These determine those of ancestral groups and indicate the points at which different recensions split off, demonstrating that the work grew by accretion. The Harleian Recension is shown to be a late development.\u0000 All existing printed editions of the work are defective: every reading must be based on judging the position of all witnesses on the cladogram. Where the readings of the Chartres and Edmundine Recensions agree against the others, they take precedence. The earliest recoverable form of the text\u0000 is the recension of 829×30, here termed 'Merminian'.","PeriodicalId":32192,"journal":{"name":"Studia Celtica Posnaniensia","volume":"45 1","pages":"45-74"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"89058911","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"‘An English Monstrosity’? Evolution and Reception of Manx Orthography","authors":"Christopher Lewin","doi":"10.2478/scp-2020-0003","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2478/scp-2020-0003","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract This article evaluates perceptions of Manx orthography within Celtic scholarship. The predominant view is well summarized by Jackson (1955: 108): ‘Manx orthography is an English monstrosity which obscures both pronunciation and etymology’. Similarly, O’Rahilly dismisses Manx spelling as ‘an abominable system, neither historic nor phonetic, and based mainly on English’ (O’Rahilly 1932: 20). The article sets these perceptions in the sociohistorical context in which the system was developed by the Manx clergy in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. It is argued that the system is neither so directly dependent on English conventions, nor so unsystematic and inconsistent, as has been often claimed. Such weaknesses as do exist from the perspective of contemporary scholars and students of the language should not necessarily be viewed as such in the light of the needs, priorities and assumptions of those who practised Manx writing in its original context. It is shown that there was in fact an increase in the phonological transparency of certain elements of the system during the standardization of the mid-eighteenth century represented by the publication of translations of the Book of Common Prayer (1765) and the Bible (1771-72). On the other hand, countervailing pressures towards phonological ambiguity, iconicity and idiosyncrasy are discussed, including the utility of distinguishing homophones; real or presumed etymologies; the influence of non-standard or regional English spelling conventions; tensions between Manx and English norms; and an apparent preference in certain cases for more ambiguous spellings as a compromise between variant forms. Negative outcomes of the received view for scholarship on Manx are also examined, with a case study of the neglect of orthographic evidence for the historical phonology of the language. The wider context of English-based orthographies for Gaelic is also briefly considered.","PeriodicalId":32192,"journal":{"name":"Studia Celtica Posnaniensia","volume":"5 1","pages":"35 - 59"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46036424","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Y seintiau a thraddodiad llenyddol: achos y canu i Wenfrewy","authors":"David Callander","doi":"10.16922/sc.54.7","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.16922/sc.54.7","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":32192,"journal":{"name":"Studia Celtica Posnaniensia","volume":"12 1","pages":"99-114"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"87478403","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The recategorisation of the conjugated preposition a 'of ' as direct object and subject pronouns in Cornouaillais Breton","authors":"Gary Manchec-German","doi":"10.16922/sc.54.9","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.16922/sc.54.9","url":null,"abstract":"This article examines the functions of the Breton conjugated preposition 'of ' as direct object and subject pronouns. Because these uses are believed to be relatively recent innovations, they are judged by many writers and linguists to be substandard. Although these recategorised\u0000 a-forms are part and parcel of the vernacular language, their roles vary considerably according to dialect. For this reason it would be illusory to assume they operate as part of a unified linguistic system. Nevertheless, the full scope of their functions is most evident in\u0000 the Cornouaillais/Kerne dialect spoken in south- western Brittany. This discussion focuses on the Breton spoken in the parishes of Saint Yvi and Elliant in south-central Cornouaille (Finistère) where their use is prevalent. Comparative evidence from other areas of Cornouaille, Tregor\u0000 and Leon, as well as similar uses of conjugated preposition 'of ' in Middle Welsh and modern south Welsh varieties, suggests that this phenomenon may have emerged as a result of common semantic interpretations which may be inherent to the Brythonic languages more generally. Moreover,\u0000 a number of secondary morphosyntactic innovations (both analytic and synthetic) that have been spawned by these a-forms suggest that the process is internal to Breton rather than to any direct French influence. The data is presented within a descriptive, variational and diachronic\u0000 linguistic framework.","PeriodicalId":32192,"journal":{"name":"Studia Celtica Posnaniensia","volume":"136 1","pages":"147-184"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"73963260","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"'Y Gogleddwynt a'r Haul': early transcriptions of Welsh in Le Maître Phonétique","authors":"G. Awbery","doi":"10.16922/sc.54.8","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.16922/sc.54.8","url":null,"abstract":"A traditional fable 'The North Wind and the Sun' was used for many years in the journal Le Maître Phonétique as a short sample text to illustrate the phonetic characteristics of a range of different languages, and as part of this activity several different Welsh\u0000 versions of the fable were published. One, which reflects a speaker with a northern accent speaking in a formal register, appeared as early as 1911 and then again, slightly modified, in 1912 and 1949. Two further versions, reflecting informal, dialect usage in the Bala district and in Aber-\u0000 porth in Cardiganshire, appeared in 1926. This paper explores what light these transcriptions shed on the spoken language, and asks how the phoneticians who made them came to be involved.","PeriodicalId":32192,"journal":{"name":"Studia Celtica Posnaniensia","volume":"45 1","pages":"115-146"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"78976227","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Three notes on the Gododdin","authors":"A. Falileyev","doi":"10.16922/sc.54.6","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.16922/sc.54.6","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":32192,"journal":{"name":"Studia Celtica Posnaniensia","volume":"27 1","pages":"81-98"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"83480260","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Haunting Vocabulary and Celtic Lexicography: Towards a Taxonomy of Ghost Words","authors":"A. Harvey","doi":"10.2478/scp-2019-0003","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2478/scp-2019-0003","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract Most Humanities scholars probably have an intuitive sense of what is meant by a “ghost word” – it is a word that, in one way or another, exists as the result of someone’s unrecognized mistake. However, upon closer examination it becomes clear that the term is liable to be employed so broadly that important distinctions can be lost. For one thing, ghost words are often regarded simply as nuisances that should be deleted whenever they are detected. But in practice they often prove to be too useful simply to discard: this article presents some examples that have made their way into active usage among the Celts. In other cases the etymology may indeed be unnatural, but turns out to be the result of more than a hint of deliberate word-crafting right from the start. A taxonomy is here proposed that distinguishes true ghost words and dead words, on the one hand, from active items that may be described as poltergeist words and even Frankenstein words on the other.","PeriodicalId":32192,"journal":{"name":"Studia Celtica Posnaniensia","volume":"4 1","pages":"44 - 58"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42227827","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}