Appearence and tactics of early 5th century Saxons.

[Robert Vermaat]

one question does occur:
If as many suggest that germanic culture was so attractive that a whole peoples in the British Isles adopted germanic fashions and learnt a completely new language, extremely well; how is it that the Welsh in Wales were able to resist adopting the language or fashions so effectively?

This is becomeing very OT, I'm aware of that... :wink:

There's two theories for that, some apply also to other post-Roman areas outside Britain. But yes, just thinking aloud here:

1) Those in Wales (and at the start, also those in Cumbria and Cornwall of course) had not adapted to all too much Roman culture either, so you could (could) argue that they were less influencable to other influences either.

2) The main differences between English and Wales occurred only later. It is not until the 7th-8th c. that we begin to see a larger gap between 'the English' and 'The Welsh'. The picture is very vague, for sure, maunly due to the lack of written sources before that time, but if it's a correct picture it seems to coincide with the dvelopment of larger kingdoms in England, as well as the development of history as a mean of dynastic confirmation (first in England, shortly followed by Wales).

Maybe that's the time when 'English' and 'Welsh' really became separate languages, with people forced to make a choice between the one or the other. I can imagine that's when Welsh start to move to Welsh-held territories, and identities become polarised. It's the period when Offa's Dyke was built.

It's the Bosnian model. That could also be the time when Welsh word were 'purged' from the Middle English language, like Croats do with Serbian words and Flemish do with French words?

Like I said, just thinking aloud here.