COT (completely off-topic):-- Beowulf on Steorarume [Beowulf in Cyberspace]

Of course, the French are/were a combination of Romanised Germans (Franks, Frankish) and Romanised Celts (Gauls)...
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Granted, 1066 was quite a long time ago, but there are other cultures that seem to be able to trace their ancestry back a lot further without a giant dislocation. Nothing against the French, but how come they seem to have acquired such a reputation and propensity for being snooty and clinging to tradition while seemingly (to me at least) continuous cultures 1,000+ years older aren't so thought of. (No, I'm not British:) ) Are inhabitants of Normandy thought to be less "French"?

People get d*mned strange when they make countries and draw borders.

Second Beo on the Skye whisky. Used to buy a great cheapie called MacLeod from there which was a great value. haven't seen it for a long time. I suspected that it was younger Talisker blended with a bit of grain alcohol. When I was an undergrad a neighbor to the house we rented introduced us to Laphroaig (Islay). It was cheaper than J. Walker at about $10 a bottle. How things change.
 
Originally posted by firkin

Granted, 1066 was quite a long time ago, but there are other cultures that seem to be able to trace their ancestry back a lot further without a giant dislocation.
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1066 is a bump in a sense - true the language ends up with a lot of French influence on it (though, it's rather strange the way things turned out - there were, unsurprisingly, lots of English dialects which didn't have any Norman French influence on them [Norman only made up 1% of the populatino at the peak], but the French-influence managed to end up pervading all dialects eventually), but the Norman kings quickly lose their continental holdings and after not too many generations everyone is speaking English and thinking of themselves as English.

Originally posted by firkin
Nothing against the French, but how come they seem to have acquired such a reputation and propensity for being snooty and clinging to tradition while seemingly (to me at least) continuous cultures 1,000+ years older aren't so thought of.
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NOt quite sure what you mean - the romanisation of the Franks dates back quite a ways (300 AD?? early - not my area, dunno). I think the current French reputation is primarily a 20th century phenomenon, a sort of cultural reaction to the 2 world wars, that is, a fear of losing their culture. Just a guess.

Originally posted by firkin
Are inhabitants of Normandy thought to be less "French"?
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I don't think so - there are all sorts of regional affinities in France of course, just like anywhere else, but I think they're all seen as being 'French'. Excepting of course the Bretons (in Brittany) who are clinging to Breton (a Celtic language) and aren't particularly pleased about 'inforced Francifisation', and the Basque separatists in the south (Basque - now there's an interesting language, in a sense the ONLY European language left - it's not Indo-European, it's not related to any other living language - it's a living linguistic remnant of the language of the people of Europe before the rather warlike Indo-Europeans swept down upon them).

--Ben
 
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