Being In Vogue

       Since the earliest days, the human voice has become the vehicle for human thought. Multiple thoughts lead to sounds which are transmitted to the human tympanic membrane and, if understood appropriately, a response is generated back to the sender. If enough folks agree to the sounds being transmitted among themselves, a group think is generated which brings these people together. After time, a language is born producing a recognizable marker to all around. Being part of the cultural glue that clusters folks together, it signals their presence and identity.

      My Celtic ancestors brought their sounds to the Island and, over time the Brythonic branch of the Celtic tongue started bouncing off those ear drums. When the Romans arrived, they brought Latin. Understanding these different sounds were necessary in order to survive their occupation. However, Greek was the language of the Roman elite, including the fellow who built that huge stone wall. It was during this Roman occupation that the monasteries formed at various places around the Island. They recognized that maybe writing things down would be good including Latin [for communication], Kione Greek [for spiritual things] and the vernacular language [for other thoughts]. 

      When Roman society left the Island, the clergy kept education alive and, gave a sense of community. This monasterial stability provided structure to the many remaining kindred groups that clustered around the same sound waves. The languages of the day became distinctive markers for many geographic areas. The following diagram shows the names given to the cluster groups.

      Now, you can certainly imagine the confusion and conflicts that my Celtic ancestors encountered when you add the Irish, Scots, Picts [all that Q-Celtic], all those Mercians with Offa and his Dyke [rex Anglorum ], and all those Danes and the Swedes [y Kenedloed Duon , i.e. Black Gentiles]. Polyglot Island at this time should have been the name. 

       The naming of a son often carried the impact that one of these visitors had on the name.  An example such as my ancestor Rhys Sais (JG-4) who was identified as knowing well the Saxons [soon to be called the English]. My Jones family townlands were on both sides of the Dee right between Welsh Maelor and the English Maelor. Old Rhys Sais (JG-4) must have spent a lot of time on both sides of this fence. [ Please see the recent posts of June 22 and June 28 for a view of this relationship].

 

     Finally, all the above discussion is posted to mark the significant naming of my 8th generation grandfather down from the top.  Jeuaf (JH-1) was his name. The Normans have arrived bringing a new language called French. Anyone wishing to survive this sound wave, had to join the new social elite who started building all those castles.  They certainly were not going anywhere else anytime soon. 

Now, Jeuaf (JH-1) caught my attention because the Welsh language did not use the letter "J". The new French language used this letter often. Therefore, this new and different sound wave must of had some influence at this time in the Welsh naming process. I guess the family decided to join this new social wave, and French was the language of the day. Thank you Ninnian (JG-1) and Jeuaf (JH-1) for being in the vogue. 

P.S. The spelling also was written Ievan (Ieva), so it must have depended on who was doing the writing. It is my guess that to the future English eardrum, the spelling Evan was born.