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From: "David C. Jack" <>
Subject: Re: Goldsmiths, Godiva ...
Date: Sun, 04 Oct 1998 16:19:34 -0700


Mike Dana wrote:
>
> David C. Jack wrote:
> >
> > Paul Thomas Blay wrote:
> > >
> > > Snips
> > >
> > > Godiva is said to be descended from Duke Oslac. Oslac is a Jute name. It
> > > is possible that Godiva held land in the "goldsmith network" but as they are
> > > places such as "Farnborough" where there is more than one place of the same
> > > name I cannot confirm this without closer study.
> > >
> > > snips
> >
> > It's nit-picking, but I doubt that there were any pre-norman dukes
> > in England. The title comes from Latin dux (chief) through French duc.
> > The Norsemen only seem to have picked up French titles after they took
> > Normandy.
>
> Further nit-picking/speculation: it is entirely possible that the
> pre-norman English picked the title up from the Britons. Forget "the
> French duc"; when the English (Angles, Saxons, etc.) first began their
> "invasion" of Britain, a large proportion of the people who lived there
> were bilingual (at least), speaking both Brythonic ("Old Welsh") and
> Latin, and the political organisation was still pretty much Roman.
>
> --
> Mike Dana Everett, Washington, U.S.A.
> "I was going to procrastinate today,
> but hey; I can do that any time!"
> --Mike Dana, 16 April, 1998

OK, but was there any real cultural continuity - there are very
very few celtic words (Brythonic or otherwise) in English? Also, why
would they adopt a French pronunciation of "dux"?

Dave

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