Research
I approached the Welsh language department at Bangor University about my research project and made inquiries about supporting the work. I was fortunate to make an appointment with Professor Jerry Hunter, whose novel ‘Ebargofiant’ inspired the beginnings of my research.
During my appointment with Professor Hunter. He suggested I contact one of his PhD Students, Llŷr Titus, about assisting me. I wanted to employ the support of an academic interested in Celtic languages.
Durning an extensive period of research, Llŷrand I, were able to meet on several occasions to share ideas and working methodologies towards creating a fictional future language.
We soon realised the depth and richness of the Welsh language, and found it difficult to invent new words as there were so many potentially from obsolete and archaic words that are no longer used in contemporary vocabulary.
Some key source material links
The Library at Bangor University
https://www.bangor.ac.uk/library/
National Library of Wales online archive.
https://www.library.wales/collections/learn-more/archives/
Welsh Celtic studies Aberystwyth published papers on reconstructed Proto Celtic
https://www.wales.ac.uk/en/CentreforAdvancedWelshCelticStudies/ResearchProjects/CompletedProjects/TheCelticLanguagesandCulturalIdentity/CelticLexicon.aspx
GPC
http://welsh-dictionary.ac.uk/gpc/gpc.html
I was drawn to exploring minority British languages as a way of searching for alternative viewpoint and different modes of storytelling. Especially when trying to deal with contemporary issues around identity and culture. How words and sentences don’t always easily translate.
Llŷr and I had the opportunity to meet with the Linguistic, Professor David Crystal. During our meeting, Professor Crystal talked about Beowulf and kennings, a method of description in Anglo Saxon e.g. Whale Path = sea. This gave us an alternative approach to building word structure.
