Why Mouth Talk?

It occurred to me today that, while I have explained the logic (in my head) behind the name Mouth Talk to some people in person, I haven't said anything on here.  So, without further hesitation, this is why I wanted to call it mouth talk.

At my first Irish Immersion day with the DFW Gaelic League, I learned a goofy tidbit that latched onto me immediately and has yet to relinquish its hold.  We were discussing (and by we, I mean the instructor was discussing and the rest of us were trying to look wise and understanding) the evolution of certain words in the Irish language.  Particularly, we got to talking about the world for English, Bearla, and where it comes from. He was telling us that it was a bastardization of the words béal, for mouth, and ra (in older forms of Irish; this is not the word now), for talk (or something related).  It was called this because the Irish didn't consider English to be a proper language; it was a pidgin language made up of bits from many languages, evolving as the British Isles were invaded repeatedly.  There are bits of language from the Celtic peoples that populate parts of the Isles, as well as language from the Romans, Saxons, Angles, Jutes, Normans, and everyone that traded with the people living here.

Additionally, if you'd like to learn more about this language evolution in a concise, 10 minute Youtube video, watch this.  Funny and informative!  Huzzah!

Anyways, the point of this was that the Irish did not consider English a "real" language, it was just a bunch of mouth talk.  Eventually, this evolved into Béarla being the Irish word for English.  I got a kick out of this, so much so that I decided as soon as I'd heard that that I would someday start a blog entitled Mouth Talk, which would detail my adventures (and misadventures, as are sure to happen) in Celtic Studies, particularly Irish.

So there you have it; my twisted logic for the title of the blog.  Oh, and why Ishbel's Adventures?  She's adorable, that's why.

Next good weather day when I have time, I will go up that hill for pictures.