twitch of twitch.cymru

I think my first webring is ready to launch!! This post is pretty much a copy-and-paste of the webring page on my site.

The Modern Celtic Languages Webring aims to:

• Promote the active use of Celtic languages online.
• Connect Celtic language speakers across the web.
• Resist the globalisation of English/Anglo-American culture and English-language hegemony, which replace and erase our own cultures and languages.
• Assert our existence as minoritised peoples, whose cultures and languages are still here and alive.
• Show the world that an "inclusive society" doesn't mean we should all be made to speak English in order to make the English monolinguals feel included - we should instead be proud of our cultures, and show the world that differences are good and should be celebrated across the world and online. Differences do not divide us. The world and the internet should not be a homogenised, English-speaking culture.

Requirements to join:

• Websites only. There isn't a way to embed the webring widget on social media like Twitter, Facebook, etc.
• You must use at least one of the six modern Celtic languages somewhere on your site, i.e. Cymraeg, Gaeilge, Gàidhlig, Brezhoneg, Gaelg, and/or Kernewek (note that any orthography for Kernewek is fine). You do not have to be a fluent speaker, just someone who is willing to use the Celtic languages on the web. Your entire site does not need to be in a Celtic language, but ideally your Celtic language content should be obvious and easy to access from your homepage.
• Your site does not have to be focused on just Celtic-related things. The content of your site can be pretty much anything: from Celtic language resources, to personal blogging, film reviews, and whatever else it is that you do. 18+ websites are allowed, as long as your homepage has a clear warning that you have adult content on your site. Sites containing hatespeech and bigotry will not be allowed.

How to join:

1. Embed the following code into your homepage, or somewhere else easily accessible on your website like a links page. The webring won't work if the widget is hard to find.

2. Fill in the form below and reply to this post with it! (Or e-mail it to me at twitchcoded@gmail.com)

• Your name/nickname:
• Site name:
• Site address:
• Site description:
• Link to site button:
• Celtic language(s) your site is written in:

i like that the word for the cornish language in breton is essentially "big cornish"¹ because "cornish"² on its own would mean the dialect of breton.

1. kerneveureg. kernev is cognate with the welsh "cernyw" and english "cornwall", but refers to a region in brittany. and kernev-veur is used to mean cornwall, and means "big cornwall" essentially.

2. kerneveg is a dialect of breton, and the word cognate with the welsh "cernyweg" and english "cornish".

interesting also how wales in irish is "an bhreatain bheag", i.e. "the small britain". which is also essentially what the word brittany means in english. brittany is also called "small britain" in scottish gaelic - "a' bhreatann bheag".

and the irish "an bhreatain mhór" is "the big britain", which is again what it's basically called in english too - great britain.

i feel like it would be so much easier to talk about celtic nations online if the general online population understood that england ≠ britain ≠ the uk ≠ the british isles

i remember someone i followed on tumblr received an ask where the asker was going "i thought welsh people were english bc i thought england was the island and britain was the country with london etc".

i also feel like since there's been welsh, scottish, and cornish people online recently saying "don't say britain when you mean england", some people have taken that to mean "never say britain and only say england", when we just mean "stop talking about britain like it's one homogenised culture where everywhere is england".

i'm not really interested in engaging with anything where "british" is:

a) treated like one homogenised culture (that homigenised culture ALWAYS being english and ignoring the minority languages/cultures/nations here)

and b) it's completely ignored that the modern useage of "british" is very much a political term that begun existence with the acts of union. i.e. not the useage that just implies britain as an island, or the "british isles" (although i think we should retire those geographical uses since it's just such a political term that at worst has connotations of cultural genocide of the non-english nations of these isles at the hands of the english). or british being used to mean common-brythonic-speaking peoples and their language. something something, that quote "britishness is a political synonym for englishness which extends english culture over the scots, the welsh, and the irish". and i would add that cornish could very well do with being added to that quote.