Thread: Welsh?

I know this one's a little out there, but someone to told me the ancient israelites used the Welsh language, can there really be any truth to this?

No. Ancient Hebrews used ancient Hebrew, which survived in Jewish biblical texts. The state of Israel adapted ancient Hebrew and modernized it to be the language of the country.

During the twentieth century the Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered - written in ancient Hebrew.

There seems to be quite a bit on the net about a welsh connection to the ancient israelites, but most of the sources seem dodgy at best, certainly nothing I could find which I would say is really reliable, however maybe these sites provide at least some clues to the truth.

IsraelFound.com

The Twelve Tribes of Israel Today

Since there isn't a pseudo-history forum, this one will go to pseudo-science.

Originally Posted by Chrisgorlitz

I know this one's a little out there, but someone to told me the ancient israelites used the Welsh language, can there really be any truth to this?

as far as i'm aware all languages spoken in that part of the middle east are hamito-semitic, which is even a different language family from indo-european to which welsh belongs

true that celtic people and languages were more widespread in the past (the name Galatia in what is now Turkey springs to mind) but did not extend to the middle east to my knowledge

Originally Posted by marnixR

Originally Posted by Chrisgorlitz

I know this one's a little out there, but someone to told me the ancient israelites used the Welsh language, can there really be any truth to this?

as far as i'm aware all languages spoken in that part of the middle east are hamito-semitic, which is even a different language family from indo-european to which welsh belongs

true that celtic people and languages were more widespread in the past (the name Galatia in what is now Turkey springs to mind) but did not extend to the middle east to my knowledge

It's a little fustrating trying to get to origins of a source, I've come accross umpteen iffy looking websites suggesting that an ancient israelite tribe made to it the sures of Wales and settled there and that their are many similar words in use, but I want to find something actually based on some real historical record.

you know this sort of assertions reminds me about the book of mormon, where some israelite tribes somehow are claimed to have made it to North America - genetics has found such assertions wanting : Genetics and the Book of Mormon

The Book of Mormon, one of the four books of scripture of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (see Standard Works), is an account of three groups of people. Two of these groups supposedly originated from Israel. There is generally no support amongst mainstream historians and archaeologists for the historicity of the Book of Mormon.

when it comes to similarities in language i'd rather have the opinion of a knowledgeable linguist rather than the linguistic equivalent of numerology
+ a genetic comparison wouldn't go amiss either

Thanks thats useful information. Welsh history seems quite well recorded so I'll see if I can marry some up.

You will find it easier proving the Welsh are related to sheep.

That made me laugh.