I love comparing languages with each other and finding correlations between them.

Wordcrafter started me off with his post on Newfoundland words, which included the word "dwy". This looked Welsh (although, in that context, it isn't), so I looked it up and found all sorts of definitions for it in dictionaries of abbreviations and similar. I found something which most of you probably know, but I thought I'd post it anyway.

This is an interesting site on the meaning of Welsh place-names in both Welsh and English and I was struck by one word in particular - Saesneg, meaning Saxon, which suddenly "clicked" as being the Scottish Sassenach which is the name they give to those of us from south of the border.

"Saxon" and "Sassenach" do seem to be related words
http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=Sassenach

"Saxon" is related to many other words, including "science" and "skin".

http://www.bartleby.com/61/roots/IE464.html
http://www.bartleby.com/61/roots/IE446.html

As far as I know, both Welsh Saesneg and Scottish Gaelic Sassenach are related to Germanic Saxon because they are loanwords from Latin into Celtic. One of the roots entries at AH linked to has this to say: "Saxon, from Late Latin Saxō (plural Saxonēs), a Saxon, from West Germanic tribal name *Saxon-, Saxon, traditionally (but doubtfully) regarded as from Germanic *sahsam (as if “warrior with knives”)."

Oh, so it's a borrowing instead of a genetic relationship. Ah well.