Note: This site is completely a work of fiction, a background for my fictional language Wessisc. For real information on tourism on the Isle of Wight, a site we may suggest is http://www.iwight.com/.
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The history of Wight is tied closely with that of its language, Wessisc.
Wight was inhabited by Celtic peoples until the Roman invasion in the first century C.E. Although the Romans had very little impact on the population of the Island, they were influenced culturally. Due to its remote location, the indigenous Celtic language was little affected by the coming of the Romans, unlike the languages of the Mainland. The coming of the Jutes and Angles and Saxons to England in the Middle Ages began to influence heavily the culture and language of the people of Wight, as well as the Mainland. Hampshire, which was inhabited by the West Saxons, and Wight, which was inhabited by the Jutes, soon developed its own unique cultural identity and language.
It has been said that the people of Wight, or the Wessisc people as they prefer to be known, are a very proud people, and enjoy their unique position in England, being the only indigenous group in England this side of the Hedge to have its own linguistic identity. Remote and hardy Wight, which gradually succumbed to English influence during the centuries, are a fiercly independent people. They last rose up in 1497, led by Myghæl Iosef Smaþwyr, as the Wessisc army to march unsuccessfully to London to call for independence, and was the last invasion of London by a foreign power.
The Romano-Celts went on to found the country of Cambria in the British Isles, the Anglo-Saxons founded England. The Isle of Wight, the last stronghold of Wessisc, is in England, near the border with Cambria.
History on Wight following the uprising has been relatively uneventful, except that Wight was the capital of smuggling into England during the past few centuries. Before that, it must be ironically stated that two Lords or Barons from Wight, both native Wessish speakers, fought in the English parliament for the use of the English language in the law courts and in the Royal Court. Their case was won, but at the neglect of the Wessish language.
The Wessisc language, which is a blend of Anglo-Saxon and P-Celtic, was spoken in Wessex and Wight shortly after the Angles and Saxons invaded the Eastern part of the British Isles, and were stopped by the Romano-Celts. Where the remainder of the Celtic speakers remained (before their language was ultimately replaced by Brithenig or English, depending on which side of the border they found themselves), the Celtic peoples merged their tongue with that of the invading Anglo-Saxons in the Wessex region to form the Wessisc language. Wessisc eventually died out in the late 16th century or early 17th century in the last stronghold of the language, the Isle of Wight.
The Revival Movement has been active for at least a hundred years, but in the past 20 years has split into several movements of which the only major difference is their orthographies, the two leading factions being United Wessisc (which was begun by Mortyn and Nans about 100 years ago) and Common Wessisc (an orthography which was created by Cynedd Geory). In the past few years, a newer form of Wessisc has been created called United Wessisc Revived (UWR) by an Irishman, Nigol J.A. Mellyans, but UWR is generally ignored by serious students of Wessisc, because it is seen as a poorly informed attempt to rebuild Wessisc.
All the others base their reconstruction of Wessisc on texts which date from a good long time before the language died out, but there is another faction, called Modern or Late Wessisc, or just simply Wessasch, which bases the reconstruction of the language on later texts which were recorded in the dying stages of the language. The main proponent of this is Hrothgar Grendel.
The native word for the island is "se Wight" ('the Wight', fem noun), and the name of the language in the language is "Wessisc" ('Wessish', from contraction of 'West Saxon'+ '-isc', adj ending).
There are several great tracts of prose in Wessish.
One must undoubtedly be the aborted translation of the Bible, begun by a monk named Geowan Smaþwyr (John Smith). Geowan is the patron Saint of the Wessish people. A confused man, he became a parish vicar hoping to find answers from God for his troubled mind. He began translating it in 1607, and aborted it after 10 and a half chapters of Genesis, finding confusion when he found the contradiction of Genesis chapter 11 verses 1-9 (the Babel story) did not match up with Genesis chapter 10, verse 5. As he was a linguist, this greatly troubled him. To try and resolve this, he became a very pious man and retreated into prayer and fasted for three whole years, before 'understanding'.
The events of his death are not certain, but one day whilst out walking, Geowan got into an argument on a cliff top over why he had not finished translating the Good Book for the few speakers of Wessish left, and details are scant, but some say he jumped due to his disquietened mind, others say he was pushed. However, his body was found washed up on a beach quite dry, including his perfectly intact clothes, and looking as though he were only sleeping. For various legal reasons, his body was not buried immediately, partially due to the fact that it had been reported by some as a suicide, but the body did not deteriorate. Eventually he was buried in the cathedral at Newhythe.
Shortly after, some miracles occurred when people visited his Church and touched the copy of the Wessish Bible, such as blind being able to see, lame walking, dinosaurs coming back to life, etc. Later he was canonised. The Bible today is in the care of Newhythe University, as it seems to have lost its miracular powers.
Another text which must undoubtedly be considered is the ribald poem that was discovered in the Vatican libraries in 1956, dating from 1070. Not a very long piece, but wonderful in the extent that it proves that Wessish had light-hearted texts as well.
(C) 2001 Damon M. Lord
