Yesterday I wrote about the three Welsh missionaries, David Jones, Thomas Bevan, and David Griffiths, and how Jones and Griffiths had developed the Malagasies' written language. All three of them had one thing in common, as did many other Welsh missionaries: they were students of Thomas Phillips.
Phillips, a Congregational minister, founded Neuadd-lwyd Academy in 1810, and you can read more about him here.
In an earlier post from Wales, I described the people in my class at the University of Lampeter's Summer Welsh Course (Cwrs Cymraeg Haf yn Llanbedr), and that one of my classmates was a "direct descendant of one of the Welsh missionaries to Madagascar who gave the Malagasy language its written form." Well, I hadn't gotten that right. Since then I have been corrected: Bryan Jones is a direct descendant of Thomas Phillips!
And here's his picture:
What are the odds that during my Sabbatical time in Wales I would meet in my very class at a summer Cwrs Cymraeg a descendant of the man most responsible for the Welsh missionary presence in Madagascar, whose students gave the Malagasies their written language based in large part on Welsh orthography, so that almost 200 years later my interest in Wales and Welsh and in Madagascar would coincide?
I had one more surprise in store, which I will relate next time; in the meantime, here's another rendition of Gwahoddiad (Arglwydd, Dyma Fi/Eny, Tompo ô!)
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