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The disappearance of Pictish need not seem so far-fetched (the notion that Pictish disappeared entirely isn't quite the case either; the further my discussion progresses, the more apparent this will become). Languages disappearing rapidly under pressure from insurgent linguistic groups is relatively common. To give an illustration, Common Brittonic disappeared very quickly from what is now the south-east of England after the Anglo-Saxon occupation and settlement post-400 AD. Anglian settlement was most prevalent in the southern regions, with Brittonic surviving as Cumbric (until no earlier than 1150), Welsh, etc in more northerly and westerly areas. Other exemplars would include various Native American languages. While a number still enjoy usage today, others, such as the Pamunkey, under pressure from English would be extinguished by the mid-19th century. One could also draw parallels with the Yiddish language which, although now a Germanic tongue, originated as a Armaic (or Suraic) one, before the movement of the Ashkenazim into the Holy Roman Empire (c.900 AD) resulted in a vocabulary shift to a language nearer German, resultant of contact and dominion from speakers of that language, with only fragments of the original remaining. It is a very reasonable assumption therefore, that a similar fate could have befallen a P-Celtic Pictish, under growing pressure from the Gaels of Dal Riata.
An "Irish" colonization of the Pictish country was most assuredly undertaken in the centuries following 400 A.D. -- toponyms such as Atholl (Perthshire) derive from Old Irish ath-Fholta, meaning "New Ireland".
Invoking Columba's use of an interpreter in his 565 AD preaching to Bridei I of the Picts isn't especially helpful when addressing the question of Pictish. Irrespective of the language spoken by the Picts, it remains very possible that Columba's preaching was, either wholly or predominantly, in Latin, not Old Irish. On that account, an interpreter would be requisite regardless of the nature of Pictish.
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The Pictish language has long-vanished from Scottish tongues, leaving no direct descendants. As a consequence, our attention must shift to what the Picts left behind -- their inscriptions, toponymy, hydronymy, the names they bore and the traces that remain in-use as loan-words. These linguistic remnants substantiate the existence of a P-Celtic language, either derived from Common Brittonic (and thus consanguineous to Cornish, Breton, Welsh and Cumbric) or of close kin to it.
Of course, it by no means follows that the difference between Pictish and its more southerly sister-languages was minimal. To the contrary, it is possible that Pictish had some of the most divergent features of Britain's P-Celtic languages:
• Phonetically speaking, there is evidence to suggest that Proto-Celtic/Brittonic *w, which by c. 600 A.D. became gu, gw and g, in neo-Brittonic un-mutated form (e.g. PrC *wlatis > W gwlad; in Q-Celtic f > Ir flaith), was retained in Pictish, where it appears as u and uu (c.f. P Uurguist vs. W Gurust).
As already implied, the precise relation to, or position within, Brittonic is a matter which remains open to discussion:
• It may be, firstly, that there were two closely-related P-Celtic languages in pre-Roman Celtic Britain, "Brittonic" in lands south of the Forth and "Prittenic" (what would develop into Pictish) in those to the north -- thus, Prittenic would be to Pictish what Brittonic is to Welsh. "Prittenic" and "Brittonic", under such circumstances, would have diverged after 100 B.C and before 100 A.D.
• Second, the fact may simply be that Pictish was a third "Western" neo-Brittonic language, alongside Welsh and Cumbric (as opposed "Southern" neo-Brittonic: Breton, Cornish). Be this the case, the bifurcation of Pictish and other Brittonic languages can dated to c. 500 A.D.
• Finally, it may be that Cumbric and Pictish were closer aligned to each-other than they were to Welsh; Pictish was patently on a dialectal continuum with at least northernmost Cumbric.
In spite of these divergences and uncertainties, the substance that remains from the language of the Picts, as already stated, stands to testify that it was P-Celtic Brittonic in origin.
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Evidence, from Pictish Ogham inscriptions found in Northern Scotland, has demonstrated clearly the presence of a Brittonic dialect or one closely related to it in formerly Pictish lands. Perhaps the most exemplary is the Burrian stone, originally from Orkney. The inscription, originally in Ogham, has been transliterated as idbmirrhannurractkevvcerroccs. It is thought to reveal a cognate of Old Welsh guract, meaning "he/she made", in the second word urract. The final word cerroccs has been explained as a spirantized word meaning "cross" (a borrowing from Latin crux, as in Welsh croesi/crwys). The idbmirrhann part is thought to be a personal name derived from Old Celtic *(b)ran, meaning "raven". Thus, while the third word kevv remains problematic. idbmirrhannurractkevvcerroccs, may be a Pictish sentence explaining that "Idbmirrhann" carved the cross (presumably the cross-like symbol found on this stone).
At two separate sites in Shetland, two stones may reveal Pictish boundary stone messages:
The Lunnasting stone bears an inscription transliterated as ettecuhetts. In Welsh, the equative-adjective cyhyd means "as long as" (hyt, "length"). Cyhyd and its Breton cognate cihit historically appeared in boundary clauses meaning "limits, extents, what is as far as...". Thus here, we may find the Pictish cognate *cuhett, meaning "as far as..." or alike.
At Cunningsburgh, an ogham inscription has been rendered ehteconmors. Pictish *conmor may be observed here, with a meaning "as great as..." (c.f. Welsh cyn-, "as-" + mawr, "big, great" < Brit *con-mǭr).
On both, ette and ehte are possible variant spellings of a Pictish corespondent of Welsh ydy, "this is-, is-, are-".
The terminal s that both display may be a Pictish form (in these instances, perhaps reduced) of the Breton affixed demonstrative -se.
It is likely that stones with the messages discussed functioned as territorial markers; "as great as..." and "as far as.." would be suitable for such usage.
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Place-names in Pictland are likewise demonstrative that Pictland was a Brittonic-speaking region.
• The copious instances of aber ("estuary, confluence"), at for instance Aberdeen or Abernethy, directly parallel the instances of this element in Wales, at mouths of rivers (Aberystwyth, Abergele, etc).
• Perth is another very transparent Pictish place-name. In Welsh, perth means "hedge" and it is highly probable that the Pictish correlative is present both here, and at Pert in Angus.
• Ogilvie in Angus is thought to be cognate to the Welsh uchelfa meaning "high/lofty place".
• Burnturk (formerly Brenturk) in Fife is likely to be derived from the Pictish equivalents to Welsh bryn ("a hill") and twrch ("a wild hog").
• Place names with Coupar and Cupar etc, are thought to contain a Pictish derivative of Common Brittonic *comber, meaning "a confluence" (Welsh cymer, Cumbric *cumber).
• Pennan in Aberdeenshire may preserve a Pictish cognate of Welsh pen ("summit, head(land), end, top"). Though it should be noted that this element, while common in Wales and Yr Hen Ogledd, is rare in the Pictish lands.
•• While pen- is uncommon, some name-formations with the Gaelic cognate ceann (> Kin-), are opined often to be Gaelic adaptions of Pictish pen- names; especially those with Brittonic specifics -- lands known now as "Kinneil" were affirmed, by Saint Bede in 730 A.D., to be known unto Picts as Peanfahel; avowedly displaying the pen- element. More possibles include Kincardine (x5), Kinghorn, Kinross and Kinrymont (= St Andrews) -- pen > ceann perhaps supervened Cumbric pen- as far south as Yorkshire.
•• Further conservatives of Pictish pen- may include Pinnel (Fife), Pinderachy and Pendewen (both Angus); all hill-names.
• Migvie, Midstrath (formerly Migstrath) and Midmar (formerly Migmarre), all in Aberdeenshire, Meckpehn and Meigle in Perthshire, as well as Miglo in Fife, are all thought to contain a Pictish word related to Welsh mig(n), meaning "a bog".
• Tre(f)-, "town, village, farm, stead, etc", a Brittonic naming-element in abundance from Strathclyde to Brittany, has numerous possible instances in Pictland; Troustrie, Clentry, Clentrie, Montrave and Travelay in Fife, Menstrie in Clackmannanshire, Rattray in Perthshire, Fintry and Trostrie in Angus, Fintry (or Cantress), Rattray, Clyntre, Fortrie, Tremuda, Trefor and Trefynie in Aberdeenshire, Fortrie in Banffshire, Cantray in Inverness-shire and Treb in Orkney.
•• Underlying Cantray and Cantress above is a most ancient Brittonic *cantā-treβ, "bright-stead"; in occurrence at Cantref, Monmouthshire, Wales.
• Morphie, on the Kincardineshire-Angus border, lies close to estuarine plains and, etymologically-speaking, is a likely survival of the Pictish analogue of Welsh morfa meaning “a salt-marsh”. This element pervades in Welsh maritime vicinity.
• Landrick in Perthshire (x2), Lanrick in Perthshire (x1), Lendrick in Angus and Kinross-shire (both x1), are all simplex occurrences of a Pictish form of Welsh llanerch, "clearing, glade, thwaite" (< Brit *landā-arcā). The metathesis of -rk to -r*k is characteristic of Gaelicised forms of llanerch (c.f Lanark > ScG Lannraig). This element is rather plenteous in both the Cumbric lands and Wales.
• Panbride and Panmure, both in Angus, share the generic element pant, in Welsh meaning "depression, dip, hollow". The specific in the former is the saint-name Brigid, while that of the latter is apparently the cognate of Welsh mawr, "big, large, great".
• Trossachs in Stirlingshire may involve the Brittonic *trǭs (> Welsh traws) meaning "across, athwart". Names with *trǭs- are frequently found along historic boundaries, especially (as is the case with Trossachs) the Pictish-Cumbric interface.
• Lomond Hills are a prominent range of hills, largely in Fife. Underlying this name is a Pictish form of Middle Welsh llumon, meaning "beacon". The location complements the derivation well; the most prominent hills of Fife are situated here, towering over the Lowlands, a beacon here would be descried from some distance south of the Forth -- and the element underpins the names of other hills, including in the Cumbric lands at Ben Lomond, Dumbartonshire (G beinn is a later addition), and Wales at Pumlumon, Cardiganshire.
• Deer in Aberdeenshire and Dairsie (formerly Deruesin) in Fife both involve a Brittonic *derw, meaning "oak" (Welsh derw).
Other extant or recently-extant toponyms of Pictland where a Brittonic formation is plausible include: Altyre (x2), Arran, Biffie, Birse, Blain, Blebo, Brechin, Cambo, Daviot (x2), Duniface, Erchite, Esslemont, Glasslie, Glasgo (c.f Glasgow), Keith, Kelly, Kelty, Kettle, Lindifferon, Lindores, Lundie, Mandrethin, Methven, Orkney, Pairney, Peebles, Pluscarden, Primrose, Rosemarkie, Scone, Scoonie (x2), Tarvit and Urquhart (x5).
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Toponyms and ethonyms, recorded by Roman-era historians and geographers such as Marcellinus or Ptolemy, in lands that were or would become "Pictish" show a strong correlation between the language of the southern regions.
• The inhabitants of a Pictish kingdom usually referred to as Fortriu/Wearteras, are recorded in the 4th-century as the Verturiones. Vertur- has been connected etymologically to the Middle Welsh gwerthyr, meaning "fortress" (< Br werterā ; c.f. Verterae, Westmorland).
• Epidii are an ancient people of Argyll. Distinctively P-Celtic in its countenance, the name involves the root *ep- meaning "a horse" (> W ebol , "a foal").
• A tribe native to present-day Fife, known as Venicones by Ptolemy and (Maen) Gwyngwn in the Gododdin, may contain the element cuno- (>cŵn) meaning in Welsh "hounds".
• Cornovii were recorded in the 2nd-century by Ptolemy as the inhabitants of Caithness. Derived from Brittonic *corn, "horn" and referring either to a geographical feature or a horned-deity, two identically-named tribes were found in England; in Staffordshire/Cheshire/Shropshire, and more tentatively in the extreme south-west (> Cornwall).
• Bannatia, as recorded by Ptolemy, was a city of the Vagomagi (a people indigenous to the Spey basin). The Brittonic element bann (> W ban) is current here, meaning archaically "a promontory, a hill-spur" and in Welsh "a summit".
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In an akin vein to place-names, hydronyms (the names of rivers, lakes and other bodies of water) often survive changing languages in the lands around them; just as, to give an instance, many French river-names survive from Gaulish times, the names of rivers in Britain, including those in former Pictavia, often show signs of Brittonic roots. In fact, multiple hydronyms in lands once Pictish are well-paralleled by those in more southerly regions.
• The hydronyms Calder in Caithness (x1) and Inverness-shire (x3), Callater in Aberdeenshire and Angus (both x1) and Cawdor (formerly Caladar) in Nairnshire represent a survival of the Brittonic formation *caleto-dubro, meaning "hard-water" (Welsh caled-dŵr). Names of this origin are widespread in southern Scotland and northern England, with Calders in the Lothians, Ayrshire, Lanarkshire, Wigtownshire, Cumberland, Northumberland, Yorkshire and Lancashire. Other forms, such as Kielder, Northumberland, are likely to come from the same root, as do Calettwr and Clettwr in Wales. The formation is rare if not absent in southern England.
• The River Braan in Perthshire is likely to conceal the Brittonic root *breμ- meaning "roar" (Welsh brefu). Of an identical or similar origin are the Breamish in northern England, and the Brefi in Wales.
• River Spey, in Inverness-shire/Moray, originates as a genitive of a nominal form Spiath, which may have conserved a Brittonic form originating with spïδad, "thorn-bushes" (> Welsh yspyddad, Breton speazh).
• Lour Burn in Moray, a minor tributary of the Spey, once had the form Labhar, from Brittonic laβar ("talkative, loud"); identical in derivation to Afon Llafar, two minor rivers in northern Wales, and the Lavar in northern England.
• The River Peffery (or Peffer) flows into the Cromarty Firth in Ross-shire. This hydronym is a survival of Brittonic peβïr meaning "bright, radiant" (> Welsh pefr), occurring further south as Peffer Burn in the Lothians (x2 or more; a lost third example is likely to have existed), and as Cheshire's Peover (a river-name now given to a general area).
• Bervie Water enters the North Sea in Kincardineshire. This name involves the Brittonic *ber-wo (> Welsh berw, Breton berv), meaning "boiling, seething". A Nant Berw in Glamorgan, Wales has the same root.
• River Dee is one of two rivers to enter the North Sea at Aberdeen. British dẹ:w (> W duw, "God") had the feminine form *dẹ:wā-, "a goddess", which underlies this ancient hydronym (to Ptolemy, Deva) and other rivers so-named in southerly regions -- in Kirkcudbrightshire and northern Wales.
• River Don, likewise, enters the North Sea at Aberdeen. Involving once more dẹ:w, the form *dẹ:w-onā- forms the etymological basis for the name Don, a derivation shared by the Doon in Ayrshire.
• River Almond is a prominent river of Perthshire. The name derives from the common British hydronymic formation *amb-onā-, from the P-Celtic root *amb-, meaning "moisture". Identical formations survive in Cumbric lands, as the "Almonds" of Midlothian and Stirlingshire, and in Wales as the two rivers named Afon Aman, Glamorgan.
• Glow, now Loch Glow (reservoir), is a lake-name of Kinross-shire. Etymologically speaking, Glow preserves the British root glę:ju, "shining, clear" (> Welsh gloyw); as seen at, for instance, Llyn Gloyw, a lake in western Denbighshire, Wales, as well as Gloucester, England.
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The personal-names borne by the Picts, as attained from sources such as king-lists and inscriptions, are paralleled in Welsh and other P-Celtic languages. These include:
Resad - cognate with Welsh Rhys
Uoret - cognate with Old Welsh Guoret
Taran - cognate with the Welsh word taran ("thunder"), also the Gaulish deity name Taranis
Unust (> Onuist, Angus) - cognate with Old Welsh Unwst
Uurgust - cognate with Old Welsh Gurust (> Grwst, also English Fergus, from Gaelic)
Elpin - cognate with Welsh Elffin
Drostan - cognate with Old Welsh Drystan (> Tristan)
Mailcon - cognate with Welsh Maelcwn
While not "true" cognates, there are personal-names in Pictish that appear to contain cognate elements to those found in Welsh. For example, Talorc appears in various spellings as the names of "Kings of the Picts", and this may contain tal-, an element traditionally meaning "brow" found in Welsh names such as Tallwch, Talhaearn and Taliesin.
Of further relevance is [Tolarggan] Maphan, the name of a Pict documented in the Annals of Ulster to have died in 726. Maphan is generally adjudged to be a Pictish patronymic formation *map-Han, employing the Pictish form of Welsh map, "a son, (in names) son of-".
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The presence of P-Celtic loanwords in Gaelic (including in Gaelic place-names) and even Scots/English further evidences the presence of Brittonic in the formerly Pictish lands:
• The Gaelic monadh, meaning variably "a moor/heath" or "hill/mountain", is believed to have originated with Brittonic mönɨð (> Welsh mynydd, "a mountain").
• The word preas, typically meaning "a bush", is thought to represent the borrowing into Gaelic of a Pictish analogue of Welsh prys, of a similar meaning.
• Most Pit- place-names in Scotland are suffixed by Gaelic elements and personal-names, and thus were probably coined in that language (in fact, there are no assured authentically Pictish examples). Middle Gaelic piet meaning "a portion or share of land" is likely to have originated from a Pictish cognate of Welsh peth ("a thing, a piece, a share"). Lewis Gaelic retained the word, at least until recent times, the sense developing to "a small area of ground".
•• It is thought that the same Pictish word entered the English language (by way of British Vulgar Latin) as the word peat, the name of a soil-like mineral mined by cutting into smaller pieces.
• Pailt, meaning "plentiful, numerous", is in origin Pictish and analogous to Cornish pals, Middle Welsh pallt, "plenteous, abounding" (< Brittonic *palt).
• Keir is an Old Scots noun, meaning "(ancient) ramparts", and may originate with a Pictish cognate of Welsh caer, "fort". Scots keir, as a toponymic element, is bestowed most often upon Roman fortifications, akin to both the Welsh caer and Old English ceaster (> chester).
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It is also believed that Pictish cognates of Gaelic words may have influenced the usage, in particular the toponymic usage, of said words; in this regard accounting for a number of the divergences betwixt the Q-Celtic of Ireland and Scotland:
• Place names containing Fetter- (Fetterangus, Fettercairn, Fetteresso, etc) are derived from Gaelic foithir, a cognate of Middle Welsh godir , a type of administrative division (< proto-Celtic uɸo-, "under-" + tīros, "land"), may have been influenced by Pictish administrative usage of the equivalent word *uotir; the Gaelic word has a principal sense of "terrace", but names with the element occur both as formerly high-status names, and in locations where this would be inappropriate, and Fetter- place-names are rare outside Pictland and non-existent in Galloway, Ireland or Mann.
• Dobhar, traditionally meaning "water", is common in Scottish river-names, as are its Brittonic cognates (duβr > W dŵr, Corn/Bret dour) throughout Britannia -- but in Ireland and Mann, instances are few-and-far-between. Use of the Brittonic form by Pictish-speakers may, therefore, have reinforced usage of the Gaelic form.
• Lann- is a Gaelic noun that is well-established in Scots place-names. The Old Irish sense is chiefly "a plot of land", whereas in Middle Gaelic, lann is recorded with the auxiliary connotation of "a church" and occurs, in place-names, rather copiously with names of saints -- Lumphinnans and Lumphannan (both Saint Fhìonain), Lhanbryde (Saint Brigid), Longmorn (Lann M'Eàrnain: Saint Earnain) -- reminiscent of the sense of the Welsh cognate llan- ("a church or parish"), normally found in-prefix to saint's names (Llanrwst is "parish of Saint Grwst", for instance); similar senses are found in both Cornish and Breton (the Cumbric sense is unclear). In view of the Gaelic lann having connotations closer to its more distant Welsh cognate than its Old Irish predecessor, a reasonable presumption is that the Gaelic sense in-question represents an adoption of the Brittonic sense, as used by Pictish-speakers of the equivalent word. The lion's share of Lann- names lie within former Pictavia, of which a number might have been Pictish coinages originally. In Irish toponymy, the word is absent.
• Strath- is a common place-name element in Scotland (Strathspey, Strathearn, Strathmore, etc), an anglicization of Gaelic srath. In Old Irish, this word typically meant "a grassland". However, the Scottish Gaelic toponymic sense is "a broad valley" which resembles far greater the meaning of its Welsh cognate ystrad ("a vale"). It is thus probable that the Pictish cognate of ystrad influenced the toponymic usage of its more distant Gaelic cognate.
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In summary, while the Pictish language may have vanished in ancient times and thus will always invoke an aura of mystery, its remnants allow us to draw inference as to its origin. Pictish inscriptions and names both geographical and personal, as well as its influence on languages around it, demonstrate that it was P-Celtic in nature and aligned to the Brittonic languages.
Last edited by SlashNBurn on Thu Apr 23, 2020 12:56 am, edited 6 times in total.
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