Pictish language

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Pictish is an extinct Brittonic Celtic language spoken by the Picts, the people of eastern and northern Scotland from late antiquity to the Early Middle Ages. Virtually no direct attestations of Pictish remain, short of a limited number of geographical and personal names found on monuments and early medieval records in the area controlled by the kingdoms of the Picts. Such evidence, however, shows the language to be an Insular Celtic language – probably a variant of the Brittonic language once spoken in most of Great Britain.<ref name="cpns">Template:Cite book</ref>

The prevailing view in the second half of the 20th century was that Pictish was a non-Indo-European language isolate, or that a non-Indo-European Pictish and Brittonic Pictish language coexisted.

Pictish was replaced by – or subsumed into – Gaelic in the latter centuries of the Pictish period. During the reign of Donald II of Scotland (889–900), outsiders began to refer to the region as the kingdom of Alba rather than the kingdom of the Picts. However, the Pictish language did not disappear suddenly. A process of Gaelicisation (which may have begun generations earlier) was clearly under way during the reigns of Donald II and his successors. By a certain point, probably during the 11th century, all the inhabitants of Alba had become fully Gaelicised Scots, and the Pictish identity was forgotten.<ref>Template:Harvnb; Template:Harvnb; Template:Harvnb; Template:Harvnb; cf. Template:Harvnb, {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}, representing the "traditional" view.</ref>

Language classificationEdit

File:Columba at Bridei's fort.jpg

Picture by Joseph Ratcliffe Skelton (1865–1927) depicting Columba preaching to Bridei, king of Fortriu in 565

The existence of a distinct Pictish language during the Early Middle Ages is attested clearly in Bede's early eighth-century Ecclesiastical History of the English People, which names Pictish as a language distinct from those spoken by the Britons, the Irish, and the English.<ref name="Bede">Template:Harvnb; references to Pictish also at several other points in that text.</ref> Bede states that Columba, a Gael, used an interpreter during his mission to the Picts. A number of competing theories have been advanced regarding the nature of the Pictish language:

Pictish was an insular Celtic language allied to the P-Celtic language Brittonic (descendants Welsh, Cornish, Cumbric, and Breton).
Pictish was an insular Celtic language allied to the Q-Celtic (Goidelic) languages (Irish, Scottish Gaelic, and Manx).
Pictish was one of the Pre-Indo-European languages, a relic of the Bronze Age.

Most modern scholars agree that the ancestor of the Pictish language, spoken at the time of the Roman conquest, was a branch of the Brittonic language, while a few scholars accept that it was merely "related" to the Brittonic language.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn Template:Sfn Thomas Charles-Edwards argues that there was a common language in north Briton in the early Roman period, and that the Pictish language developed as a consequence of the emergence of the Pictish confederation in the late third century.Template:Sfn Pictish came under increasing influence from the Goidelic language spoken in Dál Riata from the eighth century until its eventual replacement.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn Template:Sfn Template:Sfn

Pictish is thought to have influenced the development of modern Scottish Gaelic. This is perhaps most obvious in the contribution of loan words, but, more importantly, Pictish is thought to have influenced the syntax of Scottish Gaelic, which is more similar to Brittonic languages than to Irish.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn<ref>Template:Harvnb; Template:Harvnb.</ref>

Some commentators have noted that, in light of the disparate nature of the surviving evidence and large geographical area in which it was spoken, that Pictish may have represented not a single language, but rather a number of discrete Brittonic varieties.<ref name="millar23">Template:Cite book</ref><ref name="UGlas" />

Position within CelticEdit

The evidence of place names and personal names demonstrates that an insular Celtic language related to the more southerly Brittonic languages was formerly spoken in the Pictish area.<ref>Template:Harvnb; Template:Harvnb; Template:Harvnb; Template:Harvnb; Template:Harvnb; Template:Harvnb; Template:Harvnb; Template:Harvnb; Template:Harvnb.</ref> The view of Pictish as a P-Celtic language was first proposed in 1582 by George Buchanan, who aligned the language with Gaulish.<ref>All other research into Pictish has been described as a postscript to Buchanan's work. This view may be something of an oversimplification: Template:Harvnb offers a short account of the debate; Template:Harvnb may be helpful for a broader view.</ref> A compatible view was advanced by antiquarian George Chalmers in the early 19th century. Chalmers considered that Pictish and Brittonic were one and the same, basing his argument on P-Celtic orthography in the Pictish king lists and in place names predominant in historically Pictish areas.Template:Sfn

Although demonstrably Celtic-speaking, the exact linguistic affinity of the Roman-era predecessors to the Picts is difficult to securely establish. The personal name Vepogeni, recorded c. 230 AD, implies that P-Celtic was spoken by at least the Caledonians.<ref name="UGlas">Template:Cite thesis</ref>

File:Calgacus.JPG

Personal names of Roman-era chieftains from the Pictish area, including Calgacus (above) have a Celtic origin.<ref>Calgacus ('swordsman') was recorded by Tacitus in his Agricola. Another example is Argentocoxus ('steel leg'), recorded by Cassius Dio. See Template:Harvnb.</ref>

Celtic scholar Whitley Stokes, in a philological study of the Irish annals, concluded that Pictish was closely related to Welsh.Template:Sfn This conclusion was supported by philologist Alexander MacBain's analysis of the place and tribe names in Ptolemy's second-century Geographia.Template:Sfn Toponymist William Watson's exhaustive review of Scottish place names demonstrated convincingly the existence of a dominant P-Celtic language in historically Pictish areas, concluding that the Pictish language was a northern extension of British and that Gaelic was a later introduction from Ireland.Template:Sfn

William Forbes Skene argued in 1837 that Pictish was a Goidelic language, the ancestor of modern Scottish Gaelic.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn He suggested that Columba's use of an interpreter reflected his preaching to the Picts in Latin, rather than any difference between the Irish and Pictish languages.Template:Sfn This view, involving independent settlement of Ireland and Scotland by Goidelic people, obviated an Irish influence in the development of Gaelic Scotland and enjoyed wide popular acceptance in 19th-century Scotland.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn

Skene later revised his view of Pictish, noting that it appeared to share elements of both Goidelic and Brittonic:

It has been too much narrowed by the assumption that, if it is shewn to be a Celtic dialect, it must of necessity be absolutely identic in all its features either with Welsh or with Gaelic. But this necessity does not really exist; and the result I come to is, that it is not Welsh, neither is it Gaelic; but it is a Gaelic dialect partaking largely of Welsh forms.Template:Sfn{{#if:|{{#if:|}}
— {{#if:|, in }}Template:Comma separated entries
}}

{{#invoke:Check for unknown parameters|check|unknown=Template:Main other|preview=Page using Template:Blockquote with unknown parameter "_VALUE_"|ignoreblank=y| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | author | by | char | character | cite | class | content | multiline | personquoted | publication | quote | quotesource | quotetext | sign | source | style | text | title | ts }} The Picts were under increasing political, social, and linguistic influence from Dál Riata from around the eighth century. The Picts were steadily gaelicised through the latter centuries of the Pictish kingdom, and by the time of the merging of the Pictish and Dál Riatan kingdoms, the Picts were essentially a Gaelic-speaking people.Template:Sfn Forsyth speculates that a period of bilingualism may have outlasted the Pictish kingdom in peripheral areas by several generations.Template:Sfn Scottish Gaelic, unlike Irish, maintains a substantial corpus of Brittonic loan-words and, moreover, uses a verbal system modelled on the same pattern as Welsh.Template:Sfn

The traditional Q-Celtic vs P-Celtic model, involving separate migrations of P-Celtic and Q-Celtic speaking settlers into the British Isles, is one of mutual unintelligibility, with the Irish Sea serving as the frontier between the two. However, it is likely that the Insular Celtic languages evolved from a more-or-less unified proto-Celtic language within the British Isles.<ref>Template:Harvnb: See Template:Harvnb for alternate views.</ref> Divergence between P-Celtic Pictish and Q-Celtic Dalriadan Goidelic was slight enough to allow Picts and Dalriadans to understand each other's language to some degree.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn Under this scenario, a gradual linguistic convergence is conceivable and even probable given the presence of the Columban Church in Pictland.Template:Sfn

Pre-Indo-European hypothesisEdit

File:Brandsbutt stone.jpg

Difficulties in translation of ogham inscriptions, like those found on the Brandsbutt Stone, led to a widely held belief that Pictish was a non-Indo-European language.

In 1892, the Welsh scholar John Rhŷs proposed that Pictish was a non-Indo-European language. This opinion was based on the apparently unintelligible ogham inscriptions found in historically Pictish areas (compare Template:Slink).<ref>Template:Harvnb; Template:Harvnb.</ref> A similar position was taken by Heinrich Zimmer, who argued that the Picts' supposedly exotic cultural practices (tattooing and matriliny) were equally non-Indo-European,<ref>Template:Harvnb; see Template:Harvnb for a more current view of Pictish matriliny</ref> and a pre-Indo-European model was maintained by some well into the 20th century.<ref>For example: Template:Harvnb; Template:Harvnb.</ref>

A modified version of this theory was advanced in an influential 1955 review of Pictish by Kenneth Jackson, who proposed a two-language model: while Pictish was undoubtedly P-Celtic, it may have had a non-Celtic substratum and a second language may have been used for inscriptions.Template:Sfn Jackson's hypothesis was framed in the then-current model that a Brittonic elite, identified as the Broch-builders, had migrated from the south of Britain into Pictish territory, dominating a pre-Celtic majority.<ref>See, for example, Template:Harvnb.</ref> He used this to reconcile the perceived translational difficulties of Ogham with the overwhelming evidence for a P-Celtic Pictish language. Jackson was content to write off Ogham inscriptions as inherently unintelligible.<ref>For a general view, see Template:Harvnb.</ref>

Jackson's model became the orthodox position for the latter half of the 20th century. However, it became progressively undermined by advances in understanding of late Iron Age archaeology.<ref>Template:Harvnb; Template:Harvnb</ref> Celtic interpretations have been suggested for a number of Ogham inscriptions in recent years, though this remains a matter of debate.<ref>Compare for example Template:Harvnb and Template:Harvnb</ref>

Other discredited theoriesEdit

Traditional accounts (now rejected) claimed that the Picts had migrated to Scotland from Scythia, a region that encompassed Eastern Europe and Central Asia.<ref>See for example Template:Harvnb; Template:Harvnb suggests this tradition originated from a misreading of Template:Harvnb' fifth-century AD commentary on Template:Harvnb's Aeneid:
Aeneid 4:146 reads: Cretesque Dryopesque fremunt pictique Agathyrsi.
Servius' commentary states: Pictique Agathyrsi populi sunt Scythiae, colentes Apollinem hyperboreum, cuius logia, id est responsa, feruntur. 'Picti' autem, non stigmata habentes, sicut gens in Britannia, sed pulchri, hoc est cyanea coma placentes. Which actually states that the Scythian Agathyrsi did not "bear marks" like the British, but had blue hair.</ref> Buchanan, looking for a Scythian P-Celtic candidate for the ancestral Pict, settled on the Gaulish-speaking Cotini (which he rendered as Gothuni), a tribe from the region that is now Slovakia. This was later misunderstood by Robert Sibbald in 1710, who equated Gothuni with the Germanic-speaking Goths.Template:Sfn John Pinkerton expanded on this in 1789, claiming that Pictish was the predecessor to modern Scots.Template:Sfn Pinkerton's arguments were often rambling, bizarre and clearly motivated by his belief that Celts were an inferior people. The theory of a Germanic Pictish language is no longer considered credible.<ref>For a discussion of Sibbald's misunderstanding and of Pinkerton's thesis, see Template:Harvnb.</ref>

AttestationsEdit

Ogham inscriptionsEdit

Although the interpretation of over 40 Ogham inscriptions remains uncertain, several have been acknowledged to contain Brittonic forms,Template:Sfn although Rodway (2020) has disputed this.<ref>Template:Harvnb</ref> Guto Rhys (2015) notes that significant caution is required in the interpretation of such inscriptions because crucial information, such as the orthographic key, the linguistic context in which they were composed and the extent of literacy in Pictland, remains unknown.<ref name="UGlas" />

An Ogham inscription at the Broch of Burrian, Orkney has been transliterated as Template:Transliteration.Template:Sfn Broken up as Template:Transliteration, this may reveal a Pictish cognate of Old Welsh {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} 'he/she made' in Template:Transliteration.Template:Sfn<ref name="ois">Template:Cite thesis</ref> (The only direct continuation in Middle Welsh is 1sg. {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} < *u̯rakt-ū in the poem known as "Peis Dinogat" in the Book of Aneirin; this form was eventually reformed to gwnaeth.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>) With the fourth word explained as spirantized Pictish Template:Transliteration 'cross' (Welsh {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} < Latin {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}) and the corrupted first word a personal name, the inscription may represent a Pictish sentence explaining who carved the cross.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn<ref name="ois" />

The Shetland inscriptions at Cunningsburgh and Lunnasting reading Template:Transliteration and Template:Transliteration have been understood as Brittonic expressions meaning "this is as great" and "this is as far", respectively,Template:Sfn messages appropriate for boundary stones.Template:Sfn

Transliterated as Template:Transliteration, it is possible that the Brandsbutt Stone inscription attests a Pictish form cognate with Old Breton {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}, "he lies", in IRA-,Template:Sfn occurring at the Lomarec inscription in Brittany.Template:Sfn

Place namesEdit

Pictish toponyms occur in Scotland north of the River Forth.<ref name="pp">Template:Cite book</ref> Distributed from Fife to the Isle of Skye, they are relatively abundant south of the Dornoch Firth but rare in the extreme north.<ref name="UGlas"/>Template:Sfn

Many principal settlements and geographical features of the region bear names of Pictish origin, including:

Aberdeen, Aberdeenshire. Meaning "mouth of the River Don" (cf. Welsh {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}, "estuary, confluence").<ref name="cpns"/>
Cupar, Fife. Meaning "confluence" (cf. Welsh {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}).<ref name="pp" /><ref name="UGlas" />
Keith, Banffshire. Meaning "forest" (cf. Welsh {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}).<ref name="cpns" />
Kirkcaldy, Fife. Meaning "place of the hard fort" from caer, "fort" and caled, "hard".<ref name="PNF">Template:Cite book</ref>
Perth, Perthshire. Meaning "wood, grove" (cf. Welsh {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}).<ref name="pp" />
Yell, Shetland. Meaning "unfruitful land" (cf. Welsh iâl).<ref name="forsyth2020" />

Several Pictish elements occur multiple times in the region.<ref name="pp" /> This table lists selected instances according to the Welsh equivalent.<ref name="cpns" /><ref name="pp" />Template:Sfn<ref name="PNF" />

Element (Welsh)	Meaning	Place names
bryn	hill	Burnbane, Burnturk, Cameron (Markinch), Cameron (St Andrews), Newburn, Strathburn
caer	fort, stronghold; wall, rampart	Cardean, Carey, Cargill, Carmurie, Carpow, Carpoway, Crail, Kair, Keir, Kercock, Kirkbuddo, Kirkcaldy, Caerlaverock Castle
coed	trees, forest, wood	Catochil, Inchkeith, Keith, Keith Lundie, Keithack, Keithick, Keithmore, Keithny, Keithney, Keithock, Kitattie, Rothket
dôl	field, meadow	Dalfouper, Dallas, Dallasbraughty, Doll, Dollar, Dull
llannerch	clearing, glade	Landrick, Lanrick, Lendrick
mig(n)	swamp, quagmire	Dalmigavie, Meckphen, Meigle, Megen, Megevie, Meggen, Meggernie, Midmar, Midstrath, Migdale, Migger, Migvie, Strathmiglo
pant	hollow	Panbride, Panholes, Panlathy, Panmure, ?Pannanich
pen	head; top, summit; source of stream; headland; chief, principal	Pandewen, Pennan, Pinderachy, Pinnel
tref	town, homestead, estate, township	Cantray, Cantress, Menstrie, Montrave, Rattray (Blairgowrie), Rattray (Buchan), Tramaud, Trefor, Trefynie, Trostrie, Troustrie

Some Pictish names have been succeeded by Gaelic forms, and in certain instances the earlier forms appear on historical record.

Inverbervie, Kincardineshire. Haberberui in 1290, demonstrates that a Pictish aber, "estuary, confluence" has been supplanted by Gaelic inbhir, with identical meaning.<ref name="cpns" />
Inverie, Fife. A possible early form, Auerin (1141), may be for *Aberin, thus attesting the same inbhir for aber substitution as above.<ref name="PNF" />
Kindrochit Alian, Aberdeenshire. Doldauha before c. 850 AD, in which the first element is dôl ("meadow").<ref name="Ross">Template:Cite book</ref>
Strathtyrum, Fife. Trestirum in 1190, suggestive of assimilation of a Pictish tref, "estate", to (unconnected) Gaelic srath, "a valley".<ref name="PNF" />

Personal namesEdit

Pictish personal names, as acquired from documents such as the Poppleton manuscript, show significant diagnostically Brittonic features including the retention of final -st and initial w- (cf. P. Uurgust vs. Goidelic Fergus) as well as development of -ora- to -ara- (cf. P. Taran vs G. torann).<ref name="xpi19">Template:Cite news</ref><ref name="UGlas" />

Several Pictish names are directly parallel to names and nouns in other Brittonic languages. Several Pictish names are listed below according to their equivalents in Brittonic and other Celtic languages.Template:Sfn<ref name="xpi19" />

Pictish	Brittonic cognate(s)	Other Celtic cognate(s)
Mailcon	Mailcon (Old Welsh), Maelgwn (Welsh)	-
Morcunt, Morgunn, Morgainn	Morcant (Old Welsh)	-
Taran	taran (Welsh)	Taranis (Gaulish)
Unust	Unwst (Welsh)	Oengus (Gaelic)
Uoret, Urad	Guoret (Old Welsh)	-
Uuen	Owain (Welsh)	-
Uurgust	Gurgust (Old Welsh)	Fergus (Gaelic)

Several elements common in forming Brittonic names also appear in the names of Picts. These include *jʉð, "lord" (> Ciniod) and *res, "ardor" (> Resad; cf. Welsh Rhys).<ref name="forsyth2020">Template:Cite journal</ref>

Irish recordsEdit

The 9th century work Sanas Cormaic (or Cormac's Gloassary), an etymological glossary of Irish, noted a word catait ("Pictish brooch") (also spelled cartait and catit) as being of Pictish origin. Isaac (2005) compared the word with Old Welsh cathet (of uncertain meaning but thought to mean "brooch" and appearing in a 10th century poem listing precious gifts) and offered a speculative Pictish reconstruction *kazdet.<ref name="isacc05">Template:Cite journal</ref>

Influence on the Gaelic languagesEdit

Etymological investigation of the Scottish Gaelic language, in particular the 1896 efforts of Alexander Macbain,<ref name="MacBain" /> has demonstrated the presence of a corpus of Pictish loanwords in the language.<ref name="UGlas" /><ref name="MacBain">Template:Cite book</ref> The items most commonly cited as loanwords are bad ("clump"; Breton bod), bagaid ("cluster, troop"; Welsh bagad), dail ("meadow"; W dôl), dìleab ("legacy"), mormaer ("earl"; W mawr + maer), pailt ("plentiful"; Cornish pals), peasg ("gash"; W pisg), peit ("area of ground, part, share"; W peth), pòr (Middle Welsh paur; "grain, crops"), preas ("bush"; W prys).<ref name="MacBain" /> On the basis of a number of the loans attesting shorter vowels than other British cognates, linguist Guto Rhys proposed Pictish resisted some Latin-influenced sound changes of the 6th century.<ref name="NQSXPI">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Rhys has also noted the potentially "fiscal" profile of several of the loans, and hypothesized that they could have entered Gaelic as a package in a governmental context.<ref name="UGlas" />

Several Gaelic nouns have meanings more closely matching their Brittonic cognates than those in Irish, indicating that Pictish may have influenced the sense and usage of these words as a substrate.<ref name="pp"/> Srath (> Strath-) is recorded to have meant "grassland" in Old Irish, whereas the modern Gaelic realization means "broad valley", exactly as in its Brittonic cognates (cf. Welsh {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}).<ref name="pp" /> Dùn, foithir, lios, ràth and tom may, by the same token, attest a substrate influence from Pictish.<ref name="pp" /><ref name="cpns" />

Greene noted that the verbal system inherited in Gaelic from Old Irish had been brought "into complete conformity with that of modern spoken Welsh",<ref name="Thomson">Template:Cite book</ref> and consequently Guto Rhys adjudged that Pictish may have modified Gaelic verbal syntax.<ref name="UGlas" />

ReferencesEdit

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SourcesEdit

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