Editing Pictish language (section)

===Position within Celtic===
The evidence of [[toponymy|place names]] and [[Anthroponymy|personal names]] demonstrates that an insular Celtic language related to the more southerly Brittonic languages was formerly spoken in the Pictish area.<ref>{{harvnb|Watson|1926}}; {{harvnb|Jackson|1955}}; {{harvnb|Koch|1983}}; {{harvnb|Smyth|1984}}; {{harvnb|Forsyth|1997}}; {{harvnb|Price|2000}}; {{harvnb|Forsyth|2006}}; {{harvnb|Woolf|2007}}; {{harvnb|Fraser|2009}}.</ref> The view of Pictish as a P-Celtic language was first proposed in 1582 by [[George Buchanan (humanist)|George Buchanan]], who aligned the language with [[Gaulish language|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: {{harvnb|Forsyth|1997}} offers a short account of the debate; {{harvnb|Cowan|2000}} may be helpful for a broader view.</ref> A compatible view was advanced by antiquarian [[George Chalmers (antiquarian)|George Chalmers]] in the early 19th century. Chalmers considered that Pictish and [[Common Brittonic|Brittonic]] were one and the same, basing his argument on P-Celtic orthography in the [[List of kings of the Picts|Pictish king lists]] and in place names predominant in historically Pictish areas.{{sfn|Chalmers|1807|pp=198–224}}

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">{{cite thesis|last1=Rhys |first1=Guto|title=Approaching the Pictish language: historiography, early evidence and the question of Pritenic|degree=PhD |url=http://theses.gla.ac.uk/6285/7/2015RhysPhD.pdf |publisher=University of Glasgow|date=2015}}</ref>

[[File:Calgacus.JPG|left|thumb|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 (book)|''Agricola'']]. Another example is ''Argentocoxus'' ('steel leg'), recorded by [[Cassius Dio]]. See {{harvnb|Forsyth|2006}}.</ref>]]
Celtic scholar [[Whitley Stokes (scholar)|Whitley Stokes]], in a philological study of the [[Irish annals]], concluded that Pictish was closely related to Welsh.{{sfn|Stokes|1890|p=392}} This conclusion was supported by philologist [[Alexander MacBain]]'s analysis of the place and tribe names in Ptolemy's second-century ''[[Geographia]]''.{{sfn|MacBain|1892}} Toponymist [[William J. Watson|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.{{sfn|Watson|1926}}

[[William Forbes Skene]] argued in 1837 that Pictish was a Goidelic language, the ancestor of modern [[Scottish Gaelic]].{{sfn|Skene|1837|pp=67–87}}{{sfn|Fraser|1923}} 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.{{sfn|Skene|1837|pp=71–72}} 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.{{sfn|Jackson|1955|p=131}}{{sfn|Forsyth|1997|p=6}}

Skene later revised his view of Pictish, noting that it appeared to share elements of both Goidelic and Brittonic:
{{blockquote|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.{{sfn|Skene|1868|pages=95–96}}}} 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.{{sfn|Forsyth|2006|p=1447}} [[Katherine Forsyth|Forsyth]] speculates that a period of bilingualism may have outlasted the Pictish kingdom in peripheral areas by several generations.{{sfn|Forsyth|1995a}} [[Scottish Gaelic]], unlike [[Irish language|Irish]], maintains a substantial corpus of Brittonic loan-words and, moreover, uses a verbal system modelled on the same pattern as [[Welsh language|Welsh]].{{sfn|Greene|1966|p=135}}

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>{{harvnb|Greene|1994}}: See {{harvnb|Koch|2006a}} 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.{{sfn|Woolf|2007|pages=322–340}}{{sfn|Campbell|2001|pp=285–292}} Under this scenario, a gradual linguistic convergence is conceivable and even probable given the presence of the Columban Church in Pictland.{{sfn|Woolf|2007|pages=322–340}}