- ''kw'' is ''p'' as opposed to the Goidelic ''c''. Such nomenclature usually implies an acceptance of the P-Celtic hypothesis rather than the Insular Celtic hypothesis (for a discussion, see Celtic Languages ).
The major Brythonic languages are
Welsh and
Breton , both of which survive as community languages today. The
Cornish Language died out at the end of the eighteenth century, but attempts at reviving it started in the
20th century and are ongoing. Also notable are the extinct language
Cumbric , and possibly the extinct
Pictish (although the late
Kenneth H. Jackson argued during the
1950s , from some of the few remaining examples of Pictish, that Pictish was a non-
Indo-European language, the majority of modern scholars of Pictish do not agree).
The family tree of the Brythonic languages is as follows:
The modern Brythonic languages all derive from a common ancestral language termed ''British'', ''Common Brythonic'', ''Old Brythonic'' or ''Proto-Brythonic'', which is thought to have developed from the
Proto-Celtic Language which was introduced to
Great Britain from the
Middle Second Millennium BC (Hawkes, 1973). Brythonic languages were then spoken at least in the whole of Great Britain south of the rivers
Forth and
Clyde , presumably also including the
Isle Of Man . The theory has been advanced (notably by R. F. O'Rahilly) that Ireland was populated by speakers of Brythonic before being displaced by speakers of a Q-Celtic language (possibly from the Quarietii tribe of southern
France ), although the linguists Dillon and Chadwick reject this theory as being implausible.
- ''ēskos''). Approximately eight hundred of these Latin loan-words have survived in the three modern Brythonic languages.
It is probable that during this period Common Brythonic was differentiated into at least two major dialect groups - Southwestern and Western (in addition we may posit additional dialects spoken in what is now England which have left little or no evidence). Between the end of the Roman occupation and the mid sixth century the two dialects began to diverge into recognisably separate languages, the Western into Cumbric and Welsh and the Southwestern into
Cornish and its closely related sister language
Breton , which was carried from the south of Great Britain to continental
Armorica by refugees fleeing the
Saxon invaders.
The Brythonic languages spoken in
Scotland , the
Isle Of Man and
England began to be displaced in the 5th century through the influence of Irish, Norse and Germanic invaders. The displacement of the languages of Brythonic descent was probably completed in all of this territory except
Cornwall by the 11th century (date of extinction in various parts of the territory is debated).
For the later history of the neo-Brythonic languages see under their own respective articles.
The principal legacy left behind in those territories from which the Brythonic languages were displaced is that of toponyms. Many of the place-names in England and to a lesser extent Scotland are derived (sometimes indirectly) from the Brythonic names, including
London ,
Penicuik ,
Perth ,
York ,
Dorchester ,
Dover and
Colchester . Several place-name elements are thought to be wholly or partly Brythonic in origin, particularly ''bre-'', ''bal-'', and ''-dun'' for hills,
Carr for a high rocky place,
Coomb for a small deep valley. Others reflect the presence of Brythons, such as
Dumbarton - from the
Scottish Gaelic ''Dùn Breatann'' meaning "Fort of the Britons".
Until recently it has been believed that those areas settled by the Anglo-Saxons were uninhabited at the time or the Britons had fled before them. However,
Genetic Studies show that the British were not pushed out to the Celtic fringes – many tribes remained in what was to become England.
1 These findings strengthen the research of Steven Bassett of the
University Of Birmingham ; his work during the 1990s suggests that much of the
West Midlands was only very lightly colonised with Anglian and Saxon settlements.
It is generally accepted that linguistic effects on English were lexically rather poor aside from toponyms, consisting of a few domestic words, which may include hubbub,
Peat ,
Bucket , crock, noggin, gob (c.f. Gaelic ''gob''), nook; and the dialectal term for a
Badger , i.e. ''brock'' (c.f. Welsh ''broch'', and Gaelic ''Broc''). Arguably, the use of
Periphrastic constructions in the English
Verb (which is more widespread than in the other
Germanic Languages ) is traceable to Brythonic influence.
Some researchers argue that English syntax reflects more extensive Brythonic influences. For instance, in English
Tag Question s, the form of the tag depends on the verb form in the main statement (''aren't I?'', ''isn't he?'', ''won't we?'' etc). The German ''nicht wahr?'' and the French ''n'est ce pas?'', by contrast, are fixed forms which can be used with almost any main statement. It has been claimed that the English system has been borrowed from Brythonic, since Welsh tag questions vary in almost exactly the same way. This view is far from being generally accepted, though, since it is equally possible that the Welsh construction is borrowed from English.
Far more notable, but less well known, are the Brythonic influences on
Scottish Gaelic which are many. Like English, periphrastic constructions have come to the fore, but to a much greater degree. Some important borrowings into Gaidhlig include ''Beinn'' meaning mountain, and anglicised "Ben", probably from the Brythonic ''pen'' meaning "Head".
- ''The Celtic Roots of English'' edited by Markku Filppula, Juhani Klemola and Heli Pitkänen, by Joensuu University.
