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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 related to the Brittonic language then spoken in most of the rest of Britain.[2]

Pictish
RegionScotland, north of the Forth-Clyde line
EthnicityPicts
Erac. 4th to 10th century, extinct by c. 1100 AD
Some scattered instances of Ogham script
Some possible instances of Latin script[1]
Language codes
ISO 639-3xpi
xpi
Glottologpict1238

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.[3]

Language classification

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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.[4] 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:

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.[5][6][7] Pictish came under increasing influence from the Goidelic language spoken in Dál Riata from the eighth century until its eventual replacement.[5][8][6][7]

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.[5][8][9]

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.[10][11]

Position within Celtic

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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.[12] The view of Pictish as a P-Celtic language was first proposed in 1582 by George Buchanan, who aligned the language with Gaulish.[13] 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.[14]

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.[11]

 
Personal names of Roman-era chieftains from the Pictish area, including Calgacus (above) have a Celtic origin.[15]

Celtic scholar Whitley Stokes, in a philological study of the Irish annals, concluded that Pictish was closely related to Welsh.[16] This conclusion was supported by philologist Alexander MacBain's analysis of the place and tribe names in Ptolemy's second-century Geographia.[17] 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.[18]

William Forbes Skene argued in 1837 that Pictish was a Goidelic language, the ancestor of modern Scottish Gaelic.[19][20] 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.[21] 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.[22][23]

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.[24]

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.[5] Forsyth speculates that a period of bilingualism may have outlasted the Pictish kingdom in peripheral areas by several generations.[25] 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.[26]

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.[27] 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.[8][28] Under this scenario, a gradual linguistic convergence is conceivable and even probable given the presence of the Columban Church in Pictland.[8]

Pre-Indo-European hypothesis

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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, John Rhys 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 Ogham inscription § Scholastic inscriptions).[29] 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,[30] and a pre-Indo-European model was maintained by some well into the 20th century.[31]

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.[32] 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.[33] 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.[34]

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.[35] Celtic interpretations have been suggested for a number of Ogham inscriptions in recent years, though this remains a matter of debate.[36]

Other discredited theories

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Traditional accounts (now rejected) claimed that the Picts had migrated to Scotland from Scythia, a region that encompassed Eastern Europe and Central Asia.[37] 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.[38] John Pinkerton expanded on this in 1789, claiming that Pictish was the predecessor to modern Scots.[39] 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.[40]

Attestations

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Ogham inscriptions

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Although the interpretation of over 40 Ogham inscriptions remains uncertain, several have been acknowledged to contain Brittonic forms,[41] although Rodway (2020) has disputed this.[42] 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.[11]

An Ogham inscription at the Broch of Burrian, Orkney has been transliterated as I[-]IRANNURRACTX EVVCXRROCCS.[43] Broken up as I[-]irann uract cheuc chrocs, this may reveal a Pictish cognate of Old Welsh guract 'he/she made' in *uract.[43][44] (The only direct continuation in Middle Welsh is 1sg. gwreith < *u̯rakt-ū in the poem known as "Peis Dinogat" in the Book of Aneirin; this form was eventually reformed to gwnaeth.[45]) With the fourth word explained as spirantized Pictish *crocs 'cross' (Welsh croes < Latin crux) and the corrupted first word a personal name, the inscription may represent a Pictish sentence explaining who carved the cross.[43][41][44]

The Shetland inscriptions at Cunningsburgh and Lunnasting reading EHTECONMORS and [E]TTECUHETTS have been understood as Brittonic expressions meaning "this is as great" and "this is as far", respectively,[41] messages appropriate for boundary stones.[41]

Transliterated as IRATADDOARENS, it is possible that the Brandsbutt Stone inscription attests a Pictish form cognate with Old Breton irha-, "he lies", in IRA-,[43] occurring at the Lomarec inscription in Brittany.[43]

Place names

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Pictish toponyms occur in Scotland north of the River Forth.[46] Distributed from Fife to the Isle of Skye, they are relatively abundant south of the Dornoch Firth but rare in the extreme north.[11][41]

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 aber, "estuary, confluence").[2]
  • Cupar, Fife. Meaning "confluence" (cf. Welsh cymer).[46][11]
  • Keith, Banffshire. Meaning "forest" (cf. Welsh coed).[2]
  • Kirkcaldy, Fife. Meaning "place of the hard fort" from caer, "fort" and caled, "hard".[47]
  • Perth, Perthshire. Meaning "wood, grove" (cf. Welsh perth).[46]
  • Yell, Shetland. Meaning "unfruitful land" (cf. Welsh iâl).[48]

Several Pictish elements occur multiple times in the region.[46] This table lists selected instances according to the Welsh equivalent.[2][46][41][47]

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.[2]
  • Inverie, Fife. A possible early form, Auerin (1141), may be for *Aberin, thus attesting the same inbhir for aber substitution as above.[47]
  • Kindrochit Alian, Aberdeenshire. Doldauha before c. 850 AD, in which the first element is dôl ("meadow").[49]
  • Strathtyrum, Fife. Trestirum in 1190, suggestive of assimilation of a Pictish tref, "estate", to (unconnected) Gaelic srath, "a valley".[47]

Personal names

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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).[1][11]

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.[41][1]

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).[48]

Irish records

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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.[50]

Influence on Gaelic

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Etymological investigation of the Scottish Gaelic language, in particular the 1896 efforts of Alexander Macbain,[51] has demonstrated the presence of a corpus of Pictish loanwords in the language.[11][51] 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).[51] 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.[52] 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.[11]

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.[46] 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 ystrad).[46] Dùn, foithir, lios, ràth and tom may, by the same token, attest a substrate influence from Pictish.[46][2]

Greene noted that the verbal system inherited in Gaelic from Old Irish had been brought "into complete conformity with that of modern spoken Welsh",[53] and consequently Guto Rhys adjudged that Pictish may have modified Gaelic verbal syntax.[11]

Notes

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  1. ^ a b c Rhys, Guto. "The Pictish Language". History Scotland. Retrieved 12 March 2021.
  2. ^ a b c d e f Watson, W. J.; Taylor, Simon (2011). The Celtic Place-names of Scotland. Birlinn. ISBN 9781906566357.
  3. ^ Broun 1997; Broun 2001; Forsyth 2005, pp. 28–32; Woolf 2001; cf. Bannerman 1999, passim, representing the "traditional" view.
  4. ^ Bede 1910, HE I.1; references to Pictish also at several other points in that text.
  5. ^ a b c d Forsyth 2006, p. 1447.
  6. ^ a b Forsyth 1997.
  7. ^ a b Fraser 2009, pp. 52–53.
  8. ^ a b c d Woolf 2007, pp. 322–340.
  9. ^ Greene 1966; Greene 1994.
  10. ^ McColl Millar, Robert (2023). A History of the Scots Language. OUP Oxford. pp. 32, 33. ISBN 9780192609458.
  11. ^ a b c d e f g h i Rhys, Guto (2015). Approaching the Pictish language: historiography, early evidence and the question of Pritenic (PDF) (PhD thesis). University of Glasgow.
  12. ^ Watson 1926; Jackson 1955; Koch 1983; Smyth 1984; Forsyth 1997; Price 2000; Forsyth 2006; Woolf 2007; Fraser 2009.
  13. ^ All other research into Pictish has been described as a postscript to Buchanan's work. This view may be something of an oversimplification: Forsyth 1997 offers a short account of the debate; Cowan 2000 may be helpful for a broader view.
  14. ^ Chalmers 1807, pp. 198–224.
  15. ^ Calgacus ('swordsman') was recorded by Tacitus in his Agricola. Another example is Argentocoxus ('steel leg'), recorded by Cassius Dio. See Forsyth 2006.
  16. ^ Stokes 1890, p. 392.
  17. ^ MacBain 1892.
  18. ^ Watson 1926.
  19. ^ Skene 1837, pp. 67–87.
  20. ^ Fraser 1923.
  21. ^ Skene 1837, pp. 71–72.
  22. ^ Jackson 1955, p. 131.
  23. ^ Forsyth 1997, p. 6.
  24. ^ Skene 1868, pp. 95–96.
  25. ^ Forsyth 1995a.
  26. ^ Greene 1966, p. 135.
  27. ^ Greene 1994: See Koch 2006a for alternate views.
  28. ^ Campbell 2001, pp. 285–292.
  29. ^ Rhys 1892; Rhys 1898.
  30. ^ Zimmer 1898; see Woolf 1998 for a more current view of Pictish matriliny
  31. ^ For example: MacNeill 1939; Macalister 1940.
  32. ^ Jackson 1955.
  33. ^ See, for example, Piggot 1955.
  34. ^ For a general view, see Jackson 1955.
  35. ^ Armit 1990; Armit 2002
  36. ^ Compare for example Forsyth 1998 and Rodway 2020
  37. ^ See for example Bede 1910, HE I.1; Forsyth 2006 suggests this tradition originated from a misreading of Servius' fifth-century AD commentary on Virgil'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.
  38. ^ Sibbald 1710.
  39. ^ Pinkerton 1789.
  40. ^ For a discussion of Sibbald's misunderstanding and of Pinkerton's thesis, see Ferguson 1991.
  41. ^ a b c d e f g Koch 2006, p. 1444.
  42. ^ Rodway 2020
  43. ^ a b c d e Forsyth 1997, p. 36.
  44. ^ a b Forsyth, Katherine Stuart (9 April 1956). The Ogham Inscriptions of Scotland: An Edited Corpus (PhD thesis). Harvard University. Retrieved 20 August 2018.
  45. ^ Schumacher, Stefan (2004). Die keltischen Primärverben. Ein vergleichendes, etymologisches und morphologisches Lexikon (in German). Innsbruck, Austria: Institut für Sprachen und Literaturen der Universität Innsbruck. p. 711. ISBN 3-85124-692-6.
  46. ^ a b c d e f g h Hall, Mark A; Driscoll, Stephen T; Geddess, Jane (11 November 2010). Pictish Progress: New Studies on Northern Britain in the Early Middle Ages. Brill. ISBN 9789004188013. Retrieved 30 June 2019.
  47. ^ a b c d Simon, Taylor; Markus, Gilbert (2006). The Place-names of Fife (Illustrated ed.). Shaun Tyas. ISBN 9781900289771.
  48. ^ a b Forsyth, Katherine (2020). "Protecting a Pict?: Further thoughts on the inscribed silver chape from St Ninian's Isle, Shetland" (PDF). Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland: 11.
  49. ^ Ross, Alasdair (2019). "Medieval European land assessment, Fortriu, and the dabhach". In Blackwell, Alice E. (ed.). Scotland in Early Medieval Europe (PDF). Leiden: Sidestone Press. pp. 135–148. hdl:1893/23390. ISBN 978-90-8890-753-1 – via Dspace.
  50. ^ Isaac, G. R. (2005). "'A Note on Cormac's Pictish Brooch'. Journal of Celtic Linguistics". Journal of Celtic Linguistics. 9: 72–83.
  51. ^ a b c MacBain, Alexander (1988). Etymological Dictionary of Scottish-Gaelic. Hippocrene Books. ISBN 9780781806329. Retrieved 27 April 2020.
  52. ^ Rhys, Guto (2015). "The New Quantity System in Pictish". Retrieved 14 December 2021.
  53. ^ Thomson, Derick S. (1994). The Companion to Gaelic Scotland (2 ed.). Gairm. p. 107. ISBN 9781871901313.

References

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