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Brythonic
Brittonic
Geographic
distribution:		 Cornwall, Wales, Brittany
Genetic
classification:		 Indo-European
 Celtic
  Insular Celtic
   Brythonic
Subdivisions:
Pictish (possibly)

The Brythonic languages (or Brittonic languages or British languages) form one of the two branches of the Insular Celtic language family, the other being Goidelic. Cornwall ( Kernow ˈkɛɹnɔʊ is the most southwesterly county of England, on the Peninsula that lies to the west of the River Tamar Brittany (Breizh bʁejs Bretagne; Gallo: Bertaèyn) is a former independent Celtic kingdom and Duchy, now incorporated into List of language familiesA language family is a group of Languages related by descent from a common ancestor called the Proto-language of that family The Celtic languages are descended from Proto-Celtic, or "Common Celtic" a branch of the greater Indo-European Language family. The term Insular Celtic refers to those Celtic languages which originated in the British Isles, in contrast to the Continental Celtic languages of The Breton language ( Brezhoneg) formerly often called Armoric or Armorican, is a Celtic language spoken by some of the inhabitants of Brittany British was an ancient Celtic language spoken in much of southern and central Britain up to the central lowlands of Scotland and in Ireland. For the Cornish-English dialect see West Country dialects and List of Cornish dialect words. Cumbric was the Brythonic Celtic language, often considered to be a Dialect of Welsh, spoken in Northern England and southern Pictish is a term used for the Extinct language or languages thought to have been spoken by the Picts, the people of northern and central Scotland Welsh ( cy Cymraeg or cy y Gymraeg, kəmˈrɑːɨɡ and {{IPA|[ə ɡəmˈrɑːɨɡ]}}, is a member of the Brythonic branch of Celtic The term Insular Celtic refers to those Celtic languages which originated in the British Isles, in contrast to the Continental Celtic languages of The Goidelic languages, (also sometimes called particularly in colloquial situations the Gaelic languages or collectively Gaelic) historically formed a Dialect [1] The name Brythonic was derived by Sir John Rhys from the Welsh word Brython, meaning an indigenous Briton as opposed to an Anglo-Saxon or Gael. Welsh ( cy Cymraeg or cy y Gymraeg, kəmˈrɑːɨɡ and {{IPA|[ə ɡəmˈrɑːɨɡ]}}, is a member of the Brythonic branch of Celtic For their language see Anglo-Saxon language. Anglo-Saxon is the term usually used to describe the invading Tribes in the south The name Brittonic derives ultimately from the name Prettanic recorded by Greek authors for the British Isles. Some authors reserve the term Brittonic for the modified later Brythonic languages after about AD 600.

These languages have been spoken in Britain and Ireland (including the Isle of Man) since at least the Iron Age until today, originally as the majority languages but now as minority ones in Wales and Cornwall. In Ireland, the Isle of Man and Scotland the Brythonic languages have been replaced by Goedelic ones. By emigration there are also communities of Brythonic language speakers in Brittany, and Patagonia. The Welsh settlement in Argentina began in 1865 and occurred mainly along the coast of Chubut province in the far southern region of Patagonia

Contents

Evidence

Knowledge of the Brythonic languages comes from a variety of sources. For the early languages information is obtained from coins, inscriptions and comments by classical writers as well as place names and personal names recorded by them. For later languages there is information from medieval writers and modern native speakers, together with place names. The names recorded in the Roman period are given in Rivet and Smith.

Characteristics

The Brythonic branch is also referred to as P-Celtic (like Gaulish) because the Brythonic reflex of the Proto-Indo-European phoneme *kw is p as opposed to the Goidelic c. The Goidelic languages, (also sometimes called particularly in colloquial situations the Gaelic languages or collectively Gaelic) historically formed a Dialect Such nomenclature usually implies an acceptance of the P-Celtic hypothesis rather than the Insular Celtic hypothesis (for a discussion, see Celtic languages). The Celtic languages are descended from Proto-Celtic, or "Common Celtic" a branch of the greater Indo-European Language family. A hypothesis (from Greek) consists either of a suggested explanation for a phenomenon (an event that is observable or of a reasoned proposal suggesting a possible The Celtic languages are descended from Proto-Celtic, or "Common Celtic" a branch of the greater Indo-European Language family.

Other major characteristics include:

Classification

The family tree of the Brythonic languages is as follows:

The major Brythonic languages today are Welsh and Breton, both of which survive as community languages. Pictish is a term used for the Extinct language or languages thought to have been spoken by the Picts, the people of northern and central Scotland The Iverni or Hiberni (Ἰουερνοι Iouernoi) were an ancient Celtic people of Ireland mentioned in Ptolemy 's 2nd century British was an ancient Celtic language spoken in much of southern and central Britain up to the central lowlands of Scotland and in Ireland. Romano-British culture is that of the Romanized Britons under the Roman Empire and later the Western Roman Empire, and of those exposed to Roman culture in the years Eastern Brythonic was the dialect of the British Celtic language spoken in most of England. Western Brythonic was the Dialect of British Celtic spoken in north-west England, Wales and the Welsh marches Cumbric was the Brythonic Celtic language, often considered to be a Dialect of Welsh, spoken in Northern England and southern Welsh ( cy Cymraeg or cy y Gymraeg, kəmˈrɑːɨɡ and {{IPA|[ə ɡəmˈrɑːɨɡ]}}, is a member of the Brythonic branch of Celtic The Breton language ( Brezhoneg) formerly often called Armoric or Armorican, is a Celtic language spoken by some of the inhabitants of Brittany For the Cornish-English dialect see West Country dialects and List of Cornish dialect words. Welsh ( cy Cymraeg or cy y Gymraeg, kəmˈrɑːɨɡ and {{IPA|[ə ɡəmˈrɑːɨɡ]}}, is a member of the Brythonic branch of Celtic The Breton language ( Brezhoneg) formerly often called Armoric or Armorican, is a Celtic language spoken by some of the inhabitants of Brittany 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. For the Cornish-English dialect see West Country dialects and List of Cornish dialect words. Also notable are the extinct language Cumbric, and possibly the extinct Pictish although this may be best considered to be a sister of the Brythonic languages. Cumbric was the Brythonic Celtic language, often considered to be a Dialect of Welsh, spoken in Northern England and southern Pictish is a term used for the Extinct language or languages thought to have been spoken by the Picts, the people of northern and central Scotland The late Kenneth H. Jackson argued during the 1950s, from some of the few remaining examples of stone inscriptions, that the Picts may have also used a non-Indo-European language, but some modern scholars of Pictish do not agree. Kenneth Hurlstone Jackson (1 November 1909 – 20 February 1991 was an English linguist and a translator who specialised in the Celtic languages.

History and origins

The modern Brythonic languages are generally considered to all derive from a common ancestral language termed British, Common Brythonic, Old Brythonic or Proto-Brythonic, which is thought to have developed from Proto-Celtic and which was possibly introduced to Great Britain by the 6th century BC[2]. Phonological reconstruction Consonants The phonological changes from Proto-Indo-European to Proto-Celtic Consonants may be summarised as follows See also Kingdom of Great Britain Great Britain (Breatainn Mhòr Prydain Fawr Breten Veur Graet Breetain is the larger of the two main islands The 6th century BC started the first day of 600 BC and ended the last day of 501 BC. Some linguists such as Vennemann have suggested that an earlier language, Atlantic, may have influenced the Brythonic languages, but this is not generally accepted. Mario Alinei denies the existence of a pre-Celtic language and says that Celtic languages arrived in the Paleolithic but this is not generally accepted either. It is possible that a Germanic language may have been present in Eastern England because of cultural links across what is now the southern North Sea but was dry land in the Mesolithic, and this could have influenced the Brythonic languages. Stephen Oppenheimer has suggested that the Belgic invasions in the first century BC could have brought a Germanic language to Britain. However, it is clear from classical authors that Celtic was used for place and river names by 300 BC.

Brythonic languages were probably spoken prior to the Roman invasion at least in the majority of Great Britain south of the rivers Forth and Clyde, though the Isle of Man later had a Goidelic language, Manx. The River Clyde ( Gaelic: Abhainn Chluaidh, avɪɲˈxɫ̪uəj is a major River in Scotland. The Isle of Man (Ellan Vannin ˈɛlʲən ˈvanɪn or Mann (Mannin) is a self-governing Crown dependency, located in the Irish Sea at the geographical Northern Scotland mainly spoke Pritennic, which became Pictish, that may have been a Brythonic language. Pritennic is a modern term that has been coined to refer to the predecessor of the P-Celtic Pictish language. Pictish is a term used for the Extinct language or languages thought to have been spoken by the Picts, the people of northern and central Scotland 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 authors Dillon and Chadwick reject this theory as being implausible. This article is about the country For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic France topics.

During the period of the Roman occupation of southern Great Britain (AD 43 to c. 410), Common Brythonic borrowed a large stock of Latin words, both for concepts unfamiliar in the pre-urban society of Celtic Great Britain, such as urbanisation and tactics of warfare, and for rather more mundane words which displaced native terms (most notably, the word for "fish" in all the Brythonic languages derives from the Latin piscis rather than the native *ēskos > Wysg river). Latin ( lingua Latīna, laˈtiːna is an Italic language, historically spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. Approximately eight hundred of these Latin loan-words have survived in the three modern Brythonic languages. Romano-British is the name for the Latinised form of the language used by Roman authors.

It is probable that at the start of the Post-Roman period Common Brythonic was differentiated into at least two major dialect groups - Southwestern and Western (in addition we may posit additional dialects, such as Eastern Brythonic, spoken in what is now eastern 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 west of Great Britain to continental Armorica. For the Cornish-English dialect see West Country dialects and List of Cornish dialect words. The Breton language ( Brezhoneg) formerly often called Armoric or Armorican, is a Celtic language spoken by some of the inhabitants of Brittany Armorica or Aremorica is the name given in ancient times to the part of Gaul that includes the Brittany Peninsula and the territory between the Jackson showed that a few of the dialect distinctions between West and Southwest Brythonic go back a long way. New divergencies began around AD 500 but other changes which were shared occurred in the 6th century. Other common changes occurred in the seventh century onward and are possibly due to inherent tendencies. Thus the concept of a common Brythonic language ends by AD 600. It is thought that substantial numbers of Britons remained in the expanding area controlled by Anglo-Saxons, but the only information on their language may be obtained from place names. Over time it is thought they gradually adopted the English language.

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 (Scots), Norse and Germanic invaders. Scotland ( Gaelic: Alba) is a Country in northwest Europethat occupies the northern third of the island of Great Britain. The Isle of Man (Ellan Vannin ˈɛlʲən ˈvanɪn or Mann (Mannin) is a self-governing Crown dependency, located in the Irish Sea at the geographical England is a Country which is part of the United Kingdom. Its inhabitants account for more than 83% of the total UK population whilst its mainland The displacement of the languages of Brythonic descent was probably complete in all of this territory, (except Cornwall and the English counties bordering Wales), by the 11th century (date of extinction in various parts of the territory is debated). Cornwall ( Kernow ˈkɛɹnɔʊ is the most southwesterly county of England, on the Peninsula that lies to the west of the River Tamar Ivernic is a Brythonic language that may have been spoken in Ireland.

Remnants in England, Scotland and Ireland

Place names and river names

The principal legacy left behind in those territories from which the Brythonic languages were displaced is that of toponyms (place-names) and hydronyms (river names}. Toponymy refers to the scientific study of place-names ( toponyms) their origins meanings use and Typology. A hydronym (from Greek hudor, "water" and onuma, "name" is a proper name of a body of water There are many Brythonic place-names in lowland Scotland and in the parts of England where it is agreed that substantial Brythonic speakers remained (Brythonic names, apart from those of the former Romano-British towns, are scarce over most of England). Names derived (sometimes indirectly) from Brythonic include London, Penicuik, Perth, Aberdeen, York, Dorchester, Dover and Colchester. London ( ˈlʌndən is the capital and largest urban area in the United Kingdom. Penicuik is a burgh in Midlothian, Scotland, lying on the west bank of the River North Esk. Perth (Peairt is a town and former Royal burgh in central Scotland. Aberdeen ( pronounced; Aiberdeen Obar Dheathain is Scotland 's third most populous city and one of Scotland's 32 local government council York ( is an historic Walled city sited at the confluence of the rivers Ouse and Foss in North Yorkshire, England. Dorchester is a Market town in southern central Dorset, England, on the River Frome at the junction of the A35 and A37 Dover is a town and major ferry port in the county of Kent, England. Colchester ( /ˈkəʊltʃɛstə/ is a town and the largest settlement within the borough of Colchester, in Essex, England. Brythonic elements found in England include bre- and bal- for hills, and carr for a high rocky place, while some such as combe or coomb(e) for a small deep valley and tor for a hill are examples of Brythonic words that were borrowed into English. A fen is a type of Wetland fed by surface and/or groundwater Fens are characterized by their water chemistry which is neutral or Alkaline Fens are different A tor is a rock outcrop formed by Weathering, usually found on or near the summit of a Hill. Others reflect the presence of Brythons, such as Dumbarton - from the Scottish Gaelic Dùn Breatainn meaning "Fort of the Britons", or Walton (several) meaning a 'tun' or settlement where 'wahl' (Welsh/Brythons} still lived. Dumbarton ( Gaelic Dùn Breatainn d̪̊unˈb̊ɾʲɛhd̪̊ɪɲ is a Burgh in Scotland, lying on the north bank of the River Clyde Scottish Gaelic ( Gàidhlig) is a member of the Goidelic branch of Celtic languages.

The number of Celtic river names in England generally increases from east to west, a map showing these being given by Jackson. These names include ones such as Avon, Chew, Frome, Axe, Brue and Exe.

Celtic effects on English

Celtic has acted as a substrate to English for both the lexicon and syntax. 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 (cf. Peat is an accumulation of partially Decayed Vegetation matter. A bucket, also called a pail, is a watertight vertical Cylinder or truncated cone, with an open top and a flat bottom usually attached Gaelic gob), nook; and the dialectal term for a badger, i. Badger is the Common name for any animal of three subfamilies which belong to the family Mustelidae: the same Mammal family as the e. brock (cf. Welsh broch, and Gaelic broc). Arguably, the use of periphrastic constructions (using auxiliary verbs like do and be) in the English verb (which is more widespread than in the other Germanic languages) is traceable to Brythonic influence. In Linguistics, periphrasis is a device by which a grammatical category or relationship is expressed by a Free morpheme (typically one or more Function In Linguistics, an auxiliary (also called helping verb, helper verb, auxiliary verb, or verbal auxiliary) is a Verb functioning For English usage of verbs see the wiki article English verbs. The Germanic languages are a group of related languages that constitute a branch of the Indo-European (IE Language family.

Some researchers (Filppula et al. , 2001) argue that English syntax reflects more extensive Brythonic influences. For instance, in English tag questions, the form of the tag depends on the verb form in the main statement (aren't I?, isn't he?, won't we? etc). A Tag question (also question tag) is a grammatical structure in which a declarative statement or an imperative is turned into a question by 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.

Brythonic effect on the Goidelic languages

Far more notable, but less well known, are the many Brythonic influences on Scottish Gaelic. Scottish Gaelic ( Gàidhlig) is a member of the Goidelic branch of Celtic languages. Like English, periphrastic constructions have come to the fore, but to a much greater degree. Scottish Gaelic contains a number of apparently P-Celtic loanwords, but as there is a far greater overlap in terms of Celtic vocabulary, than with English, it is not always possible to disentangle P and Q Celtic words. In particular, the word srath (anglicised as "Strath") is a native Goidelic word, but its usage appears to have been modified by the Brythonic cognate whose meaning is slightly different. The effect on Irish has been the loan from British of many Latin-derived words. This has been associated with the Christianisation of Ireland from Britain.

References

  1. ^ http://books.google.com/books?id=-k8QAAAAYAAJ|History of English: A Sketch of the Origin and Development of the English Language
  2. ^ Koch, John T. (2007). An Atlas for Celtic Studies. Oxford: Oxbow Books. ISBN 978-1-84217-309-1.  

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