Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun Brittonic.
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
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Examples
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The presence of clearly Brittonic P-Celtic place name elements like Aber- in the areas traditionally considered Pictish is reasonable evidence that there was at least a component of P-Celtic in the Pictish language, though it was evidently distinct enough from Brittonic for Bede to call it a separate language.
Pictish female names Carla 2010
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Rosko - A P-Celtic component in the Pictish language, whatever it was, is consistent with P-Celtic place names such as Aber-.
Pictish female names Carla 2010
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Whether this was a component of Q-Celtic, a component of some other language I have wondered about links with Scandinavia; there were certainly strong links between Scotland and Scandinavia in the Viking age, and since geography doesn't change perhaps there were cultural links earlier, a distinctive dialect, an archaic form of P-Celtic, something else altogether or any combination thereof is pretty much open to speculation.
Pictish female names Carla 2010
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There's still a debate about whether the Pictish language was a form of P-Celtic (Brittonic), Q-Celtic (Gaelic), non-Celtic, or something else (I have seen a theory suggesting it was related to Finnish), so it's tricky to define what counts as Pictish.
Brittonic names in ‘Anglo-Saxon’ genealogies, and vice versa Carla 2009
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It sort of implies two language changes, one from some pre-IE language to P-Celtic, and then another from P-Celtic to Gaelic.
Attacotti Carla 2009
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Tenthmedieval - the pre-IE theory has always puzzled me with regard to the P-Celtic place names that turn up in the Pictish areas, e.g.
Attacotti Carla 2009
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These tribes all spoke, apparently, what modern linguists term the P-Celtic branch of the language, of which variants would afterwards survive in Wales and Cornwall – and Brittany as well.
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Nevertheless, it seems clear enough from this evidence that the language spoken by the Picts belonged to the P-Celtic branch.
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The characteristic difference between the groups is that Q-Celtic (to which Gaelic belongs) uses a K- or Qu- sound where P-Celtic (to which Brittonic belongs) uses a P-sound.
Archive 2007-12-01 Carla 2007
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Their language is not known, although it was probably a branch of P-Celtic, and nor is their name for themselves and their territory see main post.
The Picts (or Cruithne, or Albans): What's in a name? Carla 2007
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