common Brittonic

File:Roman baths 2014 60.jpg

No documents in the language have been found, but a few inscriptions have been identified.{{cite book |title=Ireland and the Classical World |first=Philip |last=Freeman |date=2001 |publisher=University of Texas Press}}{{page needed|date=September 2021}} The Bath curse tablets, found in the Roman feeder pool at Bath, Somerset (Aquae Sulis), bear about 150 names – about 50% Celtic (but not necessarily Brittonic). An inscription on a metal pendant (discovered there in 1979) seems to contain an ancient Brittonic curse:{{cite journal |last=Tomlin |first=R. S. O.|date=1987 |title=Was ancient British Celtic ever a written language? Two texts from Roman Bath |journal=Bulletin of the Board of Celtic Studies |volume=34 |pages=18–25}}

"{{lang|cel-x-combrit|Adixoui Deuina Deieda Andagin Uindiorix cuamenai}}". (Sometimes the final word has been rendered {{lang|cel-x-combrit|cuamiinai}}.) This text is often seen as: 'The affixed – Deuina, Deieda, Andagin [and] Uindiorix – I have bound';{{cite book |last=Mees |first=Bernard |title=Celtic Curses |publisher=Boydell & Brewer |date=2009 |page=35}} else, at the opposite extreme, taking into account case-marking – {{lang|cel-x-combrit|-rix}} 'king' nominative, {{lang|cel-x-combrit|andagin}} 'worthless woman' accusative, {{lang|cel-x-combrit|dewina deieda}} 'divine Deieda' nominative/vocative – is:

'May I, Windiorix for/at Cuamena defeat [or 'summon to justice'] the worthless woman, [oh] divine Deieda.'Patrick Sims-Williams, "Common Celtic, Gallo-Brittonic, and Insular Celtic", Gaulois et celtique continental, eds. Pierre-Yves Lambert and Georges-Jean Pinault (Geneva: Droz, 2007), 327.

A tin/lead sheet retains part of nine text lines, damaged, with probable Brittonic names.Tomlin, 1987.

Local Roman Britain toponyms (place names) are evidentiary, recorded in Latinised forms by Ptolemy's Geography discussed by Rivet and Smith in their book of that name published in 1979. They show most names he used were from the Brittonic language. Some place names still contain elements derived from it. Tribe names and some Brittonic personal names are also taken down by Greeks and, mainly, Romans.

Tacitus's Agricola says that the language differed little from that of Gaul. Comparison with what is known of Gaulish confirms the similarity.Pierre-Yves Lambert, La langue gauloise, éditions errance 1994. p. 17.

Pictish, which became extinct around 1000 years ago, was the spoken language of the Picts in Northern Scotland. Despite significant debate as to whether this language was Celtic, items such as geographical and personal names documented in the region gave evidence that this language was most closely aligned with the Brittonic branch of Celtic languages. The question of the extent to which this language was distinguished, and the date of divergence, from the rest of Brittonic, was historically disputed.

Pritenic (also Pretanic and Prittenic) is a term coined in 1955 by Kenneth H. Jackson to describe a hypothetical Roman-era (1st to 5th centuries) predecessor to the Pictish language. Jackson saw Pritenic as having diverged from Brittonic around the time of 75–100 AD.

The term Pritenic is controversial. In 2015, linguist Guto Rhys concluded that most proposals that Pictish diverged from Brittonic before {{Circa|500 AD}} were incorrect, questionable, or of little importance, and that a lack of evidence to distinguish Brittonic and Pictish rendered the term Pritenic "redundant".{{cite web |last1=Rhys |first1=Guto |title=Approaching the Pictish language: historiography, early evidence and the question of Pritenic |url=http://theses.gla.ac.uk/6285/7/2015RhysPhD.pdf |website=University of Glasgow }}

Common Brittonic vied with Latin after the Roman conquest of Britain in 43 AD, at least in major settlements. Latin words were widely borrowed by its speakers in the Romanised towns and their descendants, and later from church use.

By 500–550 AD, Common Brittonic had diverged into the Neo-Brittonic dialects: Old Welsh primarily in Wales, Old Cornish in Cornwall, Old Breton in what is now Brittany, Cumbric in Northern England and Southern Scotland, and probably Pictish in Northern Scotland.

The modern forms of Breton and Welsh are the only direct descendants of Common Brittonic to have survived fully into the 21st century.{{cite book |last1=Burns Mcarthur |first1=Thomas |title=Concise Oxford Companion to the English Language |date=2005 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=9780192806376 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QMsWFsI0YkIC |access-date=30 April 2021}} Cornish fell out of use in the 1700s but has since undergone a revival.{{cite web |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cornwall-11935464 |title=Cornish language no longer extinct, says UN |work=BBC News Online |date=7 November 2010 |access-date=30 April 2021 }} Cumbric and Pictish are extinct and today spoken only in the form of loanwords in English, Scots, and Scottish Gaelic.{{cite web |title=Dictionaries of the Scots Language |url=https://dsl.ac.uk/about-scots/history-of-scots/vocabulary/ |access-date=30 April 2021}}

The early Common Brittonic vowel inventory is effectively identical to that of Proto-Celtic.{{clarify|date=June 2024}} {{IPA|/ɨ/}} and {{IPA|/ʉ/}} have not developed yet.

By late Common Brittonic, the New Quantity System had occurred, leading to a radical restructuring of the vowel system.

Notes:

• One development apparently confined to the West British precursor of Welsh was the change of short pretonic {{IPA|ɪ}} and {{IPA|u}} to rounded and unrounded mid central schwa vowels {{IPA link|ə}} and {{IPA link|ɵ}} respectively.

Through comparative linguistics, it is possible to approximately reconstruct the declension paradigms of Common Brittonic:

Notes:

• The dative dual and plural represent the inherited instrumental forms, which replaced the inherited dative dual and plural, from Proto-Celtic {{lang|cel-x-proto|toutābom}}, {{lang|cel-x-proto|toutābos}}.

Notes:

• Neuter 2nd declension stems deviate from the paradigm as such:

Notes:

• Dual is same as singular
• All other declensions same as regular 2nd declension paradigm

Brittonic-derived place names are scattered across Great Britain, with many occurring in the West Country; however, some of these may be pre-Celtic. The best example is perhaps that of each (river) Avon, which comes from the Brittonic {{lang|mis|aβon[a]}}, "river" (transcribed into Welsh as {{lang|cy|afon}}, Cornish {{lang|kw|avon}}, Irish and Scottish Gaelic {{lang|ga|abhainn}}, Manx {{lang|gv|awin}}, Breton {{lang|br|aven}}; the Latin cognate is {{lang|la|amnis}}). When river is preceded by the word, in the modern vein, it is tautological.

{{Main|Celtic toponymy}}

Examples are:

• Avon from {{lang|mis|abonā}}{{efn|name=b}} = 'river' (cf. Welsh {{lang|cy|afon}}, Cornish {{lang|kw|avon}}, Breton {{lang|br|aven}})
• Britain, cognate with {{lang|mis|Pritani}} = (possibly) 'People of the Forms' (cf. Welsh {{lang|cy|Prydain}} 'Britain', {{lang|cy|pryd}} 'appearance, form, image, resemblance'; Irish {{lang|ga|cruth}} 'appearance, shape', Old Irish {{lang|sga|Cruithin}} 'Picts')
• Cheviot from *{{lang|mis|cev-}} = 'ridge' and {{lang|mis|-ed}}, a noun suffix{{Cite web |url=http://spns.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/Alan_James_Brittonic_Language_in_the_Old_North_BLITON_Volume_II_Dictionary.pdf |title=The Brittonic Language in the Old North: A Guide to the Place-name Evidence |first=Alan |last=James |access-date=13 January 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170813011121/http://spns.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/Alan_James_Brittonic_Language_in_the_Old_North_BLITON_Volume_II_Dictionary.pdf |archive-date=13 August 2017 |url-status=dead |work=SPNS.org.uk |publisher=Scottish Place Name Society}}
• Dover: as pre-medieval Latin did not distinguish a Spanish-style mixed {{IPAblink|b}}-{{IPAblink|v}} sound, the phonetic standard way of reading {{lang|la|Dubrīs}} is as {{IPA|la|dʊβriːs|}}. It means 'water(s)' (cognate with old Welsh {{lang|cy|dwfr}}, plural phonetically {{IPA|cy|dəvrɔɪð|}}, Cornish {{lang|kw|dowr}}, Breton {{lang|br|dour}}, and Irish {{lang|ga|dobhar}}).
• Kent from {{lang|mis|canto-}} = 'border' (becoming in Welsh {{lang|cy|cant(el)}} 'rim, brim', in Breton, {{lang|br|kant}})
• Lothian, ({{lang|wlm|Lleuddiniawn}} in medieval Welsh) from *{{lang|mis|Lugudũn(iãnon)}} 'Fort of Lugus'
• Severn from {{lang|mis|Sabrīna}},{{efn|name=b|See note on pre-medieval-Latin recording of the letter {{lang|la|b}} at Dover, in this section.}} perhaps the name of a goddess (modern Welsh, {{lang|cy|Hafren}})
• Thames from {{lang|mis|Tamesis}} = 'dark' (probably cognate with Welsh {{lang|cy|tywyll}} 'darkness', Cornish {{lang|kw|tewal}}, Breton {{lang|br|teñval}}, Irish {{lang|ga|teimheal}}, pointing to a Brittonic approximate word {{lang|mis|temeselo-}})
• Thanet (headland) from {{lang|mis|tan-eto-}} = 'bonfire', 'aflame' (cf. Welsh {{lang|cy|tân}} 'fire', Cornish {{lang|kw|tanses}}, Old Breton {{lang|mis|tanet}} 'aflame')
• York from {{lang|mis|Ebur-ākon}}{{efn|name=b}} = 'yew tree stand/group' (cognate with Welsh {{lang|cy|Efrog}}, from {{lang|cy|efwr}} 'cow parsnip, hogweed' + {{lang|cy|-og}} 'abundant in', Breton {{lang|br|evor}} 'alder buckthorn', Scottish Gaelic {{lang|gd|iubhar}} 'yew', {{Lang|gd|iùbhrach}} 'stand/grove of yew trees'; cognate with Évreux in France, Évora in Portugal and Newry, Northern Ireland) via Latin {{lang|la|Eburacum}} > OE {{lang|ang|Eoforwīc}} (re-analysed by English speakers as {{lang|ang|eofor}} 'boar' with Old English {{lang|ang|wic}} appended at the end) > Old Norse {{lang|non|Jórvík}}

Basic words {{lang|mis|tor}}, {{lang|mis|combe}}, {{lang|mis|bere}}, and {{lang|mis|hele}} from Brittonic are common in Devon place-names.{{cite book |last1=Gover |first1=J. E. B. |last2=Mawer |first2=A. |last3=Stenton |first3=F. A. |title=Place-names of Devon |date=1932 |publisher=English Place-name Society}} Tautologous, hybrid word names exist in England, such as:

• Derwentwater (for Brittonic part see Dover above)
• Chetwood (cognate with Welsh {{lang|cy|coed}}, Breton {{lang|br|koad}}){{cite web |url=http://www.ndas.org.uk/place_names.html |title=The Archaeology of some North Devon Place-Names |last=Green |first=Terry |date=2003 |work=NDAS.org.uk |publisher=North Devon Archaeological Society |access-date=11 January 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111004165450/http://www.ndas.org.uk/place_names.html |archive-date=4 October 2011 |url-status=dead }}{{fv|date=May 2023}}
• Bredon Hill

{{Notelist}}

{{Reflist|2}}

• Filppula, M.; Klemola, J.; Pitkänen, H. (2001); The Celtic Roots of English, (Studies in Languages, No. 37); University of Joensuu, Faculty of Humanities; {{ISBN|952-458-164-7}}.
• Forsyth, K. (1997), Language in Pictland.
• Jackson, Kenneth H. (1953), Language and History in Early Britain.
• Jackson, Kenneth H. (1955), "The Pictish Language"; in F. T. Wainwright, The Problem of the Picts; London: Nelson.
• Koch, John T. (1986), "New Thought on Albion, Ieni and the 'Pretanic Isles'", Proceedings of the Harvard Celtic Colloquium, 6: pp. 1–28.
• Lambert, Pierre-Yves [ed.] (2002), Recueil des inscriptions gauloises II.2. Textes gallo-latins sur instrumentum; Paris: CNRS Editions; pp. 304–306.
• Lambert, Pierre-Yves (2003), La langue gauloise; 2nd ed.; Paris: Editions Errance; p. 176.
• Lockwood, W. B. (1975), Languages of the British Isles Past and Present; London: Deutsch; {{ISBN|0-233-96666-8}}.
• {{cite book

|last=McCone

|first=Kim

|year=1996

|title=Towards a Relative Chronology of Ancient and Medieval Celtic Sound Change

|publisher=Dept. of Old Irish, St. Patrick's College

|isbn=0-901519-40-5

|oclc=1023922722

}}

• Ostler, Nicholas (2005), Empires of the Word; London: HarperCollins; {{ISBN|0-00-711870-8}}.
• Price, Glanville. (2000), Languages of Britain and Ireland; Blackwell; {{ISBN|0-631-21581-6}}.
• Rivet, A. and Smith, C. (1979), The Place-names of Roman Britain
• Sims-Williams, Patrick (2003), The Celtic Inscriptions of Britain: Phonology and Chronology, c. 400–1200; Oxford, Blackwell; {{ISBN|1-4051-0903-3}}.
• Ternes, Elmar [ed.] (2011), Brythonic Celtic – Britannisches Keltisch: From Medieval British to Modern Breton; Bremen: Hempen Verlag.
• Trudgill, P. [ed.] (1984), Language in the British Isles; Cambridge University Press.
• Willis, David (2009), "Old and Middle Welsh"; in The Celtic Languages, 2nd ed.; eds. Martin J. Ball & Nichole Müller; New York: Routledge; {{ISBN|0-203-88248-2}}; pp. 117–160.

• [http://www.asnc.cam.ac.uk/personalnames/ Celtic Personal Names of Roman Britain]

• [https://web.archive.org/web/20060518053641/http://www.roman-britain.org/chase/_romans.htm Roman road stations of the Cannock-Chase area]
• [https://www.academia.edu/2567392/Evidence_for_written_Celtic_from_Roman_Britain_a_linguistic_analysis_of_Tabellae_Sulis_14_and_18 Alex Mullen (2007)], "Evidence for Written Celtic from Roman Britain: A Linguistic Analysis of Tabellae Sulis 14 and 18", Studia Celtica

{{Celtic languages}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Brittonic, Common}}

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Category:Extinct Celtic languages

Category:History of the Welsh language

Category:Brythonic Celts

Category:Proto-languages