Common Brittonic

This article is about an ancestral Celtic language. For the group of languages descended from it, see Brittonic languages.

Common Brittonic (Welsh: Brythoneg; Cornish: Brythonek; Breton: Predeneg), also known as British, Common Brythonic, or Proto-Brittonic,^[4][5] is a Celtic language historically spoken in Britain and Brittany from which evolved the later and modern Brittonic languages.

Common Brittonic
*Brittonikā[1]
Region	Great Britain
Ethnicity	Britons
Era	c. 6th century BC to mid-6th century AD[2] Developed into Old Welsh, Cumbric, Cornish, Breton and probably Pictish[3]
Language family	Indo-European Celtic Insular Celtic Brittonic Common Brittonic
Language codes
ISO 639-3	–
Linguist List	brit
Glottolog	None
Linguasphere	50-AB

It is a form of Insular Celtic, descended from Proto-Celtic, a theorized parent language that, by the first half of the first millennium BC, was diverging into separate dialects or languages.^[6][7][8][9] Pictish is linked, most probably as a sister language or a descendant branch.^[10][11][12]

Evidence from early and modern Welsh shows that Common Brittonic was significantly influenced by Latin during the Roman period, especially in terms related to the church and Christianity.^[13] By the sixth century AD, the languages of the Celtic Britons were rapidly diverging into Neo-Brittonic: Welsh, Cumbric, Cornish, Breton, and possibly the Pictish language.

Over the next three centuries, Brittonic was replaced by Scottish Gaelic in most of Scotland, and by Old English (from which descend Modern English and Scots) throughout most of modern England as well as Scotland south of the Firth of Forth.^[14] Cumbric disappeared in the 12th century,^[14] and in the far south-west, Cornish probably became extinct in the 18th century, though its use has since been revived.^[15][a] O'Rahilly's historical model suggests a Brittonic language in Ireland before the introduction of the Goidelic languages, but this view has not found wide acceptance.^[17] Welsh and Breton are the only daughter languages that have survived fully into the modern day.

History

Sources

Bath curse tablet featuring possible Common Brittonic

No documents in the language have been found, but a few inscriptions have been identified.^[18] 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:^[19] "Adixoui Deuina Deieda Andagin Uindiorix cuamenai". (Sometimes the final word has been rendered cuamiinai.) This text is often seen as: 'The affixed – Deuina, Deieda, Andagin [and] Uindiorix – I have bound';^[20] else, at the opposite extreme, taking into account case-marking – -rix 'king' nominative, andagin 'worthless woman' accusative, dewina deieda 'divine Deieda' nominative/vocative – is: 'May I, Windiorix for/at Cuamena defeat [or 'summon to justice'] the worthless woman, [oh] divine Deieda.'^[21]

A tin/lead sheet retains part of nine text lines, damaged, with probable Brittonic names.^[22]

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.^[23]

Pictish and Pritenic

Pictish, which became extinct around 1000 years ago, was the spoken language of the Picts in Northern Scotland.^[3] 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.^[3] The question of the extent to which this language was distinguished, and the date of divergence, from the rest of Brittonic, was historically disputed.^[3]

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.^[3] Jackson saw Pritenic as having diverged from Brittonic around the time of 75–100 AD.^[3]

The term Pritenic is controversial. In 2015, linguist Guto Rhys concluded that most proposals that Pictish diverged from Brittonic before c. 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".^[3]

Diversification and Neo-Brittonic

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:^[3] 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.^[3]

The modern forms of Breton and Welsh are the only direct descendants of Common Brittonic to have survived fully into the 21st century.^[24] Cornish fell out of use in the 1700s but has since undergone a revival.^[25] Cumbric and Pictish are extinct and today spoken only in the form of loanwords in English, Scots, and Scottish Gaelic.^[26][3]

Phonology

Consonants

(Late) Common Brittonic consonants^{[failed verification]}

		Labial		Dental		Alveolar		Palatal		Velar		Labial– velar		Glottal
Nasal			m		n						(ŋ)
Stop		p	b	t	d					k	ɡ		(ɡʷ)
Fricative	oral	ɸ	β	θ	ð	s				x	ɣ			h
	nasal		β̃
Approximant									j			(ʍ)	w
Lateral							l
Trill							r

Vowels

Early Common Brittonic vowels^{[failed verification]}

	Front		Central		Back
	short	long	short	long	short	long
Close	i	iː			u
Close-mid	e	eː			o
Open-mid		ɛː				ɔː
Open			a			ɑː

The early Common Brittonic vowel inventory is effectively identical to that of Proto-Celtic.^{[clarification needed]} /ɨ/ and /ʉ/ have not developed yet.

Late Common Brittonic vowels

	Front		Central		Back
	unrounded	rounded	unrounded	rounded	rounded
Close	i	y	ɨ	ʉ	u
Close-mid	e	ø[failed verification]			o
Open-mid	ɛ				ɔ
Open			a

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 ɪ and u to rounded and unrounded mid central schwa vowels ə and ɵ respectively.

Vowel developments^[27]

Proto-Celtic	Stage
	I	II	III	IV	V	Vb	VI	VII	VIII	IX
Short vowels	*a
	*e
	*i						*ɪ
	*o							*o, *ʉ
	*u							*u, *ʉ
Long vowels	*ā				*ɔ̄					*ɔ
	*ē								*ui
	*ī									*i
	*ō		*ū			*ǖ				*ü
	*ū	*ǖ				*ī				*i
Diphthongs	*ai			*ɛ̄					*oi
	*au				*ɔ̄					*ɔ

Grammar

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

First declension

Brittonic *tōtā 'tribe' and cognates in other languages

#	Case	Brittonic	Gaulish	Old Irish	PIE
Singular	Nominative	*tōtā	toutā	túathL	**tewteh2
	Vocative	*tōtā	toutā	túathL	**tewteh2
	Accusative	*tōtin	toutim	túaithN	**tewteh2m
	Genitive	*tōtiās	toutiās	túaithe	**tewteh2s
	Dative	*tōtī	toutī	túaithL	**tewteh2eh1
	Ablative	*tōtī	toutī		**tewteh2es
	Instrumental	*tōtī	toutī		**tewteh2(e)h1
	Locative	*tōtī	toutī		**tewteh2i
Dual	Nominative accusative vocative	*tōtī	—	túaithL	**tewteh2h1e
	Genitive	*tōtious	—	túathL	**tewteh2ows
	Dative	*tōtābon	—	túathaib	**tewteh2bhām
	Ablative instrumental	*tōtābin	—		**tewteh2bhām
	Locative	*tōtābin	—		**tewteh2ows
Plural	Nominative vocative	*tōtās	toutās	túathaH	**tewteh2es
	Accusative	*tōtās	toutās	túathaH	**tewteh2ns
	Genitive	*tōtābon	toutānon	túathN	**tewteh2om
	Dative	*tōtābo	toutābi	túathaib	**tewteh2bhi
	Ablative	*tōtā	—		**tewteh2bhos
	Instrumental	*tōtā	—		**tewteh2bhis
	Locative	*tōtā	—		**tewteh2su

Notes:

• The dative dual and plural represent the inherited instrumental forms, which replaced the inherited dative dual and plural, from Proto-Celtic *toutābom, *toutābos.

Second declension

Brittonic *wiros 'man' and cognates in other languages

#	Case	Brittonic	Gaulish	Welsh	Old Irish	PIE
Singular	Nom.	*wiros	wiros	gŵr	fer	*wiHros
	Voc.	*wire	wire		firL	*wiHre
	Acc.	*wiron	wirom		ferN	*wiHrom
	Gen.	*wirī	wirī		firL	*wiHrosyo
	Dat.	*wirū	wirū		fiurL	*wiHroh1
	Abl. ins.	*wirū	—			*wiHroh1
	Loc.	*wirē	—			*wiHrey
Dual	Nom. acc. voc.	*wirō	wirō		ferL	*wiHroh1
	Gen.	*wirōs	—		fer	*wiHrows
	Dat.	*wirobon	—		feraib	*wiHrobhām
	Abl.	*wirobin	—			*wiHrobhām
	Ins.	*wirobin	—			*wiHrobhām
	Loc.	*wirou	—			*wiHrows
Plural	Nom. voc.	*wirī	wirī	gwŷr	firL (nom.), firuH (voc.)	*wiHroy
	Acc.	*wirūs	wirūs		firuH	*wiHrons
	Gen.	*wiron	wiron		ferN	*wiHrooHom
	Dat.	*wirobi	wirobi		feraib	*wiHrōys
	Abl.	*wirobi	—			*wiHromos
	Ins.	*wirobi	—			*wiHrōys
	Loc.	*wirobi	—			*wiHroysu

Notes:

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

Neuter 2nd declension stem *cradion

#	Case	Brittonic
Sg	Nom. voc. acc.	*cradion
Pl	Nom. voc. acc.	*cradiā

Notes:

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

Third declension

Brittonic *carrecis and cognates in other languages

#	Case	Brittonic	Gaulish	Welsh	Old Irish	PIE
Sg	Nom.	*carrecis	—	carreg	carrac
	Voc.	*carreci	—
	Acc.	*carrecin	—
	Gen.	*carrecēs	—
	Dat.	*carrecē	—
	Abl. ins. loc.	*carrecī	—
Du	Nom.	*carrecī	—
	Gen.	*carreciōs	—
	Dat.	*carrecibon	—
	Abl. ins. loc.	*carrecī	—
Pl	Nom. voc. acc.	*carrecīs	—	cerrig
	Gen.	*carrecion	—
	Dat.	*carrecibo	—
	Abl. ins. loc.	*carrecibi	—

Place names

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 aβon[a], "river" (transcribed into Welsh as afon, Cornish avon, Irish and Scottish Gaelic abhainn, Manx awin, Breton aven; the Latin cognate is amnis). When river is preceded by the word, in the modern vein, it is tautological.

Examples of place names derived from the Brittonic languages

Main article: Celtic toponymy

Examples are:

• Avon from abonā^[b] = 'river' (cf. Welsh afon, Cornish avon, Breton aven)
• Britain, cognate with Pritani = (possibly) 'People of the Forms' (cf. Welsh Prydain 'Britain', pryd 'appearance, form, image, resemblance'; Irish cruth 'appearance, shape', Old Irish Cruithin 'Picts')
• Cheviot from *cev- = 'ridge' and -ed, a noun suffix^[28]
• Dover: as pre-medieval Latin did not distinguish a Spanish-style mixed [b]-[v] sound, the phonetic standard way of reading Dubrīs is as [dʊβriːs]. It means 'water(s)' (cognate with old Welsh dwfr, plural phonetically [dəvrɔɪð], Cornish dowr, Breton dour, and Irish dobhar).
• Kent from canto- = 'border' (becoming in Welsh cant(el) 'rim, brim', in Breton, kant)
• Lothian, (Lleuddiniawn in medieval Welsh) from *Lugudũn(iãnon) 'Fort of Lugus'
• Severn from Sabrīna,^[b] perhaps the name of a goddess (modern Welsh, Hafren)
• Thames from Tamesis = 'dark' (probably cognate with Welsh tywyll 'darkness', Cornish tewal, Breton teñval, Irish teimheal, pointing to a Brittonic approximate word temeselo-)
• Thanet (headland) from tan-eto- = 'bonfire', 'aflame' (cf. Welsh tân 'fire', Cornish tanses, Old Breton tanet 'aflame')
• York from Ebur-ākon^[b] = 'yew tree stand/group' (cognate with Welsh Efrog, from efwr 'cow parsnip, hogweed' + -og 'abundant in', Breton evor 'alder buckthorn', Scottish Gaelic iubhar 'yew', iùbhrach 'stand/grove of yew trees'; cognate with Évreux in France, Évora in Portugal and Newry, Northern Ireland) via Latin Eburacum > OE Eoforwīc (re-analysed by English speakers as eofor 'boar' with Old English wic appended at the end) > Old Norse Jórvík

Basic words tor, combe, bere, and hele from Brittonic are common in Devon place-names.^[29] Tautologous, hybrid word names exist in England, such as:

• Derwentwater (for Brittonic part see Dover above)
• Chetwood (cognate with Welsh coed, Breton koad)^{[30][failed verification]}
• Bredon Hill

Notes

1. A study of 2018 found the number of people with at least minimal skills in Cornish as over 3,000, including around 500 estimated to be fluent.^[16]
2. See note on pre-medieval-Latin recording of the letter b at Dover, in this section.