ORCADIA-L Archives

From: "Sigurd Towrie" <>
Subject: Pictish Language - was: The Drow
Date: Sun, 10 Jan 1999 18:33:33 -0000

> From what I've read the Picts are generally considered to have been Celts
> who spoke a Gaelic similar, or descending from the same branch as Welsh
> Gaelic -brythonic or P-Celtic. Just because St. Columba needed an
> interpreter doesn't mean they didn't speak another form of Gaelic. In
> "The Age of The Picts" by W.A. Cummings, the author uses place names to
> determine that their language probably was a brythonic Gaelic. He writes
> that an early Gaelic was spoken in late prehistoric times in all
> of what is
> now Scotland and that that language was modified by the influence of a
> Brythonic language and when the Romans built Antoine and Hadrian's walls a
> hybrid speech developed to the north of the wall that was distinctively
> Pictish -not completely British or fully Gaelic.

The whole Pictish language "area" is a complex one but amidst all the
differing theories and arguments is one that caught my eye;

It is generally agreed that Pictish language was not Goedelic (Q-Celtic -
the forerunner of modern Gaelic) but it is thought that before the
introduction of Gaelic (from Ireland) there were two languages spoken in
Pictland. One was indeed a form of P-Celtic similar to Welsh and Gaulish
but it has been argued that there may have been an indigenous
non-Indo-European language spoken in the more "isolated" areas.

To cut a long story short, it has been theorised that Brittonic largely
replaced the older language in the south but that it survived in the north
and became linguistically distinct.

So did we have a situation where the Orcadian Picts spoke a strange
non-Indo-European language with a smattering of Brittonic Pictish where
there were aristocratic and church connections. (This would not be
surprising as there were other distinct cultural differences between the
Orkney Picts and their southern cousins).

The Ravenna Cosmography (written in either the late 7th or early 8th
Century) states that:

"Also in the same ocean are thirty-three islands called the Orchades, not
all of which are inhabited. Nevertheless we would wish, Christ willing, to
name them but because of the confusion resulting from this land being
controlled by differing peoples who, according to the barbarian fashion,
call the same islands by differing names, we leave the names unlisted."

While this may simply be because the Italian writer couldn't make sense of
his sources or even that it was a later addition and refers to the
Norse/Pictish renaming confusions it is also possible that the "different
names" were in this archaic language.

This "archaic language" makes sense especially when we begin to look at
Orcadian placename derivations - although there are a few Gaelic (Goedelic)
elements to be found in placenames across Orkney, these could have been late
additions. F T Wainwright (author of "The Problem with the Picts" and "The
Northern Isles") scrutinised the lists and came to the conclusion that
although there were one or two elements that may have been Brittonic (and
therefore definitely pre-Norse) he concluded that there was not one single
name that could beyond doubt be attributed to the Picts. Not surprising if
the Orcadian Picts were speaking a different language.

Within placename study, the majority can be explained as Norse, some as
Gaelic/Celtic but that still leaves a large number that are unexplainable.
Could these contain remnants of this archaic language?

--
Sigurd Towrie
Blackhall - Kirbister - Stromness - Orkney
E-Mail:
Heritage of Orkney: www.orcades.dircon.co.uk

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