Old Briton
ancient Celtic language of Britain, ancestor to Welsh, Cornish, Breton and Cumbric From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Old Briton (also called Proto-Briton) was a language spoken in Britain. It was the language of the Britons. By the 6th century it split into several Brittonic languages: Welsh, Cumbric, Cornish, and Breton.
| Old Briton | |
|---|---|
| ᚛ᚚᚏᚔᚇᚓᚅ᚜ | |
| Region | Great Britain |
| Ethnicity | Britons |
| Era | Developed into Old Welsh, Old Cumber, Old Cornish, Old Breton and probably Pictish[1][2] |
Indo-European
| |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | cel-GB |
Linguist List | brit |
| Glottolog | None |
| Linguasphere | 50-AB |
History
The parts of the British Isles where the Briton (red), Irish (green) and Pictish (blue) languages were spoken around 450-500 CE.
Old Briton is descended from Proto-Celtic, a hypothetical parent language.[a] By the first half of the first millennium BC it was already dividing into separate dialects or languages. There is some evidence that the Pictish language may have had close ties to Old Briton and might be a fifth branch.[4]
Evidence from Welsh shows a great influence from Latin on Old Briton during the Roman domain. This is particularly true of the Church and Christianity, which are nearly all Latin derivatives.[5] Old Briton was replaced in most of Scotland by Old Irish. South of the Firth of Forth it was replaced by Old English. Old Briton survived into the Mid-Ages in South Scotland and Cumbria. Old Briton was gradually replaced by English throughout England. In the north of England, Cumbric disappeared as late as the 13th century. In the south, the Cornish was a dead language by the 19th century. There were some attempts to revitalize it, which have met with some success.[6]
Notes
- There are no known examples of this language in writing. It existed in the late time period before history was being written down. It is currently being studied and reconstructed.[3]
References
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