The Pictish language is the extinct language of the Picts, in what is now Scotland. Evidence of the language is limited to place names and to the names of people found on monuments and the contemporary records. At its height, it may have been spoken from Shetland down to Fife. Motto: (Latin for No one provokes me with impunity)1 Anthem: Multiple unofficial anthems Capital Edinburgh Largest city Glasgow Official language(s) English, Gaelic, Scots 2 Government Constitutional monarchy  - Queen Queen Elizabeth II  - Prime Minister of the UK Tony Blair MP  - First Minister Jack McConnell MSP Unification    - by Kenneth I... An extinct language (also called a dead language) is a language which no longer has any native speakers. ... Current distribution of Human Language Families Most languages are known to belong to language families. ... ISO 639-1 is the first part of the ISO 639 international-standard language-code family. ... ISO 639-2:1998 Codes for the representation of names of languages — Part 2: Alpha-3 code Twenty-two of the languages have two three-letter codes: a code for bibliographic use (ISO 639-2/B) a code for terminological use (ISO 639-2/T). ... ISO 639-3 is in process of development as an international standard for language codes. ... For information on how to read IPA transcriptions of English words see here. ... Phonetics (from the Greek word φωνή, phone meaning sound, voice) is the study of sounds and the human voice. ... Because of technical limitations, some web browsers may not display some special characters in this article. ... This is a concise version of the International Phonetic Alphabet for English sounds. ... The English language is a West Germanic language that originates in England. ... An extinct language (also called a dead language) is a language which no longer has any native speakers. ... A replica of the Hilton of Cadboll Stone. ... Motto: (Latin for No one provokes me with impunity)1 Anthem: Multiple unofficial anthems Capital Edinburgh Largest city Glasgow Official language(s) English, Gaelic, Scots 2 Government Constitutional monarchy  - Queen Queen Elizabeth II  - Prime Minister of the UK Tony Blair MP  - First Minister Jack McConnell MSP Unification    - by Kenneth I... The Shetland Islands, also called Shetland (archaically spelled Zetland) formerly called Hjaltland, comprise one of 32 council areas of Scotland. ... Fife (Fìobh in Gaelic) is a council area of Scotland, situated between the Firth of Tay and the Firth of Forth, with landward boundaries to Perth and Kinross and Clackmannanshire. ...

The classification of the Pictish language is controversial.^{[citation needed]}

In 1582, the humanist scholar (and native Gaelic-speaker) George Buchanan, expressed the view that Pictish was similar to languages like Welsh, Gaulish and Gaelic. The rest of research into Pictish has been described as postscript to Buchanan's work. ^[1] George Buchanan. ... Welsh redirects here, and this article describes the Welsh language. ... Gaulish is the name given to the Celtic language that was spoken in Gaul before the Vulgar Latin of the late Roman Empire became dominant in Roman Gaul. ... // Scottish Gaelic (Gàidhlig) is a member of the Goidelic branch of Celtic languages. ...

According to W. B. Lockwood (1975) the view that Pictish was a Celtic language is tentative. Referring to an inscription in Shetland he writes: "When the personal names are extracted, the residue is entirely incomprehensible. Thus the Lunnasting stone in Shetland reads ettocuhetts ahehhttann hccvvevv nehhtons. The last word is clearly the commonly occurring name Nechton, but the rest, even allowing for the perhaps arbitrary doubling of consonants in Ogam, appears so exotic that philologists conclude that Pictish was a non-Indo-European language of unknown affinities". The Lunnasting stone is a stone bearing an Ogham inscription, found in Lunnasting, Shetland and donated to the National Museum of Antiquities of Scotland in 1876. ... Ogham (Old Irish Ogam) was an alphabet used primarily to represent Gaelic languages that was probably often written in wood in early times. ...

However, the evidence of place names and personal names argue strongly that the Picts spoke Insular Celtic languages related to the more southerly Brythonic languages^[2] though it has also been proposed that the language was closer to Gaulish than the Brittonic languages.^[3] Columba, a Gael, needed an interpreter in Pictland, and Bede claimed that the Picts spoke a different language from the Britons, statements which say nothing about the nature of the Pictish language. It has been argued that one or more non-Indo-European languages survived in Pictland, an argument that is considered to be primarily based on limited negative evidence and the long discarded view that languages and material cultures can spread only through invasion and migration.^[4] Pre-Indo-European elements can be found fairly frequently in northern Scottish place names, and it is theorised that some Pictish ogam inscriptions may also represent examples of this language. Toponymy is the taxonomic study of toponyms (place-names), their origins and their meanings. ... Anthroponomastics (or Anthroponymy), a branch of onomastics, is the study of anthroponyms (<Gk. ... The Insular Celtic hypothesis concerns the origin of the Celtic languages. ... The Brythonic languages (or Brittonic languages) form one of the two branches of the Insular Celtic language family. ... Gaulish is the name given to the Celtic language that was spoken in Gaul before the Vulgar Latin of the late Roman Empire became dominant in Roman Gaul. ... The Brythonic languages (or Brittonic languages) form one of the two branches of the Insular Celtic language family. ... Saint Columba (7 December 521 - 9 June 597) is sometimes referred to as Columba of Iona, or, in Old Irish, as Saint Colm Cille or Columcille (meaning Dove of the church). He was the outstanding figure among the Gaelic missionary monks who reintroduced Christianity to Scotland during the Dark Ages. ... Ogham (Old Irish Ogam) was an alphabet used primarily to represent Gaelic languages that was probably often written in wood in early times. ...

Place names often allow us to deduce the existence of historic Pictish settlements in Scotland. Those prefixed with "Aber-" (river mouth), "Lhan-" (churchyard), "Pit-" (portion, share, farm), or "Fin-" (hill [?]) indicate regions inhabited by Picts in the past (for example: Aberdeen, Lhanbryde, Pitmedden, Pittodrie, Findochty, etc). However, it is "Pit-" which is the most distinctive element, while "Aber-" can also be found in places which were formerly Brythonic-speaking. Some of the Pictish elements, such as "Pit-", were formed after Pictish times, and may refer to previous "shires" or "thanages".^[5] Other suggested place-name elements include "pert" (hedge, Welsh perth - Perth, Larbert), "carden" (thicket, Welsh cardden - Pluscarden, Kincardine), "pevr" (shining, Welsh pefr - Strathpeffer, Peffery).^[6] Motto: (Latin for No one provokes me with impunity)1 Anthem: Multiple unofficial anthems Capital Edinburgh Largest city Glasgow Official language(s) English, Gaelic, Scots 2 Government Constitutional monarchy  - Queen Queen Elizabeth II  - Prime Minister of the UK Tony Blair MP  - First Minister Jack McConnell MSP Unification    - by Kenneth I... Cumbric was the Brythonic Celtic language spoken in Cumbria, and the southern Lowland Scotland . ...

The evidence of place names may also reveal the advance of Gaelic into Pictland. As noted, Atholl, meaning New Ireland, is attested in the early 8th century. This may be an indication of the advance of Gaelic. Fortriu also contains place names suggesting Gaelic settlement, or Gaelic influences.^[7] There are a number of Pictish loanwords in modern Scottish Gaelic, such as beinn, but few have survived into Doric. Note: This page contains phonetic information presented in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) using Unicode. ... For the Doric dialect of ancient Greek, see Doric Greek Doric was formerly used to refer to all dialects of Lowland Scots but is now usually used as a name for the dialect spoken in the north-east of Scotland. ...

Apart from personal names, Bede provides a single Pictish place name (HE, I, 12), when discussing the Antonine Wall: The Antonine Wall, looking east, from Barr Hill between Twechar and Croy The Antonine Wall, remains of Roman fortlet, Barr Hill, near Twechar Location of Hadrians Wall and the Antonine Wall in Scotland and Northern England. ...

It begins at about two miles' distance from the monastery of Abercurnig, on the west, at a place called in the Pictish language, Peanfahel, but in the English tongue, Penneltun, and running to the westward, ends near the city Alcluith.

Peanfahel - modern Kinneil, by Bo'ness - appears to contain elements cognate with Brythonic penn 'at the end' and Goidelic fal 'wall'. Alcluith, 'rock of the Clyde', is modern Dumbarton Rock, site of a major early medieval fortress and later castle. To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ...

^[8]

Notes

Kenneth Hurlstone Jackson was a linguist and phonologist and a translator who specialized in the Brythonic languages. ... Federico Krutwig Salcedo (1921–1998) was a Spanish Anarchist, best known as author of several books. ...

References