Better Visualize Pre-Roman England and Ireland: Celtic Languages

To get a better idea of the Tribes, relevant to Languages, I will reference, please check out the parent post, Pre-Roman England: Better Visualize Brythonic Tribes, or its sister post, Ptolemy’s Ireland: Better Visualize His 16 Celtic Tribes.

Map is at the end of the post.
It represents the British isles circa 100BC.


This post is built on some key assumptions.

Firstly, all descendant languages start as a dialect of the original.
Secondly, Pictish is a descendant of Brythonic Celtic, more likely a sister language, like Portuguese and Spanish.
Finally, differences in culture, like language, have a linage.


Languages: History

The language of the British isles was Celtic in origin. Over time, it developed into its own category known as Insular Celtic. And this language developed into 2 distinct languages again. Goidelic & Brittonic.

Brittonic, or Brythonic, being the lingual ancestor among the island of… Briton.


Languages: Explanation

Preface

A more simplistic and accurate map of languages of the British Isles ca.100BC would have 3 languages. Goidelic, Brittonic, and Pictish. With Goidelic covering all Ireland and Pictish / Brittonic splitting Brittan between north (Scottland) and south (England) respectively.

I fully admit the amateur nature of this map. Honestly, I am more concerned with the general knowledge. As all my other posts on this subject have been before, this is a steppingstone. I personally gain, and hope others will too, from its use as a general reference.


Solid Colors

Solid colors represent fully realized dialects. Not a separate language per-say, but distinct enough to become a strong progenitor of one when linguistic evolutionary pressures are in play.

These Pressures Include:

Distance/Isolation.
This is how most new dialects form. Therefore, the longer a dialect is isolated from its linguistic father, the more likely it will shift.

S. Bryth (Gaul)

As I explained in Pre-Roman England: Better Visualize Brythonic Tribes, the dark red area represents tribes that the Romans noted as more similar to the Gauls of main land, northern France, with the Catuvellauni, Trinovantes, and Cantii being the most “civilized“.

In particular, the Catuvellauni, were very popular. So much so that the archeological remains of the Trinovantes were thought to have been Catuvellauni, being so similar. It is thanks to Ptolemy that we knew of their existence and distinction from the Catuvellauni.

Connacht (E. Connacht)

As I explained in Ptolemy’s Ireland: Better Visualize His 16 Celtic Tribes, The Manapioi, Coriondi, Briganti, and Kaukoi all share similarities in names with British Celtic or Gaulic Celtic language. I hold that, by the time of Ptolemy’s writing (~100AD), eastern Ireland had been colonized by Celts from Gual, and or western/southwestern Britain, who had fully integrated with the Irish.

The pink (W. Bryth/Welsh) represents that state, 200 years before. Following the reign of Labraid Loingsech (100-200 years before that), a banished high king who returned and brought with him the Laigin, or Gaileoin as an army. This would have been the period of interrogation of the Ordovices, Dumnonii, Gaileoin, etc. from British/Gaulic into Irish.

N. Bryth (Pictish) | W. Bryth (Wlesh)

Keep in mind that for all I “know”, it is known that the language of Britain ca.100BC was Brittonic, or Common Brittonic. It was either at the drift from Insular Celtic that Pictish became a dialect (sister language theory), or by the time and influence of the Romans, who would have isolated the Picts from the rest of Brittan (descendant theory).

Following Roman influence ca. 40-400AD, Common Brittonic would mutate into an eastern dialect, British Latin, and a western dialect, which would also be split by Anglo-Saxon influence, ca. 400-600AD, into a southwestern dialect. The two western dialects would become Welsh & Cumbric (W.) and Cornish & Breton (SW.).


Translucent Colors

Translucent colors represent contemporary expressions of linguistic evolutionary pressures. For example: Bridge languages, solidifying cultural identity (separate from the established), etc. All the ingredients needed to create a dialect, language, and culture.

Leinster | Ulster E. & W.

The Language of Ireland, ca. 100BC was Goidelic. It is my assumption that the latter languages: Munster, Connacht, and Ulster Irish, started as southern, central, and northern dialects respectively.

Going off of place and tribe names, it seems like the eastern lands that spoke the Connacht dialect mutated thanks to a new stock of Gaulic, British, and or Munster speakers. Meanwhile, Ulster developed its own dialects more passively between east and west. With only slightly different naming conventions and syntax.

Cumbric

Cumbric most likely split from Western Brittonic some time between 400-600AD due to Anglo-Saxon pressures. The are on the map that are pink within the Cumbric zone represent the Votadini, claimed ancestors of medieval Welsh dynasties.

However, that land area was still in contact with the rest of western Briton while “split”. So, I assume there was a preexisting, or rapidly developing identity among the northern English and southern Picts.

This is the basis for my belief that Cumbric is, or had its origins as a bridge “language” (dialect) between Pictish and Brittonic sister languages.

Cornish / Breton

We have a date for when the southwestern Brittonic languages, Cornish and Breton, were isolated from Western Brittonic. In the year 577, at the battle of Deorham, the western Brittons of the west-country were defeated and pushed into the South West Peninsula by the Saxons of Wessex.

Looking at the time frame, and geography, I assume, like with Cumbric, there was a preexisting identity among the southwestern Britons. Although, the isolation factors are heavier due to the separation by the Bristol Chanel.

E. Bryth (Brit-Latin)

There is no “eastern Brtiioninc” language group. Roman influence was much greater in the east, and then so was Anglo-Saxon. The lack of Celtic cross-influence on the English language implies an overwhelming of the native language by Roman and then Germanic influences.

Whether this was due to a physical displacement of the population, or the popularity of the new cultures and the wealth / advancement they brought compared to the old culture, I do not know.

Common consensus seems to lean to the latter. Although it lent towards the prior not too long ago.

Manx

There is not a lot to go on for Manx, or rather, there is a lot of “maybes”. So, I will keep it short and just lay out the facts and possibilities.

Firstly, We do not know who the original inhabitants were. There have been a lot of “people movements”, conquering, colonizing, etc. between Britain and Ireland, the British isles and Gual, as well as Scandinavia.

Secondly, Manx as a known language is Goidelic. It was isolated from other Gaelic languages in the 1700s with the colonization of Ulster (plantation of Ulster) and death of Galwegian Gaelic and became more unique.

Finially, I have some origin theories:

  1. It could be in the same camp as Pictish, a Brittonic language drifting from Insular Celtic at the same time as Brittonic and Goidelic. Then, like Pictish, it was completely subsumed by a Goidelic language, likely from the Ulster dialect.
  2. It could be a Goidelic sister language that was subsumed by “mainland” Goidelic.

Errata

Fixed boarders on Ireland and Britain:
– Dotted borders to represent contested, and or technical areas
+ Gabrantovices & Lopocares / Tectoverdi / Corionototae in Britain
+ Muscraige & Orsaige in Ireland
Edited Brit-Latin Region:
Pulled further south to more Gaulish like tribes, such as Corieltauvi and border lands of other tribes, such as Briganti & Parisii, to represent culture spillover.
Edited Cornish Region:
Better represent idea of southern tribes being distinct (enough for the Romans to note) from Welsh/Northern tribes. Half is still light red to indicate eventual split / shared idiosyncrasies in language. Note that it is not dark red, i.e. not Gaul-like.