Yves asked
> Could someone tell me if the Picts were Celts? I heard they were
releated to
> the Basques. Is that true.
The Picts had a language with some celtic elements, but it seems that
much of their language was non-celtic. Certainly, these Celtic
elements grew over time, so by the period of the union of the Celtic
and Pictish thrones, under the Scottish (Gaelic Celtic) Kenneth
MacAlpin, 845AD, their language had almost entirely disappeared in
everyday usage, although in their use of Ogham inscriptions, a
non-Celtic language survived into the 9th century.
That nature of the language was non-Celtic is in part indicated by
Saint Collumba's mission in Iona. The Irish Saint, who was fluent in
Welsh and Irish, needed translators in talking to Brude Mac Maelchon
the Pictish King of the time. Brude (aka Bride ap Maelgwyn) was the
son of the Pendragon - king of Gwynedd, and was king of the Picts
through a marriage alliance. The Picts, unlike most other IE people
were strongly matrilineal (although matrilineal connections have been
found within British Celtic substratum = Boudicca Queen of Iceni,
Cartimandua Queen of the Brigantes, Maev of Connaught etc), with the
throne passing to the husbands of the Pictish Queen and her daughters
husbands. There also seems to have been a complex system of
oscillating kingship between the Northern Pictish Realm and the Kings
of the Southern Picts, which made for political instability and a very
confused genealogy. Pictish kings Talorc, Nechtan and Drust have names
that do not appear to fit into any Celtic etymology, though others
Bridei (Brude), Oengus and Alpin, do. It is hardly surprising that the
later names tend to occur later in the genealogy than the former. It
seems that these later kings came to rule through the Pictish marriage
rule (even Anglo-Saxons came to be Pictish kings by this strange habit
of marrying their daughts to the sons of powerful neighbouring peoples).
The non-Celtic element (possibly non-IE) was particularly strong in
northern Scotland. The Attacotti, who accompanied the Picts in their
southern raids across Hadrians Wall at the close of the 4th century,
seem to also have been non-Celtic speakers. Place names in the
Attacotti area suggest the non-Celtic elements were highly concentrated
in this region.
The Picts got their name from the Romans, Pictii meaning "painted" so
it has no etymological similarity to the Pictones, a Vasconic people of
Aquitaine, so the Basque connection (based upon a false etymology)
cannot be sustained. They called themselves Prettani - from which it
is believed the Romans derived the name Britain. In Ireland, by the
C-P shift they were known as Cruithne. Here they seem to have become
fairly early assimilated into the Gaelic culture and language, though
their Pictish tribal origins were long remembered. Picts even aspired
to the High Kingship of Ireland at various periods.
The Reverend A.B. Scott, in his 1918 book The Pictish Nation, its
People and its Church gives an interesting dissertation on the origins
of ancient names for Britain and Scotland.
According to him and various other authors, the early Basque seafarers
from the north of Spain, as well as Greek shipmasters navigated around
the British isles and referred to them as Alba or Albion (meaning
"white"). Ptolemy spells it as Alouion around 127 AD, and later on
Pliny refers to the island as Albion. It was the Greek seafarer
Pytheas, who as early as 300 BC refers to the islands Pretanikai Nesoi
(meaning "Pretanic Islands"), which Scott claims is based on the native
name for Britain Ynis Prydain, which literally means Picts' Island.
Another scholar, Kenneth Jackson derives the name "Pritanic" from the
Pictish
tribe called Pritani, meaning "The People of the Designs."
Across the water, early Irish writers echo the "Albion" name and refer
to Scotland as Alba or Alban, although the later Annals of Ulster refer
to Scotland as Cruithintuait - the word Cruithni (meaning "the tribe of
the designs") being the Irish word for the Picts and tuath for people,
land or nation. The Vikings, upon landing in the north of Scotland at
the beginning of the 9th century, called the country Pictland. The name
Pentland Firth is derived from the Norse name Pettaland Fjord,
literally "Pictland Fjord." In Britain, the P-Celtic speaking Britons
spelled the Irish name "Cruithni" (Pict) as Pryten; this eventually
becomes Briton in the tongue of the Teutonic invaders.
Some elements of the Pictish Ogham script show celticisation, but
Pictish Ogham insriptions (unlike their Irish counterparts) have not
yet been satisfactorilly translated. It does not seem to have any
Basque affiliations.
There is a long Scottish-Spanish link that has been used from time to
time to suggest that a Basque-Pictish connection may exist. One is the
thesis of the "megalithic people" who are supposed sometimes to have
come from Spain. Caertainly Portugese Passgae Graves are amongst the
earliest megaliths, but independent areas of dissemination of
megalithic culture at such an early time are found in Britanny and
around Boyne in Ireland. It is true that these areas were closely
linked by sea routes until the times of the Vikings (which may account
for the Irish linking their origins via Miled Espani (Mil the
Spainiard) the reputed father of Eremon (the first Irish High King) and
the epinymous Milesians. Certainly Galicia in Spain takes its name
from "The Land of the Gaelic People." These Gaelic connections,
however, are too late for the 4,300 BCE Megalithic connection.
Recent research suggests that the Megalithic cultures were linked to a
spread of a common set of religious beliefs amongst a number of
neolithic peoples who otherwise had little in common. Thus the idea of
a "Megalithic Race" of Basques or Altantiker Berbers, is not usually
nowadays supported. As for what language the Pictish sub-stratum
represents, its anyone's guess.
Hope this helps
John