Re: Picts, Celts and IE

Please don't be insulted by this, John, but I think that some of your comments are off-base.

 

>Picts had a language with some celtic elements, but it seems that
>much of their language was non-celtic.

 

Respectfully, John, how can you make such a statement? There is absolutely no evidence for this. All the examples of Pictish we have seem to point to it being closely related to Brittonic.

 

>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.

 

Doesn't mean anything - all that proves is that the dialect had diverged significantly by Columbas time. All of the Brittonic dialects were diverging.

 

>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.

 

Statements about alleged Pictish matrilinear descent may just as likely be misunderstandings of the actual situation - without concrete proof, we cannot say that they definitely were matrilinear. Remember, also, that Madb of Connachta is a MYTHIC character - a goddess - and does not necessarily reflect actual Irish practices.

 

 

>Pictish kings Talorc, Nechtan and Drust have names
>that do not appear to fit into any Celtic etymology,

 

gee... how about *Talo-Orcos "brow of a boar," (Celtic Tal-os "brow," Celtic orc-os "boar") *Nechtonos "divine descendant" or "god of the waters" (*Nep-t-on-os or *Nebh-t-on-os related to Roman Neptune), and *Drustos "brave one" (Welsh drusiad "warrior"). Not hard to etymologize with a Celtic twist one bit.

 

>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.

 

Evidence please? Since the Attacotti have a Celtic tribal name, I highly doubt they weren't Celtic speakers.

>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.

 

I don't know why you say this - it is just as likely that Pictaui and Pictones are related to Picti and that Picti is not actually a Latin name, but a Celtic name given a false Latin etymology by later writers. I think we might see the root  of Pict in PIE *kwek- "see."

 

>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.

Right - and Pretani is a nice Celtic word too, as Jackson notes.

>Some elements of the Pictish Ogham script show celticisation, but
>Pictish Ogham insriptions (unlike their Irish counterparts) have not
>yet been satisfactorilly translated.

 

Mostly because Pictish used a different ogam orthography than Irish - thus the confusion, mistransciption and false etymologization of the Pictish names