Re: Pictish

From: CG
Message: 24773
Date: 2003-07-24

> [Davius] But in science any belief must be supported by some
>evidence... what are exactly the linguistics evidences that support
>celticness of Pictish language?

The Celticness of Pictish really isn't that questionable anymore -
the non-ogham material (ie, Pictish placenames, and personal names
recorded in Welsh, Irish, and Latin sources) shows a clear affinity
with the other Brittonic languages - the difficulty with the ogham
inscriptions is likely due to the fact that we don't really have the
key to the peculiar orthography that the Picts used (it differed from
Irish ogham orthography), and many of the Pictish stones are damaged,
or severely weathered, which hinders proper readings of the
inscriptions. Many of the ogham inscriptions display words and names
that are clearly related to Brittonic dialects, however. Most modern
Celticists see Pictish as simply being a dialect of Brittonic.

- Chris Gwinn