--- In cybalist@... s.com, "Brian M. Scott" <BMScott@... > wrote:
>
> At 12:06:40 PM on Thursday, August 20, 2009, neckfil wrote:
>
> > There is a town in Scotland Dumbarton. It was known toward
> > its early history as dun breatainn,
>
> I believe that it still is <Dùn Breatann> in Sc.Gael. (Not,
> however, <Breatainn>: that's the *nominative* plural, if I'm
> not mistaken.)
>
> > meaning the fort of the Brits. It's from Scottish Gaelic,
> > a branch of brythonic, just like welsh.
>
> No, Irish and Scottish Gaelic are Goidelic, not Brythonic.
>
> Brian
>
That may be so; there is some confusion with the terminology of Celtic People. Goidelic is surly Irish and also Scottish Celtic. I didn't know that Gallic equals Goidelic. It obviously should because it is only logical. Anyway, what I wanted to say is that Dun Breatann does not come from Goidelic but from Brythonic, and so `dun' root should have been around before the Goidelic Celts had arrived, in the case of Scotland from Ireland. I don't know how common is the `dun' root in Wales, I take, it must be common. In Scotland otoh Goidelic replaced Brythonic, and most of the ancient, that is Brythonic place names disappeared.
Gallic refers to Gaulish, a Continental P-Celtic language. Gaelic is usually pronounced "Gallic" by Scots --which I suppose sounds a but more pedestrian than American English "Gaylick".