Celtic subfamily including Welsh, Cornish, Breton and Cumbric
For the individual language ancestral to the Brittonic languages, see Common Brittonic.
Brittonic
*Brittonikā, Brythonic, British Celtic
Geographic distribution
Wales, Cornwall, Brittany, in antiquity all of Great Britain and the Isle of Man, during the Early Middle Ages in Northern England and Southern Scotland and other western parts of Britain, Pictland, Galicia
Linguistic classification
Indo-European
Celtic
Insular Celtic
Brittonic
Proto-language
Common Brittonic
Subdivisions
Western Brittonic
Southwestern Brittonic
Pictish †
Glottolog
bryt1239
The Brittonic-speaking community around the sixth century
The Brittoniclanguages (also Brythonic or British Celtic; Welsh: ieithoedd Brythonaidd/Prydeinig; Cornish: yethow brythonek/predennek; and Breton: yezhoù predenek) form one of the two branches of the Insular Celtic language family; the other is Goidelic.[1] It comprises the extant languages Breton, Cornish, and Welsh. The name Brythonic was derived by Welsh Celticist John Rhys from the Welsh word Brython, meaning Ancient Britons as opposed to an Anglo-Saxon or Gael.
The Brittonic languages derive from the Common Brittonic language, spoken throughout Great Britain during the Iron Age and Roman period. In the 5th and 6th centuries emigrating Britons also took Brittonic speech to the continent, most significantly in Brittany and Britonia. During the next few centuries, in much of Britain the language was replaced by Old English and Scottish Gaelic, with the remaining Common Brittonic language splitting into regional dialects, eventually evolving into Welsh, Cornish, Breton, Cumbric, and probably Pictish. Welsh and Breton continue to be spoken as native languages, while a revival in Cornish has led to an increase in speakers of that language. Cumbric and Pictish are extinct, having been replaced by Goidelic and Anglic speech. The Isle of Man and Orkney may also have originally spoken a Brittonic language, but this was later supplanted by Goidelic on the Isle of Man and Norse on Orkney. There is also a community of Brittonic language speakers in Y Wladfa (the Welsh settlement in Patagonia).
^History of English: A Sketch of the Origin and Development of the English Language. Macmillan. 1893. Retrieved 7 July 2013 – via Internet Archive.
and 27 Related for: Brittonic languages information
The Brittoniclanguages (also Brythonic or British Celtic; Welsh: ieithoedd Brythonaidd/Prydeinig; Cornish: yethow brythonek/predennek; and Breton: yezhoù...
Southwestern Brittoniclanguages (Breton: Predeneg ar mervent, Cornish: Brythonek Dyghowbarthgorlewin) are the Brittonic Celtic languages spoken in what...
Western Brittoniclanguages (Welsh: Brythoneg Gorllewinol) comprise two dialects into which Common Brittonic split during the Early Middle Ages; its counterpart...
or languages. Pictish is linked, likely as a sister language or a descendant branch. Evidence from early and modern Welsh shows that Common Brittonic was...
differences between the Goidelic and Brittoniclanguages arose after these split off from the Continental Celtic languages. Other scholars (such as Schmidt...
Pictish is an extinct Brittonic Celtic language spoken by the Picts, the people of eastern and northern Scotland from Late Antiquity to the Early Middle...
and Bretons (among others). They spoke Common Brittonic, the ancestor of the modern Brittoniclanguages. The earliest written evidence for the Britons...
Brittoniclanguages of Scotland survive to the modern day, though they have been reconstructed to a degree. The ancestral Common Brittoniclanguage was...
Cumbric was a variety of the Common Brittoniclanguage spoken during the Early Middle Ages in the Hen Ogledd or "Old North" in what is now the counties...
Southwestern Brittoniclanguage of the Celtic language group spoken in Brittany, part of modern-day France. It is the only Celtic language still widely...
anciently spoken in Great Britain Brittoniclanguages, a branch of the Celtic languages descended from Common Brittonic Britons (Celtic people), or Celtic...
one of the two groups of Insular Celtic languages, the other being the Brittoniclanguages. Goidelic languages historically formed a dialect continuum...
Southwestern Brittoniclanguage of the Celtic language family. Along with Welsh and Breton, Cornish is descended from the Common Brittoniclanguage spoken throughout...
Brittonicisms in English are the linguistic effects in English attributed to the historical influence of Brittonic (i.e. British Celtic) speakers as they...
spoken language in the United Kingdom. Brittoniclanguages, also known as the British Celtic languages, a branch of the Insular Celtic language family...
was spoken as a native language in Roman Britain and that at least some of the dramatic changes that the Brittoniclanguages underwent around the 6th...
(Cymraeg [kəmˈraːiɡ] or y Gymraeg [ə ɡəmˈraːiɡ]) is a Celtic language of the Brittonic subgroup that is native to the Welsh people. Welsh is spoken natively...
local Brittoniclanguages. At the inception of Roman rule in AD 43, Great Britain was inhabited by the indigenous Britons, who spoke the Celtic language known...
gleann ("deep valley"), with some being from the cognates in the Brittoniclanguages Cumbric and Pictish or from the Gaelic loanword glen in Scots. Glenalmond...
hypothesis, other researchers see the Brittoniclanguages and Gaulish as forming part of a subgroup of the Celtic languages that is known as P-Celtic. Under...
ethno-linguistic group Brittoniclanguages, a branch of the Insular Celtic language family (formerly called British) Common Brittonic, an ancient language Brit(ish)...
loch, whisky, glen and clan. Cumbric and Pictish, the medieval Brittoniclanguages of Northern England and Scotland, are the suspected source of a small...
Saint Guthlac was attacked on several occasions by demons who spoke Brittoniclanguages living in the Fens at that time. Bertram Colgrave and Lindy Brady...
The Brittoniclanguages Cumbric and Pictish were spoken in Scotland during the Early to High Middle Ages, and Scottish Gaelic has many Brittonic influences...
A menhir (/ˈmɛnhɪər/; from Brittoniclanguages: maen or men, "stone" and hir or hîr, "long"), standing stone, orthostat, or lith is a large upright stone...
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