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Picts: Language
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While the Picts were the power in the north, another kingdom had been developing (from the ancient Votadini) south of the Firth of Forth circa 600 AD. In Lothian and specifically Din Eidyn, the Votadini emerged as the ‘Gododdin’, from old Welsh. The Latinized from of the name (Votadini) phased out by the language of the old Britons, reclaiming their name. The events are recorded in the epic poem Y Gododdin by Aneirin. It tells of a party of about 350 warriors living in splendor, deciding to attack the Angles. A battle took place at ‘Catraeth’, (Catterick in Yorkshire).
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The Picts were the inhabitants of Caledonia, north of the River Forth. They were given this name by the Romans. In Latin the word is Picti which means painted folk or possibly tattooed folk. They spoke a language, Pictish, of which little is known.
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The Picts spoke an ancient language indigenous to area - a language that predated the Celtic languages of the Britons, the Scots and the Irish. This language did not have an Indo-European origin but was instead a survival of the ancient language used by the Bronze Age people of the area.
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The picts had an oral tradition for keeping historical tales, stories and laws alive. Everything was committed to memory. The one exception was a list of 70 kings written in a document known as "The Pictish Chronicle". This language for use in general speech is linked with the Brythonic language of southern England, Welsh, Cornish, and Breton. St. Columba's biographer stated that the Irish saint, speaking the Q-Celtic Gaelic, needed a translator to preach to the Pictish King Brude, son of Maelcon, during the late 6th century at Brude's court near the shores of Loch Ness. [Over 28 early kings are identified with the words "Brude" or "Bridei".
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More of a mystery than even their name is the origins of the Picts. Some theorize that they are the descendants of the Caledonians, but more common is the thought that they arrived by boat sometime between AD 208-297, but from where, no-one knows. Their language was a form of Gaelic, but not one that had been previously heard on the island.
The evidence of place-names and personal names argue strongly that the Picts spoke Insular Celtic languages related to the more southerly Brythonic languages. A number of inscriptions have been argued to be non-Celtic, and on this basis, it has been suggested that non-Celtic languages were ... in use.
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