And in the chronicle quoted in the Scala Chronica it is said that they obtained wives from Ireland ‘on condition that their issue should speak Irish, which language remains to this day in the Highlands among those who are called Scots.’[[243]]
The portion of the Pictish people which longest retained the name were the Picts of Galloway. Completely surrounded by the Britons of Strathclyde, and isolated from the rest of the Pictish nation, protected by a mountain barrier on the north, and the sea on the west and south, and remaining for centuries under the nominal dominion of the Angles of Northumbria, they maintained an isolated and semi-independent position in a corner of the island, and appear as a distinct people under the name of Picts as late as the twelfth century, when they formed one division of the Scottish army at the battle of the Standard.[[244]] If any part of the Pictish people might be expected to retain their peculiar language and characteristics, it would be the Picts of Galloway; and if that language had been a Cymric dialect, it must have merged in the speech of the British population around them. In one of the legends which seems peculiarly connected with them, Gaedel Ficht or the Gaelic Pict appears as the ‘eponymus’ of the race; and Buchanan tells us that in his day, that is, in the reign of Queen Mary, ‘a great part of this country still uses its ancient language.’[[245]] What that language was we learn from a contemporary of Buchanan, William Dunbar the poet, who, in the ‘Flyting’ between him and Kennedy, taunted his rival with his extraction from the natives of Galloway and Carrick, and styles him ‘Ersch Katheraine,’ ‘Ersch brybour baird,’ and his poetry as ‘sic eloquence as they in Erschery use.’ This word ‘Ersch’ was the term applied at the time to Scotch Gaelic, as when Sir David Lyndesay says—
Had Sanct Jerome bene borne intil Argyle,
Into Irische toung his bukis had done compyle.
And Kennedy retorts upon Dunbar—
Thow luvis nane Erische, elf I understand,
But it sowld be all trew Scottismennis leid;
It wes the gud langage of this land.[[246]]
We find, therefore, that in this remote district, in which the Picts remained under their distinctive names as a separate people as late as the twelfth century, a language considered the ancient language of Galloway was still spoken as late as the sixteenth century, and that language was Gaelic.[[247]]
The question then remains, Are there any fragments of the Pictish language still preserved upon which we can base a proper philological inquiry into its place among the languages of Britain? For such an investigation the materials are slender, but they are not totally wanting. There are a few Pictish names and words preserved by Adamnan, Bede, and other writers, and there is the list of Pictish monarchs, both mythic and historical, preserved in the Pictish Chronicle. This list may be divided into two parts, the mythic and the historical; but a comparison of this list with other chronicles leaves little room for doubt that the proper names throughout the whole are here presented to us in their Pictish form, and the occasional occurrence of the addition of epithets to the names aids the inquiry.[[248]] It is obvious that the mere comparison of a very few words with the vocabulary of other languages can do little to help us in this matter, and a list of proper names still less; but the form of the words affords a very important means of ascertaining the character of a language. This has been shown in a very striking manner in the Teutonic dialects, by the operation of Grimm’s law, and between the Celtic dialects there are also phonetic differences equally available for such an inquiry. The interchange, for instance, between Welsh and Gaelic of the labial or dental with the guttural, and the digamma GW with F, and that between Welsh and Cornish of T with Z, supplies us with a clue which can be easily applied to the form of words, however few in number they may be; and, in this point of view, the proper names likewise afford us a test of the character of the language. A comparison of Pictish proper names with the Welsh and Irish shows us that they are all constructed on the same principle, by the combination of certain syllables as prefixes, with others as affixes, in different varieties of connection; and where these syllables show the phonetic differences of the dialects, they furnish as good a means of comparison as the few words of the language which have been preserved.[[249]] In examining these words and proper names, it will be necessary, however, to endeavour to connect them with that part of the Pictish nation to which they properly belong. It must not be assumed, at the outset, that the Picts were strictly and entirely homogeneous, and there may have been some dialectic differences in the language of different parts of the same nation. Of a twofold distinction of some kind, indeed, we find evident indication in their history. We have already traced this twofold division among the tribes described by Ptolemy as occupying the country north of the Forth and Clyde, and the forms of their names do certainly indicate something of the kind. Of the nine tribes who occupy the western district, the names of six begin with the guttural or hard C;[[250]] while of the three great tribes which extended on the east coast from the Moray Firth to the Firth of Forth, one name begins with a dental, and the other two with the Roman V, which represents Gw in Welsh and F in Gaelic.[[251]] In the third and fourth centuries we find these same people divided into two nations, which certainly implies a twofold distinction of some kind. The one appears as Caledones and Dicaledonæ with the guttural C, and the other, first Mæatæ and then Vecturiones with the Roman V. So far as we can judge from the forms of these names, the presumption is, that the western tribes, characterised by the guttural initial, belonged to the Gaelic race; but there is nothing in the form of the names beginning with the V to show to which race they belonged. When we proceed to analyse the list of proper names contained in the Pictish Chronicle, we find that they commence with Cruidne, son of Cinge, the ‘eponymus’ of the race. This is undoubtedly an Irish form from Cruith, form or colour. He has seven sons, who are said to have given their names to seven provinces. They are Caith, Ce, Circinn, Fib, Fidach, Fodla, Fortrenn, and we can identify five of the provinces—Caith representing Caithness, Circinn Kincardineshire, Fib Fife, Fodla Atholl, Fortrenn the district between the Forth and the Tay; but in these names we recognise the same distinction. Three have the initial guttural and four the initial F; the latter, however, belong equally to the Gaelic race, to which the initial F is peculiar, and represents the Welsh Gw. The names, too, are Irish in form. Fidach appears as an Irish name in the Annals of the Four Masters. Fodla was the epithet of a king of Ireland; it was also the name of a queen of the Tuatha De Danaan, and was one of the old names of Ireland; and Fortrenn means in Irish powerful.[[252]] These seven sons are followed by three kings, Gede Olgudach, Aenbecan, and Olfinecta. Two of these names, the first and the last, are the same with two of the seven Irian kings said to have reigned at Tara, and we are told in one of the legends that Ainbeccan was son of Caith and ‘Ardrigh’ or sovereign over the seven divisions while Finachta reigned in Ireland.[[253]] So far, then, we find nothing but Irish forms. The next name in the list is Guidid Gaedbrechach, and this is undoubtedly a Welsh form. In one of the Irish editions he has the epithet of Breathnach or the Briton.[[254]] He is followed by Gest Gwrtich and Wurgest, and these are Cornish forms. Here, then, we trace the first appearance of a British element. We then have the statement that thirty Brudes reigned over Hibernia, and Albania or Erin, and Alban, for 150 years. In the list of the names only twenty-eight are given, and they fall into two parts—one where each name of Brude is followed by a monosyllable, and the other where the same monosyllable has prefixed to it the syllable Wr; and one of the Irish editions adds that they were not only the names of men, but of divisions of land. It will be remarked that one half of these monosyllabic names have the initial guttural, three beginning with C and four with G, and of the other half, one begins with labial P, and two with F, which seems to point to a twofold distinction similar to what we have already noticed. The name Brude belongs to the northern Picts, as the first historic king of the name is called by Bede king of the provinces of the Northern Picts, and it may be viewed as an Irish form.[[255]] After these Brudes we have a list of twenty-one names, beginning with Gilgide and ending with Drust, son of Erb, which brings us to the end of the mythic division. Of these names some are obviously mythic, as appears from the length of their supposed reigns, and others appear to represent historic persons. The eighth name in this list is ‘Dectotreic frater Diu’ or ‘Tiu.’ The form of the name is Teutonic, and is the same name as Theodric. Nennius terms Theodric, son of Ida, Decdric, and there can be little doubt that he is the king meant. He is called, in the Welsh poems, Flamddwyn, or the Flame-bearer, and here the brother of Tiu, the Germanic god of war. This portion of the list would appear, therefore, to belong to that part of the Pictish people who occupied the eastern districts up to the southern wall in the year 410, and were subjected by the Angles of Bernicia, under Hussa and Theodric, the Flame-bearer, the sons of Ida. The four names which follow have as much a Teutonic as a Celtic appearance, and may also refer to these Bernician rulers. The last nine names are, however, certainly Celtic. Ru is one of the thirty Brudes. Of Gartnaith Loc it is said that four Gartnaidhs came from him; and we find just four Gartnaidhs in the historic period. One of these, who succeeded Brude Mac Mailchon, is said to have founded Abernethy, and the legend of Mazota locates him in Forfarshire,[[256]] and another bears the epithet ‘Duiperr,’ which is rendered in another list, ‘Dives’ or the rich. It is the Irish word ‘Saoibher,’ rich, with the interchange of D for S.[[257]] Of the names which follow Gartnaidh, Breth may be either British or Irish. Uip Oignamet is one of the thirty Brudes; Canatulachama is an Irish form, and is obviously the Catinolachan, said in one of the Irish legends to be one of the sons of Cathluan, who led the Picts to Alban, and one of their champions. Wradech Uecla is represented in Irish by the name Feradach, and appears to be a Cornish form, and this brings us to the historic names. We find the same names here occur repeatedly. These are Drest, Drust, or Drostan nine times, Talorcan six times, Brude six times, Gartnaidh four times, Nectan three times, and Cinoid, Galan, Alpin, Ungust, and Wrgust each twice. Of these names, Drest is an Irish form; the Welsh form being Gorwst or Grwst, showing the interchange of D and G.[[258]] Talorcen may be either, though more probably British. Brude, as we have seen, is an Irish form, and belongs to the northern Picts. Gartnaidh, Nectan, and Cineoch or Cinoid are Gaelic forms, and these names may be connected with the southern Picts. Galan may be either. Alpin is represented by Elffin in Welsh, and is a British name in a Gaelic form, showing the interchange of Ff and P,[[259]] and Ungust and Wrgust are Cornish forms, and belong to the province called ‘Fortrenn,’ or the districts of Stratherne and Menteith.[[260]]