FW: Pict Language research question from Australia

[gwalstawd]

There does seem to be little doubt that 'Pictish' was close to Brythonic and was in some ways developing along analogous phonetic and morphological lines - the onomastics show this.
   
  Old Welsh for 'gwaed' was 'gwoed' (unattested but cf. Bret, 'goad' etc.) with /o/ retracted to /a/ after /gw-/. (GPC). The Welsh diphthong /oe/is derived from /Ej/ < /E:/. Sims-Williams dates the new vowel system to the beginning of the sixth century. At which point 'Pictish' diverged from Britt. on this point (if at all) is unknown. The 'Pictish' cognate of W 'coed' appears as Keith in some toponyms (see CPNS) and I suspect that /Ej/ > /oe/ did not occur in Northern Brittonic (Bathgate etc.). A more thorough investigation may turn up enough evidence to develop an argument. It would be best to investigate Gaelic forms for it, being a phonetically rich language, better preserves the pronunciation of donor words.
   
  I believe that it has been argued that 'Pictish' preserved the original Brittonic initial approximant (i.e. no /w-/ > /gw-/ as in Welsh Cornish and Breton.
   
   /wE:d/ could be a plausible form for 'blood' in Pictish but this is at best unprovable speculation. 
   
  How healthy was Pictish in the period of this book?? Was it in serious decline? Stil spoken??
  

Muiris Mag Ualghairg <muiris_mag at YAHOO.CO.UK> wrote:
    I would suggest two things - 
   
  1)  one Pictish was probably a varient of Brythonic so something along the lines of Welsh 'Gwaed' would do the job.
   
  2) She needs to do a lot more research if she needs us here to tell her that!
   
  

Steve Harlow <sjh1 at YORK.AC.UK> wrote:
  Can anyone help with the inquiry below?

- Steve
-- 
SJ Harlow sjh1 at york dot ac dot uk Head of Department
Department of Language & Linguistic Science, University of York
Heslington, York YO1 5DD, UK
Phone:+44 1904 432654 Messages:+44 1904 432650 Fax:+44 1904 432673


------ Forwarded Message
From: "Evelyn Saunders" 
Date: Mon, 24 Jul 2006 12:59:48 +1000
To: 
Subject: Pict Language research question from Australia

Dear Mr Harlow,

My name is Evelyn Saunders and I'm researching some details for a novel set
in the Aberdeen to Inverness area of Scotland in the 850-1050 AD period,
with the Picts and the Norwegian Vikings as characters. The author has asked
me to find the translation for the word "blood" as used in a location name
"Blood Bay". 

I'm approaching you because what seemed to be a relatively simple task at
first, is now quite challenging. I've been in contact with person from
Ullans dictionary and discovered that Ullans is post 14th Century, so "blude
or bluid" is not likely to be correct. I looked at an online Gaelic -
English dictionary and found the word "fuil" along with a lot of other words
for blood - all of which seem to change when the context in which they're
used is changed. 

If you could help me I'd be very grateful as I've only just realised how
living in Australia I've had no real exposure to the development of language
through history. All very eye-opening.

Yours sincerely,
Evelyn Saunders

------ End of Forwarded Message

    
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