Scottish Place Names Index
Select your Place Name alphabetically:
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
THE LANGUAGES OF SCOTLAND
Much of the fascination of Scottish place-names lies in the fact that they may derive from one or more of at least five languages: from PICTISH, from two different types of CELTIC, from OLD NORSE and related SCANDINAVIAN tongues, and from ENGLISH in its ANGLO-SAXON (also called OLD ENGLISH), MIDDLE ENGLISH or SCOTTISH forms.
PICTISH
The PICTISH language, spoken by the earliest inhabitants of Scotland, is a source of controversy. It has been almost entirely lost except in a few place-name elements and, possibly, some personal names. It is likely that it was a NON INDO-EUROPEAN language (see next paragraph). Roman times many Picts were speaking a version of CELTIC. In some books on place-names, the term PICTISH is used to denote this form of CELTIC; in others, it denotes the lost PICT-CELTIC language. To avoid possible confusion, therefore, the term PICT-CELTIC rather than PICTISH has been used when discussing very early river names.
CONTINENTAL AND INSULAR CELTIC
Modem SCOTTISH GAELIC is a descendant of CELTIC, one branch of the INDO-EUROPEAN family of languages; it thus ultimately derives from a common PROTO INDO-EUROPEAN language used by the nomadic tribes of Europe and Western Asia about 5,000 years ago. The Celia were at the height of their power in the 4th century A.D., occupying most of central and eastern Europe as well as Gaul (modem France); from Gaul they spread south-west into Spain, and north-west into the British Isles, displacing, dominating or exterminating the native peoples.
In time the CELTIC language separated inta two related forms: CONTINENTAL CELTIC on mainland Europe, and INSULAR CELTIC in the British Isles. For centuries CONTINENTAL CELTIC co-existed with LATIN in the Roman Empire, but it ultimately fell victim to the ROMANCE languages, such as FRENCH and SPANISH, which were derived from LATIN. Its final demise came in the 5th and 6th centuries AD when the GERMANIC-Speaking Goths, Ostrogoths and Visigoths from northern Europe succeeded the Romans as the masters of western Europe. INSULAR CELTIC alone survived.
BRYTHONIC AND GOIDELIC CELTIC
INSULAR CELTIC itself was likewise divided into two branches: BRYTHONIC (from Brython ‘Briton') which was spoken in Britain, and GOIDELIC (from Goidel ‘Irishman') which was spoken in Ireland. This simple division is often made to appear more complicated than it really is, as in some reference books BRYTHONIC is called BRITISH or OLD WELSH, while GOIDELIC is called GAELIC (from Gad the modern form of Goidel) or OLD IRISH. As the names imply, the two languages were geographically separated, although pockets of each could be found on the ‘wrong side' of the Irish Sea. Some scholars also characterize the languages as ‘P-Celtic' and ‘Q-Celtic', based on probable pronunciation (thus BRYTHONIC pen and OOIDELIC ceann are in fact the same word meaning ‘hill'), but there is insufficient space to go into this here.
BRYTHONIC CELTIC
England, Wales and parts of Scotland were occupied by the Romana from AD 43 to AD 410 and the BRYTHONIC tongue was therefore strongly influenced by LATIN. After the Romana left, BRYTHONIC in what is now modern England was displaced by a distantly related INDO-EUROPEAN language, ANGLO-SAXON, as the Angles, Saxons and Jutes streamed in from northern Europe driving the natives west into Wales and Cornwall and north into Strathclyde. (Ironically it was an ANGLO.SAXON word wala~ meaning ‘foreigners' which gave the name both to the country of Wales and its language, WELSH.)
CORNISH was spoken in parts of Cornwall until about 1800. It was, incidentally, from Cornwall that refugees from the Anglo-Saxons sailed across the channel in the 6th and 7th centuries to what is now Brittany in Northern France, taking with them their language which still survives under the name of BRETON. Thus, the only CELTIC language now found on the continent of Europe is INSULAR rather than CONTINENTAL CELTIC.
GOIDELIC CELTIC
In western Scotland (as it was later called), BRYTHONIC soon found itself under pressure from another source, the colonists from Irish Dairiada, who called themselves Scots and brought with them their GOIDELIC tongue.
Until the Middle Ages the GOIDELIC spoken on both sides of the water was identical, but the one spoken in Scotland subsequently developed into the SCOTTISH GAELIC spoken today. The Picts in the north and east, eventually defeated by the Seats, faded mysteriously from history and their BRYTHONIC language succumbed to GOIDELIC also. In the course of time, the Britons in Strathclyde were also dominated by GOIDELIC speakers, BRYThONIC, therefore, has disappeared from Scotland completely, but as will be shown in the following pages, it has left its ‘fingerprints' in hundreds of place-names.
ANGLO-SAXON, OLD ENGLISH AND MIDDLE ENGLISH
The language spoken by the Angles who invaded Lothian and by the Anglo-Saxon invaders of England used to be called ANGLO-SAXON by Victorian scholars but is now generally called OLD ENGLtSH. The invaders themselves called it ENOL1SC. Varying considerably from region to region - most surviving written records come from Wessex in the south of England, while modern spoken ENGLISH is more closely related to the language of Mercia in the Midlands - it was influenced first by BRYTHONIC and LATIN and later by contact with the Vikings.
Following the Norman Conquest of England in 1066, OLD ENGLISH, influenced by the NORMAN-FRENCH spoken for several centuries thereafter in the English court, gradually developed into MIDDLE ENGLISH, the language of Chaucer (c. 1340-1400). The many Norman barons who came north to Scotland had NORMAN-FRENCH as their mother tongue, and this also undoubtedly influenced the development of ENGLISH in Scotland.
OLD NORSE
The arrival of the Vikings from the late 8th century Introduced another language into the islands, and to the north and west of mainland Scotland. OLD NORSE, another INDO-EUROPEAN language, was in fact quite closely related to OLD ENGLISH. The form spoken in the Viking's overseas possessions was technically known as the Narn. Although evidence of OLD NORSE appears in many place-names in the Hebrides, its main linguistic legacy is found in the Orkneys and the Sizetlands which were only ceded to Scotland in 1469A.D.
SCOTTISH ENGLISH
Modern SCOTTISH ENGLISH is recognised as having a character all of it own and a unique vocabulary. Indeed, with so many linguistic god-parents, it would be surprising if this were not so. It should be stressed, however, that most ENGLISH place-names in Scotland, as in England, are probably of sufficient antiquity to be derived from OLD ENGLISH rather than any of successors.