The Picts are one of history’s most captivating enigmas. These fierce, tattooed people who resisted Roman legions and ruled Scotland north of the Forth-Clyde line for centuries left behind a stunning legacy of carved stones covered with mysterious symbols. Yet, they vanished from history, merging into the emerging Kingdom of Alba by the 10th century, taking their secrets with them. The greatest of these secrets is the language they spoke. Unraveling the mystery of the Pictish language is a detective story that involves stone carvings, place names, and a single surviving sentence, piecing together clues to understand a lost world.
For centuries, the question of the Pictish language was a subject of fierce debate. Theories ranged from it being a pre-Indo-European relic, a Celtic cousin to its neighbours, or even a language isolate unrelated to any other. Modern scholarship, however, has largely converged on a compelling consensus based on accumulating evidence from several key sources.
The Celtic Hypothesis: A Language Among Kin
The prevailing theory today is that the Picts spoke a Brythonic Celtic language, closely related to the tongues of their neighbours and eventual conquerors. This would place Pictish in the same linguistic family as Welsh, Cornish, Breton, and Cumbric (the ancient language of the Old North of England and southern Scotland). This conclusion is drawn from a multi-faceted analysis of the evidence.
1. The Pillar of Bressay: The Ogham Inscriptions
One of the most tantalizing clues comes from the Pictish symbol stones themselves. While the iconic symbols—the Z-rod, double disc, crescent and V-rod, and mysterious beasts—remain undeciphered, many stones also feature inscriptions in the Ogham alphabet. Ogham is an early medieval alphabet used primarily for writing early Irish, consisting of a series of notches and lines along a central stem.
The key is that the Ogham on Pictish stones does not write Irish Gaelic. When linguists sound out these inscriptions, the words that emerge are not Goidelic (the Gaelic branch of Celtic) but Brythonic. For example, an Ogham inscription on the Lunnasting stone in Shetland appears to read ettocuhetts, which may be a Brythonic name. This provides direct, inscriptional evidence that the Picts were using a Brythonic-like language for memorials, suggesting it was a language of status and record.
2. The Echoes in the Land: Pictish Place-Names
Perhaps the most persuasive evidence for a Brythonic Pictish language is etched into the very landscape of modern Scotland. Place-name etymology provides a powerful linguistic fossil record.
- Pit-: The most famous Pictish place-name prefix is Pit- (as in Pittodrie, Pitlochry, Pitcaple). This element, meaning “a piece of land” or “parcel,” is a cognate of the Welsh peth (thing, piece). It is found nowhere in Ireland or in areas of Scotland that were historically Gaelic-speaking but is densely concentrated in the ancient Pictish heartlands of eastern Scotland, from Fife to Aberdeenshire.
- Aber-: The prefix Aber-, meaning “river mouth” or “confluence” (as in Aberdeen, Abernethy, Aberfeldy), is also strongly Brythonic. This contrasts with the Goidelic Gaelic prefix for the same feature, Inver- (as in Inverness, Inveraray). The distribution of Aber- names again maps almost perfectly onto the historical Pictish territory.
- Other Elements: Other Brythonic elements appear in Scottish geography. Lanerc (a clearing) appears in Lhanbryde, related to Welsh llan (enclosure, church). Cair (a fort) appears in place names like Keir, related to Welsh caer.
The consistent presence of these Brythonic elements in the Pictish zone strongly suggests that the everyday language of the people who named these places—the Picts—was a member of the Brythonic branch of Celtic.
3. The Historical Records: What the Neighbours Said
Early medieval writers also provide crucial, if indirect, clues. The Venerable Bede, writing in the 8th century, stated that in his time, Britain spoke five languages: English, British (Brythonic/Welsh), Irish (Gaelic), Pictish, and Latin. He notably distinguishes Pictish from both British and Irish, implying it was its own distinct language, but he doesn’t classify it as non-Celtic.
Furthermore, historical accounts describe the Picts and the Britons of Strathclyde (who definitely spoke a Brythonic language, Cumbric) as needing translators to speak with their Gaelic-speaking neighbours from Dal Riata. This suggests a significant linguistic barrier existed between the Picts and Gaels, further supporting the idea that Pictish was not a Goidelic language but was likely intelligible enough with Brythonic to facilitate easier communication or alliance, as seen in the kingdom of Alt Clut (Strathclyde).
The Non-Indo-European Theory: A Substrate Language
While the Brythonic connection is strong, the story may not be that simple. Many scholars propose a more nuanced two-layer theory. They suggest that the ruling class of the Picts indeed spoke a Brythonic Celtic language (P-Celtic), but that this language was superimposed on a much older, pre-Indo-European substrate spoken by the indigenous population.
This theory attempts to explain the most enduring mystery: the Pictish symbols. The abstract symbols (over 50 have been catalogued) on stones like the Aberlemno Serpent Stone or the Rhynie Man show no obvious connection to any known Celtic art style and have stubbornly resisted all attempts at decipherment.
Could these symbols represent a much older, non-Indo-European language? Perhaps the Pictish elite adopted a unique symbolic system from the people they ruled to express power and identity in a way that was deeply rooted in the region’s prehistoric past. This would make “Pictish” a complex tapestry: a Brythonic language for everyday speech and administration, alongside a ritual, symbolic language used for monuments, the meaning of which died with its last practitioners.
The Final Word: A Single Sentence
The entire debate is crystallized in what might be the only complete surviving sentence of the Pictish language. A 9th-century silver chape (a sword belt terminal) found in the St. Ninian’s Isle Treasure in Shetland bears a Latin inscription followed by a cryptic phrase: “IRATADARARENS”.
Linguists have attempted to break this down. One compelling reading is that it represents a Brythonic phrase: “Irt ad aran ens…” which could be translated as “It is to be delivered/struck…”. If this interpretation is correct, it is the final, tangible proof that the Picts did indeed speak a Brythonic Celtic language.
Conclusion: A Language Lost to Time
So, what language did the Picts speak? The evidence points to a complex answer. The administrative and spoken language of the Pictish elite was almost certainly a Brythonic Celtic language, a cousin of ancient Welsh. This is proven by Ogham inscriptions, the dense concentration of Brythonic place-names, and the accounts of their contemporaries.
Yet, lingering in the background, etched onto their magnificent stones, is the possibility of a much older, pre-Celtic language—a mysterious substrate used for ritual or symbolic purposes that we may never fully understand. The Pictish language was therefore likely a fusion, a testament to a deep and complex history that predated the Celts. Its ultimate disappearance, assimilated by the spreading Gaelic of Dal Riata following the unification of the kingdoms, closed the final chapter on a unique voice. The stones remain, silent sentinels guarding the secrets of a language that once echoed through the glens and mountains of ancient Scotland.