The Ogham Inscriptions of Scotland and Brittonic Pictish

2020/01/01 by Simon Rodway · 2 citations
Arts and Humanities · #Linguistics and language evolution #Historical Studies of British Isles #Scottish History and National Identity #Celtic languages #History #Linguistics #Ancient history #Classics #Literature #Art #Philosophy

paper · doi:10.16922/jcl.21.6

openalex publication_date 2020/01/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/05/21

Abstract

In this paper, I examine the evidence brought forward by Katherine Forsyth in support of the hypothesis that the 'Pictish' ogham inscriptions of Scotland are linguistically Celtic. Having examined the five most promising inscriptions minutely, I conclude that they are in fact not Celtic, and that 'Celtic-looking' sequences in them are due to coincidence. Thus, the language of this corpus of inscriptions remains unknown.

Citations

• The Regional Diversification of Latin 200 BC - AD 600
• From Caledonia to Pictland Scotland to 795
• Sabrina in the thorns: place‐names as evidence for British and Latin in Roman Britain
• Latin and British in Roman and Post‐Roman Britain: methodology and morphology

Cited by

• An Alternative to ‘Celtic from the East’ and ‘Celtic from the West’
• Pictish language [wikipedia]

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