Brittonicisms in English

Brittonicisms in English are special ways that the English language was shaped by people who spoke Brittonic — an ancient language from what is now Britain. These changes happened a long time ago when people who spoke Brittonic began using English after groups from Germany and Denmark, called the Anglo-Saxons, came to live in Britain.

Studying these changes is tricky because we don't have many records of the Brittonic language from that time. Researchers look at old writings in Old Welsh and the language of Breton, which still exists today, to learn more.

Even though Brittonic didn't change English very much, some recent studies think it might have had a bigger effect than we used to believe. There are many unusual words and ways of speaking in English that some think came from Brittonic, but most experts don't agree that these are true links to that old language.

History of research

Early ideas about how much the ancient British language affected English suggested it was very small. This view became common in the early 1900s after work by scholars like Otto Jespersen and Max Förster. Other researchers had different ideas, but their views were not widely accepted at the time. Famous writer J. R. R. Tolkien also doubted that the British language had a big impact on English.

Interest in this topic grew strongly in the 2000s, especially through projects in Germany at Potsdam University and in Finland at the University of Joensuu. New discoveries in archaeology and genetics helped people understand that British groups may have survived longer than once thought. Researchers now study how languages influence each other, using work by Sarah Thomason and Terrence Kaufman. They also look at special kinds of English, like Welsh English and Irish English, to find clear signs of ancient British language influence.

Old English

Diglossia model

The Old English diglossia model, supported by Hildegard Tristram in 2004, suggests that many native Romano-British people stayed in Northern and Western England while Anglo-Saxons slowly took control. Over time, these people learned the Anglo-Saxon language, but Old English stayed mostly the same in writing. This written form was used by leaders and was the only version saved. Later, after Norman rulers took over, the everyday speech of people — which included Brittonic and Norse influences — was written down as Middle English.

This idea of different spoken and written languages has been seen in other places too, like with Latin. Some languages, such as Moroccan Arabic (Darija), didn’t get written down much for a long time.

However, some linguists question this diglossia idea. Robert McColl Millar points out that many Old English writings, like Ælfric’s homilies, seem meant for everyone, not just a special group. He thinks it’s unlikely this situation lasted for hundreds of years without any records mentioning it. John Insley also says there’s no evidence for a “Late British-derived Old English.”

Substantive verb – consuetudinal tense byð

Some believe Old English is special because it uses two forms of the verb “to be,” but other Germanic languages do this too. The b- form is used for habitual actions, and the third-person singular byð acts similarly to forms in Brittonic languages like Welsh bydd. The plural form biðun also appears in Northern texts and matches Brittonic byddant. While some say biðun is hard to explain in Germanic terms but fits Brittonic patterns, it also follows regular sound changes in Germanic to Anglian languages.

Transition to Middle English

When English changed from Old English to Middle English, it started using word order instead of word endings to show meaning. Old English used endings on words to show things like what role a word played in a sentence. But Brittonic, an older language spoken in Britain, already used word order instead of endings. This made it harder for Brittonic speakers to learn Old English.

Because of this, English began to lose some of its word endings. For example, Old English had different versions of the word "the," but English eventually used just one version, like Brittonic did. English also started using a fixed word order, which Brittonic already used.

One big change was the rise of the progressive form, like saying "I am writing" instead of just "I write." This form was used more in areas where Brittonic speakers lived. Over time, this form became more common in English. Another change was the use of "do" in sentences, like "I do not know." This also was used more in areas with Brittonic influence.

Various possible Brittonicisms

Old English had a verb called weorþan, meaning "become." Today, we often use verbs like "go" or "come" instead, such as saying "What will happen to us?" This way of speaking might have come from Celtic languages.

English also uses some complex sentence structures that might be influenced by Celtic languages. For example, a way of speaking called “clefting” appears earlier in Welsh texts than in English books. Another example is the way we use words like "himself" to emphasize someone, which is common in Celtic languages and some other European languages.

There is also a special rule in some English dialects, called the Northern subject rule. It changes how verbs are used with certain subjects. This rule looks similar to patterns in Welsh.

English usually doesn’t use a special way of showing ownership when talking about actions on someone, unlike some other European languages. For example, we say “The Queen had them cut off the King’s head,” instead of a more complicated way of saying it.

English often adds small questions at the end of sentences, like “right?” or “isn’t it?” This habit might come from Celtic languages, where answers to questions use verbs instead of simple “yes” or “no.”

Phonetics

Some English words keep special sounds like w, th, and th as in win, breath, and breathe. These sounds can change a lot in other languages from the same family, like German or Dutch. Some experts think that the old British Celtic language may have helped keep these sounds in English. But not everyone agrees with this idea.

Other old Germanic languages, such as Elfdalian, Icelandic, and some Dutch dialects, also keep some of these sounds. A scholar named Kenneth Jackson said it's hard to prove that any sound in old English changed because of the British Celtic language.