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 long ago when people who spoke Brittonic started 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 said the ancient British language had a small effect on English. This idea became popular in the early 1900s after work by scholars like Otto Jespersen and Max Förster. Other researchers had different ideas, but they were not widely accepted then. Famous writer J. R. R. Tolkien also thought the British language did not greatly change English.

Interest in this topic grew a lot in the 2000s. Projects at Potsdam University in Germany and the University of Joensuu in Finland helped. New discoveries in archaeology and genetics showed that British groups may have lasted longer than people 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 signs of the ancient British language.

Old English

Diglossia model

The Old English diglossia model, talked about by Hildegard Tristram in 2004, says that many native Romano-British people lived in Northern and Western England while Anglo-Saxons 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 their role in a sentence. But Brittonic, an older language in Britain, already used word order. This made it harder for Brittonic speakers to learn Old English.

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

One big change was the rise of the progressive form, such as saying "I am writing" instead of "I write." This form was used more where Brittonic speakers lived. Over time, it became more common in English. Another change was using "do" in sentences, like "I do not know." This was also 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 have special sounds like w, th, and th as in win, breath, and breathe. These sounds change a lot in other languages, like German or Dutch. Some experts think an old British Celtic language may have helped keep these sounds in English. But not everyone agrees.

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 is hard to prove that any sound in old English changed because of the British Celtic language.