Southwestern Brythonic

Joss Gospatrick

This language has been referred to as Southwestern Brythonic, Old Devonian or West County
Brythonic. I became intrigued by the Brythonic language in Southwestern Britain after reading
Joseph Biddulph's book, ​a handbook of West Country Brythonic​. Joseph's book introduces the idea
of a Southwestern Brythonic, the ancestral language of Cornish and Breton, and yet already
diverged from the ancestor to the Welsh and Cumbric languages. However, I have also called the
very existence of such a language into question. Did Devon really have a post-Roman, medieval
Brythonic language? Or did Cornish and Breton simply evolve along the Atlantic coastline?

Historical setting
Although Welsh, Cornish and Breton share many words which are more or less identical, there are
significant differences between the languages. Cornish and Breton are more closely related than
either of these languages are to Welsh. By the 7​th​ century, Welsh had become a separate language
by most accounts. Cornish and Breton on the other hand, share certain features in common which
aren't found in Old, Middle or Modern Welsh; and this could imply that there was a Southwestern
Brythonic language which gave rise to Breton and Cornish.

We might associate the stronghold of this language with the Brythonic region of Dumnonia. This
kingdom still existed after the Romans between the 4​th​ and 8​th​ centuries AD. Dumnonia was centred
on present day Southwestern England, including modern day Cornwall, Devon and areas to the east.
The people of western Cornwall may have been a part of a smaller kingdom.
According to written sources, including the Flores Historiarum and Athelweard's chronicles,
Dumnonia was gradually broken up and taken over by the expansion of Wessex, and Anglo-Saxon
kingdom. There are various references to battles taking place between Saxons and ‘Britons’,
although very little evidence of some of these battles exists.

The Saxon king Ine defeated Geraint in battle in 710 AD, and in 722 a victory against the 'Britons'
is recorded in Cornwall in the Annales Cambriae. How 'Celtic' or 'Saxon' Dumnonia was at this
time is unclear, but it appears that after this point the 'Britons' had probably lost much of their
political and military influence over present day Devon.
According to William of Malmesbury writing in 1120, in about 936 AD King Athelstan pushed the
‘Britons’ out of Devon and set the river Tamar as his kingdom’s western border. The river Tamar
still marks the border between parts of Devon and Cornwall.

Features of Southwestern Brythonic

 .a ​in Ancient British, stays unchanged as ​a ​in Breton and Cornish, but becomes ​e ​before ​-ct​. For
example Cornish ​treth, yeth (​ Breton ​yezh​) from Ancient British ​iextis. I​ n Modern Welsh, this sound
is ​ai​ in ​iaith,​ but in Middle Welsh we have ​ieith.​ It appears that in Southwestern Brythonic this ​ei
became ​e b​ ut the diphthong remained in Wales.

.-ag- ​probably become [ae], [ai] or a variant. For example, Proto-Celtic ​magnos​, Old Breton ​mael,​
Southwestern Brythonic: ​ae.​

.ā ​in ancient British, typically developed into a long ‘o’ sound, [o:] or a variant. In Welsh, this later
became ​aw​, although ​aw ​could have been an earlier variation arising from ​ā. ​In Cornish this
typically yields ​eu​ ​as it does in Breton. The exact nature of this sound in Southwestern Brythonic is
unclear, but perhaps [œu] or [œ:].

.e ​probably remained unchanged in Southwestern Brythonic, perhaps yielding ​ei ​in the ​-ct
combination.

.o ​remained the same, but appears to have become ​e ​before ​n i​ n certain words. In some words this
remains the same, e.g. Welsh ​mynd​, Cornish ​mones​, Breton: ​mont​ from Proto-Celtic ​monît-​. But in
many other words, this sound has become ​e ​in Cornish and Breton. For example, ancient British:
moniios,​ Welsh: ​mynydd,​ Old Welsh: ​mynyd,​ Cornish: ​menydh​, Breton: ​menez​. This change to ​e
seems to occur in words where the second syllable ended in a vowel sound, and altering word
stress. For example, Ancient British: ​combrogī​, Welsh: ​Cymru,​ Cornish: ​Kemry​. I have
reconstructed these three words in Southwestern Brythonic as​ ​monet​,​ menídh​,​ Cembrū​. ​Before ​-ct​,
o ​probably became [oi]. In Cornish this is often written ​oy​. I have written this as ​oi ​in Southwestern
Brythonic.
Older forms of Breton show ​monid​, indicating that this word evolved separately in Brittany and
Southwestern Britain. Mendips is probably a Brythonic name containing this word, but is located
far from Cornwall and in Somerset.

.u o​ ften becomes ​ou ​or ​o.​ We can see this in evidence from Old Breton. In Southwestern Brythonic
this is rendered as ​ou​. This could have been an early variation of the Brittonic language in Southern
England, hence names like 'Dover'. This does not appear to have happened when the final consonant
has disappeared, for example ​dū̂/d​ ūv (​ black).

Long ​ī ​and ​ū ​merged to become ​i​ ​or ​í​ ​in Southwestern Brythonic, for example ​tū – ​tí,​ Cornish ​ty​.

Pronunciation notes

​ ̂ ​[β̃].
í​ [ɪ], ​ū​ ​[ʉ], ​dh​ [ð], ​f​ [f] or [v], ​ff​ [o], ​gh​ [ɣ], [Ø], m
The pronunciation and forms given here are used specifically to represent occurrences of
Southwestern Brythonic in England, as the early Breton forms may have differed and it is unclear
exactly where Breton fitted in within the picture of Brythonic and Gaulish.
 Place-names

West Devon
celli ​- a place name Kelly, Welsh ​celli '​ grove'.

Exeter area
Dunchideock – form of​ Din Ceidoc ​‘wooded fort’, Welsh ​din coed-og.​ The preservation of an ‘u’ in
din ​would seem to disprove that this sound change in Welsh, Cornish and Breton was found
everywhere. Could this indicate that there wasn’t a single, medieval Brythonic language?

Central Devon
​ ím̂et or​ nímet,​
Nymet Rowland, where Nymet is believed to mean ‘holy place’, SW Brythonic n
showing a lack of lenition; related to the Welsh ​nef-.

Morchard Bishop – perhaps ​môr ceid ​‘great forest’

Dowland – possibly d​ ū̂ land showing the variant ​dô p​ lus ​land ​‘area, parish’.

East Devon
Kentisbeare may contain a genitive of ​*canto- ​ ‘border’.

North Devon
Landkey - St Key's church, containing ​land/lann ​and the suffix –​to.​

Charles – SW Brythonic ​carn lís​ ‘central house/hall cairn’, ‘cairn of the main clan’.

West Dorset
Chideock – variant of ​ceidoc '​ wooded'.

To the East is Wynford Eagle, containing ​winn ‘​ white’. This place-name would seem to indicate
that initial Celtic ​w- ​didn’t become the ​gw ​as it did in Welsh, Cornish and Breton.

Sixpenny – this place-name might contain​ penn ​‘head, summet’.

 East Dorset
​ ôr crū̂g le ‘great cairn/burial mound place’.
More Crichel – perhaps a variant of m

Poole area
Lytchett Matravers – from ​lêd ceid​, this variant showing ​lêt cet w
​ ith no voicing.

East Creech contains a variant of ​crūg​/​crū̂g.

Hills North of Weymouth

Broadmayne – possibly containing ​maen ‘​ stone’.

Owermoigne – perhaps related to Welsh ​oerddrws​ ‘wind gap’ but this is perhaps unlikely given the
differing sound changes in Welsh and Southwestern Brythonic.

Winnfrith contains ​winn ‘​ white’, again without ​g​-.

Gloucestershire
Nympsfield – may contain ​ním̂et or​ nímet.​
Pinnock – perhaps meaning ‘hilly’ or alternatively ‘small hill’.

Somerset
Lydeard St' lawrence – containing ​lêd​.

Creech St Michael – containing c​ rū̂g. The word order demonstrates a Brythonic genitive
formation.

The place-name West Pennard contains ​penn.​

References

.a handbook of West Country Brythonic – Joseph Biddhulph

.Key to English place names, University of Nottingham website: ​http://kepn.nottingham.ac.uk/​ -​

this site was used extensively in this article to find examples of place-names.