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Brūcendmōtung:2804:1054:301A:92A0:C59E:454D:67E4:D3A4

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Latest comment: 5 years ago by Hogweard

Hi - we're glad of help here, but the languages thing has to go by authentic texts. In the days when Old English was a living language there was no distinction between the languages we know know as Scots and English: they both arose later from the same root. There was Gaelic though. Bede describes the languages of Britain in his time, a passge which is repreoduced in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle (Manuscript D) as:

Brytene igland is ehta hund mila lang 7 twa hund mila brad, 7 her synd on þam iglande fif geþeodu, Ænglisc, Brytwylsc, Scottysc, Pihttisc 7 Boclæden.

('The island of Britain is eight hundred miles long and two hundred miles broad, and here are on the island five languages: English, Welsh, Gaelic, Pictish and Book-Latin')

In this passage the scribe uses "Scottysc", but "Scyttisc" is found more commonly elsewhere - it is an umlaut form, in the same way that "Angel" gives us Englisc. The word also means "Scottish" as in 'of Scotland'. That said, 'Scotland' in early texts means Ireland! The context of various passages suggests that 'Scottisc' / 'Scyttisc' is Gaelic in general and not just Scottish Gaelic, as it is used in an Irish context too.

The full passage in Manuscript E is:

Brittene igland is ehta hund mila lang. 7 twa hund brad. 7 her sind on þis iglande fif geþeode. Englisc. 7 Brittisc. 7 Wilsc. 7 Scyttisc. 7 Pyhtisc. 7 Bocleden. Erest weron bugend þises landes Brittes. þa coman of Armenia. 7 gesætan suðewearde Bryttene ærost. Þa gelamp hit þæt Pyhtas coman suþan of Scithian. mid langum scipum na manegum. 7 þa coman ærost on norþ Ybernian up. 7 þær bædo Scottas þet hi ðer moston wunian. Ac hi noldan heom lyfan. forðan hi cwædon þæt hi ne mihton ealle ætgædere gewunian þær. 7 þa cwædon þa Scottas. we eow magon þeahhwaðere ræd gelæron. We witan oþer egland her be easton. þer ge magon eardian gif ge willað. 7 gif hwa eow wiðstent. we eow fultumiad. þet ge hit magon gegangan. Ða ferdon þa Pihtas. 7 geferdon þis land norþanweard. 7 suþanweard hit hefdon Brittas. swa we ær cwedon. And þa Pyhtas heom abædon wif æt Scottum. on þa gerad þet hi gecuron heor kynecinn aa on þa wifhealfa. þet hi heoldon swa lange syððan. 7 þa gelamp hit imbe geara rina. þet Scotta sum dæl gewat of Ybernian on Brittene. 7 þes landes sum dæl geeodon. 7 wes heora heratoga Reoda gehaten. from þam heo sind genemnode Dælreodi.

In this one we have 'Scyttisc' for Gaelic, 'Wylisc' in place of 'Brytwylisc' for Welsh, and there follows a legend about the relationship of the Scots driving and Picts driving the Picts out of Ireland to Britain but sending wives to them, and the Scots later settling a new Dalriada in Britain.

I hope this helps.

Hogweard (motung) 13:48, 12 Blotmonað 2020 (UTC)Reply


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