Editing Picts (section)

==Language==
{{main|1=Pictish language}}

The [[Pictish language]] is extinct. Evidence is limited to [[toponym|place-names]], [[Onomastics|personal names]], and contemporary records in other languages. The evidence of place and personal names appears to indicate that the Picts spoke an [[Insular Celtic language]] related to the [[Brittonic languages]] of the south.<ref>{{harvnb|Watson|1926}}; {{harvnb|Forsyth|1997}}; {{harvnb|Price|2000}}; {{harvnb|Taylor|2001}}; {{harvnb|Taylor|2010}}; For K.H. Jackson's views, see {{harvnb|Jackson|1955}}</ref> It is possible that Pictish diverged significantly from the Southern Neo-Brittonic dialects due to the lack of influence of Latin.<ref>{{harvnb|Rhys|2015}}; {{harvnb|Rhys|2020}}</ref> The absence of surviving written material in Pictish, discounting the enigmatic Ogham inscriptions, does not indicate a pre-literate society. The church certainly required literacy in Latin, and could not function without copyists to produce liturgical documents. Pictish [[iconography]] shows books being read and carried, and its naturalistic style gives every reason to suppose that such images were of real life. Literacy was not widespread, but among the senior clergy, and in monasteries, it would have been common enough.<ref>{{harvnb|Forsyth|1998}}</ref> It is likely that the Pictish language influenced the development, grammar and vocabulary of [[Scottish Gaelic]], which has some characteristics unique among the Goidelic languages and which, in certain cases, are more reminiscent of Brittonic languages.<ref>{{harvnb|Taylor|2010}}</ref>

Toponymic evidence indicates the advance of Gaelic into Pictland; [[Atholl]], meaning ''New Ireland'', is attested in the early 8th century. This may be an indication of the advance of Gaelic. Fortriu also contains place names suggesting Gaelic settlement, or Gaelic influences.<ref>{{harvnb|Watson|1926|pp=225–233}}</ref> A pre-Gaelic interpretation of the name as ''Athfocla'' meaning 'north pass' or 'north way', as in gateway to Moray, suggests that the Gaelic ''Athfotla'' may be a Gaelic misreading of the minuscule c for t.<ref>{{harvnb|Fraser|2009|pp=101–102}}</ref>

[[Ogham]] inscriptions on Pictish stones and other Pictish archaeological objects survive. These were argued by influential linguist [[Kenneth H. Jackson|Kenneth Jackson]] to be unintelligible as Celtic and evidence for the coexistence of a non-Celtic language in Pictish times.<ref>{{harvnb|Jackson|1955}}</ref> Celtic interpretations have since been advanced for some of these inscriptions, but the nature of the inscriptions continues to be a matter of debate.<ref>{{harvnb|Forsyth|1997}}; {{harvnb|Rodway|2020}}</ref>