XPost: soc.culture.scottish, soc.culture.irish, ie.general
From: allan@EASYNET.CO.UK
"Ciaran" wrote in message
news:s9h6h.64485$rP1.8080@news-server.bigpond.net.au...
> Some form of Q-Celtic Gaelic may have been used by the Picts as on the
> inscription in the Gaelic Ogham alphabet cited below. Note that
> "mac"/"mic" means "son" in both Scottish Gaelic (Gaidhlig) and Irish
> Gaelic (Gaeilge) - if you pronounce the Pictish incription "meqq" it
> sounds much closer to the Gaelic version than to the P-Celtic Brythonic
> version "mab"/"map" which means "son" in both Welsh (Cymraeg) and Breton
> (Brezhoneg).
This is nothing new though. It is generally accepted that the 'meqq' could
mean son of. It could be Gaelic - which would be no surprise as the Picts
became Gaelicised, at first probably just influenced by, then probably
bi-lingual, then Gaelic speakers. However that is not the same as the
Pictish language itself being Gaelic. Likewise 'meqq' could simply be their
way of putting 'map' to print. It is also possible that 'meqq' has nothing
to do with son of - I'd doubt that myself by the fact is we don't know.
Likewise some have suggested that the inscriptions don't actually mean
anything - though again I'd doubt that.
What is true though is that the suggestion that 'meqq' could be the original
Pictish 'map' Gaelicised has been public knowledge ever since people started
looking at the inscriptions. Little things like that are what pushed some
scholars in the 19thC to suggest that Pictish may have been Q-Celtic.
However these views have ben roundly debunked for a century or so and
opinion amongst those who study the subject is just about unanimous. It is
generally accepted that the Pictish language was P-Celtic.
Allan
--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)
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