A brief and rough guide to the language groups of Ireland and Britain, specifically what does Bede mean, writing before 731, when he notes the use of five languages in Britain: English, British, Irish, Pictish and Latin (HE I.1)? Let's deal with the so-called Celtic group first: 
By British, Bede means what is now called Welsh in English, but this term could be expanded to encompass all the Brythonic/Brittonic languages, known to linguists as the P-Celtic group. Three British languages survive: Welsh, Cornish, and Breton; we have lost Cumbric, and ...
most probably, Pictish, though whether Pictish was a P-Celtic language is still a matter of some debate. We have no written records, but Pictish epigraphy suggests it was P-Celtic, perhaps with an isolated, pre-Celtic element, or even that this element survived simultaneously ...
The Goidelic languages are known to linguists as the Q-Celtic group. Three Irish languages survive: Irish, Scottish Gaelic, and Manx. When Bede refers to Irish as a living language in Britain, in the eighth century, he does not distinguish between Irish and what we now call ...
Scottish Gaelic because no such distinction existed. However, by the fifth century Goidelic was already evolving into a western branch consisting of Irish and an eastern branch consisting of Scottish Gaelic and Manx after the expansion of (Northern) Irish speakers ...
• • •
Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to
force a refresh
