f. The evidence of certain French provincial words, which are Welsh and
Armorican rather than Erse or Gaelic.

s. 63. _The Pictish most probably Cambrian._--The evidence in favour of the
Pictish being Cambrian rather than Gaelic lies in the following facts:

a. When St. Columbanus preached, whose mother-tongue was Irish Gaelic, he
used an interpreter. This shows the _difference_ between the Pict and
Gaelic. What follows shows the affinity between the Pict and Welsh.

b. A manuscript in the Colbertine library contains a list of Pictish kings
from the fifth century downwards. These names are more Welsh than Gaelic.
_Taran_ = _thunder_ in Welsh. _Uven_ is the Welsh _Owen_. The first
syllable in _Talorg_ ( = _forehead_) is the _tal_ in _Talhaiarn_ = _iron
forehead_, _Taliessin_ = _splendid forehead_, Welsh names. _Wrgust_ is
nearer to the Welsh _Gwrgust_ than to the Irish _Fergus_. Finally, _Drust_,
_Drostan_, _Wrad_, _Necton_, closely resemble the Welsh _Trwst_, _Trwstan_,
_Gwriad_, _Nwython_. _Cineod_ and _Domhnall_ (_Kenneth_ and _Donnell_) are
the only true Erse forms in the list.

c. The only Pictish common name extant is the well-known compound _pen
val_, which is, in the oldest MS. of Beda, _peann fahel_. This means _caput
valli_, and is the name for the eastern termination of the Vallum of
Antoninus. Herein _pen_ is unequivocally Welsh, meaning _head_. It is an
impossible form in Gaelic. _Fal_, on the other hand, is apparently Gaelic,
the Welsh for a _rampart_ being _gwall_. _Fal_, however, occurs in Welsh
also, and means _inclosure_.

The evidence just indicated is rendered nearly conclusive by an
interpolation, apparently of the twelfth century, of the Durham MS. of
Nennius, whereby it is stated that the spot in question was called in
Gaelic _Cenail_. Now Cenail is the modern name _Kinneil_, and it is also a
Gaelic translation of the Pict _pen val_, since _cean_ is the Gaelic for
_head_, and _fhail_ for _rampart_ or _wall_. If the older form were Gaelic,
the substitution, or translation, would have been superfluous.

d. The name of the _Ochil Hills_ in Perthshire is better explained from the
Pict _uchel_ = _high_, than from the Gaelic _uasal_.

e. Bryneich, the British form of the province Bernicia, is better explained
by the Welsh _bryn_ = _ridge_ (_hilly country_), than by any word in
Gaelic.--Garnett, in "Transactions of Philological Society."

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CHAPTER VII.