Era 6th–8th centuries | Glottolog None | |
Region Wales, Welsh Marches, North West England, Pennines Language family Indo-European
Celtic
Insular Celtic
Brittonic
Western Brythonic | ||
Western Brittonic languages comprise two dialects into which Common Brittonic split during the Early Middle Ages; its counterpart was the ancestor of the Southwestern Brittonic languages. The reason and date for the split is often given as the Battle of Deorham in 577, at which point the victorious Saxons of Wessex essentially cut Brittonic-speaking Britain in two.
Western Brittonic languages were spoken in Wales and the Hen Ogledd, or "Old North", an area of northern England and southern Scotland. One Western language evolved into Old Welsh and thus to the modern Welsh language; the language of Hen Ogledd, Cumbric, became extinct after the expansion of the Middle Irish-speaking Dál Riata polity. Southwestern Brittonic became the ancestor to Cornish and Breton.