The Romans in Britain / by Bertram C.A. Windle.

  • Bertram Coghill Alan Windle
Date:
[1923]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The Romans in Britain / by Bertram C.A. Windle. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    the metal trade routes, they reached Britain, and of course subsequently, though that does not concern us here, Ireland. In what manner they came and at what dates has been, and indeed still is, matter of much controversy over which it would be useless to spend time in such a work as this. Let us again content ourselves with obtaining a general idea of the main conclusions of scholars like the late Sir John Rhys. He thought that the first flight of these immigrants, known as Goidels, came to Britain in the sixth century b.c., and were followed by the second, or Brythonic, in the second. Others have disputed these dates, and the controversy, however interesting, need not trouble us since it is unquestioned that there were numerous representatives of both hordes in the island when the Romans reached it. Neither must we delay to discuss the vexed questions of Aryan races and Aryan tongues, but may again be content to learfi that, on any kind of theory, both hordes would be included under the racial title and both spoke dialects of the Aryan group. There was, however, a substantial difference between the two according to Rhys’s well-known generalization, which, however, is disputed by some. Where the former used a “ K ” or Q ” the latter employed a “ P,” and hence the names alternatively used for the two hordes of “ Q Kelts ” and “ P Kelts.” Let us take two examples. Ceann ” is a head in the Goidelic form, and we find it in such a place-name as Kenmare. In Brythonic it would be “ Pen,” and that we get in Penmaenmawr, the great stone head. Again “ Mac ” or “ maq,” with its genitive ” maqi ” found on the Ogham stones, is a son : Mac Neile is the son of Nial. “ Map ” is a son in Brythonic, and so in Welsh Map John is the son of John. The “ M ” has disappeared in modern days, and the name has become Apjohn, just as in other names the Ma ” has gone, leaving only ” P,” so that we have (Ma) P Rhys or Price, (Ma) P Robert or Probert, (Ma) P Hugh or Pugh, and so on with Powell, Prichard, and others. We may find linguistic traces of both these swarms of invaders in the place-names
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