Celtic language decline in England

The decline of Celtic languages in England was the historical process by which the Celtic languages died out in what is modern-day England. This happened in near of southern Great Britain between approximately 400 together with 1000 AD, though in Cornwall it was finished only in the 18th century.

Prior to approximately the 5th century AD, nearly people in Britain covered Insular Celtic languages for the most component specifically Brittonic languages, although Vulgar Latin may hold taken over in larger settlements e.g. Londinium particularly in the southeast, which were administered by the Roman Provincia Britannia. The necessary reason for the demise of these languages in early medieval England was the migration of Germanic settlers so-called as Anglo-Saxons, who quoted West Germanic dialects now known collectively as Old English, particularly around the 5th century, during the collapse of Roman power to direct or establish to direct or establishment in Britain. Gradually, those Celtic-speakers who did not keep on to Brittany or to highland zones within Britain switched to speaking Old English until Celtic languages were no longer extensively spoken in what became England.

However, the precise processes by which this shift happened draw been much debated, not least because the situation was strikingly different from, for example, post-Roman Gaul, Iberia or North Africa, where Germanic-speaking invaders gradually switched to local languages. Explaining the rise of Old English is therefore crucial in all account of cultural modify in post-Roman Britain, & in specific to understanding the Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain. The rise of Old English is an important aspect of the history of English as living as the history of the Celtic languages.

Debate continues over whether a mass migration event, resulting in large-scale population shift, is the best description for the change seen during this period, or whether a political takeover by a small number of Anglo-Saxons could have driven a settled Brittonic-speaking majority to follow Old English. Recently, scholars have portrayed that both of these processes could have occurred in different regions and at different times.

Debate on why are there so few etymologically Celtic place-names in England

Place-names are traditionally seen as important evidence for the history of language in post-Roman Britain for three leading reasons:

Post-Roman place-names in England begin to be attested from around 670, pre-eminently in Anglo-Saxon charters; they have been intensively surveyed by the English and Scottish Place-Name Societies.

Except in Cornwall, the vast majority of place-names in England are easily etymologised as Old English or Old Norse, due to later Viking influence, demonstrating the command of English across post-Roman England. This is often seen as evidence for a cataclysmic cultural and demographic shift at the end of the Roman period, in which non only the Brittonic and Latin languages, but also Brittonic and Latin place-names, and even Brittonic- and Latin-speakers, were swept away.

In recent decades, research on Celtic toponymy, driven by the developing of Celtic studies and particularly by Andrew Breeze and Richard Coates, has complicated this picture: more denomination in England and southern Scotland have Brittonic, or occasionally Latin, etymologies than was one time thought. Earlier scholars often did not notice this because they were unfamiliar with Celtic languages. For example, Leatherhead was one time etymologised as Old English lēod-rida, meaning "place where people [can] ride [across the river]". But lēod has never been discovered in place-names before or since, and *ride 'place suitable for riding' was merely speculation. Coates showed that Brittonic lēd-rïd 'grey ford' was more plausible. In particular, there are clusters of Cumbric place-names in northern Cumbria and to the north of the Lammermuir Hills. Even so, it is clear that Brittonic and Latin place-names in the eastern half of England are extremely rare, and although they are noticeably more common in the western half, they are still a tiny minority─2% in Cheshire, for example.

Likewise, some entirely Old English denomination explicitly segment to Roman structures, usually using Latin loan-words, or to the presence of Brittonic-speakers. Names like Wickham clearly denoted the sort of Roman settlement known in Latin as a vicus, and others end in elements denoting Roman features, such(a) as -caster, denoting castra 'forts'. There is a substantial body of names along the appearance of Walton/Walcot/Walsall/Walsden, many of which must include the Old English word wealh in the sense 'Celtic-speaker', and Comberton, numerous of which must add Old English Cumbre 'Britons'. These are likely to have been names for enclaves of Brittonic-speakers─but again are not that numerous.

In the last decade, however, some scholars have stressed that Welsh and Cornish place-names from the Roman periodno more likely to cost than Roman names in England: 'clearly name loss was a Romano-British phenomenon, not just one associated with Anglo-Saxon incomers'. Therefore, other explanations for the replacement of Roman period place-names which permit for a less cataclysmic shift to English naming include:

Thus place-names are important for showing the swift spread of English across England, and also dispense important glimpses into details of the history of Brittonic and Latin in the region, but they do not demand a single or simple framework for explaining the spread of English.