Southwestern Brythonic languages

Southwestern Brythonic
Geographic distribution:	Cornwall, Brittany
Linguistic classification:	Indo-European Celtic Insular Brythonic Southwestern Brythonic
Proto-language:	Proto-Southwestern Brythonic
Subdivisions:	Cornish Breton

The Southwestern Brythonic languages are the Brythonic Celtic tongues spoken in Southwestern Britain and Brittany since the Early Middle Ages. During the period of their earliest attestation, the languages appear to be indistinguishable, but eventually they evolved into the Cornish and Breton languages. They evolved from the common British language formerly spoken all across Britain, and were thus related to the Welsh and Cumbric dialects spoken in Wales and the Hen Ogledd (northern Britain), respectively.

The earliest stage of the languages, Primitive Cornish/Primitive Breton, is unattested. Written sources are extant from the Old Cornish/Breton period, roughly 800-1100, in which phase the languages are basically identical. As such, some linguists such as Schrijver suggest that the terms "Old Cornish" and "Old Breton" are geographical rather than linguistic, only describing whether a text was written in Cornwall or Brittany.

Description

Some of the sound changes that distinguish Southwestern Brythonic from Welsh include:

• the raising of */(ɡ)wo-/ to /(ɡ)wu-/ in a pretonic syllable (in Welsh there was no raising)
• the fronting of */ɔː/ to /œː/ (in Welsh it diphthongized to /aw/)
• the fronting of */a/ to */e/ before */iː/ or */j/ in an old final syllable (in Welsh it diphthongized to /ei/)

Other significant differences are found in Welsh innovations that Southwestern Brythonic did not participate in, such as the development of the voiceless alveolar lateral fricative /ɬ/.

References

• Jackson, Kenneth (1953). Language and History in Early Britain. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. 
• Schrijver, Peter (1995). Studies in British Celtic Historical Phonology. Amsterdam: Rodopi. ISBN 90-5183-820-4.