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Language

The Picts spoke a form of Brittonic Celtic which was not the same as the Goidelic Celtic spoken by the Irish.  We know this because the Irish St Columba needed an interpreter when he visited the court of the Pictish King Brude mac Maelcon in Inverness.  We don’t know that language, but the Picts were not illiterate.  We know this because the script they used was Ogham and this is indeed fascinating because Ogham was the language of spells.  It was also a musical language.  We have postulated that the use of bars and lines in Ogham led to the musical notation system we use today.  Thus the Picts may – many many years ago have sung their way through life – like the Welsh accent implies and the Native Australian Aborigines testify via their songlines.

T C Lethbridge – Painted Men
the songs they sang …still survive to this day and appear to differ from those of any people living near to us. …My information comes from Mrs Campbell of Canna who spent years on a South Uist croft simply to obtain this information.  Others such as  R U Sayce have told me they could not account for the arrival of such songs at any period since the Bronze age……. It shows that the migration from the wheelhouse sites was not complete.  Some people remained and their descendants do so to this day

Brandsbut Pictish Ogham Stone - Scotland