Before the coming of the Roman empire, Celtic languages were spoken across Europe. Present day placenames indicate the extent of their influence: the town of Bala in Turkey and the city of London in ...

The evidence suggests that by the first century AD, the language spoken in Wales - and throughout southern Britain - was Brythonic, a Celtic language closely related to the Gaulish of Gaul.

This version of Celtic was to evolve into Brittonic (or Brythonic), which in turn gave rise to Welsh, Cornish and Breton. As the kw sound of Goidelic appears as a p in Brittonic, it is also known ...