While Anglo-Saxon culture and language spread swiftly across east and central Britain during the 6th and 7th centuries, corners of the isle retained the languages of the previous dominant culture, the Celtic peoples who are believed to have begun arriving around 600 BC. Today, the people who inhabit these areas take a pride in preserving these languages as a way of protecting their heritage. However, the Celtic peoples who invaded Britain are believed to have integrated with the people who previously inhabited the island, absorbing elements of the language spoken by this group, much in the way that the Normans were later to adopt many English words in order to adapt to their new homeland. The Celts had already spread their influence across most of central Europe and interacted with the Germanic tribes. Their languages were not retained in Europe for the most part, but their influence can be seen through subtle changes – in France for example, the use of Latin was modified through the local influences of Celtic languages. Dialects spoken in northern Spain are heavily influenced by Celtic to this day (due to influences both prior to the Celts arriving in Britain, and on their return after fleeing the Anglo-Saxon invasions). There is also a noticeable correspondence between northern Italian place names and similar names in Cornwall, starting with tre (a Celtic word for a farm or settlement).
Celtic words in Old English come from three identifiable sources – from the continent (usually words associated with conflict and battle – the Celts were often used as ‘armies for hire’), loans taken over after settlement (usually place names), and words from Ireland frequently associated with the Christianisation of Britain. The Celtic language group has been categorised as part of the Indo-European group of languages, yet some studies have shown that there are features of Celtic language syntax that is not Indo-European, and in fact shares much in common with the Hamito-Semitic group of languages. This would indicate a fusion of native and newly imposed language on people who used their own grammar patterns to make sense of an unfamiliar language, and reflects the extent to which the Celts spread themselves across the continent. Not a great deal is known about those who inhabited the British Isles before the Celts, but it is interesting to think that their languages, lost forever, may survive in some way through the preservation of other languages.
For the most part, Celtic influence on the English language is mostly apparent through place names. For generations, the language of the Celts was referred to as ‘British’ – the language of the Britons, the native inhabitants of the land. Some names that survive are the names of rivers such as the Thames and the Yare, and important Roman towns such as London, York and Lincoln. A number of names are compounds of Celtic and Anglo-Saxon words. Two Celtic words for "hill" bre and pen appear in a number of names. Brill in Buckinghamshire is a combination of bre and Old English hyll. Breedon on the Hill in Leicestershire is a combination of bre and dun, both Celtic words, and Brewood in Staffordshire is combined with Old English wudu. Pensax in Herefordshire means "hill of the Anglo-Saxons", giving an indication of the proximity but isolation in which Celtic communities would have existed until they were gradually pushed to the corners of Britain by the Anglo-Saxons. The use of "Combe" or "Coombe" as part of many place names comes from the Celtic word kumb, which meant "valley", and was adopted into Old English. The word tor is used mainly in the south-west of Britain, means "rock", and is used in conjunction with the granite peaks on Dartmoor and Bodmin moor – Hay Tor, Hound Tor etc, and was incorporated into the name of the coastal town ‘Torquay’. Bodmin itself is a compound of the Cornish words bod "dwelling" (which may have come into English as "abode") and monegh ‘monks’. The name Cornwall is an Anglicized form of the original name for the people who inhabited the far south-west of Britain kern either being a tribal name, or a word meaning "rock", and "wall" coming from Old English weahlas meaning (rather inappropriately) "foreigners". Parallel names are common in the south-west as well – for example St. Ives is also known by its Cornish name of Porthia.
