Britanno-Romance
The British Languages ... form a Branch of the Romance Language Family of Western Europe. It has developed, as have all the other Romance Languages, roughly since the third or fourth century’s so-called Vulgar Latin period. All British dialects have historically been affected and influenced by their Celtic predecessor and neighbour languages, particularly the ancient Brythonic. A reasonably large substratum of the British vocabulary, varying from perhaps 10% to 25% is of Celtic provenance; and the sound system is also heavily influenced by the Celtic languages, particularly the mutational systems. Taken from Sarra la Cavurn's Concise Tabulation of the Cornovian Dialect.
The Britanno-Romance continuum of dialects is generally divided into four dialect types, one of which has become extinct. In the immediate post-Roman period, the Vulgar Latin spoken in Britain rapidly diversified into four basic dialects: the Eastern, the most conservative and most influenced by the educated users of Classical Latin, was centered at Londinium; the Central, from which springs the Kemrese national language of Brithenig, was centered at Castra Leonis or Castreleon; the Northern or Votadinean was the language of the old kingdom of North Kemr and after the Hibernian invasions became much influenced by the Gaelic, it was originally centered at Caerlew and subsequently shifted west into Strathclyde; the Western is a collection of varyingly related dialects of the marginally Romanised Dumnonin peninsular. The Western group saw a period of great expansion during the time of the Saxon invasions, which coincided with the formation of the Dumnonian Empire. While the mother of the Western dialects, Kerno, is fading in the face of the centuries old advance of Brithenig, Kerno and its daughter Brehonecq are thriving, Brehonecq in France and both in the Americas.
| Indo-European - Italic languages | ||||||||
| Latin / Romance Languages | Faliscan † Oscan † Umbrian † | |||||||
| Western Romance | Lessinu Sardinian Xliponian South-Central Romance North-Central Romance Eastern Romance | |||||||
| Britanno-Romance | Gallo-Romance | Northern Italian | Ibero-Romance | Jovian | ||||
| Langues d'Oil | Langues d'Oua | Langues d'Oc | ||||||
| Breathanach Brehonecq Brithenig Brzhonegh Cumbreg Kerno |
Francien Laurentian Normand Angli Picard Wallon |
Dauphinois Forézien Jurassien Lyonais Savoyard |
Auvergnat Gascon Limousin Narbonosc Catalan |
Lombard Emiliano-Romagnolo Venetian Piedmontese Ligurian |
Aragonese Asturian Castilian Galician Ladino Montreiano Portuguese |
Jovian | ||
