Which was the last British language to become extinct

[matt66]

To mean that there is not a single living speaker of that language in the world. A language that could find its roots and origins in the Bristish Isles.

[Quizmonster]

Pictish, possibly?

[Quizmonster]

If sub-divisions are acceptable, how about Norman French?

[Quizmonster]

Oops! That didn't have its origins in the British Isles...plonker!

[heathfield]

Definitely Pictish. It was spoken by some in Scotland up until the 10th century, was never written down, and became extinct. There are only about four words presently used that are looked upon as being Pictish, and these are simply place-names whose root origins cannot be otherwise derived.

[B00]

I'm confused (and obviously thick as well).....can someone explain the question to me?

[MustafaTickl]

Cornish? Dolly Pentreath is considered to be the last native speaker of the Cornish language and she died in December 1777.

[Quizmonster]

But there are many "living speakers" - as stipulated in the question - of Cornish, Mustafa.

[MustafaTickl]

Sorry, Q, don't understand. There are no living speakers of Cornish anywhere. Nobody knows what it sounded like. There are some documents in the language from which people in recent times have assumed sounds, but how near or far they are from the original spoken language nobody knows.

[noxlumos]

Cornish is alive and well and thriving actually mustafa, there are even correspondance courses you can take. A language is not extinct whilst it still has speakers.
Alison Treganing who died in 1906 was, according to many sources the last speaker of old cornish but since the "revival" of the language took place in the beginning of the twentieth century then there is hardly a gap, and I would imagine that pronouciation therefore would not be as circumspect as you imply.
Therefore I concur that it's probably Pictish.

[Peter Pedant]

I still think the q relates to Cornish

because every fule know thelast speaker died in 1777 - see just about every Guiness Book of records

I am notimpressed bythe modern Cornish speakers

[Quizmonster]

I take your point, Mustafa, but that just puts Cornish on a similar footing to Latin, say. Nobody - not even Classics professors at Oxford - know precisely how Latin was pronounced when it was an active, day-to-day language. Nevertheless, they and multitudes of others would deny that Latin is - as per the question - "extinct" or, in other words, "not spoken by anyone".

[MustafaTickl]

Sure. But, regarding Cornish, although after the demise of dear old Dolly odd very small groups of people popped up claiming to speak Cornish between themselves even these unproven claims died out entirely by about the middle of the 1800's. The Cornish Language Board was established in the early 1900's to try to resurrect the language, but whilst the written side was merely a technical slog the spoken side produced four quite different sounding competing groups of claimants. Arising from this there is a speech now in use but whether it is anything like the original or merely whimsical babble nobody knows. So the answer to Matt66's question seems to me to be Cornish indisputably.

[SteveD]

But surely Cornish - as a Celtic language - does not have "its roots and origins" in the British Isles:

http://www.cornwall.gov.uk/index.cfm?articleid =36114

[jno]

I don't suppose any language really has its roots in the British Isles; the original Celts came over from somewhere round Belgium; Latin came with the Romans; Anglo-Saxon with the various German invaders; Scandinavian tongues with the Vikings; Norman French with the Normans. You could say modern English developed in Britain, but that is still going.

I beleive the last native Manx speaker died about 30 years ago, though like Cornish it has been revived, so you could argue that it 'died' more recently than Cornish.

[Quizmonster]

Ah, but you see, J, no-one is quite sure just where the Picts came from, though it is certainly known that they inhabited north and east Scotland. The Encyclop�dia Britannica says (quote) "They were probably descended from pre-Celtic aborigines." If 'aborigine' is used accurately here, then their language certainly fits the "roots and origins" element of the question.
Indeed, the more I read on this thread, the more sure I am that 'Pictish' is the correct answer.
(It may not eventually be the "answer" offered by the quiz-setter or whoever devised the question, of course, but that need not be the end of the matter.)

[jno]

you could very well be right, Quizmonster, though if I were setting a quiz I should hesitate to ask questions about people of whom nothing is known! In effect you'd be saying to puzzlers 'Can you prove they weren't?'

[Quizmonster]

Heavens, above, J...90% of British quiz-setters are convinced that 'posh' is an acronym of 'port out, starboard home' and that a 'square meal' is so called because sailors used to have their food served on square wooden trays. Neither is true. Consequently, I would not be in the least surprised to hear that any one of them had never even heard of Pictish or Manx! The fact that you and I might hesitate before asking questions we knew little about is hardly relevant.
But what the hey! This has been a bit of fun. Cheers

[johnlambert]

Quiz monster, there is a school of thought that the Picts were the decendants of an Egyptian princess and her attendants who were exiled from Ancient Egypt and brought a black stone from their native land with them (the stone of Scone/Destiny)? to Scotland.
That aside, in my humble opinion an extinct tongue is one where no-one is left alive that can remember it. Latin is a dead language, not extinct!!

[jno]

an excellent story, johnlambert, and I shouldn't be surprised if Quizmonster himself has got the blood of Ramses flowing in his veins.

[Quizmonster]

I like the Egyptian story, John...it reminds me of another tale that the Picts were actually descended from one of the so-called "lost tribes of Israel"! I totally agree with your definition of dead and extinct tongues.
J, I have to confess that I was, indeed, born in the north-east of Scotland. A relative has traced our family back to the Loch Ness area in the 1600s, as best I remember, and none of my forebears even seems to have gone to the extreme of marrying an English woman. I should, therefore, be astonished if I did not have - at the very least - Pictish blood flowing in the old veins. The Egyptian or Hebrew seems rather more doubtful.
(By the way, my user-name has nothing to do with the Loch Ness connection!)