What language was spoken by the native inhabitants of Britain?

Answer 1

The island of Great Britain was settled by Cro Magnon populations after the last ice age about 10,000 years ago. Presumably, these people spoke a language that is related somehow to modern Basque.

With the coming of the Indo-Europeans to Europe, Great Britain was next settled en masse by Celtic tribes. The island was originally called by Celtic tribes something like "Curiteni," which in some dialects became "Priteni," which is the origin of the word "Britain" (via Latin) and the Welsh word "Prydain" meaning "Britain" and the Irish word "Cruithne," which referred to the Picts.

The languages of Britain before the Roman invasion can be called Brythonic languages, and modern Welsh and Cornish are descended from them. Brythonic is the original Celtic language spoken in Britain at this time.

When the Romans invaded and conquered Britain, they imposed Latin on the population, and the result was similar to other Roman provinces, where bilinguality was very common and the lower classes spoke the local language (Brythonic) and the upper classes spoke both or just Latin. Had nothing else changed linguistically in Britain, the British would probably have ended up speaking a Romance language related to French or Spanish.

This did not happen, however, because around 600 AD Germanic-speaking tribes started settling in Britain when the Romans pulled out. In the north of England, settlers spoke old forms of Danish or Norwegian, and in the south settlers spoke West Germanic dialects called Anglian, Saxon, and Jutish. (The term "English" comes from the Angles, who spoke Anglian.) Because all of these languages were so similar, over time they sort of coalesced into a more or less coherent language that became Anglo-Saxon or Old English.

Speakers of Anglo-Saxon slowly pushed Brythonic speakers west and north, so that the modern languages of Welsh and Cornish ended up being spoken mainly in the West. (Other Brythonic speakers ended up in Britany across the English channel.) English was spoken in central Britain, becoming modern England.

England was conquere din 1066 by French-speaking Normans, and French became the court language/official language of England for some 500 years. To this day, English is characterized by a huge influence from French--in terms of vocabulary and grammar.

Modern English can be said to be a hybrid of Scandinavian, West Germanic/Low Germanic, and French elements, with large vocabulary borrowings from Latin and Greek.

However, English is not the "original" language of Britain--that would be what Cro Magnon speakers spoke, followed by Celtic Brythonic speakers.

Answer 2

The native inhabitants of Britain spoke Common Brittonic, a Celtic language. This language evolved into Welsh, Cornish, and Breton over time.