The Dyce inscription and the morphosyntax of Pictish

Abstract

The Pictish inscription from Dyce, Aberdeen, preserves a name Rogoddadd that appears to be the patronymic of the person commemorated by the monument, a class-II Pictish symbol stone held in the former parish kirk of St Fergus. The Dyce inscription evidently also preserves the name of the person who commissioned the stone, and the syntax of the inscription is comparable to those attested in other Pictish memorials written in ogham. These include the inscription on the Lunnasting stone, long considered the best evidence that Pictish is not a Brittonic language. The Dyce inscription preserves morphosyntax of a characteristically Indo-European type and its analysis is key to developing a broader understanding of Pictish.