Earliest Inhabitants:
* Prehistoric: Before the arrival of recorded history, Britain was inhabited by people who left behind archaeological evidence. We don't know their languages, but they likely spoke languages related to the Basque language or other pre-Indo-European languages.
* Bronze Age: Around 2500 BC, people speaking Proto-Celtic languages arrived in Britain. This is considered the earliest language we have evidence for in the British Isles.
Historic Periods:
* Celtic Languages: From the Bronze Age onward, Britain was home to various Celtic languages, including:
* Brittonic (ancestors of Welsh, Cornish, and Breton)
* Goidelic (ancestors of Irish, Scottish Gaelic, and Manx)
* Latin: After the Roman conquest in 43 AD, Latin became the language of administration and the elite in Roman Britain.
* Anglo-Saxon: Following the Roman withdrawal, Anglo-Saxon (a Germanic language) spread, eventually becoming the dominant language in most of England.
* Norman French: After the Norman Conquest in 1066, Norman French became the language of the ruling class and influenced the development of English.
The Bottom Line:
* Technically, the first documented language in Britain was Proto-Celtic, but we don't have any written records of that language.
* The language that had the most lasting impact on modern British languages is Anglo-Saxon, which eventually evolved into English.
So, while there isn't a single "first" language, the history of language in Britain is rich and complex, with different languages coexisting and influencing each other over time.