The Pictish language was spoken by the Picts, the people of northern and central Scotland in the Early Middle Ages. It was spoken until 10th century.
There is very little direct attestation of Pictish, consisting only of a few very short inscriptions. Also known are a few place names and some names of people found on monuments and the contemporary records in the area controlled by the Kingdom of the Picts.
The Anglo-Saxon monk Bede mentions five languages in his Ecclesiastical History of the English People (completed in 731): Haec in praesenti, iuxta numerum librorum, quibus lex diuina scripta est, quinque gentium linguis, unam eandemque summae ueritatis et uerae sublimitatis scientiam scrutatur, et confitetur, Anglorum uidelicet, Brettonum, Scottorum, Pictorum et Latinorum, quae meditatione scripturarum ceteris omnibus est facta communis.
Most of the surviving Pictish inscriptions use the Ogham script, which was invented in Ireland perhaps around the fourth century and introduced to what is now mainland Scotland via Dal Riada (an Irish-speaking early medieval kingdom in roughly the area of modern Argyll). Ogham is written by making straight strokes across, sloping from or perpendicular to a guideline, originally the edge of a stone.
Cross slab with Pictish (ogham) inscriptions.