Pictish

Pictish was replaced by – or merged into – Gaelic in the latter centuries of its period. During the reign of Donald II of Scotland (889–900), outsiders began to refer to the region as the Kingdom of Alba rather than the Kingdom of the Picts. However, the Pictish language did not disappear suddenly; a gradual process of Gaelicisation (which may have begun generations earlier) is thought to have been under way during the reigns of Donald II and his successors. By a certain point, probably during the 12th or 13th centuries, all the inhabitants of Alba had become fully Gaelicised Scots, and the Pictish identity was forgotten.