Survival of British
What little evidence there is indicates that the vulgar speech of the soldiers artisans and traders in Britain did not differ from that used in Gaul.
Unlike the situation in Gaul, Latin did not replace the British language and the forms recorded after the withdrawal of the Roman administration show that British had evolved as a spoken language throughout the period of Latin dominance.
Despite this there is not a single text in British whereas in Gaul and in other Celtic speaking regions on the Continent, inscriptions in the Celtic languages are found even though there Latin replaced the Celtic entirely.
British peculiarities
The survival of British as a spoken language affected the transmission of the names used during the Roman occupation. Unlike Gaul and Iberia, where the medium of transmission was the vulgar Latin and later the romance dialects, transmission in Britain relied upon the preservation of names in the late British dialects. From them they could have passed directly to the Germanic.
It appears that the full Roman names of the tribal capitals were never in general use in Britain. Whereas in Gaul a name like Samarobriva Ambianis was transmitted using its Latin component (Ambianis) to Amiens, in Britain Venta Belgarum (Winchester) was transmitted using its British element, Venta (market). This example, and there are many others, points to the comprehension of the British elements of compound names from the Roman period up to and beyond the end of the Roman administration of Britain.
The British word *duro, Gaulish *duron, is applied to Roman and native sites all east of the Fosse Way and all, apparently, military in origin.
Although "fort" has been proposed it seems more likely, at least in Gaul, that the sense "closed space or forum" should be retained. The word occurs in Britain and in Gaul in the first position in compound names.
