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Celtic
Geographic
distribution:		 Formerly widespread in Europe; today only Great Britain, Isle of Man, Ireland and Brittany
Genetic
classification:		 Indo-European
 Celtic
Subdivisions:
ISO 639-2: cel

Indo-European topics
Indo-European languages
Albanian · Armenian · Baltic
Celtic · Germanic · Greek
Indo-Iranian (Indo-Aryan, Iranian)
Italic · Slavic  

extinct: Anatolian · Paleo-Balkans (Dacian,
Phrygian, Thracian) · Tocharian
Indo-European peoples
Albanians · Armenians
Balts · Celts · Germanic peoples
Greeks · Indo-Aryans
Iranians · Latins · Slavs

historical: Anatolians (Hittites, Luwians)
Celts (Galatians, Gauls) · Germanic tribes
Illyrians · Italics  · Sarmatians
Scythians  · Thracians  · Tocharians
Indo-Iranians (Rigvedic tribes, Iranian tribes) 
Proto-Indo-Europeans
Language · Society · Religion
 
Urheimat hypotheses
Kurgan hypothesis
Anatolia · Armenia · India · PCT
 
Indo-European studies

The Celtic languages are descended from Proto-Celtic, or "Common Celtic", a branch of the greater Indo-European language family. See also Kingdom of Great Britain Great Britain (Breatainn Mhòr Prydain Fawr Breten Veur Graet Breetain is the larger of the two main islands The Isle of Man (Ellan Vannin ˈɛlʲən ˈvanɪn or Mann (Mannin) is a self-governing Crown dependency, located in the Irish Sea at the geographical Ireland (pronounced /ˈaɾlənd/ Éire) is the third largest island in Europe, and the twentieth-largest island in the world Brittany (Breizh bʁejs Bretagne; Gallo: Bertaèyn) is a former independent Celtic kingdom and Duchy, now incorporated into List of language familiesA language family is a group of Languages related by descent from a common ancestor called the Proto-language of that family The Continental Celtic languages is a modern name for the Celtic languages, now all extinct that originated and were spoken on the continent of Europe (as opposed to the The term Insular Celtic refers to those Celtic languages which originated in the British Isles, in contrast to the Continental Celtic languages of ISO 639-2 is the second part of the ISO 639 standard, which lists codes for the representation of the names of languages Albanian (sq ''Gjuha shqipe'' ˈɟuha ˈʃcipɛ is an Indo-European language spoken by nearly 6 million peoplewhile others claim that it derives from Daco - The Armenian language (hy հայերեն լեզու hajɛɹɛn lɛzu —, conventional short form) is an Indo-European language spoken by the Armenian The Baltic languages are a group of related languages belonging to the Indo-European language family and spoken mainly in areas extending east and southeast of the Baltic The Germanic languages are a group of related languages that constitute a branch of the Indo-European (IE Language family. Greek (el ελληνική γλώσσα or simply el ελληνικά — "Hellenic" is an Indo-European language, spoken today by 15-22 million people mainly The Indo-Iranian language group constitutes the easternmost extant branch of the Indo-European family of languages The Indo-Aryan languages (within the context of Indo-European studies also Indic) are a branch of the Indo-European language family The Iranian languages are a branch of the Indo-European language family and its subfamily Indo-Iranian. The Italic subfamily is a member of the Indo-European language family's Centum branch The Slavic languages (also called Slavonic languages) a group of closely related Languages of the Slavic peoples and a subgroup of Indo-European languages The Anatolian languages are a group of extinct Indo-European languages which were spoken in Asia Minor, the best attested of them being the Hittite language The Paleo-Balkan languages were the Indo-European languages that were spoken in the Balkans in Ancient times. The Dacian language was spoken by the ancient inhabitants of Dacia. The Phrygian language was the Indo-European language of the Phrygians a people from Thrace who later migrated to Asia Minor. The Thracian language was the Indo-European language spoken in ancient times by the Thracians in South-Eastern Europe Tocharian or Tokharian is one of the branches of the Indo-European language family. } Albanians (Shqiptarët are an Ethnic group and a Nation, in the sense of sharing a common Albanian culture speaking the Albanian language The Armenians (Հայեր Hayer) are a Nation and Ethnic group originating in the Caucasus and in the Armenian Highlands A large The Balts or Baltic peoples (People who live by the Baltic Sea) defined as speakers of one of the Baltic languages, a branch of the Indo-European Modern Celts are those peoples who are speakers of Celtic languages, or who consider themselves or have been considered by others to participate in a Celtic culture This is a list of Germanic peoples. Classical philosophy The Greeks assigned names to populations they considered distinct based on the city-state ( The Greeks ( Greek: Έλληνες) are a Nation and Ethnic group native to Greece, Cyprus and neighbouring regions The Iranian people are a collection of Ethnic groups defined along linguistic lines as speaking Iranian languages. Latin European peoples are those who speak Romance languages, descended from Vulgar Latin, spread during the time of the Roman Empire. Anatolia (Anadolu Ανατολία Anatolía) or Asia minor, comprising most of modern Turkey, is the geographic region bounded by the Black The Hittites were an ancient Anatolian people who spoke a language of the Anatolian branch of the Indo-European language family and established Luwian (sometimes spelled Luvian) is an extinct language of the Anatolian branch of the Celts (ˈkɛlts or /ˈsɛlts/, see Names of the Celts Ancient Galatia was an area in the highlands of central Anatolia in modern Turkey. Gaul (Gallia was the Roman name for the region of Western Europe comprising present day northern Italy, France, Belgium, western The Germanic peoples are a historical group of Indo-European -speaking peoples originating in Northern Europe and identified by their use of the Germanic Illyrians has come to refer to a broad ill-defined " Indo-European " group of peoples who inhabited the western Balkans ( Illyria, roughly Ancient peoples of Italy are all those peoples that lived in Italy (including the islands of Sicily and Sardinia) before the Roman domination The Sarmatians, Sarmatae or Sauromatae ( Old Iranian Sarumatah 'archer' Σαρμάτες The Scythians or Scyths (Σκύθες Σκύθοι were an Iranian speaking people of horse-riding Nomadic pastoralists who dominated the Pontic "Thracians" also refers to modern inhabitants of Thrace, regardless of ethnicity The Tocharians were the Tocharian -speaking inhabitants of the Tarim basin, making them the easternmost speakers of an Indo-European language in antiquity Indo-Iranian peoples consist of the Indo-Aryan, Iranian, Dardic and Nuristani peoples that is speakers of Indo-Iranian languages The Indo-Aryan tribes mentioned in the Rigveda are described as semi- Nomadic pastoralists subdivided into temporary settlements ( vish, viś and headed Ancient Iranian peoples who settled Greater Iran in the 2nd millennium BC first appear in Assyrian records in the 9th century BC. The Proto-Indo-Europeans (PIE were the speakers of the Proto-Indo-European language, who likely lived around 4000 BC, during the Copper Age and the The society of the Proto-Indo-Europeans (PIE existed during the Bronze Age (roughly fifth to fourth millennium BC and has been reconstructed The existence of similarities among the deities and religious practices of the Indo-European (IE peoples allows glimpses of a common Proto-Indo-European The question of the homeland ( Urheimat) of the Proto-Indo-European peoples and their Proto-Indo-European language has been a recurring topic in Indo-European The Kurgan hypothesis (also theory or model) is a model of early Indo-European origins, which postulates that the Kurgan culture of the Pontic steppe The Anatolian hypothesis is also called Renfrew's NDT; it proposes that the dispersal ( Discontinuity) of Proto-Indo-Europeans originated in Neolithic The Armenian hypothesis of the Proto-Indo-European Urheimat, based on the Glottalic theory suggests that the Proto-Indo-European language The Out of India theory ( OIT, also called the Indian Urheimat Theory) is the proposition that the Indo-European language family originated in The Paleolithic Continuity Theory (or PCT,Italian La teoria della continuità) is a Hypothesis suggesting that the hypothetical Proto-Indo-European Indo-European studies is a field of Linguistics dealing with Indo-European languages, both current and extinct Phonological reconstruction Consonants The phonological changes from Proto-Indo-European to Proto-Celtic Consonants may be summarised as follows List of language familiesA language family is a group of Languages related by descent from a common ancestor called the Proto-language of that family The term "Celtic" was invented as a language group label by Edward Lhuyd in 1707, having much earlier been used by Greek and Roman writers for tribes in central Gaul. Edward Lhuyd (sometimes rewritten as Llwyd in recent times (1660&ndash June 30, 1709) was a Welsh naturalist, botanist Gaul (Gallia was the Roman name for the region of Western Europe comprising present day northern Italy, France, Belgium, western During the 1st millennium BC, they were spoken across Europe, from the Bay of Biscay and the North Sea, up the Rhine and down the Danube to the Black Sea and the Upper Balkan Peninsula, and into Asia Minor (Galatia). The 1st millennium BC encompasses the Iron Age and sees the rise of successive empires Cantabrian Sea redirects here Not to be confused with Biscay Bay Newfoundland and Labrador or Biscayne Bay. The North Sea is a marginal, Epeiric sea of the Atlantic Ocean on the European Continental shelf. The Rhine (Rhein Rijn Rhin Reno Rain Rhenus is one of the longest and most important Rivers in Europe at 1320 kilometres (820 mi with an average discharge The Danube (In Donau from earlier Danuvius, Celtic *dānu, meaning "to flow run" Slovak and Polish Dunaj The Black Sea is an inland Sea bounded by southeastern Europe, the Caucasus and the Anatolian peninsula ( Turkey Anatolia (Anadolu Ανατολία Anatolía) or Asia minor, comprising most of modern Turkey, is the geographic region bounded by the Black Ancient Galatia was an area in the highlands of central Anatolia in modern Turkey. Today, Celtic languages are limited to a few areas in Great Britain, the Isle of Man, Ireland, Cape Breton Island, Patagonia, and on the peninsula of Brittany in France. See also Kingdom of Great Britain Great Britain (Breatainn Mhòr Prydain Fawr Breten Veur Graet Breetain is the larger of the two main islands The Isle of Man (Ellan Vannin ˈɛlʲən ˈvanɪn or Mann (Mannin) is a self-governing Crown dependency, located in the Irish Sea at the geographical Ireland (pronounced /ˈaɾlənd/ Éire) is the third largest island in Europe, and the twentieth-largest island in the world Cape Breton Island ( French: île du Cap-Breton - formerly île Royale, Scottish Gaelic: Eilean Cheap Breatuinn, Llao LLaojpg|thumb|250px| Lake Nahuel Huapi, near Bariloche, Argentina Brittany (Breizh bʁejs Bretagne; Gallo: Bertaèyn) is a former independent Celtic kingdom and Duchy, now incorporated into This article is about the country For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic France topics. The spread to Cape Breton and Patagonia occurred in modern times. In all areas the Celtic languages are now only spoken by minorities.

Contents

Divisions

Proto-Celtic apparently divided into four sub-families:

Scholarly handling of the Celtic languages has been rather argumentative owing to lack of much primary source data. Some scholars distinguish Continental Celtic and Insular Celtic, arguing that the differences between the Goidelic and Brythonic languages arose after these split off from the Continental Celtic languages. The Continental Celtic languages is a modern name for the Celtic languages, now all extinct that originated and were spoken on the continent of Europe (as opposed to the The term Insular Celtic refers to those Celtic languages which originated in the British Isles, in contrast to the Continental Celtic languages of Other scholars distinguish P-Celtic from Q-Celtic, putting most of the Continental Celtic languages in the former group (except for Celtiberian, which is Q-Celtic).

The Breton language is Brythonic, not Gaulish, though there may be some input from the latter. When the Anglo-Saxons moved into Great Britain, several waves of the native Brythons or "Welsh" (from a Germanic word for "foreigners") crossed the English Channel and landed in Brittany. For their language see Anglo-Saxon language. Anglo-Saxon is the term usually used to describe the invading Tribes in the south See also Kingdom of Great Britain Great Britain (Breatainn Mhòr Prydain Fawr Breten Veur Graet Breetain is the larger of the two main islands Walh (singular or Walha (plural ( is an ancient Germanic word meaning "foreigner" or "stranger" ( Welsh) or "roman" Brittany (Breizh bʁejs Bretagne; Gallo: Bertaèyn) is a former independent Celtic kingdom and Duchy, now incorporated into They brought their Brythonic language with them, which evolved into Breton — which is still partially intelligible with Modern Welsh and Cornish.

In the P/Q classification scheme the first language to split off from Proto-Celtic was Gaelic. It has characteristics that some scholars see as archaic but others see as also being in the Brythonic languages (see Schmidt). With the Insular/Continental classification scheme the split of the former into Gaelic and Brythonic is seen as being late.

The distinction of Celtic into these four sub-families most likely occurred about 900 BCE according to Gray and Atkinson but, because of estimation uncertainty, it could be any time between 1200 and 800 BCE. However, they only considered Gaelic and Brythonic. The controversial paper by Forster and Toth included Gaulish and put the break-up much earlier at 3200 BCE +/- 1500 years. They support the Insular Celtic hypothesis. The early Celts were commonly associated with the archaeological Urnfield culture, the Hallstatt culture, and the La Tène culture, though the earlier assumption of association between language and culture is now considered to be less strong. The Urnfield culture (c 1300 BC - 750 BC) was a late Bronze Age culture of central Europe. The Hallstatt culture was the predominant The La Tène culture was a European Iron Age culture named after the archaeological site

Pronunciation

Main article: Pronunciation of Celtic

The term Celtic is pronounced either /ˈkɛltɪk/ or /ˈsɛltɪk/, but /ˈkɛltɪk/ is more common. The origin of the various names used since classical times for the people known today as the Celts is obscure and has been controversial The term is sometimes spelled either Keltic or Celtick in old documents.

Classifications

The Celtic nations where most Celtic speakers are now concentrated
The Celtic nations where most Celtic speakers are now concentrated

There are two main competing schemata of categorization. Celtic nations are areas of modern northwest Europe which identify themselves with the Celtic cultures specifically speakers of Celtic languages. The older scheme, argued for by Schmidt (1988) among others, links Gaulish with Brythonic in a P-Celtic node, originally leaving just Goidelic as Q-Celtic. The difference between P and Q languages is the treatment of Proto-Celtic *kw, which became *p in the P-Celtic languages but *k in Goidelic. Phonological reconstruction Consonants The phonological changes from Proto-Indo-European to Proto-Celtic Consonants may be summarised as follows An example is the Proto-Celtic verb root *kwrin- "to buy", which became pryn- in Welsh but cren- in Old Irish. Old Irish is the name given to the oldest form of the Irish language, or rather the Goidelic languages, for which extensive written texts are possessed However, a classification based on a single feature is risky by its critics, particularly as the sound change occurs in in other language groups.

The other scheme, defended for example by McCone (1996), links Goidelic and Brythonic together as an Insular Celtic branch, while Gaulish and Celtiberian are referred to as Continental Celtic. The term Insular Celtic refers to those Celtic languages which originated in the British Isles, in contrast to the Continental Celtic languages of The Continental Celtic languages is a modern name for the Celtic languages, now all extinct that originated and were spoken on the continent of Europe (as opposed to the According to this theory, the "P-Celtic" sound change of [kʷ] to [p] occurred independently or areally. The proponents of the Insular Celtic hypothesis point to other shared innovations among Insular Celtic languages, including inflected prepositions, VSO word order, and the lenition of intervocalic [m] to [β̃], a nasalized voiced bilabial fricative (an extremely rare sound). In Phonetics, nasalization is the production of a sound while the velum is lowered so that some air escapes through the nose during the production of the sound by The voiced bilabial fricative is a type of Consonantal sound used in some spoken Languages The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet There is, however, no assumption that the Continental Celtic languages descend from a common "Proto-Continental Celtic" ancestor. Rather, the Insular/Continental schemata usually considers Celtiberian the first branch to split from Proto-Celtic, and the remaining group would later have split into Gaulish and Insular Celtic.

There are legitimate scholarly arguments in favour of both the Insular Celtic hypothesis and the P-Celtic/Q-Celtic hypothesis. Proponents of each schema dispute the accuracy and usefulness of the other's categories. Since the realization that Celtiberian was Q-Celtic in the 1970s, the division into Insular and Continental Celtic is the more widespread opinion (Cowgill 1975; McCone 1991, 1992; Schrijver 1995).

When referring only to the modern Celtic languages, since no Continental Celtic language has living descendants, "Q-Celtic" is equivalent to "Goidelic" and "P-Celtic" is equivalent to "Brythonic".

Within the Indo-European family, the Celtic languages have sometimes been placed with the Italic languages in a common Italo-Celtic subfamily, a hypothesis that is now largely discarded, in favour of the assumption of language contact between pre-Celtic and pre-Italic communities. The Italic subfamily is a member of the Indo-European language family's Centum branch In historical linguistics Italo-Celtic refers to the observation that the Italic languages and the Celtic languages share a number of common features unique to these Language contact occurs when speakers of distinct speech varieties interact

How the family tree of the Celtic languages is ordered depends on which hypothesis is used -

Insular/Continental hypothesis

P-Celtic/Q-Celtic hypothesis

Characteristics of Celtic languages

Although there are many differences between the individual Celtic languages, they do show many family resemblances. Phonological reconstruction Consonants The phonological changes from Proto-Indo-European to Proto-Celtic Consonants may be summarised as follows The Continental Celtic languages is a modern name for the Celtic languages, now all extinct that originated and were spoken on the continent of Europe (as opposed to the Gaulish or Gallic is the name given to the Celtic language that was spoken in Gaul before the Vulgar Latin of the late Roman Empire became Lepontic is an extinct Celtic language that was spoken in parts of Rhaetia and Cisalpine Gaul (today's Northern Italy) between 700 The Noric language or Eastern Celtic language was a Continental Celtic language. Galatian is an extinct Celtic language once spoken in Galatia in Asia Minor (modern Turkey) from the 3rd century BC up to the Celtiberian (also known as northeastern Hispano-Celtic) is an extinct Indo-European language of the Celtic branch spoken by the Celtiberians The term Insular Celtic refers to those Celtic languages which originated in the British Isles, in contrast to the Continental Celtic languages of The Goidelic languages, (also sometimes called particularly in colloquial situations the Gaelic languages or collectively Gaelic) historically formed a Dialect Primitive Irish is the oldest known form of the Goidelic languages, known only from fragments mostly personal names inscribed on stone in the Ogham alphabet in Old Irish is the name given to the oldest form of the Irish language, or rather the Goidelic languages, for which extensive written texts are possessed Middle Irish is the name given by historical philologists to the Goidelic language used from the 10th to 12th centuries it is therefore a contemporary Irish (ga ''Gaeilge'' is a Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family originating in Ireland and historically spoken by the Irish. Scottish Gaelic ( Gàidhlig) is a member of the Goidelic branch of Celtic languages. Manx ( Gaelg or Gailck, ɡilk or) also known as Manx Gaelic, is a Goidelic language once spoken on the Isle The Brythonic languages (or Brittonic languages or British languages) form one of the two branches of the Insular Celtic language family the other being Pictish is a term used for the Extinct language or languages thought to have been spoken by the Picts, the people of northern and central Scotland British was an ancient Celtic language spoken in much of southern and central Britain up to the central lowlands of Scotland and in Ireland. Cumbric was the Brythonic Celtic language, often considered to be a Dialect of Welsh, spoken in Northern England and southern Old Welsh (Hen Gymraeg is the label attached to the Welsh language from the time it developed from the Brythonic language generally thought to be in the period Middle Welsh (Cymraeg Canol is the label attached to the Welsh language of the 12th to 14th centuries of which much more remains than for any earlier Welsh ( cy Cymraeg or cy y Gymraeg, kəmˈrɑːɨɡ and {{IPA|[ə ɡəmˈrɑːɨɡ]}}, is a member of the Brythonic branch of Celtic The Breton language ( Brezhoneg) formerly often called Armoric or Armorican, is a Celtic language spoken by some of the inhabitants of Brittany For the Cornish-English dialect see West Country dialects and List of Cornish dialect words. Phonological reconstruction Consonants The phonological changes from Proto-Indo-European to Proto-Celtic Consonants may be summarised as follows The Celtic languages are descended from Proto-Celtic, or "Common Celtic" a branch of the greater Indo-European Language family. Gaulish or Gallic is the name given to the Celtic language that was spoken in Gaul before the Vulgar Latin of the late Roman Empire became Lepontic is an extinct Celtic language that was spoken in parts of Rhaetia and Cisalpine Gaul (today's Northern Italy) between 700 The Noric language or Eastern Celtic language was a Continental Celtic language. Galatian is an extinct Celtic language once spoken in Galatia in Asia Minor (modern Turkey) from the 3rd century BC up to the The Brythonic languages (or Brittonic languages or British languages) form one of the two branches of the Insular Celtic language family the other being Cumbric was the Brythonic Celtic language, often considered to be a Dialect of Welsh, spoken in Northern England and southern Pictish is a term used for the Extinct language or languages thought to have been spoken by the Picts, the people of northern and central Scotland Old Welsh (Hen Gymraeg is the label attached to the Welsh language from the time it developed from the Brythonic language generally thought to be in the period Middle Welsh (Cymraeg Canol is the label attached to the Welsh language of the 12th to 14th centuries of which much more remains than for any earlier Welsh ( cy Cymraeg or cy y Gymraeg, kəmˈrɑːɨɡ and {{IPA|[ə ɡəmˈrɑːɨɡ]}}, is a member of the Brythonic branch of Celtic The Breton language ( Brezhoneg) formerly often called Armoric or Armorican, is a Celtic language spoken by some of the inhabitants of Brittany For the Cornish-English dialect see West Country dialects and List of Cornish dialect words. The Celtic languages are descended from Proto-Celtic, or "Common Celtic" a branch of the greater Indo-European Language family. Celtiberian (also known as northeastern Hispano-Celtic) is an extinct Indo-European language of the Celtic branch spoken by the Celtiberians The Goidelic languages, (also sometimes called particularly in colloquial situations the Gaelic languages or collectively Gaelic) historically formed a Dialect Primitive Irish is the oldest known form of the Goidelic languages, known only from fragments mostly personal names inscribed on stone in the Ogham alphabet in Old Irish is the name given to the oldest form of the Irish language, or rather the Goidelic languages, for which extensive written texts are possessed Middle Irish is the name given by historical philologists to the Goidelic language used from the 10th to 12th centuries it is therefore a contemporary Irish (ga ''Gaeilge'' is a Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family originating in Ireland and historically spoken by the Irish. Scottish Gaelic ( Gàidhlig) is a member of the Goidelic branch of Celtic languages. Manx ( Gaelg or Gailck, ɡilk or) also known as Manx Gaelic, is a Goidelic language once spoken on the Isle While none of these characteristics is necessarily unique to the Celtic languages, there are few if any other languages which possess them all. They include:

Examples:
(Irish) Ná bac le mac an bhacaigh is ní bhacfaidh mac an bhacaigh leat.
(Literal translation) Don't bother with son the beggar's and not will-bother son the beggar's with-you.

(Welsh) pedwar ar bymtheg a phedwar ugain
(literally) four on fifteen and four twenties

Mixed languages

Notes

  1. ^ ,www.arkeotavira.com
  2. ^ The late Kenneth Jackson proposed a non-Indo-European Pictish language existing alongside a Pretenic one. This is no longer accepted by some scholars. See Katherine Forsyth's "Language in Pictland : the case against 'non-Indo-European Pictish'" EtextPDF (27. 8 MiB). A mebibyte (a contraction of me ga bi nary byte) is a unit of Information or Computer storage, abbreviated MiB. See also the introduction by James & Taylor to the "Index of Celtic and Other Elements in W. J. Watson's 'The History of the Celtic Place-names of Scotland'" EtextPDF (172 KiB). A kibibyte (a contraction of ki lo bi nary byte) is a unit of Information or Computer storage, established by the International Compare also the treatment of Pictish in Price's The Languages of Britain (1984) with his Languages in Britain & Ireland (2000).

References

See also

External links

List of language familiesA language family is a group of Languages related by descent from a common ancestor called the Proto-language of that family The Celtic League is a political and cultural organisation in the modern Celtic nations of Ireland, Scotland, Wales, Brittany The International Celtic Congress is a cultural organisation that seeks to promote the Celtic languagues of the nations of Ireland, Scotland, Wales
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