Indo-European Languages
Celtic Family
Carol Justus and Jonathan Slocum
Celtic languages include Scots Gaelic, Irish, Welsh, and Breton, but related languages were once spoken from Ireland to the shores of the Black Sea. Today, all that is left are languages spoken in the British Isles (Scots Gaelic, Irish, Welsh) and in Brittany (Breton).
The Celtic languages of the British Isles and Brittany are often classified as either "P" Celtic (e.g., Welsh) or "Q" Celtic (e.g., Irish) according to the evolution of the early Proto-Indo-European sound *kw. For example, Welsh pimp 'five' has the labial [p] where Irish coic 'five' has the palato-velar [k]. Both Welsh and Irish forms correspond to Latin quinque 'five', which has preserved the orginal Indo-European labiovelar [kw].
In fairly recent times Celtic inscriptions have been discovered on the continent of Europe from Spain through France (ancient Gaul) to northern Italy. These Continental Celtic inscriptions date to the second and third centuries BC, and are inscribed on stone and metal in a script that resembles very early Phoenician, Greek, and Etruscan letters.
The earliest attested Celtic in the British Isles was inscribed on stone in the ogham script. By the 6th century AD, in monasteries across Europe from Ireland and England (Lindesfarne) to as far as the monastery of St. Gallen in northern Switzerland, early Irish monks annotated Latin manuscripts with Old Irish glosses. Perhaps the most famous early Irish Christian monk was St. Patrick.
Recommended Reading
- Cunliffe, Barry. 1990. The Celtic World. New York: St. Martin's Press. (Illustrated introduction to the Celts, from prehistory to the historically attested languages and Celtic culture)
- Eska, Joseph F. 1989. Towards an Interpretation of the Hispano-Celtic Inscription of Botorrita. Innsbrucker Beiträge zur Sprachwissenschaft, 59. (An early evaluation of a major Celtic inscription from Spain)
- Lehmann, Ruth P.M. 1989. "Ogham: The Ancient Script of the Celts," in: The Origins of Writing, ed. by Wayne Senner, pp. 159-170. Lincoln, Nebraska: Nebraska University Press.
- Simms-Williams, Patrick. 1998. "The Celtic Languages," in: The Indo-European Languages, ed. by Anna Giacalone Ramat & Paolo Ramat, pp. 345-379. Translated from the 1993 Italian original. London: Routledge.
See Online:
- Indo-European Languages: Evolution and Locale Maps;
- Old Irish Online (language lessons);
- Web Links to Celtic resources (incl. culture & modern archaeology).