The Celtic languages are a branch of the greater Indo-European language family.

The term "Celtic" was first used to describe this language group by Edward Lhuyd
1
in 177.
The most ancient remnants of a Celtic dialect in written form ha!e been found in northern Italy
"#esto Calende$ % &.C.$ Castelletto Ticino$ '7'-'' &.C.(. It is relati!ely recent ac)uisition
that these "Lepontic( inscriptions are actually written in a Celtic dialect "Le*eune$ "Lepontica"$
1+71(.
The story of the Celts begins in prehistory$ the time before written records were ,ept. -riginating
in what is now Eastern Europe$ the Celts appear to ha!e mo!ed west along the main trading
routes of that time$ especially the ri!er .anube$ into modern /ermany$ 0ustria$ #wit1erland and
2rance.
&y the beginning of the classical period "about ' &.C.($ they were a large group of tribes and
races spread o!er a wide area of Europe$ from #cotland and Ireland in the north-west to 3ussia in
the east$ and to 4editerranean in the south. The earlier archeological e!idence associated with
the Celts places them in what is now 2rance and western /ermany in the late &ron1e 0ge$
1
Edward Lhuynd (1660 - 30 June 1709) was a Welsh naturalist, botanist, linguist,
geographer and antiquary !e is responsible "or the #rst s$ienti#$ des$ription o" what we
would now re$ogni%e as a dinosaur& the sauropod tooth Ruttellum implicatum
around 15 &.C. In the early Iron 0ge$ they are associated with The 6allstatt culture which was
the predominant Central European culture from the 7
th
to %
th
centuries &.C.
&y the time the e8istence of the Celts was recorded by the /ree, writer Ephorus in the 9
th
century &.C. They were so numerous that he named them as one of the four great barbarian
peoples in the world.
The ancient Celts had no written records$ and their poets and musicians$ the &ards$ and their wise
holy men$ the .ruids$ were in training for many years in their orally learnt crafts. They did
howe!er ha!e a system of mar,s or stro,es that e)uated to letters$ called "-gham"$ normally
car!ed across the edge of an ob*ect. The .ruids are said to ha!e car!ed messages or records on
stic,s. The only e8amples that sur!i!e to our times are on memorial stones and mar,ers$ which
can still be seen in the Celtic lands today$ most commonly in Ireland and #cotland. 0n -gham
inscription on an upright stone normally reads from the bottom upwards.
The Celtic languages are divided into two classes:
Insular
Continental
- Continental Celtic languages are no longer spo,en$ but consisted of Celtiberian "#pain($
/aulish "#wiss: ;orthern Italian !ariant ,nown as Lepontic( and /alatian in Tur,ey.
/alatian was spo,en until about the '
th
century. The Continental Celtic languages were
spo,en by the people ,nown to 3oman and /ree, writers as <eltoi$ Celtae$ /alli and
/alatae. To be more precise$ these languages were spo,en in an arc stretching across
from Iberia in the west &al,ans and 0sia 4inor in the east. 0lthough they all died o!er a
thousand years ago$ there ha!e lots of inscriptions$ on stone$ wood$ and especially$ metal
plates.
- Insular Celtic languages are those Celtic languages that originated in the &ritish Isles$ in
contrast to the Continental languages. 0ll sur!i!ing Celtic languages are from the Insular
Celtic group. The Insular languages are di!ided into two branches$ the /oidelic or /aelic
"Irish /aelic$ #cottish /aelic and 4an8( and the &rythonic "=elsh$ Cornish and &reton
and the e8tinct languages Cumbric and >ictish(.
4an8 is a form of /aelic spo,en on the Isle of 4an. The last nati!e spea,er of 4an8 died 1+79
but many are learning the language today. There are many medie!al Irish manuscripts containing
Ireland?s national epic the T@in &A Cuailnge and other Irish myths$ poetry and lore. There are
many nati!e spea,ers of both Irish and #cottish /aelic today$ not only in Ireland and #cotland$
but also in ;o!a #cotia.
=e ha!e fewer medie!al =elsh manuscripts preser!ing the Mabinogi and other traditional
=elsh tales$ poetry and lore$ than we ha!e of Irish. There are still many nati!e spea,ers of =elsh
today. The last nati!e spea,er of Cornish died in the late 17
th
century$ but there are a number of
people in Cornwall and elsewhere who ha!e attempted to learn Cornish and e!en re*u!enate the
language. &reton is spo,en in &retagne$ or &rittany$ in 2rance$ by descendents of &ritish Celts
who mo!ed there o!er a thousand years ago.
The /oidelic languages are often referred to as "B-Celtic" because they use a "B" sound$ usually
represented by a C or <$ where the &rythonic or ">-Celtic" languages use >. 2or instance$ Irish
and #cottish /aelic for "head" is ceann, or sometimes kin. &rythonic languages$ >-Celtic =elsh
and Cornish$ use pen. There?s a place on the coast of Cornwall called ">entire"$ and one on the
coast of #cotland called "<intyre". &oth mean "head of the land". There are hundreds of similar
> and C initial words that indicate the relationship between >-Celtic and B-Celtic languages. In
Celtic linguistics$ it really pays to "mind your >s and Bs."
The Gaulish "also Gallic( language is an e8tinct Celtic language that was spo,en by the /auls$
a people who inhabited the region ,nown as /aul "Cisalpine and Transalpine( from the Iron 0ge
through the 3oman period. It was historically spo,en through what are now mainly 2rance$
;orthern Italy$ #wit1erland$ eastern &elgium$ Lu8embourg and western /ermany before being
supplanted by Culgar Latin and !arious /ermanic languages from around the 9th century
onwards. /aulish is paraphyletically grouped with Celtiberian as Continental Celtic. Lepontic is
considered to be either a dialect of or a language closely related to /aulish. /alatian is the form
of /aulish spo,en in 0sia 4inor after 571 &.C. /aulish is a >-Celtic language. It has a !ery
close relationship to Insular Celtic "/oidelic and &rythonic. Epigraphical remains ha!e been
unco!ered across all of what used to be 3oman /aul$ which co!ered modern 2rance$ as well as
parts of #wit1erland$ Italy$ /ermany$ and &elgium. Today$ the 2rench language contains
appro8imately 1' to 17 words ,nown to be of /aulish origin$ most of which concern pastoral
or daily acti!ity. If dialectal and deri!ed words are included$ the total is appro8imately 9
words$ the largest stoc, of Celtic words in any 3omance language.
#,etchy ,nowledge of the /aulish language comes from notices in classical authors and from a
small number of /aulish inscriptions. The longest and most famous of these is the Coligny
calendar$ preser!ed on two bron1e tablets found in 17+7 at &ourg in eastern 2rance. This is a
lunar calendar with months of 5+ days.
4any /aulish words closely resemble their Latin counterpartsD
Gaulish Latin
-cue and
es out of
are before
!er over
allos second
tar!os bull
tri three
more sea
ri8 king
-)ue
e8
ante
super
alius
taurus
tres$ tria
mare
re8
In the Coligny calendar$ the !erb di!ertomu appears at the end of each month and means ?we turn
aside "to a different month(?D its Latin e)ui!alent is the !ery similar di!ertimus. The !erb
comeimu means ?we go together? "Latin con- ?together? E imus ?we go?$ from eo$ ire(.
The close similarity of /aulish and Latin declensions is clear from this e8ampleD
Cases Singular Plural
Nominative
Genitive
Dative
Accusative
-os :-us "earlier -os(
-i : -i
-u "earlier -o( : -o
-om : -um "earlier -om(
-os$ : -oi -i "earlier -oi(
-om : -orum "earlier -om(
-obis : -is "earlier -ois(
-ons : -os "earlier -ons(
#ome /aulish words ha!e no Latin e)ui!alent$ because they refer to things un,nown at 3omeD
sapo "soap" "3omans used oli!e oil instead($ cervesia ?beer? "3omans dran, wine($ tunna ?barrel?
"3omans preferred clay storage *ars($ bracae ?trousers? "3omans wore a toga or tunic(. =ord
?bea!er? is related to beber$ the /aulish name for this animal$ from which comes the /aulish
town-name &ibracte.
The similarity of /aulish to Latin helped it to disappear. Fnder 3oman rule$ the /auls found it
relati!ely easy to learn Latin$ and e!entually forgot their own language. &y the Late Empire$
when /aul was o!errun by the /ermanic 2ran,s$ /aulish was close to e8tinct. This e8plains why
modern 2rench is based on Latin and 2ran,ish rather than /aulish.
The Brythonic or Brittonic languages "WelshD ieithoedd &rythonaidd:>rydeinig$ CornishD
yethow brythone,:predenne,$ BretonD ye1hoG predene,( form one of the two branches of the
Insular Celtic language family$ the other being /oidelic.
The &rythonic languages deri!e from the &ritish language$ spo,en throughout &ritain south of
the 2irth of 2orth during the Iron 0ge and 3oman period. ;orth of the 2orth$ the >ictish
language is considered to be relatedH it is possible it was a &rythonic language$ but it may ha!e
been a sister language. In the 9th and 'th centuries emigrating &ritons also too, &rythonic
speech to the continent$ most significantly in &rittany. .uring the ne8t few centuries the
language began to split into se!eral dialects$ e!entually e!ol!ing into =elsh$ Cornish$ &reton$
and Cumbric. =elsh and &reton continue to be spo,en as nati!e languages$ while a re!i!al in
Cornish has led to an increase in spea,ers of that language. Cumbric is e8tinct$ ha!ing been
replaced by /oidelic and English speech.
The &rythonic branch is also referred to as >-Celtic "li,e /aulish( because the &rythonic refle8
of the >roto-Indo-European phoneme I,w is p as opposed to the /oidelic c.
-ther ma*or characteristics includeD
the treatment of -m$ -n as -am$ -an.
initial s- followed by a !owel was changed to h-
=elsh hen "old"$ hir "long"$ hafal "similar"
&reton hen "ancient"$ hir "long"$ haval "similar"
Cornish hen "ancient"$ hir "hong"$ haval "similar"
Irish sean "old"$ sior "long"$ samail "similar"
&rythonic retains original nasals before -t
&reton kant "hundred" !s. Irish cad
sp, sr, sv /sw became f, fr, chw "wh in Cornish(
Iswero "toy$ game" became =elsh chwarae and &reton c'hoari
Isrokna "nostril" became =elsh ffroen and &reton froen.
all other initial s- fell before consonants
smeru became =elsh mr "marrow"
slemon became =elsh llyfn$ Cornish leven and &reton levn "smooth"
w "written u in Latin te8ts and ou in /ree,( became gw in initial position$ w internally$
where in /aelic it is f in initial position and disappears internally
windos "white" became =elsh gwyn$ Cornish gwynn$ &reton gwenn
wassos "ser!ant$ young man" became =elsh$ Cornish and &reton gwas
double plosi!es transformed into spirantsD pp$ cc$ tt became f$ ch "c?h($ th "1( before a
!owel or li)uid
cippus J &reton kef "tree trun,"$ =elsh cyff
cattos J &reton kaz$ Cornish kath$ =elsh cath
bucca J &reton boc?h, boch
single !oiceless plosi!es and !oiced d$ b$ and m in an inter!ocalic position became soft
spirants
=elsh ddKLM$ thKNM$ f K!M
&reton z$ zh$ v
&rythonic languages in use today are Welsh$ Cornish and Breton. =elsh and &reton ha!e been
spo,en continuously since they formed. Cornish nearly died out during the 1+th and 5th
centuries$ retained only by a few elderly people and some families as a language of the home$ but
a process of re!itali1ation since 1+9 has seen numbers of natural spea,ers increase. 0lso
notable are the e8tinct language Cumbric$ and possibly the e8tinct >ictish although this may be
best considered to be a sister of the &rythonic languages. The late <enneth 6. Oac,son
5
argued
during the 1+'s$ from some of the few remaining e8amples of stone inscriptions$ that the >icts
may ha!e also used a non-Indo-European language$ but some modern scholars of >ictish do not
agree.
The modern &rythonic languages are generally considered to all deri!e from a common ancestral
language termed &rittonic$ &ritish$ Common &rythonic$ -ld &rythonic or >roto-&rythonic$
which is thought to ha!e de!eloped from >roto-Celtic or early Insular Celtic by the %th century
&.C.
There are a number of alternati!e hypotheses$ none of which has found wide acceptance. 4ario
0linei denies the e8istence of a pre-Celtic language and says that Celtic languages arri!ed in the
>aleolithic.
It is probable that at the start of the >ost-3oman period Common &rythonic was differentiated
into at least two ma*or dialect groups P #outhwestern and =estern "in addition we may posit
additional dialects$ such as Eastern &rythonic$ spo,en in what is now Eastern England$ which
ha!e left little or no e!idence(. &etween the end of the 3oman occupation and the mid %th
century the two dialects began to di!erge into recogni1ably separate languages$ the =estern into
Cumbric and =elsh$ and the #outhwestern into Cornish and its closely related sister language
&reton$ which was carried from the south west of /reat &ritain to continental 0rmorica. Oac,son
showed that a few of the dialect distinctions between =est and #outhwest &rythonic go bac, a
long way. ;ew di!ergences began around 0. ' but other changes which were shared occurred
in the %th century. -ther common changes occurred in the 7th century onward and are possibly
'
(enneth !urlstone Ja$)son (1 *o+e,ber 1909 - '0 .ebruary 1991) was an /nglish linguist
and a translator who spe$iali%ed in the 0elti$ languages
due to inherent tendencies. Thus the concept of a common &rythonic language ends by 0... %.
It is thought that substantial numbers of &ritons remained in the e8panding area controlled by
0nglo-#a8ons$ but the only information on their language may be obtained from place names.
-!er time it is thought they gradually adopted the English language. The &rythonic languages
spo,en in what is now #cotland$ the Isle of 4an and what is now England began to be displaced
in the 'th century through the influence of Irish "#cots($ ;orse and /ermanic in!aders. The
displacement of the languages of &rythonic descent was probably complete in all of this territory$
"e8cept Cornwall and the English counties bordering =ales($ by the 11th century "date of
e8tinction in !arious parts of the territory is debated(.
F;ICE3#ITQ -2 >3IRTI;0
20CFLTQ -2 >6IL-#->6Q
CELTIC L0;/F0/E#

4entorD >rof. dr .ragana #pasiS #tudentD I!ana 3ado!iS
%.T.515. <oso!s,a 4itro!ica
&ibliographyD
!he "rigins and #evelopment of the $nglish %anguage, Thomas >yles
www.fredriley.org.u,:call:langsite:celtic.html
www.ibiblio.org:gaelic:celts.html
www.britannica.com:
en.wi,ipedia.org:wi,i:Celtic languages