I.

Introduction

Celtic Languages, subfamily of the Indo-European family of languages. Celtic peoples were spread across Europe in Greek and Roman times, being first identifiable in south-central Europe in the 6th century bc. They also inhabited Britain and Ireland in ancient times. Whereas the vernacular speech of the Continental Celtic peoples disappeared under the Roman Empire, representatives of the Insular group have survived to the present day. On linguistic grounds the Insular Celtic dialects fall into two groups: the Brythonic (or British), comprising Breton, Cornish, and Welsh; and the Goidelic (or Gaelic), comprising Irish, Scottish Gaelic, and Manx. Although the Continental Celtic dialects, such as Gaulish, declined under the influence of Latin, they have left some traces in the Romance languages, especially French and Spanish. The Brythonic and Goidelic groups survive in Britain, Ireland, Brittany, and in émigré communities in North and South America.

The Celtic languages are most conspicuously distinguished from other Indo-European linguistic groups by early loss of the initial Indo-European p: compare Early Irish orc “pig” with Latin porcus “pig”, and so on. Within Celtic, an obvious difference between the Goidelic and Brythonic groups is that Goidelic preserved Indo-European kw as a qu sound (later written c), whereas in Brythonic it became a new p sound: Irish ceathair “four” and Welsh pedwar “four” (contrast with Latin quattuor “four”).

The Insular Celtic languages have a very long, written history, achieving written status in the Early Middle Ages and giving rise to extensive and varied literatures.

One of the most striking features of the Celtic languages is the so-called initial mutations, whereby certain word-initial consonants may be altered in regular ways by certain sorts of preceding words. Thus Irish buachaill “lad”, with initial b-, gives mo bhuachaill “my lad”, with initial v; Welsh tad “father”, with initial t, gives i dad “his father”, with initial d.

In grammar and syntax the Celtic languages show most of the regular Indo-European categories, but also some less familiar features, for example, the heavy use of verbal nouns where other Indo-European languages use participles and infinitives. This may reflect the usage of a sub-stratum of non-Indo-European speakers with whom the early Celts came into contact. Again, Celtic seems to have been a verb-subject-object language, as opposed to the subject-verb-object pattern found in most Indo-European groups.