Celtic

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Branch of Indo-European, formerly spread over large parts of Europe and Asia Minor, but today found only in northwestern Europe. Geographically, Celtic falls into two groups. (a) Continental Celtic, which is extinct today and attested only in inscriptions, borrowings and place-names; to this group belong Celtiberian (or Hispano-Celtic), Gaulish, Lepontic (sometimes subsumed under Gaulish), and Galatian. In the last two decades, there have been some important finds of longer texts, such as the tablets in Botorrita (Celtiberian) and Larzac (Gaulish). (b) Insular Celtic. under which fall the two groups Gaelic (or Goidelic). with the subdivisions Irish (approx. 500,000 speakers). Scots-Gaelic (approx. 90.000 speakers) and the recently extinct Manx (on the Isle of Man), on the one hand. and Brythonic. with the branches Welsh (approx. 400.000 speakers. attested since the eighth century). Breton (approx. 1.2 million speakers in the French province of Brittany, where speakers emigrated to from Britain some 1.400 years ago). and Cornish (extinct since the eighteenth century, but currently experiencing a revival). on the other hand. It is still under debate whether the division into Continental and Insular Celtic also constitutes a genetic grouping. For there is a further division that exists between the Celtic languages which does not coincide with the former grouping. i.e. that into the so-called pand q-Celtic languages depending on the fate of IE . which in the q-Celtic languages remained a velar sound (Celtiberian, Irish, and some Gaulish dialects). whereas in the p-Celtic languages it became p (the Brythonic languages and Gaulish along with Lepontic). The exact genetic relationship between these groups remains controversial to date.

Other characteristics: the whole of the Celtic branch of languages lost IE *p, which is the most significant feature. Furthermore, there is no infinitive and no verb ‘have.’ Features characteristic of all the Insular Celtic languages include initial consonantal mutations, originally a sandhi phenomenon caused by a preceding vowel, but later heavily grammaticalized, and pronominal forms affixed to the verb.

Its orthography leaves it unclear whether Continental Celtic had any kind of mutation. Word order in Insular Celtic is VSO, which deviates from other IE languages.

Ball, M. (ed.) 1993. The Celtic languages. London and New York.

Gregor, D.B. 1980. Celtic: a comparative survey. Cambridge.

Hendrick, R. (ed.) 1990. Syntax and semantics, vol. 23: The syntax of the modern Celtic languages. New York.

Jackson, K. 1953. Language and history in Early Britain. Edinburgh.

Macauley, D. (ed.) 1992. The Celtic languages. Cambridge.

McCone, K.R. 1992. Relative Chronologie: Keltisch. In R.Beekes et al. (eds), Rekonstruktion und relative Chronologie: Akten der VIII. Fachtagung der Indogermanischen Gesellschaft. Innsbruck. 11–39.

Pedersen, H. 1909/13. Vergleichende Grammatik der keltischen Sprachen. 2 vols. Göttingen. (Repr. Zürich 1976.) Abbrev. English version: H. Lewis and H.Pedersen. 1937. A concise comparative Celtic grammar. Göttingen.)

Schmidt, K.H. (ed.) 1977. Indogermanisch und Keltisch. Wiesbaden.

Bulletin of the Board of Celtic Studies.

Celtica.

Eriu.

Etudes Celtiques.

Revue Celtique.

Zeitschrift für Celtische Philologie.

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