The Celtic Languages

Summary

This Langfocus video explores Celtic languages, primarily spoken in the British Isles and Brittany, France. With around a million speakers, languages like Welsh, Irish Gaelic, and Scottish Gaelic are in decline but experiencing revival efforts. Historically widespread, these languages feature unique grammatical structures like VSO word order and consonant mutations. Despite English and French dominance, they remain integral to cultural identity, with their future hinging on community support.

Takeaways

• 🇮🇪 Celtic languages are mainly spoken in the British Isles today, with around a million speakers in total.
• 🏴 Welsh has around 508,000 speakers, and 310,000 of them are fluent speakers in Wales.
• 🇮🇪 Irish Gaelic has around 80,000 proficient speakers who use it outside of school, with 2 million people having some knowledge of it.
• 🏴 Scottish Gaelic has around 57,000 native speakers, and around 87,000 people with some knowledge of the language, mostly in Scotland.
• 🇫🇷 Breton, spoken in Brittany, France, has around 226,000 speakers but is considered severely endangered.
• 🏴‍☠️ Cornish and Manx languages have undergone revivals, with Cornish having a few thousand speakers and Manx having a couple of hundred fluent speakers.
• 🌍 Historically, Celtic languages were spoken over much of Europe, from the Iberian Peninsula to the Black Sea, with the earliest Celtic language being Lepontic.
• 📜 Insular Celtic languages include two groups: Q-Celtic (Irish, Scottish Gaelic, and Manx) and P-Celtic (Welsh, Cornish, and Breton). These two groups are not mutually intelligible.
• 🗣️ Common linguistic features in Celtic languages include VSO word order, initial consonant mutations, and inflected prepositions.
• 🔄 The survival of Celtic languages depends on community support and continued efforts in education and language revival.

Q & A

What are the primary regions where Celtic languages are spoken today?

Celtic languages are mainly spoken in the British Isles, including Wales, Ireland, Scotland, Cornwall, the Isle of Man, and also in Brittany, a region in France.

How many people speak Welsh, and how many are fluent?

Around 508,000 people speak Welsh, and about 310,000 of them are fluent, primarily in Wales.

What is the status of the Irish Gaelic language in terms of speakers?

Irish Gaelic has around 80,000 proficient speakers who use the language outside of school, and about two million people have some knowledge of it, mainly in Ireland and Northern Ireland.

What are the two groups of Insular Celtic languages, and which languages fall under them?

The two groups of Insular Celtic languages are the Q-Celtic (or Goedelic) languages, which include Irish, Scottish Gaelic, and Manx, and the P-Celtic (or Brythonic) languages, which include Welsh, Breton, and Cornish.

What are some notable extinct Celtic languages?

Notable extinct Celtic languages include Lepontic, Gaulish, and Galatian, which were once spoken in areas of northern Italy, France, and Asia Minor (present-day Turkey), respectively.

What caused the decline of Celtic languages in mainland Europe?

Celtic languages in mainland Europe began to decline due to the spread of Roman culture and the assimilation of Celtic speakers into Roman society, particularly after around 200 BCE.

What is VSO word order, and how is it used in Celtic languages?

VSO (Verb-Subject-Object) word order is common in Celtic languages. For example, in Irish Gaelic, the sentence 'Chonaic mé an fear ar maidin' ('I saw the man this morning') places the verb 'Chonaic' first, followed by the subject 'mé' (I) and the object 'an fear' (the man).

What are initial consonant mutations, and how do they function in Celtic languages?

Initial consonant mutations involve changes in the consonants at the beginning of words based on their grammatical context. In Irish, for example, 'fear' (man) changes to 'fhir' in the genitive case ('of the man') and to 'fhear' in the dative case ('to the man').

What is the role of inflected prepositions in Celtic languages?

Inflected prepositions in Celtic languages combine a preposition with a personal pronoun. For example, in Welsh, 'ar' means 'on', but it changes to 'arnat' (on you - singular) and 'arnom' (on us), reflecting the subject's number and person.

Why are the labels Q-Celtic and P-Celtic used to describe different branches of Celtic languages?

The labels Q-Celtic and P-Celtic reflect how certain sound changes occurred between these language groups. In Q-Celtic languages like Irish, the 'k' or 'c' sound is preserved (e.g., 'Cén' for 'what'), while in P-Celtic languages like Welsh, it shifts to a 'p' sound (e.g., 'Beth' for 'what').