Celtic languages
Celtic languages are a branch of the
Indo-European languages. They were spoken across western
Europe in ancient times, but are now limited to a few enclaves in the
British Isles and
Brittany.
Celtic is traditionally split into two branches:
- Continental -- Celtiberian, Gaulish, Lepontic, Noric, Galatian. These languages were once spoken on the European mainland. No member of this family is presently spoken. (Note: Breton is closely related to Cornish and is thus classified with Insular Celtic. Brittany is known to have been settled from Britain in historical times. Some elements of Breton may originate in the Continental Celtic languages, however these would have the status of borrowings, much like Gaulish borrowings in French.)\n* Insular -- Celtic languages spoken in the British Isles. This group is further split into:\n** Q-Celtic -- Goidelic, including Irish Gaelic, Scots Gaelic, Manx, and Shelta\n** P-Celtic -- Brythonic, including Welsh, Breton, Cornish, Cumbric, Ivernic, and possibly Pictish
The differences between P and Q languages are most easily seen in the word for son,
mac in Q (hard K sound) and
map in P languages. The division into "Continental" and "Insular" may not be genetically correct, since the distinction between P and Q languages is found among the "Continental" languages as well: Celtiberian is Q-Celtic, while Gaulish and the other Continental Celtic languages are P-Celtic. There is some controversy over the accuracy and usefulness of positing a
Continental vs.
Insular branching within the Celtic family, nonetheless the distiction is usually maintained because of its geographic usefulness. Alternatively, the Celtic languages may be seen as having two branches: Q-Celtic and P-Celtic, each with both "Continental" and "Insular" members.
Within the
Indo-European family, the Celtic languages have traditionally been placed with the
Italic languages in a common
Celto-Italic (or
Italo-Celtic) subfamily.
Characteristics of Celtic Languages
\nAlthough there are many differences between the individual Celtic languages they do show many family resemblances. While none of these characteristics is necessarily unique to the Celtic languages, there are few if any other languages which possess them all. They include:
\n- Initial consonant mutation.
\n- Inflected prepositions.
\n- VSO word order as standard.
\n- Two grammatical genders.
\n- Definite but no indefinite article.
\n- Genitive construction by apposition.
\n- Counting by twenties.
\n
Examples:
\nNá bac le mac an bhacaigh is ní bhacfaigh mac an bhacaigh leat.
\nNot pay-attention to son the beggar's and nor will-pay-attention son the beggar's to-you.
\n*bhacaigh is the genitive of bacach. The i is the genitive inflection; the bh is a mutation.\n*leat is the second person form of the preposition le.\n*The order is VSO in the second half.\npedwar ar bymtheg ar bedwar hugain
\nfour on fifteen on four twenties\n*bymtheg is a mutated form of pymtheg, which is pump five plus deg ten. Likewise, bedwar is mutated from pedwar.\n*The multiples of ten are deg, ugain, deg ar hugain, deugain, hanner cant, trigain, deg a thrigain, pedwar hugain, deg a phedwar ugain, cant.
See also
\n* Language families and languages
References
\nGray, R. and Atkinson, Q.D. 2003. Language-tree divergence times support the Anatolian theory of Indo-European origin. Nature. 426:435-439.
Category:Celtic languages\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
