Celtic languages

The Celtic languages ( ) are a branch of the Indo-Europeanlanguage family, descended from the hypothetical Proto-Celtic language. The term Celtic was first used to describe this language group by Edward Lhuyd in 1707, following Paul-Yves Pezron, who made the explicit link between the Celts described by classical writers and the Welsh and Breton languages.

During the first millennium BC, Celtic languages were spoken across much of Europe and central Anatolia. Today, they are restricted to the northwestern fringe of Europe and a few diaspora communities. There are six living languages: the four continuously living languages Breton, Irish, Scottish Gaelic and Welsh, and the two revived languagesCornish and Manx. All are minority languages in their respective countries, though there are continuing efforts at revitalisation. Welsh is an official language in Wales and Irish is an official language across the island of Ireland and of the European Union. Welsh is the only Celtic language not classified as endangered by UNESCO. The Cornish and Manx languages became extinct in modern times but have been revived. Each now has several hundred second-language speakers.

Irish, Manx and Scottish Gaelic form the Goidelic languages, while Welsh, Cornish and Breton are Brittonic. All of these are Insular Celtic languages, since Breton, the only living Celtic language spoken in continental Europe, is descended from the language of settlers from Britain. There are a number of extinct attested Continental Celtic languages: Galatian, Lepontic, Gaulish, Celtiberian and Gallaecian, where the last two form Hispano-Celtic subbranch. Beyond that, there is no agreement on the subdivisions of the Celtic language family. Traditionally, they are considered to be divided into P-Celtic and Q-Celtic. However, Gaulish is considered more closely related to Insular Celtic than either of these two are to Celtiberian; proposed connection between Gaulish and Insular Celtic is called Nuclear Celtic.

The Celtic languages have a rich literary tradition. The earliest specimens of written Celtic are Lepontic inscriptions from the 6th century BC in the Alps. Early Continental inscriptions used the Italic and Paleohispanic scripts. Between the 4th and 10th centuries, Irish and Pictish were written in a native script, Ogham, whose derivation is unclear, but the Latin script eventually came to be used for all Celtic languages.