The Celts where original from the Hallstatt region, in Austria. As a migratory people, they spread through Europe between the 4th and 3rd century BC, and brought their language with them, reaching modern day France, the British Islands and the Iberian Peninsula. Their language is called nowadays as Proto-Celt by linguists. As with most languages that spreaded on a large area, Proto-Celt beggan to diverge, untill it became several different languages.
Since most of those languages are extinct, this article will focus only on the living languages.
There are two main branches in the Celtic languages, brythonic and goidelic. From the brythonic branch comes the only Celtic language still spoken in the European mainland, Breton, in Brittany, France. Allthough nowadays Breton is recognized by the French Republic, it was discriminated since the dawn of the Republic (as where all other languages besides French). It shares the territory of Brittany with the French language and the Gallo language, a romance language formed in Brittany and Normandy (also a minority language).
On the other side of the English Channel, Cornish is spoken in Cornwall. Also a brythonic language, it was virtually extinct since the late 18th century but as since been the target of a revival effort with limited success.
Further north, the Welsh language is spoken in Wales. Another brythonic language, this language is in a better state compared with Cornish. It is spoken by about 15% of the welsh population, allthough suffering a slow decline. Welsh as now the same official status as English in Wales, unfortunately this hasn't avoided its decline.
North of Wales we have now the Goidelic branch. In some ways it is far more healthy than the Brythonic languages.
In Scotland we have Scottish Gaelic. It is now only spoken by about 80,000 people, specially in the Highlands, having lost ground to English. It was recognized by the Scottish Parliament in 2005.
In the Isle of Man, there is Manx Gaelic. The last known native speaker died in 1974, but like Cornish, it was the target of revival effort, with more sucess than its Brythonic "brother". It is now teached in some primary schools in Man.
In Ireland is probably the more famous Celtic language, Irish Gaelic. And definitely the most spoken. It is spoken in all of Ireland (Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland), allthough it is more common in the west. It is the official language of the Republic of Ireland, being also the only celtic official language of the EU. English is still the most spoken language in Ireland, except for the Gaeltachts, which are areas in the Irish western coast where Irish is still the major language.
And that's how far the Celtic languages go. See you next week, for Languages of Oc and Oil.
