Celtic Languages

This thesis discusses the phenomenon of „language death“ and the complex dynamics which
result from the conflict between minority and majority language, along with the influence it has
on the lives and decisions of speakers.
The first part of the thesis (Chapter I to III) analyses the theories behind „language death“. A
short reasoning for the choice of this term and an explanation for its use and its meaning is
given. The importance of diversity is demonstrated, which also explains why “language death”
is such a dramatic phenomenon. Furthermore, the theory of Joshua Fishman, which deals with
prevention of language death is revised and complemented by a theory of Florian Coulmas,
who analyses the influence of globalisation on language policies.
The second part (Chapter IV) gives examples of the present-day situation of the Celtic
languages Irish, Welsh and Breton, which illustrate the theories of the first part.
In the last part, the connection of theory and given examples is analysed, discrepancies between
the two parts are demonstrated and some possible strategies for the future are presented.
/
Diese Arbeit behandelt das Thema „Sprachtod“ und die komplexen Dynamiken, die durch den
Konflikt einer Minderheitensprache mit einer Mehrheitssprache auf die Sprecher wirken und
ihr Leben sowie ihre Entscheidungen beeinflussen.
Der erste Teil der Arbeit (Kapitel I bis III) beschäftigt sich mit den Theorien, die hinter dem
Phänomen „Sprachtod“ stecken. Dabei wird kurz auf den Grund der Auswahl dieses Begriffs,
sowie auf seinen Gebrauch und seine Bedeutung eingegangen.
Die dramatischen Implikationen dieses Phänomens werden anhand einiger Theorien über die
Bedeutung von Vielfalt erläutert, dann wird auf den Versuch, das Eintreten von Sprachtod zu
verhindern, eingegangen. Dabei wird die Theorie von Joshua Fishman einer näheren
Betrachtung unterzogen und mit einer Theorie von Florian Coulmas über die Auswirkungen
der Globalisierung auf die Sprachpolitik ergänzt.
Der zweite Teil (Kapitel IV.) beschäftigt sich mit den Beispielen der keltischen Sprachen Irisch,
Walisisch und Bretonisch, anhand derer die vorher erläuterten Theorien veranschaulicht
werden.
Abschließend werden die Zusammenhänge von Theorie und Beispielen analysiert und
Diskrepanzen zwischen ihnen aufgezeigt, sowie mögliche Lösungsstrategien und neue Ansätze
präsentiert.

Only download paper you can translate! When examining the local names of settlements was found a Celtic origin of the name of one of the villages - Košťany. The village has retained its Celtic name until such time when the name was in the 18th century Czechicized. The original name of the village is characterized by the activity of their inhabitants - tin mining.  First name was Costen - phonetic wording Costean?
Při zkoumání pomístních názvů osad byl zjištěn keltský původ názvu jedné z obcí - Košťan. Obec si zachovala své keltské jméno až do doby, kdy byl název v 18. století počeštěn. Původní název obce charakterizuje činnost jejich obyvatel - těžbu cínu. Původní název byl Costen fonetické znění názvu Costean?
KW: PREHISTORIC TIN , TIN MINING , ERZGEBIRGE , WASHING , TIN DEPOSIT , CELTS , KRUŠNÉ HORY , PRAMENÁČ , KOŠŤANY , latén, keltové,kosten, costean, pravěký cín, cornish, toponymy

This study, which first aim was to demonstrate correspondences between Gaulish and Slavic languages, between which I found 500 common words, allowed me also to establish, on the basis of genetical, archaeological and religious data, that those correspondences were linked with ancient migrations which spread the Dravidian civilisation of the Indus Valley to Iran, Mesopotamia, Anatolia, the Caucasus, the North of the Black Sea, Danuban and Balkan Europe, Gaul and Iberia, where Neolithic farmers contributed to the development of the megalithic civilisation which began in 5.000 BC. This also explains the linguistic correspondences I established between Gaulish and Dravidian languages – 250 common words from the 500 words I studied, as well as similarities I found in the organisation of the Society and the religion, which lead various researchers to suggest, on the basis of the diffusion of the very ancient gene H2-P96 from India to Western Europe, that the first Europeans and the proto-Dravidians had a common origin.

Cette étude, dont l’objectif initial était de démontrer les correspondances entre le gaulois et les langues slaves, entre lesquelles j’ai trouvé 500 mots communs, m’a en outre permis de démontrer, sur la base de données génétiques, archéologiques et religieuses, que ces correspondances étaient liées à des migrations anciennes qui ont diffusé la civilisation dravidienne de la vallée de l’Indus vers l’Iran, la Mésopotamie, l’Anatolie, le Caucase, le Nord de la Mer Noire, l’Europe danubienne et balkanique, la Gaule et l’Ibérie, où les agriculteurs néolithiques ont contribué à former la civilisation mégalithique qui s’est développée à partir de -5.000. Cela explique aussi les correspondances linguistiques que j’ai établies entre le gaulois et les langues dravidiennes - 250 mots communs sur les 500 mots étudiés, et les similitudes que j’ai constatées dans l’organisation de la société et la religion, qui amènent certains chercheurs à suggérer, sur la base de la diffusion du gène très ancien H2-P96 de l’Inde à l’Europe de l’Ouest, que les premiers Européens et les proto-Dravidiens avaient une origine commune.

This Excel file is a WORK IN PROGRESS on Indo-European basic lexicon, aligning PIE reconstructions from IEW, LIV and Mallory-Adams with intermediate reconstructions of IE sub-families found in several other sources (mainly Brill / Leiden etymological dictionaries): see dedicated sheet for details on sources.
Reconstructions with a green background have more complete data than those with a white background.
This DRAFT database is intended as a stepping stone for researchers who want to explore external genetic relationships between Indo-European languages and other language families.

Old Middle Modern/Late... Cumbric  10 th , 11 th century, very little material which causes difficulties in exact dating Cornish 600-800 800-1200 Plant names in Leiden MS, 9 th c. glosses; 1100 Vocabularium Cornicum 1200-1575 1380 three-day drama cycle Ordinalia (Origo Mundi); poetry; 1450 rhyming poetry; translations; 1504 Beunas Meriasek 1575-1800 1611 play Gwreans an Bys (Origo Mundi); language in decline, no longer means of communication, no Bible

Cette Nouvelle grammaire bretonne du dialecte de Vannes a été rédigée afin de décrire les bases de la grammaire du breton vannetais standard. Jusqu’à ce jour, les apprenants qui s’intéressent au breton vannetais devaient se référer à la fois à des grammaires vannetaises vieilles de plusieurs décennies, et à des grammaires modernes ne décrivant que le breton normalisé dit « KLT » (basé sur le « finistérien » comme disent les vannetisants).

Le présent ouvrage étudie le vannetais standard, langue littéraire en usage dans le Morbihan depuis plusieurs siècles. Afin de jeter un pont entre tradition et modernité, l’auteur a fait le choix d’utiliser conjointement l’orthographe unifiée du breton, désormais majoritaire, et l’orthographe traditionnelle vannetaise, plus familière pour les bretonnants de naissance et dans laquelle la majeure partie de la littérature vannetaise a été écrite.

Nous espérons que cette grammaire, déclinée en 341 paragraphes et illustrée de nombreux exemples d’emploi puisés notamment chez L. Herrieu, A. Guillevic & P. Le Goff, J.-M. Héneu ou encore J. Larboulette… contribuera à la pérennité du breton vannetais.

(Commande ici / Order here : http://www.editions-label-ln.com/?p=1049 )

The contribution explores various mythological concepts concerning the domestication of space and the taming of wild nature, the hunt of the deer as the epitome of the process, including its subject (‘the hunter’) and the object (‘the prey’), the interrelationship between the two and their interdependence on each other for their subsequent survival and success. The data provided by the Irish written sources, as well as by the iconographic depictions of the deer hunt in Continental Celtic and medieval Irish monuments, together with data of a comparative mythological nature, confirms that the domestication of space by a hero of a semi-divine status by way of hunting is a central feature of various Indo-European traditions, in which various religious figures embodying the veneration of wild nature are found.

The Manx relative future tense occurs not only in future relative clauses (whence its name), but also in other contexts, such as some adverbial subordinate clauses, e.g. after raad ‘where’, tra ‘when’, my ‘if’, and in certain main clauses, as, for example, Shen-y-raad vees keayney as snaggeraght feeacklyn, ‘There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth’ (Luke 13.28). Of course, positive affirmative future main clauses normally require the independent future tense. The objective of this study is to investigate in what contexts the relative future tense may be used in main clauses in Classical Manx. With that overall focus in mind, I also discuss and illustrate the use of the relative future in subordinate clauses, other than relative clauses themselves, about which I say little. I seek to establish in what contexts the relative future is required, in what contexts it is excluded, and in what contexts its use is variable.  The bulk of the exemplification involves the future tense of ve ‘be’; there are 1001 cases of the forms vee’m, veem’s, vees or vees mayd, the relative future paradigms of ve, in the Manx Bible, alongside well over 3000 of the independent and dependent future tense of ve (bee’m, beem’s, bee, bee mayd).

Deusanas (angl. Jasonas) Bondas moko škotų gėlų kalbos (Gàidhlig), kurią dar visai neseniai mokėjo vos keliasdešimt tūkstančių žmonių Škotijos šiaurėje, kalnuose ir salose, taip pat Naujojoje Škotijoje (Kanada). 2019 m. rudenį šios kalbos programą pasiūlė nemokama kalbų mokymosi platforma Duolingo, šiuo metu apie pusė milijono žmonių daugiau ar mažiau rimtai mokosi škotų gėlų kalbos.

Šiuo metu gyvos keturios keltų kalbos (škotų gėlų, airių, velsiečių ir bretonų), dvi atgaivintos (meniečių ir kornų), bet jų situacija ne itin gera. Bene geriausiai laikosi valstybės ir ES remiama airių kalba, kuri Airijoje pripažinta valstybine, be to, ji – viena iš ES kalbų. Velsiečių kalba irgi pakankamai gyvybinga, tiek ji, tiek škotų gėlų kalba turi savo radijo kanalus BBC. Keltų kultūra žavisi daug kas, tačiau norinčių mokytis kalbėti gana sudėtingomis jų kalbomis ryžtasi net ne kiekvienas šių tautų palikuonis.
Su Deusanu Bondu, kuris moko egzotiškos, nors europietiškos, gilias tradicijas turinčios, deja, nykstančios keltų kalbos, aptarėme susiklosčiusią situaciją.

The prese nt article builds upon the argumentation presented in my 'Prosody and the Old Celtic verbal complex ' , Eriu 38 (1987), 143-76. In that paper , the so-called OCelt. geminates-as occurred internally within a stressed word or other accentual unit (e.g. stressed word + enclitic)-were treated as double consonants on the phonetic level, [-t.t-, -k.k-], etc. The symbol [.] is used for a syllable boundary: the geminate belonged to both flanking syllables, arresting the preceding syllable and releasing the following. A syllable preceding a geminate was thus heavy (i.e. closed) even if its nucleus was a short vowel. Consequently, a short vowel followed by a geminate was capable of bearing what I termed a monosyllabic stress accent. 1 Following a moric model , one would say that a geminate added one mora to the preceding syllable .

This essay focuses on the sections of Tecosca Cormaic (TC), an Old Irish wisdom text, which describe the time when Cormac was a gilla 'a youth of an age to bear arms'.  These sections provide evidence that, in early Irish society, a future king normally spent time among the members of a fían. This is a pre-print of the paper to be published in the The Gaelic Finn tradition II, the book encompassing literature and lore centred on the figure of Finn Mac Cumaill. The book will be launched at the Finn IV: FÍANAIGECHT, THE 4th INTERNATIONAL FINN CYCLE CONFERENCE held at the University of Limerick (23-25 June 2022)

The tropical year was divided in 365. 2423 days starting from the fall equinox. The names of the Celtic Zodiac were identical to those of the lunar months. The calendar found in Coligny, France, is strictly an astronomical device. Dr. Garret Olmstead who also studied the Coligny Calendar uncovered in 1897, discovered that, although made in the first century BCE, was using astronomical calculations going back to 1100 BCE!

"Resumen: el objetivo de esta monografía es el estudio de las inscripciones paleohispánicas (celtibéricas e ibéricas), prestando especial atención a sus soportes. Esta perspectiva es particularmente pertinente en el análisis de inscripciones redactadas en lenguas conocidas de forma parcial, como son el ibérico y el celtibérico, pues el material empleado y la forma del soporte ‒generalmente dependiente de modelos clásicos (griegos y romanos)‒ se revela como la mejor clave para acometer su interpretación, ya que permite delimitar el contenido del texto, precisar su función comunicativa (pública o privada) y valorar la cultura epigráfica de la que forman parte. La investigación previa ha empleado este tipo de aproximación, aunque no la ha explotado en profundidad, pues se ha dedicado de forma preferente a los problemas lingüísticos.
El libro se centra en tres materiales empleados como soporte de inscripciones: piedra, bronce y cerámica; el trabajo incluye tres catálogos que reúnen los epígrafes sobre piedra, las estampillas y las téseras de hospitalidad celtibéricas.


Riassunto: scopo di quest’opera è lo studio delle iscrizioni paleohispaniche (celtiberiche e iberiche), prestando speciale attenzione ai loro supporti. Tale prospettiva di analisi è specialmente interessante in questo caso, già che gli epigrafi analizzati sono stati iscritti in “lingue frammentarie”. Perciò, il materiale impiegato e la forma del supporto (in genere dipendente da modelli classici) costituiscono un ottima chiave per la loro interpretazione, già che permettono di determinare i contenuti dei testi, di precisare la loro funzione communicativa (pubblica o privata) e di valorare la cultura epigrafica alla quale appartengono. Finora, e malgrado il suo interesse, questo metodo di studio non è stato mai applicato in proffondità dalle ricerche previe, che privilegiavano l’analisi dei problemi linguistici.
Concretamente, la monografia si occupa di tre materiali impiegati come supporti epigrafici: pietra, bronzo e ceramica. Così, lo studio si basa su tre cataloghi dove si è raccolto il materiale disponibile, che nel caso del bronzo e della ceramica, riguardano esclusivamente tesserae hospitales e bolli, rispettivamente.


Abstract: the subject of this work, as stated in the title, was Iberian and Celtiberian inscriptions on stone, bronze and ceramic. The approach, focused on the study of the support, was particularly interesting and useful as the texts were written in little known languages. The material used and the shape of the support, generally reliant on Greek and Roman models, turned out to be the best key for their interpretation, because they allow us to establish the possible contents of the inscriptions; determine whether their purpose was to serve as public or private communication and to consider the epigraphic culture they belong to as well as the uses of writing in Iberian and Celtiberian societies. Besides, the creation of catalogues with the three joint types of inscriptions (inscriptions on stone, celtiberian tesserae hospitales and stamps) has enabled us to establish typologies and has served as the basis to study their iconography. Furthermore, the direct work with inscriptions has resulted in proposals of new readings and interpretations for some of them. "

Les arbres remarquables comme le chêne, le châtaignier, le bouleau et autres essences marquent fréquemment d'une façon spécifique la toponymie. Cette présence fait l'objet d'ailleurs d'une étude spécifique de cet ouvrage. Mais il existe bien sûr également des termes plus généraux dans les appellations des noms de lieux relatant la présence de bois et de forêts. Ces termes peuvent se regrouper en trois séries distinctes. Tout d'abord, une série désignant la forêt au sens large, et nous trouvons ici les termes abondants descendants du latin médiéval boscus, d'origine germanique, qui a donné le français « bois », ainsi que les appellatifs, moins nombreux, issus du latin silva. Dans cette série, nous rangerons également les toponymes que nous proposons provenir du celtique *vidu « bois ». Cette interprétation permettant d'expliquer l'abondance anormale des appellations du type bois vieux, vieux bois, bos vieux, où il nous paraît que le terme « vieux » ne doit pas être compris comme l'adjectif au sens de « ancien », mais provient de l'évolution linguistique de *vidu qui n'a plus été comprise. Une deuxième série est caractérisée par le fait que la forêt est désignée par une métonymie, c'est à dire que l'ensemble des arbres est assimilé soit à un ensemble de branches (latin médiéval branca, et garna), un ensemble de feuilles (latin fŏlĭum et celtique *dula) ou un ensemble de fûts (latin fustis). La troisième série concerne les toponymes issus du celtique *volto « chevelure » et qui sont les désignations métaphoriques des arbres, ceux-ci étant comparés à des entités chevelues du fait de leurs feuillages. Cette racine celtique se retrouve dans les appellations issues du latin médiéval gaudus, passé en occitan sous la forme gâoudo désignant la forêt. Toutes les interprétations proposées pour les différents toponymes relevés sont toujours documentées par une référence bibliographique qui fait l'objet d'un renvoi en note de bas de page. Les notes bibliographiques de ce chapitre sont indiquées au format [ABC ; x ; y] où « ABC » représente le titre et l'auteur de l'ouvrage ainsi qu'indiqué dans la bibliographie jointe, « x », représente le n° de volume éventuel et « y » la page concernée.

This talk about the Irish element bréadach and the place-names Breda (a townland name and part of the parish name Knockbreda) and Newtownbreda was delivered at Newtownbreda Library on Tuesday Nov 12, 2019.  The presentation covered the landscape of the area, history of the names and comparisons with other instances of bréadach in Irish place-names.  The case was made for a new interpretation of the element referring to rising ground / upland and a derivation was propsed from the Proto-Celtic root brigant-.

The "Dictionnaire des thèmes nominaux du gaulois - A Dictionary of Gaulish Nominal Stems. Vol. I Ab-/Iχs(o)-", Editions Les Cent Chemins, Paris 2019, 398 pp., 39€, is available at Amazon :
https://www.amazon.fr/Dictionnaire-th%C3%A8mes-nominaux-gaulois-Ab/dp/1798050404/ref=sr_1_9?__mk_fr_FR=%C3%85M%C3%85%C5%BD%C3%95%C3%91&keywords=delamarre+dictionnaire&qid=1556952062&s=gateway&sr=8-9

In the year 202 AD an inscription (IGBulg. III, 2 # 1690) was carved at the newly founded Έμπόριον (emporion/market) at Pizos (Stara Zagora region) in the heart of Thrace (Tab. Peut. 18, col. 528-540 (Ranilum XXV -Pizo XII -Arzum XIX); ItAnt 136, 6 (Cillis m.p. XXXI -Pizo m.p. XX -Arso m.p. XVIII); Procop. Aed. 4.11.15 /146.12/ (Πίνζος). The inscription represents, along with the Carasura inscription -found 15 km. to the north (see Mac Congail 2008), the most valuable record of Thracian personal names from this period. The Pizos inscription is composed of the following 17 double component 'Thracian' names: Apollini et Sironae Biturix Iulli f(ilius) d(onavit) = 'To Apollo and Sirona, Biturix, son of Jullus offered (this altar)'. Biturix, composed of bitu-, 'world' and -rix, 'king', is a common Celtic name meaning 'King of the World'. (Delamarre 2003: pp. 76-77, 259-260). The Biturix inscription from Tranqueville-Graux. Musée d'Epinal (Vosges) Also in insular Celtic names. Cf.: Bitu[cus] (Catterick, N. Yorkshire -RIB II 2501.107); Bitupr[…] (Chesters, Northumberland -RIB II 2501.105); Bitucus (Cirencester, Gloucestershire -RIB I 108 = Duo Nomina -Fl[au]ius Biticus); Bitudacus (Leicester, dated AD 45-65 -RIB II 2501.108); Bitu[…] (York -RIB II 2494.111). Further: Διας-= (Celtic) Dias A common Celtic element in personal names. Cf. Diastus from Gaul (Aguilée -CIL 05 1169), Diastumarus from Slovania (Trojane -CIL 3 11683), Diassumarus from Hungary (Dunaujvaros -AE 1906 117), Diasulos, etc. (see also Mac Congail 2008:156). Δαλη-= (Celtic) Dali, Dala, Dalus, etc. The 'Thracian' name Δαλη-/Δαλα-etc. has long been linked to the continental Celtic personal names Dali, Dala, etc. (Holder AC I: 1217; Detschew op cit 114; Mac Congail 2008:144-146). -πορις = (Continental Celtic) Porios, Porius etc. (Holder ACII: 1037; Mac Congail 2008) (Insular Celtic) Porius (Mac Congail,loc cit) Further: -κενθος = (Celtic) Cintus, Κιντος, etc. One of the most common 'Thracian' name elements (Georgiev 1977: 84). Compare the Celtic names Κιντος, Cintetra, in Thrace (Detschew, 1957:240; Holder ACI 989), Cinturetus in Galatia (Pliny, Natural History, VIII, 64), Cintugenus -from Bordeaux (CIL 13672), Budapest (CIL 03 12014) and Bad Deutsch Altenburg (CIL 3 12014), Cintusmia -Dijon (CIL 13 5484), Cintulus -Austria, Maria Sall (CIL 3 4934), etc. -ζενις = (Celtic) -genus/-gnos, etc.

Celtic Sociolinguistics Symposium 2018, NUI Galway

Proponents of the 'new speaker' concept have heralded a shift away from language learning ideologies that focus on emulation of native-speaker models, which they describe as 'essentialism' (O'Rourke and Pujolar 2013; O'Rourke and Walsh 2015), or 'native authenticism' (Hornsby and Quentel 2013). These ideologies are presented as potentially harmful and counter-productive both to native speakers (by romanticizing and museifying them) and to second-language learners and speakers (by stigmatizing hybridized new speaker varieties and focusing on language deficits rather than skills).

It is claimed by new speaker scholars that more 'social constructionist' ideologies are gaining ground among some L2 speaker communities, and that these offer a path away from more essentialist models. However, as these scholars also acknowledge, 'essentialist' deference to native-speaker models remains a prominent strand in the ideologies of new speakers. Focusing on the Celtic languages, this paper will argue that the case against 'essentialist' ideologies may be reductive and overstated, and that new speaker scholars have not adequately considered how a shift away from native-speaker models might play out in practice, e.g. in corpus planning and pedagogy.

'Essentialist' or 'native authenticist' ideologies may potentially have benefits in language learning, identity construction, and in some cases are clearly closely linked to deeply-held motivations for acquiring the second language. 'Native authenticists' are often among the most committed language activists and may play an out-sized role in development of resources and networks. Scholars should pay more attention to ways in which ideological clarification might take place, bringing actors with differing language ideologies and backgrounds together constructively.

The genealogical tables of the more important Irish royal dynasties of the early and also later Middle Ages. There are 76 tables, compiled from annalistic, genealogical and other sources, with references to these sources and genealogical tables published in secondery literature up to 1994.

This is a draft section of a reference work explaining Manx spelling and pronunciation for a general (not specifically academic) audience of students of Manx and the Gaelic languages.

This section consists of an alphabetical index of graphemes representing vowels and diphthongs, with lists (exhaustive unless otherwise indicated) of Manx lexemes with particular grapheme-phoneme correspondences, with sounds explained with IPA transcriptions, phonological terminology, as well as comparisons with roughly equivalent English sounds (Isle of Man / RP - non-rhotic), and Gaelic cognates or other etymologies given for each item. The orthography is the standard of the Manx Bible (1772/1819) and Classical Manx more generally.

The complete work will contain extensive introductory material, a corresponding section on consonant spellings, and phoneme-to-grapheme indices. It is intended that audio recordings of the word lists will also be provided.

I would be grateful for feedback on (a) general typos etc. - many of the sections were copied and pasted from one another with minor modifications, so there may well be errors arising from this;  (b) any omissions or errors in the Manx data; (c) errors or alternatives in the Irish and Scottish Gaelic etymologies.

I am grateful to Culture Vannin (Manx Heritage Foundation) for supporting this project.

As the subject of Celtic mythology developed over the 20th century, the methodology combined ancient Celtic and Romano-Celtic epigraphic evidence together with early Welsh and Irish literature with the objective of recovering ideas about pre-Christian gods. In our current work, it is perhaps no longer safe to assume that the pre-Christian Celtic-speaking peoples (even) shared a common mythology, however one could go about recovering it from surviving material. At the same time,
a larger body of ancient epigraphic evidence is now available for the traditional comparative procedure. Against this background, the presentation will consider possible implications of expanded onomastic comparanda from ancient inscriptions relevant to tales from the Welsh Mabinogion and Old and Middle Irish sagas. The focus will be on some narratives that have been seen as reflections of the myth of the ‘pan-Celtic god Lugus’. Some recent alternative interpretations will also be weighed in light of detailed epigraphic parallels.

The standard explanation for the Quarter Festivals of the Insular Celtic year, which fall around 55 days earlier than the solar solstices and equinoxes, is that they represent a more practical agricultural division of the year. In this explanation spring is seen more sensibly to begin on February 1, the first day of calving season. Summer, likewise, more sensibly begins on May 1 when the bulls are put into the cow herd,  around the time of the appearance of the constellation Taurus. What I shall demonstrate is that the most likely origin of the Insular Celtic quarter-day festivals lies not in some theorized agricultural year but in a simple calendar shift whereby progressively over a long period of time the lunar festivals got out of whack with solar time.
Such a calendar shift is likely to have happened to the Insular Celts, as just such a shift with certainty happened to the Celts in the region around Lugudunum. We know this thanks to the preservation of the very-detailed Coligny calendar, found not far from Lyon. Classical commentary suggests that Britain and Gaul originally utilized the same 30-year calendar cycle, assumed to be that of the cycle of Saturn (Saturn's sidereal year equals 29.457 years). The  5-day week of the Coligny calendar is also described in early Irish law (the cóicde). Well-known is the similarity of the Gaulish month-name Samionios to Irish Samain, both occurring at what in each case was assumed to be the beginning of winter. If the early Irish Celts did utilize the same calendar as the pre-first-century-BC Gauls, the same calendar shift would have occurred in their time reckoning as well.

This discussion considers the Arthurian elements presented in De Excidio, Historia Brittonum and the Annales  Cambriae and analyses to what extent these may be indicative of the religious and political motives of their authors, rather than simplistically accepted as early primary sources recording reliable ‘evidence’ for an historical Arthur. The discussion is conducted using a framework for examining the texts, their wider historical and literary contexts, the authors’ motivations and the texts’ usefulness as historical ‘evidence’. It concisely distills all the relevant arguments and compares and contrasts various viewpoints. Finally it carefully unpicks the primary sources and demonstrates a number of problems concerning dating, later interpolations, inconsistencies, lack of clarity due to brevity (e.g. Arthur or Ambrosius?) and sensibly concludes that neither Historia Brittonum nor the Annales Cambriae can be viewed as reliable historical evidence, and that that the case for an historical Arthur is ‘unproven’.

Throughout history, the Druids have always been seen as sorcerers who had a strong bond with nature. Ancestral knowledge holders within Celtic society, directed all religious activity as the highest authority linked to the gods, practiced human sacrifices and festivals organized as Imbolc, Beltaine, Lugnasad or Samain, etc.. all aspects of which are discussed in this article.

Despite the difficulties to understand the verbal morphology of Gaulish, what we know at present allows us to tentatively reconstruct a Common Celtic verbal system which can explain some peculiarities of the Insular Celtic languages. The impersonal and the deponent conjugation of Old Irish could find its origin in a large reshaping of the PIE verbal system, in which Gaulish offers a first stage of development.

En français : tablettes ou lamelles de défixion, d'exécration ou de malédiction En latin : tabellae defixionum ou defixionis • tabella f. 'tablette', diminutif de tabula f. 'planche, tablette à écrire' (> fr. table et tôle) • dēfixio f. 'exécration' de dē-fig-ere 'planter, ficher, enfoncer ; maudire'

This article discusses a problem in integrating archaeology and philology. For most of the twentieth century, archaeologists associated the spread of the Celtic languages with the supposed westward spread of the ‘eastern Hallstatt culture’ in the first millennium BC. More recently, some have discarded ‘Celtic from the East’ in favour of ‘Celtic from the West’, according to which Celtic was a much older lingua franca which evolved from a hypothetical Neolithic Proto-Indo-European language in the Atlantic zone and then spread eastwards in the third millennium BC. This article (1) criticizes the assumptions and misinterpretations of classical texts and onomastics that led to ‘Celtic from the East’ in the first place; (2) notes the unreliability of the linguistic evidence for ‘Celtic from the West’, namely (i) ‘glottochronology’ (which assumes that languages change at a steady rate), (ii) misunderstood place-name distribution maps and (iii) the undeciphered inscriptions in southwest Iberia; and (3) proposes that Celtic radiating from France during the first millennium BC would be a more economical explanation of the known facts.

This is a small explanation of how Scottish Gaelic dialects can differ from the standard spelled form, using mainly the Arran dialect from the Argyle Dialect group as an example. I also gone on to discuss the Galloway Gaelic dialect and the extinct Cumbric language.

The hypothesis of a Hamito-Semitic (or Afro-Asiatic) substratum in the Insular Celtic languages elaborated successively by Morris Jones, Pokorny and Wagner to explain striking structural resemblances between Insular Celtic and Hamito-Semitic is enjoying a revival. Linguists have generally assumed that the parallels between Insular Celtic and Hamito-Semitic are to be explained in terms of Greenbergian typology (all languages of the VSO type). However, recent work by Gensler, and also Jongeling and Vennemann, compels us to revisit the substratum hypothesis. This article presents the main contributions on the question, provides a table showing the principal points of similarity by author and language, briefly comments on each of these points, and, regretting the reluctance of substratalists to consider typological explanations, sounds a note of caution against what might be termed "substratum frenzy". In connection with the recent interpretation of Tartessian inscriptions from the southwest of the Iberian peninsula as an early form of Celtic, a new scenario suggests itself: Phoenician may have exerted substratal influence on Tartessian, which in turn may have fed into the "Milesian" language traditionally said to have brought Q-Celtic from Iberia to Ireland; if this language also spread to Britain, that would explain the presence of "non-Indo-European" traits in Insular Celtic, P-Celtic coming subsequently directly from Gaul having acquired them from the Q-Celtic already present in Britain. Such a scenario would reconcile the two fundamental divisions between Insular Celtic (with "non-Indo-European" traits) and Continental Celtic (without) on the one hand and Q-Celtic and P-Celtic (without on the continent, with in Britain) on the other. =m

This paper deals with the long-debated question of the origins of tree names and the methodological problems related to PIE etymologies. It aims at putting forward some basic principles of etymology, and at applying these principles to the analysis of twelve tree names. It also seeks to demonstrate the relevance of substratic pre-IE languages' influence on the lexicon, and at isolating geographic areas corresponding to pre-Indo-European lexical stocks lying behind modern Celtic languages.

This thesis examines language variation and change in a context of minority language revitali- sation. In particular, I concentrate on young fluent speakers of Scottish Gaelic, a minority language of Scotland that is currently undergoing revitalisation. Data from three groups of speakers are presented: older speakers in the Isle of Lewis, a Gaelic heartland area in north-west Scotland; adolescent Gaelic-speakers in Lewis learning the language in immersion schooling; and adolescent Gaelic-speakers in immersion schooling in Glasgow, an urban centre where Gaelic has not traditionally been spoken as a widespread community language.

The sociolinguistic analysis examines potential language changes, explores patterns of linguistic variation, and uncovers the role that Gaelic plays in identity formation for each of the participants. In order to gain an insight into the role of Gaelic in different speakers’ lives, I report on ethnographic studies carried out in Lewis and in Glasgow. The phonetic analysis then explores patterns of variation in the production of laterals, vowels, and tone and intonation.
The results indicate large differences between the speech of older and adolescent speakers in Lewis, while differences between young speakers in Lewis and Glasgow suggest that Glasgow Gaelic is developing as a phonetically and socially distinct variety of the language. For example, older speakers in Lewis speak Gaelic as a partial tone language, unlike young people in Lewis and in Glasgow. Differences are also present between young people in Lewis and in Glasgow, such as in the acoustics of the vowel [ʉ], the production of the lateral system, and intonation patterns.

The developments detailed in this thesis are the result of a complex interaction between the internal sound structure of Gaelic, language contact with varieties of English, identity construction, and differing conceptions of the self. All of these factors are conditioned by the status of Gaelic as a minority endangered and revitalised language. In exploring these avenues, I advance an account of language variation and change and apply it to a context of minority language revitalisation.

Final (post-viva) research masters dissertation, Aberystwyth University, 2016. A published version with significant revisions and additions is envisaged.

The present thesis provides a linguistic overview of the revived variety of Manx Gaelic, the Celtic language of the Isle of Man currently spoken by a few hundred people who have learnt it as a second language, and a small number of children raised bilingually. The introductory chapter presents an overview of the recent history and current situation of Revived Manx; the academic literature on both varieties of Manx; the study of language revival in general; and the ideological issues surrounding the terminology of language ‘revival’ and of language ‘death’. In Chapter 2 an overview is given of the linguistic features of Revived Manx (RM) with comparisons to the traditional variety (Traditional Manx, TM), with sections on phonetics and phonology, morphology and syntax, and lexis, idiom and style. In Chapter 3 RM is placed in the wider context of the phenomenon of language variety, with particular focus on comparisons with Revived Hebrew (and the problems with such comparisons); the concept of interlanguage; language revival as language contact; and existing language ideologies prevalent in the RM community. Finally consideration is given to the future prospects of the language, and recommendations are made concerning ideological clarification and corpus planning.