Looking into the Celtic Languages
**Most of the dates are approximations. As exact dates of splits in languages and when they first arrive cannot be obtained with the data we have. We can only give dates to languages that are attested too.
Studying the language of a culture you are interested in will also help you study their history and this is why I decided to research the Celtic languages. I wanted to see how far back I can track them and to where. This would in theory give me the history of where and when the Celts in Ireland (my chosen culture, and heritage) came from. I found out just how hard it was doing this research. There are many theories and versions of theories out there. So what is presented here is what most scholars have agreed on. This means there will be people out there who disagree with it.
The Celtic language group is part of the larger Indo-European family tree. The original Indo-European language was spoken around 5000 BCE and there are many theories as to their origins but most scholars agree on the Pontic Steppe (another site that is useful is here) north of the Black Sea and east of the Caspian. The Indo-European language breaks into different languages at different times as the people who speak it migrate to other lands. This break up into the proto languages (the first tire of breakups) is thought to be complete around 2500 – 2000 BCE. Except for Greek, the earliest evidence of Indo-European languages in Europe comes much later than in Asia because of the late arrival of writing in Europe.
I’d like to give an overview of some of the cultures that are thought to be associated with the Celts. These cultures are not blatantly Celtic but share characteristics with it, they are sometimes called proto-Celtic and sometimes even (pre)-Proto-Celtic. Around 2000 – 1500 BCE we have the Unetice Culture. It was centered on Bohemia, Bavaria, Germany, Poland, and Moravia. This culture was named after a type of cemetery north of Prague. The characteristics of this culture include ingot torcs, lock rings, various pins, and riveted daggers. In later Unetice times, there is evidence of commercial contact with the Wessex culture of Britain. This culture was later replaced with the Tumulus culture and later on with the Urnfield and Hallstatt cultures in central Europe c. 1500 – 1000 BCE. From the 1000 BCE – 500 BCE the Celtic languages spread over central and western Europe. With the coming of the Roman Empire and the migration period, the celtic languages were mostly confined to the British Isles c. 1BCE – 500 CE.
Now let us look at the Celtic language family. Proto-Celtic speakers moved generally west from the PIE homeland, probably alongside groups from the Italic branch, spreading across southern Europe into central Turkey, northern Italy, France, Spain, and eventually the British Isles. Some time around 1000 BCE Celtic began to break down further. The Celtic languages are traditionally divided into two geographical groups, the Continental languages and the Insular languages. The Continental languages include Gaulish, Lepontic, Celtiberian, Galatian and some include Noric. The Insular languages were first split into Goidelic and Brythonic, both of which split further. Goidelic gave us Irish Gaelic, Scots Gaelic and Manx, while the Brythonic branch gave us Welsh, Cornish and Breton. The following table shows tentative dates for the splits:
Continental Celts later adopted Latin, or Greek in the case of those in Turkey, and the Continental Celtic languages, attested from the 6th century B.C., were lost. Insular Celtic split into a Goidelic subgroup that developed in Ireland, and a Brythonic subgroup that developed in England and Wales. Later in history, Goidelic Celts migrated to Scotland; also later in history, Brythonic Celts under pressure from the Anglo-Saxons returned to the Continent and settled in Brittany, on the western point of France.
Bibliography:
1. http://www.danshort.com/ie/iecentum.htm
2. http://www.danshort.com/ie/iefamilyfull.htm
3. http://www.eliznik.org.uk/EastEurope/History/balkans-map/early-neolithic.htm
4. http://en.academic.ru/dic.nsf/enwiki/1176285
5. In Search of Indo-Europeans: Language, Archeology and Myth by J.P. Mallory
6. The Horse, The Wheel and language: How Bronze Age Riders From The Eurasian Steppes Shaped The World by David Anthony
7. http://www.utexas.edu/cola/centers/lrc/general/ie-lg/Celtic.html
8. http://www.archaeologywordsmith.com/lookup.php?category=&where=headword&terms=Unetice
- Posted in: Essays ♦ History
- Tagged: Celtic languages
I have just completed a work on Ireland’s Kings Genealogy now I realize this is nothing new but I have come across evidence that points towards a different chronology for the Kings. The other difference is that the chronology and genealogy seems to suggest that the Line of Irish Kings did indeed come through Spain But Via Carthage Crete and the City of Tyre I know that all the annals indicate that the Irish Lineage goes back to Magog and Japath to Noah. But I just could not find the link other than in the annals. But what I did find is a further Lineage back from Baoth in Scythia and again to Tyre to Macedonia there they were involved in the Murder of Philip of Macedonia Alexander’s Father where they were Kings in the city State of Milesia and finally to Greece. At the end of the day my chronology was out about 2 years over a period of 2500 years.
I was not looking to trace Irish Genealogy I’m not even Irish I was doing DNA studies of Haplogroup X and ran into The Kings in Spain not knowing they were Irish at the time and traced them back from Spain to Greece. This Mil Espáine as he was called is a misname as this is merely a title not a name meaning Hero of Spain his actual name was Galahad or Galamh and he was married to Amy (Actually much longer in Egyptian) of Scothia and another woman Seang. Amy was the third daughter (not Blood) of a Pharoah who was given to the Pharoah as a diplomatic gesture by the King of Scothia or Scythia if you like and the Pharoah in turn gave the Scothian woman Amy to Galahad of Spain as a thanks for his assistance in battling the Nubians. I found Egyptian funerary records that recorded the marriage of all things. So I after tracing this line back I got curious as to where It went. That’s when I came across the Irish Lineage which was well documented but the chronology did not match up. I knew the Egyptian records were accurate and the Greek dating as well so I looked closely at the Irish Dating system and realized where the error originated from and easily fixed it and the puzzle of the chronology fit like a glove once I managed to sort out the Indegenious Kings from the Usurping Milesians from the south.
The Irish History and Genealogy I have found and reconstructed is much deeper and richer than was thought. The reason these fellows could not be found in history is that the chronology was so far off looking for those names in the time frame given in the annals offers no help they just cannot be found I’m sure just based on the data I have complied there is much more to be discovered.
So if you would like to have a look at the genealogy I have it posted on my web site at http://www.chronology.bravehost.com
George Arnold
Thanks for taking the time to post this. I will certainly have a look at your genealogy.
Fascinating article. There does seem to be similarities with Italic branch of languages and Celtic – so it does make sense that these two groups might have been travelling together, like you said. I noticed that there were many similarities between the Oscan counting system and Celtic ones:
uinus – Welsh un (one.)
dus – Welsh: dau (two)
tris – Gaulish : Tritios -Welsh: Tri – Irish: Triu (three)
petora – Gaulish: Petuarios – Welsh: Pedwar, Pedwerydd. (four)
pompe – Gaulish: Pimpetos -Welsh: Pump – Breton: Pempet. (Five)
You could avoid 1,2,3 – because they are all quite similar in the Indo-European languages, but the four and five in Oscan do bare stricking similarities to Celtic numbers. Then again I might be seeing patterns in things that aren’t there – afterall I’m no linguist.
Neither am I but that doesn’t stop us from dabbling lol.
I’ve always wondered how closelly related the Insular Celtic languages were to their Continental counterparts. Take for instance the words of the first century Roman historian Cornelius Tacitus – he says that the language of the Gauls is nearly indistinguishable from that of the Britons. I think the Greek writer Strabo points to similarities as well. Would a Gaul have understood a Briton?
Honestly, I think they must have.
Interesting article. You also need to look at the metal trade into the British isles starting circa 2500 BC (beaker people). The Beakerfolk are also sometimes seen as proto-celtic and appear in most of the areas where there was later ‘celtic’ settlement, from Spain, through Britain/Ireland, central Europe, Alpine areas etc.This is the view of the Uni of Wales, that proto-celtic languages arrived in Britain/Ireland via the time-honoured trade route of the Atlantic seaboard, from Iberia through northern france, due to trade as much as migration. This also goes toward explaining why British/Irish dna has more affinity to these areas than to central Europe (the traditional much later Hallstatt area–there is a Hallstatt ‘celtic’ dna marker but it is pretty rare in Ireland, although both have an ultimate ancestor many thousands of years before.)
A note too about the migration of ‘celtic’ people to Brittany in the 5th c. I imagine this area may well have already been seen as a type of ancient ‘homeland’. Many much earlier megalithic sites in Britain/Ireland (Knowth in Ireland being a spectacular example, Stonehenge also has some Breton-like features) have affinity to this area and a fair amount of imported weaponry etc from the bronze age has come from this area.