Languages

The Celtic Languages

The Celtic languages are part of the Indo-European languages. They gather Continental Celtic languages and Insular Celtic Languages. The Continental ones were spoken by the Celts of the Iron Age until the end of Antiquity, so they are all disappeared nowadays. The Insular Celtic languages, spoken in the British Isles and in Britanny, are still present today in the Celtic nations. These are the Irish, the Manx, the Scottish Gaelic (the Goeidelic languages), the Breton, the Cornish and the Welsh (the Britonnic languages).

The Irish (Erinack)

The most spoken Celtic language is the Irish with 240.000 native speakers and 1.300.000 people who speaks Irish as their second language. It is spoken in the whole Irish Island and the city with the most Irish speakers is Dublin (184.000). This means that 22% of the whole Irish population speaks Irish. By the way, the Irish is an official language in the Irish Republic and in the European Union. Its alphabet is a variant of the Latin one. And in Ireland, every city name in English is subtitled by its Irish translation.

 The Welsh (Cymraeg)

The Welsh is spoken by 562.000 native speakers and 750.000 people as their second language. Its speakers live mostly in Wales, but also in England, Argentina, Canada and the United States. This is an official language in Wales, but only a regional one in the United Kingdom. Its alphabet is the Latin one with 29 letters. Such as in Ireland, indication panels are often showing the English and the Welsh name of the cities.

 The Breton (Brezhoneg)

The Breton is spoken by 206.000 people and most of them live in Brittany. 4% of the all 4.687.000 Bretons speak this regional language. It is a language very close to the Cornish, whish is only spoken in Great Britain. It is, as French and Gallo, an official language in Brittany, and a regional in France.

 
The Scottish Gaelic (Gàidhlig)

The Scottish Gaelic is spoken by 57.000 people in Scotland, so by around 1% of the whole population. It is only the third language in Scotland, after the English (spoken by 99% Scottish people) and the Scots (a Germanic language spoken by 30% Scottish people). And its number of speakers is decreasing over the last decades. In fact, the Scottish Gaelic is an official language in Scotland, but not in the United Kingdom, where it is only a regional language, and neither in the EU.

The Cornish (Kernewek)

The Cornish is still spoken by around 500 people worldwide. The language has almost disappeared during the XIIIth century, but some people tried to keep the regional language alive and its Celtic culture during the XXth. Today, the language is only spoken in Cornwall and has become a regional language in the United Kingdom. It is also learned by some Cornish pupils


 

 

The Manx (Gaelg)
The Manx is the last spoken Celtic language. Nowadays, 1.800 people speak this language as their second one, after the English obviously. It is spoken in the Isle of Man. On the island, Manx is not the official language, but only a regional one. And it is laso not recognised in the United Kingdom. After a slight decrease of the speakers until the 1974 and the death of the last native speakers, many people tried to make the language revive and the number of Manx speakers has grown every year after.




If you wish to learn more on this topic, I recommend you to watch videos from the YouTube channel "Langfocus", and especially the video on the Celtic languages history (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ri1Vw3w1_10).