CELTIC LANGUAGES. A group of lan guage., both ancient and modern, belon,•_!ing to the Indo-European family, and now comprising Welsh. Breton (Armoric), Irish, Scottish Gaelic. and Alanx. The connection of the Celtic lan guages with the 111do-European family has been recognized since the time of Piet et (1837) and Bopp ( 1838), but the scientific study of them dates front :fidiann Caspar Zeuss, whose Grantinatica Celtic(' (1853) laid the foundations of modern Celtic philology. llis work has been continued by a series of distinguished scholar. both in the British Isles and on the Continent, and rapid progress has been made in all depart ments of the subject. But Celtic studies are still new, and it will he long before the Celtic languages are as well understood or the litera tures as fully analyzed as those of the Germanic and Nomance peoples. Within the lndo-Euro pean family the Celtic group stands linguistical ly. as it does geographically, in closest relation with the Italic and Germanic. Certain common characteristics of the Celtic and Italic (e.g. the formation of the passive in -r) have led to the assumption of a common Italo-Celtie lan guage. But it is safer to account for them by a theory of interaction and mutual influence. The Celtic languages themselves fall into two main divisions—the Continental and the Insular. Of
the Continental Celtic, or Gaulish, very little is known. The Gaulish languages died out early, and no literary monuments of them have been preserved. The only remains are inscriptions and coins, which yield little besides proper names. :More material of the same sort is found in the Greek and Latin historians. The Insular Celtic consists of two groups of lan guages—the British. or Brythonic (comprising Welsh. Breton. and Cornish), and the Gaelic, or Goidelic (comprising Irish, Scottish Gaelic, and Alanx)- Pictish has sometimes been reckoned with the Celtic languages. but present opinion inclines to regard it as not Indo-European. Of the six insular Celtic languages. five are still living. Cornish died out toward the end of the Eighteenth Century. Welsh and Breton are each spoken to-day by inure than a million of people; Irish by more than a half a million; and Scottish Gaelic by rather fewer. These languages, how ever, do not constitute the sole vernacular of the people, most of whom speak also either Eng lish or according to their nationality. Manx seems likely to die out in the near future. unless it is rescued by the earnest agitation now going on in all the Celtic countries for the pre.
'Nation of their national tongues. See NE0 AlOVE3IE5T.