Continental Celtic languages: Encyclopedia - Continental Celtic languages

Continental Celtic languages

Celtic
Continental Celtic languages

The Continental Celtic languages are those Celtic languages that are neither Goidelic nor Brythonic. Although it is likely that Celts spoke dozens of different languages and dialects across Europe in pre-Roman times, only four such languages are actually attested:

• Lepontic (7th to 3rd century BC)
• Gaulish (3rd century BC to 2nd century AD)
• Galatian (3rd century BC to 4th century AD)
• Celtiberian (1st century BC)

Lepontic is generally considered a dialect of Gaulish, and Galatian may be as well.

The term Continental Celtic is used in contrast to Insular Celtic. While most researchers agree that Insular Celtic is a distinct branch of Celtic, having undergone common linguistic innovations, there is no evidence that the Continental Celtic languages can be similarly grouped. Instead, the term Continental Celtic is paraphyletic and refers simply to non-Insular Celtic languages. Since little material has been preserved in any of the Continental Celtic languages, historical linguistic analysis based on the comparative method is difficult to perform.

Categories: Celtic languages | Continental Celtic languages

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Continental Celtic languages", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki