Celts

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Celts (pronounced /ˈkelts/ or /ˈselts/, see names of the Celts; the most common academic usage is with a velar "c", pronounced as "k") is a modern term used to describe any of the European peoples who spoke, or speak, a Celtic language.[1] The term is also used in a wider sense to describe the modern descendants of those peoples, notably those who participate in a Celtic culture.

The historical Celts were a diverse group of tribal societies in Iron Age Europe. Proto-Celtic culture formed in the Early Iron Age (1200 BC-400 AD) in Central Europe (Hallstatt period, named for the site in present-day Austria). By the later Iron Age (La Tène period), Celts had expanded over a wide range of lands: as far west as Ireland and the Iberian Peninsula, as far east as Galatia (central Anatolia), and as far north as Scotland.[2]

The earliest direct attestation of a Celtic language are the Lepontic inscriptions, beginning from the 6th century BC. Continental Celtic languages are attested only in inscriptions and place-names. Insular Celtic is attested from about the 4th century AD in ogham inscriptions. Literary tradition begins with Old Irish from about the 8th century. Coherent texts of Early Irish literature, such as the Táin Bó Cúailnge (The Cattle Raid of Cooley), survive in 12th-century recensions.

By the early first millennium AD, following the expansion of the Roman Empire and the Great Migrations (Migration Period) of Germanic peoples, Celtic culture had become restricted to the British Isles (Insular Celtic), and the Continental Celtic languages ceased to be widely used by the sixth century. "Celtic Europe" today refers to the lands surrounding the Irish Sea, as well as Cornwall and Brittany on either side of the English Channel. Galicia (NW Spain), Northern and Central Portugal (together with Galicia, part of ancient Gallacea) and Asturias (Northern Spain) are also clearly seen as Celtic lands, but without a surviving Celtic language.

Names and terminology

The origin of the various names used since classical times for the people known today as the Celts is obscure and has been controversial. The Latin name Celtus (pl. Celti or Celtae) seems to have been borrowed from Greek (; Greek Κέλτης pl. Κέλται or Κελτός pl. Κελτοί, Keltai or Keltoi), itself taken from a native Celtic tribal name (cf. Celtici).[3] In Greek, the first literary reference to the Celtic people, as Κελτοί (Κeltoi), is by the Greek historian Hecataeus of Miletus in 517 BC; he says that the town of Massilia (Marseille) is near the Celts and also mentions a Celtic town of Nyrex (possibly Noreia in Austria). Herodotus seems to locate the Keltoi at the source of the Danube and/or in Iberia, but the passage is unclear.

The English word Celt is modern, attested from 1707 in the writings of Edward Lhuyd whose work, along with that of other late 17th century scholars, brought academic attention to the languages and history of these early inhabitants of Great Britain.[4]

Latin Gallus might originally be from a Celtic ethnic or tribal name, perhaps borrowed into Latin during the early 5th century BC Celtic expansions into Italy. Its root may be the Common Celtic *galno, meaning 'power' or 'strength'. The Greek Galatai seems to be based on the same root, borrowed directly from the same hypothetical Celtic source which gave us Galli (the suffix -atai is simply an ethnic name indicator). (see Galatia in Anatolia)

The English form Gaul (first recorded in the 17th century) and Gaulish come from the French Gaule and Gaulois, which translate Latin Gallia and Gallus, -icus respectively. In Old French, the words gualeis, galois, walois (NF phonetics keeping /w/) had different meanings : Welsh or the Langue d'oïl, etc. On the other hand, the word Waulle (NF phonetics keeping /w/) is recorded for the first time in the 13th century to translate the Latin word Gallia and then, gaulois is recorded for the first time in the 15th century and the scholars use it to translate the Latin words Gallus / Gallicus. The word comes from Germanic *Walha-. (see Gaul: Name) The English word 'Welsh' originates from the word wælisċ, the Anglo-Saxon form of walhiska-, the Germanic word for "foreign".[5] or "Celt" (South. German Welsch(e) 'Celtic speaker', 'French speaker', 'Italian speaker'; Old Norse valskr, pl. valir 'Gaulish', 'French'), that is supposed to be derived of the Celtic tribe's name Volcae, that lived first in the South of Germany and emigrated then to Gaul.

'Celticity' generally refers to the cultural commonalities of these peoples, based on similarities in language, material artifacts, social organisation and mythological factors. Earlier theories were that this indicated a common racial origin but more recent theories are reflective of culture and language rather than race. Celtic cultures seem to have had numerous diverse characteristics but the commonality between these diverse peoples was the use of a Celtic language.

'Celtic' is a descriptor of a family of languages and, more generally, means 'of the Celts,' or 'in the style of the Celts'. It has also been used to refer to several archaeological cultures defined by unique sets of artifacts. The link between language and artifact is aided by the presence of inscriptions. (see Celtic (disambiguation) for other applications of the term)

Today, the term 'Celtic' is generally used to describe the languages and respective cultures of Ireland, Scotland, Wales, Cornwall, the Isle of Man and Brittany, also known as the Six Celtic Nations. These are the regions where four Celtic languages are still spoken to some extent as mother tongues: Irish Gaelic, Scottish Gaelic, Welsh, and Breton plus two recent revivals, Cornish (one of the Brythonic languages) and Manx (one of the Goidelic languages). There are also attempts to reconstruct the Cumbric language (a Brythonic language from Northwest England and Southwest Scotland). 'Celtic' is also sometimes used to describe regions of Continental Europe that have Celtic heritage, but where no Celtic language has survived; these areas include the western Iberian Peninsula, i.e. Portugal, and north-central Spain (Galicia, Asturias, Cantabria, Castile and León, Extremadura), and to a lesser degree, France. (see Modern Celts)

'Continental Celts' refers to the Celtic-speaking people of mainland Europe. 'Insular Celts' refers to the Celtic-speaking people of the British Isles and their descendants. The Celts of Brittany derive their language from migrating insular Celts from west Britain and so are grouped accordingly.