The Celtic LanguagesMartin John Ball, James Fife This is the first modern, scholarly, detailed account of the Celtic languages found in one volume. The need for such a book has grown in recent years owing to the marked increase in interest in this important language-family on the part of linguists worldwide. The Celtic languages have various unique features, both structural and sociolinguistic, both inside and outside the Indo-European linguistic situation, that make them especially worthy of study. The languages examined are Gaulish, Irish, Scots Gaelic, Manx, Welsh, Breton, and Cornish. The Celtic Languagesdiscusses both the structural as well as the sociolinguistic aspect of the study of these languages. On the structural side, features such as initial consonant mutation, verb-subject-object sentences, the inflection of prepositions, and pre-sentential particles mark this group of languages, separating it from other Indo-European language groups. On the sociolinguistic side, the book discusses the unique fact that it is the only language group to consist solely of `minority languages'. All other groups contain at least one major language recognized as an official language of a nation state or of an autonomous region. This book discusses the Celtic languages historically, structurally and sociolinguistically, making it an excellent resource for all students and teachers of cultural studies and the Celtic language, as well as students of general linguistics. The historical sections include the origin and history of the Celtic languages, their spread and their retreat, present-day distribution, and a sketch of the extant and recently extinct languages. The structural sections include phonology, mutation, morphology, syntax, dialectology, and lexis. The sociolinguistic sections include domains of usage, maintenance, and prospects for survival. _ |
Contents
Introduction | 3 |
Continental Celtic | 26 |
Insular Celtic P and QCeltic | 64 |
Irish | 101 |
Scottish Gaelic | 145 |
Manx | 228 |
Welsh | 289 |
Breton | 349 |
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Common terms and phrases
adjective adverb areas auxiliary bachgen bilingual Botorrita Breton British Brittany Brythonic Celtiberian Celtic languages Celtic Studies Celtiques cent century clitic common consonant Continental Celtic copula dative definite article dialects diphthongs Dublin English example feminine French Gaelic speakers Gaeltacht Gaulish gender genitive Goidelic grammar Hispano-Celtic Indo-European inflected initial inscriptions Insular Celtic language shift Late Cornish Latin Lejeune Lenaig lenition Lepontic linguistic Literary Welsh loanwords Manx masculine Middle Cornish Middle Welsh Mod.Ir Modern Irish nasal negative nominative noun phrase occur Ogam Old Irish orthography palatalized particle periphrastic phonemes phonological plural population position preposition present preterite pronominal pronoun Schmidt schools Scottish Gaelic sentence soft mutation spirant stressed suffix syllables syntax Table taigh tense third-person singular tion unstressed verb verb-noun verbal noun vowel Wales Welsh language Welsh speakers words Yann