group of Indo-European languages (includes Irish Gaelic, Scottish Gaelic, Welsh, Breton, Manx, Cornish)
The Celtic languages are the
languages descended from
Proto-Celtic, or "Common Celtic", a branch of the greater
Indo-European language family. During the
1st millennium BC, they were spoken across
Europe, from the Bay of Biscay and the North Sea, up the Rhine and down the Danube to the Black Sea and the Upper Balkan Peninsula, and into
Asia Minor (
Galatia). Today, Celtic languages are limited to a few areas in
Great Britain, the
Isle of Man,
Ireland,
Cape Breton Island,
Patagonia, and on the peninsula of
Brittany in
France. Proto-Celtic apparently divided into four sub-families:
Gaulish and its close relatives,
Lepontic,
Noric and
Galatian. These languages were once spoken in a wide arc from
France to
Turkey and from
Belgium to northern
Italy.
Celtiberian, anciently spoken in the
Iberian peninsula,
[1] namely in the areas of modern Northern and
South-central Portugal, and
Galicia,
Asturias,
Cantabria,
Aragón and
León in
Spain.
Goidelic, including
Irish,
Scottish Gaelic, and
Manx.
Brythonic (also called Brittonic), including
Welsh,
Breton,
Cornish,
Cumbric, the hypothetical
Ivernic, and possibly also
Pictish.
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