ABSTRACT

This text provides a single-volume, single-author general introduction to the Celtic languages.

The first half of the book considers the historical background of the language group as a whole. There follows a discussion of the two main sub-groups of Celtic, Goidelic (comprising Irish, Scottish, Gaelic and Manx) and Brittonic (Welsh, Cornish and Breton) together with a detailed survey of one representative from each group, Irish and Welsh.

The second half considers a range of linguistic features which are often regarded as characteristic of Celtic: spelling systems, mutations, verbal nouns and word order.

chapter 2|44 pages

The Goidelic Languages

chapter 3|42 pages

Irish

chapter 4|26 pages

The Brittonic languages

chapter 5|60 pages

Welsh

chapter 6|34 pages

The orthographies of the Celtic languages

chapter 8|20 pages

Verbal nouns, verbs and nouns

chapter 9|28 pages

Word order in the Celtic languages