ABSTRACT
The contribution provides an overview of some of the main themes in sociolinguistic research in the contemporary Celtic languages. It highlights the fact that all six of the languages are minoritised and that a great deal of sociolinguistics is concerned with the existential threat to the languages as spoken and written media and with their social and political contexts. Recent sociolinguistic themes in each of the Gaelic language group (Manx, Scottish Gaelic and Irish) and Brittonic language group (Cornish, Breton and Welsh) are discussed, as well as identifying common focuses, particularly the perceptions and receptions of variation at the ‘traditional’ and ‘new speaker’ interface and the effects of the degree of sociolinguistic institutionalisation on each of the languages.
