How Celtic languages spread across Britain and Ireland: why we need to reconsider the early story

How Celtic languages spread across Britain and Ireland: why we need to reconsider the early story

The Celtic languages spoken today – namely Irish, Scottish Gaelic, Manx, Welsh, Cornish and Breton – all descend from Celtic languages once spoken across Britain and Ireland in antiquity. While the modern languages are well documented from the early middle ages onwards, what came before is far more mysterious. Only fragments of earlier evidence survive, leaving major questions about where these ancient Celtic languages came from and how they con…