The Celtic Languages

The only modern account to describe all surviving Celtic languages in detail.

Donald MacAulay (Edited by)

9780521088916, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 30 October 2008

488 pages, 7 maps
22.9 x 15.2 x 0.3 cm, 0.71 kg

"The Celtic Languages is an admirable book, providing clear and detailed analyses of these six languages. It should prove to be an excellent introduction to new students, as well as a solid reference work for the more experienced linguist." Language Quarterly

This volume describes the six modern Celtic languages. Four of these, Modern Irish, Scottish Gaelic, Welsh and Breton, are living community languages. The other two, Manx and Cornish, survived into the modern period, but are no longer extant as community languages, though they are the subject of enthusiastic revivals. The Celtic Languages sets them briefly in their Indo-European context, and states their general relationships within the broader Celtic language family. Individual linguistic studies are first placed in their sociolinguistic and sociohistorical context. A detailed synchronic account of each language then follows, including syntax, morphology, phonology, morphophonology, dialect variation and distribution. Each description is based on a common plan, thus facilitating comparison amongst the different languages. This latest volume in the Cambridge Language Surveys will be welcomed by all scholars of the Celtic languages, but has also been designed to be accessible to any reader with only a basic knowledge of linguistics. It is the only modern account to deal with all surviving Celtic languages in this detail.

1. Introduction
2. The Celtic languages: an overview
Part I. The Gaelic Languages: 3. The Irish language
4. The Manx language
5. The Scottish Gaelic language
Part II. The Brittonic Languages: 6. The Welsh language
7. The Cornish language
8. The Breton language.

Subject Areas: Ethnic studies [JFSL], Historical & comparative linguistics [CFF]