Celt

The Celts are a people who have inhabited Europe since the early iron age. Whilst they were once the pre-eminent power in Europe conflicts against the Ancient Romans, migrating Germanic tribes and internecine warfare led to a loss of much of their influence. Today Celtic languages are still the primary spoken language along parts of the European Atlantic fringe.

The International Celtic Congress recognises the modern Celtic heartland to consist of Scotland, The isle of Man, Ireland (north and south combined), Wales, Cornwall and Brittany. Some regions where no significant numbers of Celtic language speakers remain are often considered Celtic including England and Galicia. Whilst it had been previously thought that invading Germanic peoples such as Saxons from the continent and Vikingr from Scandinavia had totally wiped out the Celts in eastern England, genetic studies now show that the replacement was merely cultural with the majority of DNA in England sharing much the same indigenous origins as that of the culturally Celtic portion of the British isles.

The growth of the British Empire provided a vehicle for the spread of Celtic people to far flung regions of the world. The diaspora of Goidelic Celts was particularly large, due in large amount to the high proportion of Scots and Irish in the armies of the British Empire and also the catastrophic effects of the potato famines and the highland clearances on Goidelic regions of Britain. The majority of Australians and New Zealanders have Celtic roots. Canada is another place that received a particularly large amount of Celtic immigration, mostly from Scotland, and at one time Scottish Gaelic was the third most prevalent language after English and French. Today Gaelic in Canada is much less important with only a few thousand speakers remaining, most of whom live on Cape Breton Island in Nova Scotia. Irish immigration to the USA also had an important impact on its history, and though migration of non Celtic peoples to the USA has always been much higher than in the antipodes, leading to a large dilution of Celtic blood, the cultural impact of the Irish on contemporary American culture and religion has been disproportionately large.

Important issues affecting Celts today include the preservation and expansion of their languages which are threatened by the global spread of English and also by greater autonomy in the Celtic nations. Whilst the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland are now becoming more and more aware of these issues, the situation is rather different in France where regional autonomy and indigenous languages are a politically sensitive subject.

History

The Celts were the first ethnic group to become widespread in Europe. Using tribes rather than stable civilizations, the Celts began in central Europe and migrated west beginning in about 500 B.C. to the British Isles and also northwest France and portions of Spain. Their religion consisted of worshipping the land, the waters and the changing of the seasons. Many aspects of life were associated with a particular God or Goddess, and their priests were called “druids”. They had no written language but often told myths and folktales. The Celts were renowned by the Romans for their fighting prowess, due to the Roman Empire's consistently failed attempts to conquer Ireland.

An off-shoot of the Celts moved into central Anatolia (modern Turkey) during the 3rd century BC and became known as the Galatians (of Paul's Epistles fame.)

Pronunciation

The name "Celt" and the adjective "Celtic" can be pronounced with either a hard or a soft c. According to dictionaries the hard-c version ("kelt") is more common, and perhaps more correct since it is derived from the Greek word keltoi.

The Boston Celtics basketball team is named after the Celts, a loose reference to Boston's Irish association; the team name is always pronounced with a soft c, as if it were spelled "seltics"; the same applies the the Glasgow football team Celtic F.C.

See also

• Celtic languages