Britain and Ireland’s 5,000-Year-Old Proto-Celtic Language

Britain and Ireland’s 5,000-Year-Old Proto-Celtic Language

Was a Proto-Celtic Language spoken in Britain and Ireland 5,000 years ago? Hi, and Welcome to Celtic History Decoded, I’m Steven. Today, l want to talk about the origins of the Celtic language.

The traditional model states that the proto-Celtic language grew out of the Urnfield culture of Central Europe which existed from around 1300—750 BC. This culture was succeeded by the Hallstatt culture named after Hallstatt in Austria, with this culture in turn succeeded by the La Tène culture which flourished from around 450 BC to the first century BC. Basically, this traditional model of the proto-Celtic language states that it arose in Central Europe, and then dispersed east and west into places such as Britain and Ireland.

The traditional model has been challenged however. Other scholars and linguists argue that the proto-Celtic language arose in the Atlantic zone, meaning the Atlantic region that included western Iberia, western France and the British Isles. It then swept east through Europe.

Sources:

Barry Cunliffe – The Ancient Celts (Second Edition) (Oxford University Press)

Julius Caesar – The Conquest of Gaul (Penguin Classics)

Creative Commons Imagery:

#CelticLanguage #History #Britain

[celtichistorydecoded]

What's your thoughts on this theory of the proto-Celtic language? Please let me know below...

[qetoun]

The traditional theory is that the Celtic peoples entered Britain and Ireland between 600-450 BC and conquered/assimilated an unrelated bronze age people at a rapid pace. Problem is, archeologists have been looking for centuries for this great ''coming of the Celts'' and have found no significant evidence of a major invasion(s) or cultural shift. Caesar wrote that the southern Kingdoms of Britain claimed kinship with the Gauls, but that the more northern Britons had 'always been there'. Unless you count the origin stories of the traditional British histories of the Britons coming from Troy, there is a strange lack of 'invasion' myths which should have been remembered if the Celts in Britain had only been there 500+ years before the Romans blundered in. There is also the issue of Celtic-like or Para-Celtic languages in Spain long before the supposed Celtic westward spread. Lusitanian and possibly Tartessian languages for example. There is the Greek historical account of King Arganthonios of Tartessos in southern Spain, in/around 600BC whose name is highly Celtic is structure, meaning perhaps 'one of Silver/wealth'. Again, what is a Celtic Kingdom doing that far west that early? The Hallstatt culture origin theory of the Celts needs a revision.

[noahtylerpritchett]

Hey my man. Genetic articles released in December 2021 talking about a celtic migration from 1000-875 BC. During the Bronze age

[occidentadvocate.]

Fascinating. I cant get enough of these Videos! Love to learn about my Celtic heritage. 👍

[williamliamsmith]

There is a large scholar community stuck in the dogma that Indo-European languages first arrived in Europe and British isles only with the Yamnaya inversion/migration. This hypothesis is not going to sit with them well. I do think proto Indo European is more ancient than Bronze Age due to the lack of common words in Indo European languages for metals such as copper, gold, bronze, etc. I look forward to reading the papers - particularly the one from 2021 in comments.

[vicentepintadoiborra]

I believe the Proto-Celtic language developed on the Atlantic coast of Iberia.
Even professor Dr. John T Koch explains how the first Celts migrated eastward into Europe
from the Atlantic coast.

[lwj]

It has been noticed that modern Celtic languages are grammatical similar to Semitic languages. Any thoughts?

[Myguyver]

the majority of the Spanish paternal lineage is from haplogroup R1b - DF23, it is the father haplogroup to the Irish m222 which is niall of the 9 hostages.

[adrianjones]

I’ve always viewed ‘the coming of he Celts as English propaganda. But there’s no doubt that Gaulish and Cymraeg were very similar languages, which again would suggest that our language was widespread across Europe as a trading language. Also Halensbugh in Germany was the centre of the salt trade and Halen is of course Cymraeg for salt! Great videos by the way👍

[serviustullus]

The Urnfield-La Tene Culture was an adoption of fashion trends and aristocratic families from Central European Alpine mining regions back into a already Celtic Bronze Age Western-Atlantic Society that had earlier spread the Celtic language from the Northeast Atlantic to the Alps at the beginning of the Early Bronze Age, circa 2300 bce.

[kevingriffin]

I haven't read "Celtic from the West." Is Cunliffe's theory of Celtic in the British Isles as a lingua franca based on the remaining Celtic dialects being Indo-European languages but having a possibly Semitic VSO structure?

Of course, there had to have been an existing Indo-European language that blended with Semitic. We might as well call that language proto-Celtic too.

Anyhow, whatever caused British Isles' Celtic to be VSO, it is likely to have occurred on the Continent then crossed the English Channel to Britain in two separate waves - the first wave bringing Q-Celtic and the second bringing P-Celtic.

[josephmichael]

Celtic in Iberia is said to be the most archaic Celtic language we would like to learn more about that please and thank

[omikhlephonon]

Very interesting topic!
Still not sure if this guys yells at me or it's the accent

[peterdixon]

Is there any chance of a video on accents? I am prompted to ask after watching a 1965 (I think) Irish TV interview of a 100-year-old (southern) Irish bloke (born circa 1865), and you can very clearly hear the residual Danish intonation. I once discovered a 500-page book in the library on Ulster/North of Ireland accents, phonetics, etc. but wimped out of reading it and crept out of the library with something else.

[GalaicoWarrior]

Celts from the West, by John Koch and Barry Cunliffe is the most recent study on the origin of Proto-Celtic.

[waynemcauliffe]

Cheers.Do you reckon the Irish had Druids?

[EasternRomeOrthodoxy]

You Gallic/Celtic peoples are the descendants of the Cimmerian (Gomer) race called Riphat, a brother sub-race of the Cimmerian Scythians called Ashkenaz - ancestor of Finnic-Baltic-Uralic peoples

[feral]

I'd say it originating in the west makes more sense as you said a trade language sounds realistic.

[nathanaelpereira]

France has the most diversified and deep chronological toponyms and ethnonyms. It's the probable origin. Plus, the Eastern Hispano-Celtic is very old and has "Uta" a very old conjunctive, present in Indo-Aryan languages... or eastern Spain or France.

West spain is out of cogitation, 'cause lacks variety and chronological deepness. Britain is an island, then no (maybe the south Britain .. who knows...)

[sonofhunnewell]

I’ve followed you from the start. You keep getting better and better. If you want to understand and to dig deeper into origins, follow the DNA 🧬