Located in the Western European and North Atlantic Ocean regions, the Celtic nations preserve the languages and cultures of the Celtic peoples. There are many different Celtic languages, yet they are all derived from Proto-Celtic, which is the common ancestor of all.
Celtic languages were prevalent across Europe and Asia Minor during the first millennium BC. Today, the Celtic languages are spoken by a small group of people in northwest Europe and a few others across the globe.
Breton is one of the four extant Celtic languages in existence today. Neither Cornish nor the Manx is extant anymore. Despite their widespread use, all four languages are rare in their native nations. Celtic languages are all endangered except for Welsh, which is the only one that is not.
The “Celtic fringe” refers to the six areas recognized as Celtic countries. Celtic languages are spoken in different countries.
To begin with, there’s Wales, a peninsula jutting out from the southwest corner of the United Kingdom. In Wales or Cymru, the official languages are Welsh and English. Welsh is spoken by 562,000 people in Wales (19%).
Second, only to Scotland, Ireland is a Celtic nation where the language of Gaelic, or Irish, is spoken alongside English. The Celtic word for Ireland is Éire. Almost 2 million Irish speakers are found in the United Kingdom, while another 18,000 are found in the United States.
Goidelic Celtic languages include Irish. The Republic of Ireland has 4.8 million residents, whereas Northern Ireland has 1.8 million (Northern Ireland).
It is the third Celtic nation known as Alba, or Scotland, in Celtic. The country of Scotland is located in the upper portion of the British Isles. 5.43 million people call Scotland home, with 92,400 of them speaking Scottish Gaelic as their first language.
Gaelic languages like Scottish Gaelic and Irish belong to the Goidelic branch of Celtic languages.
Brittany is France’s fourth Celtic region, although it is not a sovereign state in and of itself. Brittany, on the other hand, is a French province. With a population of 4.475 million, Brittany has a native Breton-speaking population of 206,000.
Lesser Britain, Lesser Britain, or Little Britain are some of the other names given to the region of Brittany, which is also known as Breizh in its Celtic language.
In Celtic, Cornwall is known as “Kernow” or “Cornwall.” Location: Cornwall is an island situated off the coast of England in the southwest. Cornish is a Celtic language, although there are no native speakers left today.
More than 3,000 individuals are fluent in the language because of revival initiatives. There are three Brittonic Celtic languages: Welsh and Breton. Cornish is the third.
England and Ireland share an island with the Isle of Man, a sixth Celtic nation-state in the Irish Sea. While Irish and Scottish are two other Goidelic Celtic languages that have gone extinct, Manx is the third, having become extinct along with Cornish.
It is believed that there are 100 native speakers and 1,800 individuals who are proficient in the language because of revival attempts.
| Country | 2022 Population |
|---|---|
| Isle of Man | 85.7320 |
| Ireland | 5020.1990 |
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