Celtic languages are a group of related languages descended from Proto-Celtic, or “Common Celtic”, a branch of the greater Indo-European language family. Celtic languages are spoken throughout Europe, North America and Australia. There are six Celtic languages still spoken today: Irish, Scottish Gaelic, Manx, Welsh, Cornish and Breton.
The Celtic languages are divided into two branches: the Insular Celtic languages, which are all descended from languages spoken on the islands of Ireland, Britain and Brittany; and the Continental Celtic languages, which are all descended from the Celtic languages of continental Europe. The Insular Celtic languages are further divided into two groups: the Goidelic languages, which include Irish, Scottish Gaelic and Manx; and the Brittonic languages, which include Welsh, Cornish and Breton.
The Continental Celtic languages are divided into two groups: the Gaulish languages, which were spoken in Gaul (modern-day France, Belgium, Switzerland, Luxembourg and parts of Germany, Italy and Spain); and the Celtiberian languages, which were spoken in the Iberian Peninsula (modern-day Portugal, Spain and Andorra).
The Celtic languages are all Indo-European languages, and as such, are related to other languages such as English, Spanish, French, German, Russian and Hindi. However, the Celtic languages are unique in that they are the only branch of the Indo-European family that is not descended from Proto-Indo-European, the reconstructed common ancestor of all Indo-European languages.
The Celtic languages are believed to have arisen from a common Celtic language spoken by the Celtic people, a group of Indo-European peoples who inhabited Europe during the Iron Age. The Celtic people were divided into several tribal groups, the main ones being the Gauls, the Britons, the Irish and the Picts. The Celtic languages were originally spoken by these tribal groups, but they gradually spread to other parts of Europe as the Celtic people migrated and settled in new areas.
The Celtic languages are thought to have reached their peak in the 1st century BC, when they were spoken by all the Celtic peoples of Europe. However, from the 1st century AD onwards, the use of Celtic languages began to decline as the Roman Empire began to expand into Celtic territory. The Roman Empire imposed Latin as the official language of its provinces, and as Latin became more widely used, the Celtic languages began to die out.
The last Celtic language to disappear was Gaulish, which was spoken in Gaul until the early 8th century AD. By that time, all the Celtic peoples of Europe had been conquered by the Romans or other Germanic peoples, and the Celtic languages were no longer spoken in their native lands.
Today, the Celtic languages are enjoying something of a renaissance, as more and more people are learning to speak them. This revival is most evident in Ireland, where Irish is the first language of a majority of the population, and is also an official language of the Republic of Ireland. In Wales, the Welsh language is also enjoying a resurgence, with a growing number of people learning to speak it.