Celtic languages in Britain and Ireland may have a different early history

Today’s Irish, Scottish Gaelic, Manx, Welsh, Cornish and Breton come from older Celtic languages once spoken across Britain and Ireland. New finds — ancient inscriptions, place names and DNA studies — are giving scholars fresh clues about how those languages arrived and spread.

The Celtic languages spoken today grew from older languages once used across Britain and Ireland. Very little writing survives from before the Roman period, so most of what we have are short clues. Some island place names were noted by early travellers. Later, Latin sources from Roman Britain preserve a few Celtic names and a handful of inscriptions. Ireland’s earliest written records use Ogham and appear later, after contact with Britain. What scholars are looking at: - The six modern Celtic languages: Irish, Scottish Gaelic, Manx, Welsh, Cornish and Breton. - A few ancient place names recorded by travellers such as Pytheas (around 325 BC). - Roman‑period Latin texts with Celtic place and ethnic names, and a small number of Celtic inscriptions. - Ogham inscriptions from early medieval Ireland and records of Ogham in western Britain. - New ancient DNA studies showing migrations from areas now in France in the late Bronze Age and Iron Age. Summary: Researchers are combining all surviving fragments to better understand how Celtic languages spread across the islands. Ongoing work, including a project to compile an early insular Celtic dictionary at Aberystwyth University, aims to bring these clues together. This may help clarify how the languages are related and how they reached Britain and Ireland.