Routledge Language Family Series: The Celtic Languages

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This comprehensive volume examines the Celtic languages from historical, structural, and sociolinguistic perspectives, featuring chapters on Irish, Scottish Gaelic, Manx, Welsh, Breton, and Cornish. The thoroughly revised second edition provides an up-to-date account of modern Celtic languages and their sociolinguistic status, alongside detailed descriptions of historical languages. It is organized into four parts: the first part covers typological aspects and the historical emergence of these languages, including sections on Continental Celtic, Old and Middle Irish, and Old and Middle Welsh. Parts two and three focus on linguistic descriptions of contemporary languages, with part two addressing Irish, Scots Gaelic, and Manx, while part three discusses Welsh, Breton, and Cornish. The final part explores the sociolinguistic situations of the four contemporary Celtic languages and includes a chapter on the status of the revived languages, Cornish and Manx. With contributions from esteemed scholars, this work serves as an invaluable resource for students and educators interested in linguistics, typology, language universals, and the unique sociolinguistic context of Celtic languages. The authors, Dr. Martin J. Ball and Dr. Nicole Muller, are both highly regarded professors at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, with numerous academic publications to their names.