Irish and Gaelic Irish? Plus other quesitons!

[Morris at Heathfield]

The term "Irish" (or "Erse") was once used to refer to all speakers of a Gaelic language. No sarcasm was intended, as far as I know, although one may argue over the appropriateness of the term as applied to the Scottish Highlanders. During most of the High Middle Ages the Lowlanders called their own language "Inglis". Toward the end of the Middle Ages they took to calling their language "Scots" to distinguish it from the English spoken south of the border. (The other manner of distinguishing the two was by referring to the English of England as "Southron".) I believe this was when they started referring to their Highland countrymen and their language as "Irish", whereas before they had been "Scots". This change tracked the increasing importance of Scots (Inglis) as the language of towns, trade, and the Scottish court.

Regarding the place of the Gaelic/Goidelic languages in the Celtic branch of the Indo-European language family, the Wikipedia article on the subject, as it currently stands, is not bad. Rather briefly (heh), there are two major views on the grouping of the Celtic languages.

The older grouping divided the languages into "P-Celtic" and "Q-Celtic", with "Q-Celtic" comprising the Goidelic and Celtiberian languages, and "P-Celtic" comprising the Brythonic and Gaulish languages. The major difference between the two groups is how they handle the proto-Celtic *kʷ sound. For example, proto-Celtic *kʷenno- became cenn in Old Irish (a Q-Celtic language) and pen in Welsh (a P-Celtic language).

The more recent grouping divides the languages into Continental and Insular Celtic groups, with the Goidelic and Brythonic languages comprising the Insular group, and the Celtiberian and Gaulish languages comprising the Continental group. In this grouping the importance of the *kʷ to p and related sound changes are given less importance than certain features which are shared by those Celtic languages spoken on the British Isles.

Either way it happened, there ended up being four important historical sub-groups of the Celtic language branch: Gaulish, Celtiberian, Brythonic, and Goidelic. All modern Celtic languages are either in the Brythonic or the Goidelic sub-group.

The Gaulish languages include Gaulish, spoken over a somewhat larger region than what is modern France; Lepontic, spoken in parts of what is now Switzerland, Austria, Germany, and northern Italy; Noric, spoken in parts of what is now Austria and Slovenia; and Galatian, spoken in what is now central Turkey.

The Celtiberian languages include Celtiberian, spoken in what is now northeastern Spain; and Gallaecian, or Gallaic, spoken in what is now northwestern Spain. Lusitanian, spoken in what is now northern Portugal, is believed by some to be a Celtic language and by others to be a more distantly-related Indo-European language.

The Brythonic languages include Welsh; Cumbric, spoken in what is now northern England and Southern Scotland; Cornish, spoken in Cornwall; and Breton, spoken in Brittany, in northwestern France. Note that the Bretons came from Great Britain and, at the time they arrived in France, Gaulish was no longer spoken, the common language being Vulgar Latin. Also note that Welsh, Cumbric, Cornish, and Breton all descend from Brythonic, or British, which was once spoken over all of Great Britain south of the Firth of Forth. Pictish, spoken in what is now Scotland north of the Firth of Forth, is believed by some to be a Brythonic language and by others to be its own Celtic sub-group. Some scholars have hypothesized that Pictish was not a Celtic language, or even not an Indo-European language, but those views are not current. However, Pictish does seem to have picked up some non-Indo-European influences.

The Goidelic languages include Irish, formerly spoken over all of Ireland; Scottish Gaelic, at one time (ca. AD 1000) spoken over all but the southeastern corner of Scotland; and Manx, spoken on the Isle of Man.

Of the above languages, the only that have survived down to the present are Welsh, Breton, Irish, and Scottish Gaelic. Cornish and Manx became extinct or near-extinct, and only survive now due to language revival efforts. The other four Celtic languages are all endangered to some degree.