An Introduction to the Celtic Languages

by Paul Russell

This text provides a single-volume, single-author general introduction to the Celtic languages.

The first half of the book considers the historical background of the language group as a whole. There follows a discussion of the two main sub-groups of Celtic, Goidelic (comprising Irish, Scottish, Gaelic and Manx) and Brittonic (Welsh, Cornish and Breton) together with a detailed survey of one representative from each group, Irish and Welsh.

The second half considers a range of linguistic features which are often regarded as characteristic of Celtic: spelling systems, mutations, verbal nouns and word order.

Genres: Language, Linguistics

366 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1995

About the author

Paul Russell is Reader in Celtic in the Department of Anglo-Saxon, Norse and Celtic in Cambridge.

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.

Reviews

[Terence Gallagher · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an impressive work, but a bit difficult to follow for those who aren't trained in linguistics (like your reviewer.) Knowing something about one of the Celtic languages is an enormous help. Russell starts with a general history of the Celtic languages, then examines Goidelic and Brittonic separately using Irish and Welsh as examples. The last section examines particular topics (e.g. lenition, word order) common to both branches. It's interesting to see how what is important to the professional linguist is not necessarily what strikes the amateur learner. This would, I think, benefit from a short section reviewing linguistic terminology and symbols for those of us who aren't pros. Still, this is well worth having for anyone interested in the "Celtic fringe." I read a Pearson Education Print on Demand edition.