The Celtic Languages

Cambridge Language Surveys

by Donald MacAulay (Editor)

Six modern Celtic languages are described in this volume. Four of these, Modern Irish, Scottish Gaelic, Welsh and Breton, are living community languages. The other two, Manx and Cornish, survived into the modern period, but are no longer extant as community languages, though they are the subject of enthusiastic revivals. The Celtic Languages sets them briefly in their Indo-European context, and states their general relationships within the broader Celtic language family. Individual linguistic studies are first placed in their sociolinguistic and sociohistorical context. A detailed synchronic account of each language then follows, including syntax, morphology, phonology, morphophonology, dialect variation and distribution. Each description is based on a common plan, thus facilitating comparison among the different languages. This latest volume in the Cambridge Language Surveys will be welcomed by all scholars of the Celtic languages, but has also been designed to be accessible to any reader with only a basic knowledge of linguistics.

Genres: Language, Linguistics

488 pages, Paperback

First published February 11, 1993

Reviews

[Volsung]

Excellent and informative survey of the modern-day Celtic languages: individual chapters are devoted to Irish Gaelic, Scottish Gaelic, Manx, Welsh, Breton and Cornish, all with an introduction briefly covering each language's history, present-day realms of usage and sociolinguistic matters, and synchronic dialect variation; followed by extensive commentary and overview on syntax, morphology and phonology for each language. This book is excellent as an overview, and has good bibliographic notes for further, in-depth studies of more particular topics.