The Welsh Language Indo-European was spoken about 6000 years ago (4000 BC) by a
seminomadic people who lived in the steppe region of Southern Russia.
Speakers of the languages migrated eastwards and westwards; they had
reached the Danube valley by 3500 BC and India by 2000 BC. The
dialects of Indo-European became much differentiated, chiefly because
of migration, and evolved into separate languages. So great was the
variety among them that it was not until 1786 that the idea was put
forward that a Family of Indo-European languages actually exists. In
the twentieth century Indo-European languages are spoken in a wide arc
from Bengal to Portugal, as well as in countries as distant as New
Zealand and Canada, to which they have been carried by more recent
emigrants. The Indo-European Family is generally considered to consist
of nine different brunches, which in turn gave rise to daughter
languages. Welsh evolved from the Celtic brunch, as did its sister
languages - Breton, Cornish, Cumbric, Irish, Scots Gaelic and Manx. Cornish was a language of people who lived in Britain in the Cornwall
inlet and died out towards the end of the eighteenth century. Dorothy
Pentreath, who died in 1777, is usually considered to be the last
native speaker of Cornish. Manx was spread on the Isle of Man in the
Irish Sea, survived until well into the second half of the present
century and the last native speaker died at the age of 97 in 1974.
Other languages are still alive and a lot of people talks on them. But
nevertheless all this languages developed from the Celtic language and
the people who used this language were the Celts. The Celts is a group of people who were classified as such by
communities who belonged to a separate cultural (and literate)
tradition. Celtic area is considered to be the north of Alps and
beyond the Mediterranean. It was observers from mediterranean lands of
Greece and Rome who called their neighbours Celts. But today
scientists ask the question who the Celts really are. The problem of
defining what is meant by the terms "Celt" and "Celtic" centres around
the relationship, if any, between material culture, ethnicity and
language. Judging by archaeology, documentary sources and linguistic
material the scientists came to the conclusion that by the last few
centuries BC, Celtic territory stretched from Ireland to eastern
Europe and beyond, to Galatia (see map). The Celts were technically
advanced. They knew how to work with iron, and could make better
weapons than the people who used bronze. Early linguistic evidence for the Celts is extremely rare because
northern Europe was non-literate during most of the first millennium
BC. When writing was adopted in the Celtic world in the late first
millennium it appeared almost entirely in Greek and Latin. Early
Celtic evidence consists of inscriptions, coin legends and the names
of people and places contained within classical documents. Now I would like to tell about the Brittonic brunch of Celtic
languages, which was spread over the territory of Britain. Because of
our knowledge of the Celts is slight, we do not even know for certain
how Britain became Celtic. Some scholars think that the Celts invaded
Britain, another - that they came peacefully, as a result of the
lively trade with Europe about 750 BC on wards. But we know for
certain that the language introduced into Britain was similar to that
spoken in Gaul (the territory of Celts in Central Europe); indeed, the
Celtic speech of Gaul and Britain at the dawn of the historic era can
be considered as one language, frequently, referred to as
Gallo-Britonic. Three successor languages of Brittonic evolved:
Cumbric in southern Scotland and north-west England, Welsh in Wales
and Сornish in south-west Britain. The speakers of all three of them
were known by their Anglo-Saxon neighbours as Wealas, or Welsh. The
word is usually considered to mean foreigner, but it can also mean
people who have been Romanized. To describe themselves, the Welsh and
the Cumbric speakers adopted the name Cymry and called their language
Cymraeg. Cymry comes from the Brittonic combrogi (fellow countryman)
and its adoption marks a deepening sense of identity. You see that almost all words are similar to each other, that'’s why
they were united in one brunch. The Welsh language has survived everythingl. Since the act of union in 1536
when it was virtually banned, it has been subjected to direct and
indirect bombardment which should have demolished it once and for all.
It has been neglected and discouraged for over four hundred years yet
it is still very much alive. Today it is tolerated by many, rejected
by many. It is used by a large number of people as a natural means of
communication. Now the scholars discussed the problem of the position of the Wales
language. It could be claimed that its position is precisely in the
centre, a point emphasised by Tom Nail in his analysis of the
non-state nationalities of Europe. Although the Welsh-speakers are by
no means among the larger groups, Welsh has a far higher status than
several of the more widely spoken languages. Although the density
factor if fairly low, Welsh-speakers live in a country, the other
inhabitants of which recognise their kinship with the language, a
bonus of immerse importance. The centrality of Welsh is interesting in
itself. It may also be important, for if Welsh can solve its problems,
other languages can hope to do so too The article was produced by the member of masterpapers.com.
Sharon White is a senior writer and writers consultant at term papers. Get some useful tips for thesis and buy term papers.
BACK to Celtic Traditions
By Sharon White
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