This book is a study of the print cultures of the four principal Celtic languages — Irish, Welsh, Gaelic and Breton — in the crucial period between 1700 and 1900. Over the past four centuries, the Celtic languages of northwest Europe have followed contrasting paths of maintenance and decline. This was despite their common lack of official recognition and use, and their common distance from the centres of political power. This volume analyses publishing, circulation and reading in the four languages, particularly at a popular level, showing the different levels of overall activity as well as the distinctions in the types of printed texts between regions. The approach is a broad one, considering all printed books down to very small cheap formats. It explores the interactions between the different regions and the continuation of print culture within diasporic communities. This volume will appeal to book historians, to scholars of the four languages and their literature, and to students of Celtic studies.

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.

Leading researchers examine the Celtic languages in comparative perspective, making reference to European and Arabic languages; they use the insights of principles-and-parameters theory. A substantial introduction makes the volume accessible to theoreticians unfamiliar with the Celtic languages and to specialists. The book makes a strong contribution to linguistic theory and to our understanding of the Celtic languages.

This comprehensive volume describes in depth all the Celtic languages from historical, structural and sociolinguistic perspectives, with individual chapters on Irish, Scottish, Gaelic, Manx, Welsh, Breton and Cornish. Organized for ease of reference, The Celtic Languages is arranged in four parts. The first, Historical Aspects, covers the origin and history of the Celtic languages, their spread and retreat, present-day distribution and a sketch of the extant and recently extant languages. Parts II and III describe the structural detail of each language, including phonology, mutation, morphology, syntax, dialectology and lexis. The final part provides wide-ranging sociolinguistic detail, such as areas of usage (in government, church, media, education, business), maintenance (institutional support offered), and prospects for survival (examination of demographic changes and how they affect these languages). Special Features: * Presents the first modern, comprehensive linguistic description of this important language family * Provides a full discussion of the likely progress of Irish, Welsh and Breton * Includes the most recent research on newly discovered Continental Celtic inscriptions

This study of linguistic and cultural conflict in Wales, Scotland and Ireland shows how their forms of Gaelic retreated before the advance of the English language in the British Isles from the Reformation to the 20th century.