Celtic nations

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Celtic nations is a term used to describe territories in North-West Europe in which that area's own Celtic languages and cultural traits have largely survived. The term "nation" is used in this context to mean a group of people associated with a territory and who share a common identity, language or culture. It is not synonymous with "sovereign state" or "country".

The six territories recognised as Celtic nations are Brittany (Breizh), Cornwall (Kernow), Ireland (Éire), Isle of Man (Mannin), Scotland (Alba), and Wales (Cymru).^[1][2] Limitation to these six is sometimes disputed by people from Asturias and Galicia.^[3][4][5] Until the expansions of the Roman Republic and Germanic tribes, a large part of Europe was mainly Celtic.^[6]

Contents 1 Terminology 2 Linguistics 3 Other claims 3.1 Iberian Peninsula 3.2 England 3.3 Formerly Gaulish regions 3.4 Central European regions 3.5 Outside Europe 4 See also 5 References 5.1 Further reading 6 External links

[edit] Terminology

These areas of Europe are sometimes referred to as the "Celt belt"^[7] or "Celtic fringe"^[8] because of their location generally on the western edges of the continent, and of the nations they inhabit (e.g. Brittany is in the northwest of France, Cornwall is in the south west of England, Wales to the west of England and the Gaelic-speaking parts of Ireland and Scotland are in the west of those countries). Additionally, this region is known as the "Celtic Crescent"^[9] because of the near crescent shaped position of the nations in Europe.

Some claim^{[citation needed]} that "Celtic nations" is a concept of outsider political-pressure groups, specifically groups such as the Celtic League and Celtic Congress, which assert what has been described as Pan-Celticism.^[10] Members of such pressure groups assert that there are a distinct, cultural set of "Celtic nations" in modern northwest Europe.^[10] Some of these people speak Celtic languages or express a cultural identity to Celticity. The terminology has no official recognition or standing within major political parties or legal institutions.

[edit] Linguistics

Each of the six nations has its own living Celtic language. This is why they are deemed "Celtic nations" by groups like the Celtic League and Celtic Congress. However, it should be noted that the vast majority of people within these areas speak English or French (in Brittany).

Scotland, Ireland, Wales and Brittany contain areas where a Celtic language is used on a daily basis — in Scotland it is called the Gàidhealtachd, in Ireland the Gaeltacht, in Wales Y Fro Gymraeg and in Brittany Breizh-Izel.^[11] Generally these communities are in the west of their countries and in upland or island areas. Additionally, as much as 20% of school children in Wales go to Welsh medium schools and 7.4% of primary school education in the Republic of Ireland is through Irish medium education.

Nation	Celtic name	Language	People	Population	Native-competent speakers	Percentage of population
Ireland	Éire	Irish (Gaeilge)	Irish (Éireannaigh)	6,000,000	Republic: 355,000 (native) 1,660,000 (competent)[12] Northern: 10.4% (see note [13])	Republic: 42%[12] Northern: 10.4% (see note [13])
Wales	Cymru	Welsh (Cymraeg)	Welsh (Cymry)	3,000,000	611,000[14]	20.8%[15]
Brittany	Breizh	Breton (Brezhoneg)	Bretons (Breizhiz)	4,000,000	200,000[16]	3%[17]
Mann	Ellan Vannin	Manx (Gaelg)	Manx (Manninee)	70,000	1,700[18]	2.2%[19]
Scotland	Alba	Scottish Gaelic (Gàidhlig)	Scots (Albannaich)	5,000,000	92,400[20]	1.2%[21]
Cornwall	Kernow	Cornish (Kernewek)	Cornish (Kernowyon)	500,000	300 – 1,000[22]	0.1%[23][24]

Of the languages above, three belong to the Goidelic or Gaelic branch (Irish, Manx, Scottish Gaelic) and three to the Brythonic or Brittonic branch (Welsh, Cornish, Breton). Their names for each other in each language shows some of the differences and similarities:

	Ireland	Scotland	Mann	Wales	Cornwall	Brittany	Great Britain	Celtic nations Celtic languages
Irish (Gaeilge)[25]	Éire	Albain	Manainn	an Bhreatain Bheag	an Chorn	an Bhriotáin	an Bhreatain Mhór	Náisiúin Cheilteacha Teangacha Ceilteacha
Scottish (Gàidhlig)	Èirinn	Alba	Manainn	a' Chuimrigh	a' Chòrn	a' Bhreatainn Bheag	Breatainn Mhòr	Nàiseanan Ceilteach Cànain Cheilteach
Manx (Gaelg)	Nerin	Nalbin	Mannin	Bretyn	y Chorn	y Vritaan	Bretyn Vooar	Ashoonyn Celtiagh Çhengaghyn Celtiagh
Welsh (Cymraeg)	Iwerddon	yr Alban	Manaw	Cymru	Cernyw	Llydaw	Prydain Fawr	Gwledydd Celtaidd Ieithoedd Celtaidd
Cornish (Kernewek)	Iwerdhon	Alban	Manow	Kembra	Kernow	Breten Vian	Breten Veur	Gwlasow Keltek Yethow Keltek
Breton (Brezhoneg)	Iwerzhon	Alban/Skos	Manav	Kembre	Kernev	Breizh	Breizh Veur	Broioù Keltiek Yezhoù Keltiek

[edit] Other claims

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At one point, most countries of Western and Central Europe were mainly Celtic – in terms of language and culture. Today, their Celtic languages have died out and their Celtic cultural traits have mostly (though not wholly) vanished. Since they no longer have a living Celtic language, they are not included as 'Celtic nations'. Nonetheless, some of these countries have 'Celtic' movements who wish their country to be included based on historical grounds. This has caused some controversy.

Due to immigration, a dialect of Scottish Gaelic (Canadian Gaelic) is spoken by some on Cape Breton Island in Nova Scotia, while a Welsh-speaking minority exists in the Chubut Province of Argentina. The Galician language and Asturian language also contain many words of Celtic origin.

Hence, for certain purposes, such as the Festival Interceltique de Lorient– Galicia, Asturias and Cape Breton Island in Nova Scotia are considered three of the nine Celtic nations.^[5]

[edit] Iberian Peninsula

The north-western part of the Iberian Peninsula was an area particulary influenced by Celtic culture. In particular this includes the regions of Galicia, Asturias, Cantabria and León, all in Spain, and also Northern Portugal (and to a somewhat lesser extent Central Portugal).

Until the end of the 19th century, traditional scholarship dealing with the Celts acknowledged the celts of the Iberian Peninsula ^[26][27] as a material culture relatable to the Hallstatt and La Tène cultures. Since according to the definition of the Iron Age in the 19th century Celtic populations were rare in Iberia and did not provide a cultural scenario that could easily be linked to that of Central Europe. Three divisions of the Celts of the Iberian Peninsula were assumed to have existed: the Celtiberians in the mountains near the center of the peninsula, the Celtici in the southwest, and the celts in the northwest.^[28]

Modern scholarship, however, has clearly proven that Celtic presence and influences were most substantial in Iberia (with perhaps the highest settlement saturation in Western Europe), particularly in the western and northern regions. The Celts in Iberia were divided into two main archaeological and cultural groups,^[29] even though that division is not very clear:

• One group was spread out along Galicia^[30] and the Iberian Atlantic shores. They were made up of the Lusitanians (in Portugal)^[31] and the Celtic region that Strabo called Celtica in the southwestern Iberian peninsula,^[32] including the Algarve, which was inhabited by the Celtici, the Vettones and Vacceani peoples^[33] (of central-western Spain and Portugal), and the Gallaecian, Astures and Cantabrian peoples of the Castro culture of northern and northwestern Spain and Portugal.^[34]
• The Celtiberian group of central Spain and the upper Ebro valley.^[35] This group originated when Celts (mainly Gauls and some Celtic-Germanic groups) migrated from what is now France and integrated with the local Iberian people.

The origins of the Celtiberians might provide a key to understanding the Celticization process in the rest of the Peninsula. The process of celticization of the southwestern area of the peninsula by the Keltoi and of the northwestern area is, however, not a simple celtiberian question. Recent investigations about the Callaici^[36] and Bracari^[37] in northwestern Portugal are providing new approaches to understanding Celtic culture (language, art and religion) in western Iberia.^[38]

[edit] England

In Celtic languages, England is usually referred to as "Saxon-land" (Sasana, Pow Saws, Bro-Saoz etc), and in Welsh as Lloegr (though the Welsh translation of English (language) also refers to the Saxon route: Saesneg, with the English people being referred to as "Saeson", or "Saes" in the singular). This is because the Celtic peoples of what is now England succumbed to the invading Saxons and were either driven out of their lands, killed or assimilated into the culture of Englalond. However, spoken Cumbric survived until the 12th century, Cornish until the 18th century, and Welsh within the Welsh Marches, notably in Archenfield, now part of Herefordshire, until around the same time. Both Cumbria and Cornwall were traditionally Brythonic in culture and are considered so by many in England; Anglo-Saxon settlement in these areas was historically small. Cornwall existed as an independent state for some time after the foundation of England, and Cumbria originally retained a great deal of autonomy within the Kingdom of Northumbria. The unification of the Anglian kingdom of Northumbria with the Cumbric kingdom of Cumbria came about due to a political marriage between the Northumbrian King Oswiu and Queen Riemmelth. Though the Anglian settlement in Cumbria was as a whole minor, they settled in the Eden valley and along the north and south coasts. The placename Inglewood attests to the Anglian presence, even if it is, by and large, minor.

Movements of population between different parts of Great Britain over the last two centuries, with industrial development and changes in living patterns such as the growth of second home ownership, have greatly modified the demographics of these areas, including the Isles of Scilly off the coast of Cornwall, although Cornwall in particular retains unique cultural features, and a Cornish self-government movement is well established.

Remnants of Brythonic and Cumbric placenames are sometimes seen throughout spots in England but are more common in the West than the East, mainly in the traditionally Celtic areas of Cornwall and Cumbria. Elements such as caer 'fort' as in the Cumbrian city of Carlisle, pen 'hill' as in the Cumvrian town of Penrith and craig 'crag, rock' as in High Crag. The name 'Cumbria' is derived from the same root as Cymru, the Welsh name for Wales, meaning 'the land of comrades'. There is a current attempt to revive Cumbric and about 50 words of a reconstructed, hypothetical "Cumbric" exist.

English Celtic romanticism has tended to relate to the identity of Britain and its role in the world. Henry Purcell's opera King Arthur for example refers back to the British mythology-inspired literature of the Anglo-Normans and to a lesser extent the Welsh writers. Victorian romanticism concentrated again on King Arthur, Celtic fairytales - though Germanic foklore was often grouped with them - and also Boudicca, whose statue stands outside the Palace of Westminster. The inscription on the base is a direct reference to Empire: "Regions Caesar never knew, Thy posterity shall sway" and was commissioned by Prince Albert. Modern romanticism has focused more on music, mythology, the Druids, borrowed Celtic traditions such as the Irish HalloweenSamhain - conflated with existing English traditions - and dialects or language.

Celtic romanticism sometimes includes new age elements associated with ancient sites such as Avebury and Stonehenge, although Stonehenge was never used by the Celts in religious rituals and rarely used by them at all,^[39] as Stuart Pigott points out, stating that "...should be stressed that there is no evidence for Celtic religious observances having been associated with Stonehenge, nor with any similar monument of the second millennium B.C." ^[40]. Anglo-Saxons were known to use the site, however, and the poem 'The Ruin' from the Exeter Book may be about the site. A man during the Anglo-Saxon era was ritualistically beheaded and buried at Stonehenge.^[41] This may have had religious significance^[42][43]

[edit] Formerly Gaulish regions

Many of the French people themselves identify actively with the Gauls.

The French- and Arpitan-speaking Aosta Valley region in Italy also presents a casual claim of Celtic heritage. The Northern League autonomist party often exalts what it claims are the Celtic roots of the entire Northern Italy, or Padania. Reportedly, Friuli also has an ephemeral claim to celticity.

Walloons are sometimes characterised as "Celts", mainly opposed to "Teutonic" Flemish and "Latin" French identities; the ethnonym "Walloon" derives from a Germanic word meaning "foreign", cognate with the words "Welsh" and "Vlach". The name of Belgium, home country of the Walloon people, is cognate with the Celtic tribal names Belgae and (possibly) the Irish legendary Fir Bolg.

[edit] Central European regions

Celtic tribes inhabited land in what is now southern Germany and Austria.^[44] Many scholars have associated the earliest Celtic peoples with the Hallstatt culture.^[45] Boii, Scordisci^[46] and the Vindelici^[47] are some of the tribes that inhabited Central Europe, including what is now Slovakia, Serbia, Croatia, Poland and the Czech Republic as well as Germany and Austria. The Boii gave their name to Bohemia.^[48] Celts also founded Singidunum present-day Belgrade, leaving many words in Serbian language (over 5000). The La Tène culture also covered much of central Europe. The name of the culture is from the location in Switzerland.^[49]

[edit] Outside Europe

In other regions, people with a heritage from one of the 'Celtic Nations' also associate with the Celtic identity. In these areas, Celtic traditions and languages are significant components of local culture. These include the Permanent North American Gaeltacht in Tamworth, Ontario, Canada which is the only Irish Gaeltacht outside of Ireland, the Chubut valley of Patagonia with Welsh-speaking Argentinians (known as "Y Wladfa"), Cape Breton Island in Nova Scotia, with Gaelic-speaking Canadians and southeast Newfoundland with Irish-speaking Canadians. Also at one point in 1900's there were well over 12,000 Gaelic Scots from the Isle of Lewis living in the Eastern Townships of Quebec, Canada, with place names that still exist today recalling those inhabitants.

Large swathes of the United States of America were subject to migration from Celtic peoples, or people from Celtic nations. Irish-speaking Irish Catholics congregated particularly in the East Coast cities of New York, Boston, and Philadelphia, while Scots and Ulster-Scots were particularly prominent in the Southern United States, including Appalachia.

An area of Pennsylvania known as the Welsh Tract was settled by Welsh Quakers, where the names of several towns still bear Welsh names, such as Bryn Mawr and Bala Cynwyd.

In his autobiography, the South African poet Roy Campbell recalled his youth in the Dargle Valley, near the city of Pietermaritzburg, where people spoke only Gaelic and Zulu.

In New Zealand the southern regions of Otago and Southland were settled by the Free Church of Scotland. Many of the place names in these two regions (such as the main cities of Dunedin and Invercargill and the major river, the Clutha) have Scottish Gaelic names,^[50] and Celtic culture is still prominent in this area.^[51][52][53]

In addition to these, a number of people from the USA, Australia, South Africa and other parts of the former British Empire have formed various Celtic societies over the years.

[edit] See also

[edit] References

[edit] Further reading

• National Geographic, "The Celtic Realm". March, 2006.

[edit] External links

• Celtic League
• Celtic League International
• Celtic League - American Branch
• The Celtic Realm
• Celtic-World.Net, - Various information on Celtic culture and music
• National Geographic Map: The Celtic RealmPDF (306 KB)
• The Celtic Nations
• Simon James Ancient Celts Page
• an article on Celtic Realms by Jim Gilchrist of The Scotsman
• The Celtic Nations Association

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