Speaker A
English is not Britain's only language. Not even close. There are languages that were on these islands long before English moved in, and they're still around today.
Explore Britain's Celtic languages—Irish, Scottish Gaelic, Manx, Welsh, and Cornish—their history, characteristics, and efforts to revive them.
Key Takeaways
- Britain’s Celtic languages are diverse, historically rich, and linguistically unique.
- These languages are endangered but have active communities and revitalization efforts.
- Understanding the linguistic structure, such as verb-based yes/no answers and base-20 counting, is key to learning them.
- Online platforms like Italki make learning Celtic languages accessible and personalized.
- Respectful engagement and learning can help preserve these important cultural heritages.
Summary
- Britain has several Celtic languages that predate English and remain spoken today, including Irish, Scottish Gaelic, Manx, Welsh, and Cornish.
- Celtic languages split into two branches: Goidelic (Irish, Scottish Gaelic, Manx) and Brythonic (Welsh, Cornish, Breton).
- Irish, Scottish Gaelic, and Manx share many similarities but have distinct identities and naming conventions.
- Welsh, Cornish, and Breton are closely related Brythonic languages, with Cornish and Breton being especially similar.
- Celtic languages have unique linguistic features, such as lack of simple yes/no words and vigesimal (base 20) counting systems.
- Most Celtic languages are endangered or vulnerable, with Welsh being the most robust among them.
- Learning these languages can support their preservation, and platforms like Italki offer accessible one-on-one lessons with native speakers.
- The video includes insights from native speakers and language teachers to provide authentic perspectives.
- Celtic languages have influenced English vocabulary and place names, despite historical marginalization.
- The video emphasizes cultural respect and encourages viewers to explore and learn these languages.
Chapters
- 00:00Introduction to Britain's Celtic languages
- 01:12Excluding Scots and language naming complexities
- 02:13Goidelic languages: Irish, Scottish Gaelic, Manx
- 03:30Brythonic languages: Welsh, Cornish, Breton
- 04:34Comparing Celtic languages and mutual intelligibility
- 05:48Learning Celtic languages with Italki
- 07:20Unique linguistic features of Celtic languages
- 08:09Vigesimal counting system in Cornish and Welsh
- 10:03Cultural insights and place names
- 12:35Language revitalization and concluding thoughts
Full Transcript — Download SRT & Markdown
Speaker A
Each and every one of them has characteristics that would blow the average English speaker's mind.
Speaker A
That's a heck of a revelation. Cornish counting is base 20. What? So let's get to know these Celtic languages better, and who knows, maybe even learn a little bit of them, too.
Speaker A
It's time for another RobWords. In this video, we're diving deep into five languages: Scottish Gaelic, spoken in Scotland, the Manx language of the Isle of Man, Welsh from Wales, Cornish from Cornwall, and Irish.
Speaker A
No no no wait wait wait wait. It'd just be dumb. It'd leave a massive Irish elephant in the room.
Speaker A
Plus, Irish is spoken by some people in Northern Ireland, which, at time of recording, is still part of the UK.
Speaker A
To cover my ask further, also conspicuous by its absence from this video, will be the language of Scots, which isn't Celtic.
Speaker A
Now, I don't speak any of the languages we're about to explore. In fact, all of them are considered endangered to some degree by UNESCO, except for Welsh, but even that's marked as vulnerable.
Speaker A
But luckily, I have found speakers of all of them, and Stephen, Marian, Breesha, Kensa, and Arthur are going to guide you and me through.
Speaker A
Now, the first thing to point out is that the Celtic languages that exist today can be split into two, two separate branches of the Celtic language tree, which diverged a few thousand years ago.
Speaker A
First, you've got the Goidelic languages: Irish, Scottish Gaelic, and Manx. Gaelic and Manx both formed as offshoots of Irish way back.
Speaker A
And this trio are the Gaelic languages, and they all call themselves something along the lines of Gaelic.
Speaker A
See? Although the whole naming thing can be a little complicated. In Ireland, you call it Irish, right?
Speaker A
Yeah, I think in Ireland, people often take a little bit of umbrage when it's referred to as Gaelic because they'll point out that's Scottish Gaelic.
Speaker A
But we either call it Irish, if we're saying it in English, or Gaeilge, which is the Irish word for the language.
Speaker A
So you would be very hard-pressed to find an Irish person who would ever refer to it as Gaelic.
Speaker A
I've seen Gaelic referred to as Gaelic, Scots Gaelic, Scottish Gaelic. Which of those are legitimate to use and which maybe aren't?
Speaker A
They're all legitimate, but also, so it's Gaelic. It's the name of the language in English, isn't it?
Speaker A
So, the majority of people I know in Scotland call it Gaelic, but there are folk that also call it Gaelic.
Speaker A
Is it straightforward with Manx? Am I using the right word if I just say Manx?
Speaker A
When you are using the right word. There are lots of different ways. So people will just call it Manx, the Manx language, because it exists.
Speaker A
But some people will call it Manx Gaelic and show its link with the other Gaelic languages.
Speaker A
And then in Manx, we call it "Gailck", "Gaelg", or "Gailk". Depending on the part of the island, you have different pronunciations.
Speaker A
That's the Goidelic branch. But then you have the Brythonic languages. These are Welsh, Cornish, and Breton, which is actually spoken in France.
Speaker A
These languages are Celtic, but they're not Gaelic. They share an ancestral language that was forced into pockets along the west of Britain as the Anglo-Saxons drove the Celtic Britons to the fringes of the island.
Speaker A
Of the three, Cornish and Breton are the most similar to one another? They think that when we split in the sixth century, the Welsh go to Wales, what become the Cornish go to Cornwall, but also the Bretons, and then they then go across the sea to I see.
Speaker A
So they separated from the Cornish later than the Cornish separated from the Welsh. So how different are these languages from one another?
Speaker A
For example, can a Welsh speaker understand Cornish? Cornish, yeah, because it's the same branch as Welsh, but Manx, Gaelic, the other branch.
Speaker A
I mean, I could figure it out written. I could see patterns, but I wouldn't be able to understand it.
Speaker A
Can you understand Manx or Scottish Gaelic? When you sent me those videos of the people speaking Manx and then the Scottish Gaelic speaker.
Speaker A
With the Manx video, "Hello little people, Learn Manx!" I really noticed that the words were almost identical to the Irish words.
Speaker A
They were obviously focused on simple vocab, but it was the exact same. Even the phrase they were using for I would like, I can't remember the exact Manx one...
Speaker A
"By vie lhiam." In Irish it's ba mhaith liom. Scottish Gaelic video, she was obviously a very fluent native-level speaker.
Speaker A
I think she said she grew up speaking the language, so she spoke quickly and with quite a strong accent.
Speaker A
And that wasn't as easy to follow. It wasn't that I was just listening to it the way I would to a native Irish speaker, certainly a native English speaker.
Speaker A
But I was still able to follow a lot of the words, a lot of the grammar.
Speaker A
And I think a really native, strong Irish speaker, because I'm not a native speaker, would probably be able to follow it very, very closely.
Speaker A
There you go. Now, one of the best ways we can support these languages is by learning them.
Speaker A
And I found Gaelic teacher Stephen and Welsh teacher Marian through this video's sponsor, Italki.
Speaker A
Italki is a website and app where you have one-on-one personalised lessons with native speaking teachers, teaching over 150 different languages.
Speaker A
There are over 30,000 teachers to choose from, so you know you're going to find the right one for you.
Speaker A
Pick the language you want to learn, look at the massive list of teachers available to you, and choose one that suits your schedule and your budget.
Speaker A
It took me absolutely no time to find Marian and set up a lesson with her.
Speaker A
You really can do it in just a few clicks. And because the lessons are one-to-one, you can get a tailored learning experience.
Speaker A
Welsh actually has more vowels than English. So we have seven vowels. Wait, where are you getting seven from?
Speaker A
So I'll tell you them in Welsh. [sounding out:] A, E, I, O, U, W, Y.
Speaker A
So the W and the Y are vowels in Welsh. The best part of Italki is there are no subscriptions, no commitments.
Speaker A
You just pay as you go. And lessons start at only $5. Millions of people are already using Italki to start their language learning journey.
Speaker A
So why don't you? Italki has given me a special promo code, RobWords5, where the first 50 people to use it can get $5 free with their first Italki credit purchase of $10 or more.
Speaker A
So click the link in this video's description and get learning with Italki. Now, all of these are distinct languages.
Speaker A
I therefore want to be careful not to generalise too much about them, but there are systems and characteristics that they have in common.
Speaker A
For example, in any of them, answering a yes and no question is not as simple as you might expect.
Speaker A
We don't have a yes or no. There's not one word for yes or no.
Speaker A
You reply by repeating the verb that the question is asked in. That's the same in Manx.
Speaker A
If you're asked a question, Are you doing something? You're basically using that part of the verb to be to say yes.
Speaker A
In English, this would be like me asking you, Are you going to subscribe to my channel?
Speaker A
And you saying, I am, rather than just, yes. Please do it. As far as you can tell, Breton is the only one with words that we can easily compare with yes and no.
Speaker A
Now, once you've got your head around that concept, there's another fundamental that you'll need to rethink.
Speaker A
Cornish counting is base 20. What? We go to 20 because fingers and toes, counting fish coming in off the boats.
Speaker A
Then we start again. So 1 on 20, 2 on 20. You know when you learn French and you're like, What do you mean I have to go 17 and 60?
Speaker A
Cornish were doing that right from the start. And the Welsh, for them, 40 is 2 20, 50 is 10 on 2 20, 60 is 3 20, et cetera.
Speaker A
There are remnants in Irish, and it still exists in Gaelic, too. Gaelic, it's còigead. That's 50.
Speaker A
That's a vigesimal system. But in the schools now, in the Gaelic medium schools, they use decimal. That's cool, right?
Speaker A
No.
Speaker A
Okay, this is a little tough to explain, but it is totally worth it. Just bear with me.
Speaker A
So for example, the Welsh word for Wales is 'Cymru', but it isn't always. Any time you drive into Wales and you see the sign 'welcome to Wales', have a look at the Welsh sign, which It says 'Croeso i Gymru'.
Speaker A
So Gymru with a G, should be Cymru with a C. But it's gone through a soft mutation because the I, Croeso i, is a soft mutation trigger.
Speaker A
So this is something that all learners very much enjoy about Welsh. I bet. And in the Goidelic languages, there are also triggers for changing how a word starts.
Speaker A
One of them is something called the vocative case. Now, cases can be a bit complicated, but the result of this one is that a person's name can differ depending on whether you're speaking to them or about them.
Speaker A
Check this out. For example, Seumas becomes a Sheumais. That's where some Scottish names in English have come from, like Hamish and Varry.
Speaker A
They've come from the vocative form of Seumas and Màiri, respectively. Wait, Seamus and Hamish are the same names, just in different cases?
Speaker A
Yes. You've blown my mind. Not to be outdone, Manx Gaelic also messes around with people's names.
Speaker A
My name's Breesha, and if you were talking to me in Manx, you would call me Vreesha.
Speaker A
Yeah, so the Isle of Man gets called both Manin and Vannin in the Manx language, and that's because of that initial sound change thing I've just been talking about.
Speaker A
Actually, let's get on to place names because it's in them that these languages are there for all to see.
Speaker A
For example, all those words you associate with the Scottish landscape, Lough, Glen, Ben, they're all from Scottish Gaelic, and the same goes elsewhere.
Speaker A
The most vivid, real, living example of the language for anyone in Ireland today is place names.
Speaker A
So right down to the smallest little place to capital city to everywhere in the country.
Speaker A
I mean, Dublin originally comes from dubh linn, which is black pool. People will, when they think of the Welsh language, they'll think of Welsh place names.
Speaker A
I can feel where you're going with this. No, I'm not going for Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychw yrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch no no. Wow.
Speaker A
How was that? Was that near? That was pretty good. Thank you very much. No, I was going to ask something simpler than that.
Speaker A
I was going to ask the terms that pop up in Welsh place place name.
Speaker A
What do these all mean? Welsh place names are very descriptive. So any place that starts with Aber, you'll know it's by the coast because Aber means an estuary, where the river meets the sea.
Speaker A
Then Llan is a very common name. Llan was the land that a church stands on.
Speaker A
So anywhere with Llan probably has a church or had a church. My favourite place name is Penzance, because people have heard of Penzance.
Speaker A
It means holy headland, But it could also mean holy head. Now, the patron saint of Penzance is St John the Baptist, who, of course, was beheaded.
Speaker A
Brownwilly is the highest point in Cornwall and Bodmin Moor, but it's Bron Wennilie and its Hill of Swallows.
Speaker A
So it is coming from the Cornish name. So place names are a way through which English speakers can find themselves using these Celtic languages, whether they know they're doing it or not.
Speaker A
And another is through the everyday words that we've borrowed from them. There's some simple examples like banshe, smithereens, shebeen hooligan.
Speaker A
Shebeen? Sheebean, like a little bar. You know that? I know it's very commonly used, actually, I think in South Africa, but it comes from the Irish, a síbín, which would be a little… I think it's actually an illicit pub.
Speaker A
It's an old Irish word. Oh, there you go. So yeah, Banshee, shebeen, smithereen. And there are probably several other- Galore.
Speaker A
Galore comes from Irish. What does that mean in Irish? Galore, a lot of. For my money, probably the most delightful gift to English from the Celtic languages is the word 'penguin', which is thought to probably come from the Welsh for 'white head'.
Speaker A
But it's often pointed out that there are surprisingly few Celtic words in English for saying they've lived side by side for so long.
Speaker A
Indeed, the received wisdom among linguists seems to be that the languages of the Britons had very little impact on the development of English.
Speaker A
There are compelling arguments to the contrary. For example, some linguists say that English owes its so-called meaningless do to the Celtic languages.
Speaker A
That's when we use the word do, apparently redundantly, in sentences like, do you like cheese, or I do not like pelicans, they're creepy.
Speaker A
The idea that that came from Celtic is by no means mainstream. The argument that the ancient Britons had little influence on English is usually put down to the idea that the Old English-speaking Anglo-saxons were so uncompromising in their encounters with the locals
Speaker A
that they made little allowance for picking up the lingo. But whether that's true or not, there's no doubt that every one of these languages has suffered as a result of the arrival of English because they've lost speakers to English.
Speaker A
Most extreme examples among them are Cornish and Manx, which have both, at one point or another, been declared extinct.
Speaker A
They're now both considered revitalised. In fact, Kensa says she doesn't reckon Cornish was ever extinct at all.
Speaker A
Basically, there's this myth that Dolly Pentreath is the last speaker of Cornish, and she dies in 1777, and therefore the language with her.
Speaker A
Then basically the Cornish revival, because it is a revive language, is dated from 1904, and I looked at the gap between the two.
Speaker A
So not only were books being written, books are being produced, dictionaries are being It's been talked about newspapers.
Speaker A
It's been mentioned. We know that there are families where you can trace the intergenerational transmission.
Speaker A
Intergenerational transmission being such a key marker of language vitality. Is it used as a community language now?
Speaker A
And is it used outside of the context of let's speak some Cornish? Not really.
Speaker A
Could you see it ever being, though? It would be nice to get to that point.
Speaker A
How we get there is the next big thing. Manx now is, and the number of speakers, is it rising?
Speaker A
It is. Did it hit a low and it's now recovering? It's on the up.
Speaker A
It's got this wonderful Phoenix-like story. That's why how we like to talk about Manx.
Speaker A
People were over enthusiastic in dismissing it a long time ago, and it's defied all expectations.
Speaker A
And it gives a glimmer of hope to other minority languages around the world. And we get people from other language communities coming here to find out exactly what's happened for Manx.
Speaker A
How is it in a position where it is taught in the schools, where it's used in Tynwald Court, where it's used in everyday conversation for people where you see it around you?
Speaker A
And It is this real combination of grassroots activity and government support. We're a small language and a small language community, so you have to really work together and not work at cross purposes, I think.
Speaker A
That's Manx and Cornish, but how are the other more widely spoken languages actually doing?
Speaker A
Gaelic, where is it spoken now? Well, I'm sitting here in Angus, but it's the Western Isles.
Speaker A
It's been the Western Isles for quite some time. I remember it's been the main stronghold of the language and still is.
Speaker A
But there are communities of Gaelic speakers in the cities, Glasgow and Inverness in particular.
Speaker A
When people are asked in Ireland, Do you speak Irish? There's often quite a very high level of people who will say, Yes, they can speak some level of Irish, often around 50 % or even more would say they can.
Speaker A
And the reason for that is probably because it's a compulsory language in school. So everyone who's been through the Irish education system has had at least 10 or more years of learning Irish.
Speaker A
So that's probably why a lot of people will feel they have a considerable grasp of it.
Speaker A
When it comes to everyday use or real fluency or command, it's a much smaller number.
Speaker A
It's probably 20 % or less. And the areas where it is most widely spoken would be in what are called Gaeltacht regions.
Speaker A
So they're predominantly in the west of the country, Kerry in the southwest, Galway in the west, and Donegal to the northwest.
Speaker A
And then in the capital, Dublin, there are pockets where it's not that it's not a Gaeltacht region, but there are all-Irish language schools known as Gaelscoileanna.
Speaker A
And there will be a lot of people in the capital with a strong command of Irish.
Speaker A
And then there are a couple of other little Gaeltacht regions around the country, but they would be the regions where you have the most amount of native speakers.
Speaker A
But the reality is that it's been on the decline for centuries, and over the last century, that has just simply accelerated.
Speaker A
So even though it's still compulsory and it's still an attempt to really The original goal was to make it the main language of the state.
Speaker A
I think that those days are long gone, and now it's in a preservation stage, really.
Speaker A
But interestingly, in the last few years, I would say, probably in the last 10, 15 years, it has become cool again to speak Irish.
Speaker A
And there's a lot of young people are really embracing the language. We had a thing recently where Paul Mescal, the Irish Oscar nominated actor, spoke Irish in an interview, surprisingly off the cuff.
Speaker A
He was asked at some red carpet event to answer a few questions. He did quite well.
Speaker A
He carried off the interview. It was charming. I think a lot of people identified with that.
Speaker A
I think there's people who now embrace it much more from that perspective. Okay, I don't have to be a wonderful speaker, but it's something that our ancestors It's something that a lot of people are proud of and we should connect with it.
Speaker A
How raw and sore is the issue of English oppression of Welsh? It depends who you ask, I guess.
Speaker A
But I think it's there all the time, I would say. There's always something in the news.
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Someone has said something. Some famous person has made some gibe or it's a bit of a joke on some It's a lot of comedy show.
Speaker A
It's tiring. But I would say the overall feeling thing is a very positive one.
Speaker A
I think more people are interested in Welsh. It's become more of a cool thing to be able to do or to know about.
Speaker A
I think things like Gareth Bale, football, Wrexham football, all these things are help. Well, I promised we'd try to pick up a word or two of each of these languages, so let's have a go. I asked each of my Celtic
Speaker A
speaking pals to try and help us to be polite the next time we're on their patch.
Speaker A
Okay, so to say please, you say "my saillt". My saillt. That's it. And that's just please to one person.
Speaker A
We have singular and plural, but we'll just do the singular. And thank you. You say, "Gura mie ayd".
Speaker A
Gura mie ayd. Gura mie ayd. That's it. The most common expression is "Ciamar a tha thu?".
Speaker A
"Kimmera how" Perfect. You said it well. That's true. Good job. Ciamar a tha thu?
Speaker A
"What like is it that are you?" That's what you're saying. How are you? But it's just used for hello, essentially.
Speaker A
"Ciamar a tha thu?" Good morning in Welsh is "Bore da". Bore da. Bore, is good? Is that good or is that...
Speaker A
Bore means morning. Okay. Bore da. Other way around. Okay. It's "morning good". Maybe you could just tell me how to say goodbye.
Speaker A
Okay, so "Dha weles". Dha weles. Dha weles. Dha weles. So that's another of those D-H sounding like T-H because it's D-H-A, "dha weles".
Speaker A
So how do I do this without coming across as the well-meaning, ignorant English guy?
Speaker A
I think you're doing a pretty good job. I think the key to that is listen to what you're told.
Speaker A
When someone says, "Don't say Gaelic", don't say it again. Thank you so much to my mate, Arthur, there.
Speaker A
And also to Breesha, and to Steven, and Kensa, and Marian, who has her own YouTube channel, by the way.
Speaker A
You should check that out. What a great bunch of people. And what beauty lies in their languages.
Speaker A
Use them or lose them. If you've enjoyed this video, I've got plenty more here on my channel.
Speaker A
And I've also just started a podcast with fellow internet word nerd Jess Zafarris. It's called Words Unravelled, and you can either watch it here or listen to it wherever you get your podcasts.
Speaker A
I'll also leave a link below. And I'll catch you in the next thing. "Gura mie ayd." Goodbye.
Topics:Celtic languagesScottish GaelicIrish languageManx languageWelsh languageCornish languagelanguage preservationlanguage learningItalkiBritain languages
