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Read this comment posted online and tell whether or not you think that the Celtic languages should be reintegrated into Celtic nations ,or just have them continue with the language they are speaking now.
https://www.reddit.com/r/changemyview/comments/1pn5gx/the_effort_to_bring_back_the_welsh_language_is_a/

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The use of Celtic languages in Celtic nations

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The use of Celtic languages in Celtic nations

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The actual usage of minority languages is very slow to change, but hearts and minds can be quicker. Since I left Wales, the visibility of Welsh and other UK minority languages seems to have rocketed; and there's been a burgeoning interest in both localism, and genealogy – people want to know what their great-grandparents spoke. There has also been a raft of language acts, enshrining rights for speakers of minority languages in law, while our understanding of the benefits of bilingualism has prompted a sea-change in the educational arguments. I have a hunch my feelings are typical of a wider shift in public opinion – but what difference has that made to minority language-speaking communities around the UK?

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The ancient Celts were various population groups living in several parts of Europe north of the Mediterranean region from the Late Bronze Age onwards. Given the name Celt by ancient writers, these tribes often migrated and so eventually occupied territories from Portugal to Turkey. Although diverse tribes the ancient Celts spoke the same language and maintained the same artistic tradition which is characterised by the use of idiosyncratic flowing lines and forms. Celtic languages are still spoken today in parts of the British Isles and northern France.

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The ancient Celts were various population groups living in several parts of Europe north of the Mediterranean region from the Late Bronze Age onwards. Given the name Celt by ancient writers, these tribes often migrated and so eventually occupied territories from Portugal to Turkey. Although diverse tribes the ancient Celts spoke the same language and maintained the same artistic tradition which is characterised by the use of idiosyncratic flowing lines and forms. Celtic languages are still spoken today in parts of the British Isles and northern France.

Geographical Spread

Ancient writers gave the name Celts to various population groups living across central Europe inland from the Mediterranean coastal areas. Most scholars agree that the Celtic culture first appeared in the Late Bronze Age in the area of the upper Danube sometime around the 13th century BCE. These early Celts were known as the 'Urnfield people' and they probably spoke a proto-Celtic language. By the 8th century BCE, iron had replaced bronze-working and the cultural group is then referred to by scholars as the 'Hallstatt culture'. Spain saw a similar development with tribes using iron weapons. The Hallstatt culture declined by the 5th century BCE, perhaps due to internal political tensions and economic difficulties. The next phase of Celtic development was carried out by a group known as the La Tène culture.

The migration of various Celtic tribes in order to flee wars meant that eventually they occupied Territory from the Iberian peninsula to Turkey.

The prosperity of the La Tène culture in ancient France, Spain and wider central Europe meant that they were able to challenge the contemporary Mediterranean cultures and so they appear for the first time in Classical history. From then on these peoples were widely referred to as Celts. In antiquity writers did not describe tribes in ancient Britain and Ireland as Celts, although they have acquired that label in modern times and some Celtic languages or their derivatives are still spoken there, as a form of Celtic still is in the Brittany region of northern France. The religion of the Celts, led by a priesthood known as the Druids, is described by ancient writers with some disdain as crude and violent.

The migration of various Celtic tribes in order to flee wars - they were famously attacked in Gaul by Julius Caesar in the 1st century BCE and by the Germanic tribes - and find new prospects meant that eventually the territory occupied by them ranged from Galicia (the Iberian peninsula) to Romania. Many Celtic tribes spread eastwards, for example, traversing Macedonia in 280 BCE and crossing the Hellespont in 278 BCE into Asia Minor. The Galatians, as they were now called, colonised areas of central Asia Minor which brought them into direct conflict with both the Hellenistic kingdoms and Rome.

Celtic armies first came to the attention of historians when the Gauls, led by their king Bran ( Brennus), sacked Rome in 390 BCE, and again in 279 BCE when they looted Delphi as they passed through Greece on their way to Asia. The Celts attacked the Romans again in 225 BCE and were frequent mercenary allies of Carthage during the Punic Wars. The Celts thus gained a reputation with Latin and Greek writers for being fierce warriors and skilled horsemen who also fielded chariots in battle. Julius Caesar faced them when he invaded Gaul. They were light, pulled by two horses, and had an open front and back with double hoops at the sides. Containing two men they were used to attack enemy cavalry first by throwing javelins and then one man dismounted to fight on foot while the rider drove the chariot to a safe distance to await a retreat if necessary. Caesar describes them as driven with great skill and so were a highly manoeuvrable weapon of disruption and attack.

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Celtic warriors were known for their long hair and imposing physique. They are depicted in Greek art with their distinctive long shields (wooden panels covered in decorated hide) and long swords. Such was the respect for Celtic warriors that Hellenistic kings who defeated Galatian armies were given the title of soter, meaning 'saviour'. Although Galatian armies were almost always defeated by their more disciplined and better-equipped enemies in single battles, once conquered, they did fight successfully as mercenaries in many Hellenistic and Roman armies.

Celtic Languages

The Celtic language is a branch of the Indo-European language family. Scholars have divided Celtic languages into two groups: Insular Celtic and Continental Celtic. The latter group was no longer widely spoken after the Roman imperial period, and the only surviving examples of it are mentions in the works of Greek and Roman writers and some epigraphic remains such as pottery graffiti and votive and funerary stelae. The best documented of this group is Gaulish.

The Insular Celtic group of languages are two: British or Brittonic (Breton, Cornish, and Welsh) and Goidelic (Irish and its medieval derivatives, Scots Gaelic and Manx). Brittonic was spoken in all of Britain in the Roman period. From it evolved Cumbrian (extinct since medieval times), Cornish (no longer spoken after the 18th century CE but rece

ntly revived), Breton (likely introduced by 5th-century CE British settlers and not connected directly to Gaulish), and Welsh, which is still spoken today. The earliest evidence of Goidelic-Irish dates to the 5th century CE, and it later evolved into Middle Irish (c. 950 - 1200 CE) and, thereafter, morphed again into Modern Irish, which is still spoken today.

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The ancient Celts were various population groups living in several parts of Europe north of the Mediterranean region from the Late Bronze Age onwards. Given the name Celt by ancient writers, these tribes often migrated and so eventually occupied territories from Portugal to Turkey.

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OVovskAh5QA

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The cultures of the Celts and Anglo-Saxons have been at odds in the British Isles since medieval times, and the Celtic language family has suffered because of it. This family, comprising Breton, Gaelic, Irish, Welsh, and the extinct languages Cornish and Manx, has been slowly declining for centuries (Durkacz, 214).  Today there are approximately 1.3 million speakers of these languages, but the numbers are going down.
Read more: http://www.languagesoftheworld.info/student-papers/the-decline-of-the-celtic-languages.html#ixzz4OaxT8xtG

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The cultures of the Celts and Anglo-Saxons have been at odds in the British Isles since medieval times, and the Celtic language family has suffered because of it. This family, comprising Breton, Gaelic, Irish, Welsh, and the extinct languages Cornish and Manx, has been slowly declining for centuries (Durkacz, 214).Today there are approximately 1.3 million speakers of these languages, but the numbers are going down. The most widely spoken Celtic language is Welsh with 508,000 speakers, but the vast majority of them also speak English ("Languages of United Kingdom"). Cornish, on the other hand, went extinct in 1777 but has been undergoing a small revival recently and has a few speakers again ("Cornish"). By examining some of the causes of the decline of the Celtic languages and how greatly they affected Welsh and Cornish, it is possible to see how Welsh survived, but Cornish did not.

One of the earliest factors contributing to the decline of the Celtic languages was the disunity of the Celtic people during the Middle Ages. Each group had its own kingdom, and they were constantly fighting one another. They even helped foreigners, including the English monarchs, fight other Celts, effectively hurting the survival of their own culture. Thus, the need to unify to protect their heritage was thwarted by internal fighting, and the far more unified Anglo-Saxons were able to expand at their expense (Gregor, 284-291). This lack of unity helped set the stage centuries ago for the slow decline of the Celtic languages.

One consequence of this disunity was a loss of status of the Celtic languages in favor of the languages of their conquerors, particularly English. This began in the Middle Ages when the Celtic groups defeated by Anglo-Saxons-partly due to the disunity previously discussed-learned the language of their conquerors rather than keeping their own. As the small kingdoms disappeared in the face of a larger, increasingly unified British crown, English became the language of the government and ruling elite. Anything that tied a Celtic population to the government further eclipsed their culture, as it became more closely tied to the monarchy and the language and culture that went with it (Gregor, 294-297).

Loss of status also occurred in the minds of the speakers of the Celtic languages and has continued into modern times. English is a world language linked to success and the higher classes, whereas Celtic languages have become increasingly associated with the countryside, social inferiority, and poverty. Children grow up knowing this, and so are ashamed of the Celtic languages and do not want to speak them. Even if they did, parents do not always teach their language to their children. In Cornwall, after English was decreed the official language of the court in 1362, parents stopped speaking Cornish to their children. It has only been the Welsh, in the reaches of the country untouched by the English, who still sometimes bring up their children speaking their language (Gregor, 292-304). Hence, Cornish lost its status to a much greater degree than Welsh ever did.

This loss of status allowed English to take over in a variety of ways. For example, English replaced some, but not all, of the Celtic languages in religious life. Queen Elizabeth I allowed the Book of Common Prayer, the Psalms, and the New Testament to be printed in Welsh because she thought this would help the Welsh learn English, but it actually helped Welsh survive. These texts provided a standard for written Welsh, which would later prove beneficial (Gregor, 311-323). The Cornish, on the other hand, were explicitly prohibited from using their native language for religious purposes (Wardhaugh, 75-77). There was never a Cornish translation of the bible, which would hinder the development of Cornish literature (Gregor, 324-325). Consequently, although Cornish was widely spoken in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, the lack of Cornish in religious services or texts contributed greatly to its rapid decline, whereas Welsh survived because of its presence in religion (Durkacz, 214).

It follows that there would be a shortage of reading material in the Celtic languages. Although there is some literature in these languages, it generally has not been printed, has been out of print for years, or is written in very old forms of the languages that are less accessible to modern readers. Welsh has the greatest amount of available literature, partly due to the standardization the religious texts provided, and Welsh poets have been instrumental in keeping a sense of national pride (Gregor, 304-312). Cornish, on the other hand, never had a Bible to spur the creation or preservation of its literature.

Finally, there is a lack of instruction of Celtic languages in schools and universities. The English Education Act of 1870 made English the sole language of education, and students heard speaking another language were punished (Gregor, 314-317). As with religion, the Welsh were given some leniency with their language, and Welsh was allowed in classrooms as a means of teaching English, but it was intended to die out after the students learned English. Although now it is required that children in Wales are given the opportunity to learn Welsh in schools, this requirement is not often fulfilled (Wardhaugh, 81-86). Those children who are able to learn a Celtic language at home will often lose that language in the face of the English they learn and are taught in at school. This is particularly true for students who leave the area they are originally from to go to boarding school or university farther away where Celtic languages are unspoken (Gregor, 314-317). The newer education policies will hopefully help Welsh, but they came hundreds of years too late for Cornish.

In conclusion, the Celtic languages have been declining for hundreds of years. It began in the Middle Ages when the Celts refused to unify in the face of the Anglo-Saxon invaders. The domination of the Anglo-Saxons at the expense of the Celts put the Celtic languages on the bottom of the social hierarchy, and this loss of status has continued through to modern times. English displaced many Celtic languages in religious life, literature, and education. This is particularly true for Cornish, which had no place in any of these areas and quickly went extinct. However, Welsh was granted a degree of leniency that no other Celtic language received and managed to survive precisely because of this. Hopefully, although it is somewhat doubtful, the newfound appreciation of Celtic languages, as evidenced by the attempts to revive Cornish, will allow them to maintain their presence in the British Isles, even if they are unable to grow significantly.

Durkacz, Victor Edward. The Decline of the Celtic Languages: a Study of Linguistic and Cultural Conflict In Scotland, Wales and Ireland From the Reformation to the Twentieth Century. Edinburgh: J. Donald, 1983.

"Cornish." Lewis, M. Paul, ed. Ethnologue: Languages of the World. 16 th ed. Dallas, Tex.: SIL International, 2009. http://www.ethnologue.com/show_language.asp?code=cor

Gregor, D. B. Celtic: a Comparative Study of the Six Celtic Languages, Irish, Gaelic, Manx, Welsh, Cornish, Breton, Seen Against the Background of Their History, Literature and Destiny. Cambridge, Eng.: Oleander Press, 1980.

"Languages of United Kingdom." Lewis, M. Paul ed. Ethnologue: Languages of the World. 16 th ed. Dallas, Tex.: SIL International, 2009. http://www.ethnologue.com/show_country.asp?name=GB

Wardhaugh, Ronald. Languages In Competition: Dominance, Diversity, and Decline. Oxford, UK: B. Blackwell, 1987.

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The Decline of the Celtic Languages - Languages Of The World

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BY NATALIE KARL ("Languages of the World") The cultures of the Celts and Anglo-Saxons have been at odds in the British Isles since medieval times, and the Celtic language family has suffered because of it. This family, comprising Breton, Gaelic, Irish, Welsh, and the extinct languages Cornish and Manx, has been slowly declining for centuries ...