Transcript HOTEL The Celtsx

The Celts
The “original” inhabitants of
Britain
Who were the Celts?
 The
Celts were the inhabitants of
Britain long, long ago.
 They were there when Julius Caesar
brought Roman troops to England
in 55B.C.
Why do scholars think that the
Welsh language survived the
Anglo-Saxon invasion?
 1.
Wales (where a group of Celts fled) is
separated from England by mountains, so
the geographical separation helped.
 2. The Bible was translated into Welsh in
1588 and we know that when a language
is written down, it is more likely to survive.
What is Breton? How are
Breton and Welsh related?
 Breton
is a language spoken in Brittany in
France.
 Welsh is the language of Wales.
 The languges are so similar that speakers
of one can communicate with speakers
of the other.
 Let’s look at a map…
Map of Celtic Europe
Distribution of Celtic peoples:
Yellow--core Hallstatt territory,
by the 6th century BC
Dark mint--maximal Celtic
expansion, by 275 BC
Grass green--the six Celtic
nations which retained
significant numbers of Celtic
speakers into the Early
Modern period
Forest green-- areas
where Celtic
languages remain widely
spoken today
Don’t worry! If you don’t know European
geography very well, we’ll go over some of
the basics now.
 Germany
 Wales
 Denmark
 England
 Friesland
 Ireland
 France
 Brittany
 Normandy
(The
Republic of
Ireland)
 Northern Ireland
 Scotland
What is interesting about the
Frisian language?
 It
is probably what English would sound
like today if there had not been any more
invasions after the Anglo-Saxons.
 Here are some examples:
cow=ko
dung=dong
lamb=lam
rain=rein
goose=goes
boat=boat