# Celtic Language?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/celtic-language/569777>\
**Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports\
**Created:** [February 1, 2011, 12:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/celtic-language/569777 "2011-02-01T12:34:58Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![cinsavant](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e274bd/32.png) [@cinsavant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cinsavant)\
**Post date:** [February 1, 2011, 12:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/celtic-language/569777/1 "2011-02-01T12:34:58Z")

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In the column on crossword’s he refers to the word Arepo in a word puzzle saying that it means plow in Celtic. The problem is there’s no such language as “Celtic” The language celts speak is Gaelic.

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**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\
**Post date:** [February 1, 2011, 1:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/celtic-language/569777/2 "2011-02-01T13:49:47Z")

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Actually, while some celts speak Gaelic others speak languages like Welsh. “Celtic” is a family of languages.

What they probably meant is that it’s a word in **a** Gaelic language.

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**Author:** ![EvilTOJ](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ee59a6/32.png) [@EvilTOJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EvilTOJ)\
**Post date:** [February 1, 2011, 1:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/celtic-language/569777/3 "2011-02-01T13:58:20Z")

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Maybe Arepo was their last power forward, who was a bit too aggressive.

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**Author:** ![Giles](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/giles/32/60_2.png) [@Giles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Giles)\
**Post date:** [February 1, 2011, 2:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/celtic-language/569777/4 "2011-02-01T14:13:05Z")

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The column is [Why are crossword puzzles symmetrical?](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/452/why-are-crossword-puzzles-symmetrical), dated May 11, 1984.

I agree that there is no one “Celtic language”. However, the Celtic languages that the Romans were most familiar with were not Gaelic or Welsh: Celtic languages were spoken in what are now France and England, including Gaulish (spoken in Gaul, now France) and British (spoken in Britain, now England). Those languages were later displaced by French (descended from Latin) and English (descended from the Germanic Anglo-Saxon).

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**Author:** ![John\_W.Kennedy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_w.kennedy/32/1031_2.png) [@John\_W.Kennedy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_W.Kennedy)\
**Post date:** [February 1, 2011, 5:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/celtic-language/569777/5 "2011-02-01T17:13:14Z")

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“Gaelic” is a family of languages, too. There’s Irish Gaelic, Manx Gaelic (both pronounced GAY-lick), and Scots Gaelic (pronounced GAL-lick). All descend from Middle Irish.

And, of course, the ancient British Celtic dialects have modern descendants in Welsh, Breton, and Cornish. But all the Continental Celtic languages have vanished. (Breton doesn’t count as “Continental Celtic” because it was brought to France by British refugees in historic times.)