The Celtic Languages in the Modern World

The Celtic languages remain media of communication to a greater or lesser extent in communties scattered on the western fringe of twenty-first century Europe, in Ireland, Scotland, Wales and Brittany, the survivors of a history traceable over two and a half thousand years encompassing, at one time, nearly the whole of western Europe and much of central and eastern Europe. The modern Celtic languages interact in various ways with the societies in which they are embedded, the official and unofficial institutions of those societies (government, legislation, industry, etc.), and with the wider cultures of the countries where they are used. The module will introduce the student to the study of the Celtic languages in these contexts, the sociolinguistics of the Celtic languages, and consider the ways in which they are endangered as languages of the lives and thoughts of the people who use them, and also ways in which their existence and status can be strengthened and expanded, through language planning, looking also at the cases of Cornish in Cornwall and Manx in the Isle of Man, where, though technically ?dead languages?, vigourous revival movements work to prove that news of their demise was premature.

Learning outcomes;
? Knowledge of the social and political status of the Celtic languages today.
? Knowledge of the historical and demographic background to the social and political status of the Celtic languages today.
? Knowledge of the methods of studying the sociolinguistics of languages.
? Ability to deal critically with the sources and methods of sociolinguistics.