Celtic studies

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Celtic Studies is the academic discipline occupied with the study of any sort of cultural output relating to a Celtic people. This ranges from archaeology to history, the focus lying on the study of the various Celtic languages, living and extinct. The primary areas of focus are the six Celtic languages which still survive, or have only recently become extinct: Irish, Welsh, Scottish Gaelic, Manx, Cornish and on the continent, Breton. Many consider the Celtic languages to be the least studied surviving branch of the Indo-European language family. The field has at this time barely been surveyed; this is due to the small number of trained experts.[citation needed] Thus it is possible for relatively inexperienced scholars to make a significant contribution.

As a university subject, it is taught at a number of universities worldwide, most of them, obviously, in Ireland, Scotland, Wales, England and Brittany. Some universities in the US, Canada, Germany, Poland, Austria and The Netherlands offer courses as well.

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[edit] History

Celtic Studies as an academic subject grew out of comparative and historical linguistics, which was itself established at the end of the 18th century. Long before this various authors, such as Julius Caesar. had commented on the Celtic languages. In the 16th century George Buchanan studied Gaelic, while around 1700 Edward Lhwyd compared the various Insular Celtic languages and published the English version of a study by Paul-Yves Pezron of Gaulish. In 1767 James Parsons published his study "The Remains of Japhet, being historical enquiries into the affinity and origins of the European languages". He compared a 1000 word lexicon of Irish and Welsh and concluded that they were originally the same, then comparing the numerals in many other languages.

The Englishman William Jones famously postulated that there existed some ancient connection between Latin, Greek and Sanskrit in 1786. This would later be hailed as the discovery of the Indo-European language family, from which grew the field of Indo-European studies. The Celtic languages were definitively linked to the Indo-European family over the course of the 19th century.

[edit] Celtic Studies in the German speaking world

German Celtic Studies (Keltologie) is seen by many as having been established by Johann Kaspar Zeuss (1806-1856). His monumental work Grammatica Celtica (volume 1, 1851; volume 2, 1853), composed in Latin, used Old Irish and Middle Welsh material to make plausible the connection of the Celtic languages to the Indo-European language family. In the creation of his work, Zeuss undertook a monumental study of numerous primary sources that had been neglected until that time. In 1847, he was appointed as a professor of linguistics in Munich.

Until the middle of the 19th century, Celtic Studies progressed largely as a subfield of linguistics. Franz Bopp (1791-1867) carried out further studies in comparative linguistics to link the Celtic languages to the Proto-Indo-European language. He is credited with having finally proven Celtic to be a branch of the Indo-European language family. From 1821 to 1864, he served as a professor of oriental literature and general linguistics in Berlin.

In the second half of the century, significant contributions were made by the Orientalist Ernst Windisch (1844-1918). He held a chair in Sanskrit at the University of Leipzig, however is most remembered for his numerous publications in the field of Celtic studies. In 1901, the Orientalist and Celtologist Heinrich Zimmer (1851-1910) was made professor of Celtic languages at Friedrich Wilhelm University in Berlin, the first position of its kind in Germany. He was followed in 1911 by Kuno Meyer (1858-1919), who, in addition to numerous publications in the field, was active in the Irish independence movement.

Perhaps the most important German speaking celticist is the Swiss scholar Rudolf Thurneysen (1857-1940). A student of Windisch and Zimmer, Thurneysen was appointed to the chair of comparative linguistics at Freiberg in 1887; the succeeded to the equivalent chair in Bonn in 1913. His notability arises from his work on Old Irish. For his masterwork, Handbuch des Altirischen (1909, meaning "Handbook of Old Irish"), translated into English as A Grammar of Old Irish, he located and analysed a multitude of Old Irish manuscripts. His work is considered as the basis for all succeeding studies of Old Irish.

In 1920, Julius Pokorny (1887-1970) was appointed to the chair of Celtic languages at Berlin. Despite his support for German nationalism and Catholic faith, he was forced out of his position by the Nazis on account of his Jewish ancestry. He subsequently emigrated to Switzerland and returned to Germany again in 1955 to teach at Munich. In Berlin, he was succeeded in 1937 by Ludwig Mühlhausen, a devout Nazi.

After the Second World War, German Celtic studies took place predominantly in West Germany and Austria. Studies in the field continued at Freiburg, Bonn, Marburg, Hamburg as well as Innsbruck, however an independent professorship for Celtic studies has not yet been arranged anywhere. In this period, Hans Hartmann, Heinrich Wagner and Wolfgang Meid made notable contributions to the scientific understanding of the boundaries of the Celtic language area and the location of the homeland of the Celtic peoples. In the GDR, the Berlin chair in Celtic languages has not been occupied since 1966.

Today, Celtic Studies is only taught at a handful of German universities. Only Marburg, Vienna and Bonn maintain formal programs of study, however even then as a subsection of comparative or general linguistics. No Celtic studies research has taken place in the former centres of Freiberg, Hamburg or Berlin since the 1990s. The last remaining chair in Celtic studies, that at Humboldt University in Berlin, was abolished in 1997.

[edit] Celtic Studies in the British Isles

Celtic Studies are taught in universities in England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland (see below). These studies cover language, history, archaeology and art. In addition Celtic languages are taught in schools in Wales, Scotland and Ireland while courses are run extramurally in Cornish and Manx.

A notable research project is CISP, the Celtic Inscribed Stones Project, which has made details of the many inscriptions in Britain available on line. Work has also been carried out on the Celtic influence on the English language and on the Celtic elements in the place names of England. Books and publications on aspects of Celtic Studies are numerous, a notable one being that of Kenneth H. Jackson on "Language and History in Early Britain". This included chapters on all the types of Insular Celtic, including Pictish. Several journals on Celtic Studies are published including "Celtica" and "Studia Celtica".

Sir John Rhys became the first Professor of Celtic Studies at Oxford in 1874. Henry Jenner was the initiator of the revival of Cornish while Robert Morton Nance had founded the Old Cornwall Society and Goreth Kernow in 1828.

[edit] Celtic Studies in North America

While Celtic studies programs in Canada are not as wide spread as they are in the British Isles several universities offer some Celtic studies courses (such as St. Francis Xavier University), while only two universities offers a full B.A. as well as graduate courses. St. Michael's College at the University of Toronto and St. Francis Xavier Universityoffers the only B.A. of its kind in Canada with a dual focus on Celtic literature and history, while the Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies at the University of Toronto offers courses at a graduate level through their Centre for Medieval Studies, along with St. Francis Xavier University.

In the United States Harvard University is notable for their Doctorate program in Celtic studies.

[edit] Celtic Studies in the rest of the world

[edit] Areas of Celtic Studies

  • Archaeology
  • (historical) Linguistics
  • Ethnology
  • History
  • Literature
  • Religious Studies (see Celtic Christianity)
  • Political Science

[edit] Notable Celticists

This list is incomplete; you can help by expanding it.

[edit] Journals

This list is incomplete; you can help by expanding it.
  • Zeitschrift für celtische Philologie, est. 1897, Halle.
  • Revue Celtique, est. 1870, Paris.
  • Ériu est. 1904, Dublin.
  • The Bulletin of the Board of Celtic Studies, est. 1921, Cardiff; merged with Studia Celtica in 1993.
  • Etudes Celtiques, est. 1936, Paris.
  • Celtica. Journal of the School of Celtic Studies, est. 1949, Dublin.
  • Studia Celtica, est. 1966, Cardiff.
  • Studia Celtica Japonica, est. 1988.
  • Journal of Celtic Linguistics, est. 1992, Cardiff.
  • Cambrian Medieval Celtic Studies, est. 1993, Aberystwyth; formerly Cambridge Medieval Celtic Studies.
  • Cornish Studies, est. 1993, Tremough.
  • Keltische Forschungen, est. 2006, Vienna.

[edit] Institutions offering courses in Celtic Studies

This list is incomplete; you can help by expanding it.

[edit] Europe

[edit] Austria

[edit] Czeach Republic

[edit] Denmark

[edit] England

[edit] France

[edit] Germany

[edit] Ireland

[edit] The Netherlands

[edit] Northern Ireland

[edit] Russia

[edit] Scotland

[edit] Spain

[edit] Sweden

[edit] Wales

[edit] North America

[edit] Canada

[edit] United States

[edit] Oceania

[edit] Australia

[edit] New Zealand

[edit] See also

v • d • e
Celts
Ancient Celts
and Celtic studies
Modern Celts
and Celtic Revival
Languages
Celtic Festivals
Lists

[edit] External links

  • Finding the Celtic project (FtC)