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Celtic studies

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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.

History

Celtic Studies grew out of comparative and historical linguistics, which was itself established at the end of the 18th century. The Englishman William Jones fist 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.

Celtic Studies in the German speaking world

German Celtic Studies (Keltologie) is seen by many as having been established by one 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.

Celtic Studies in the British Isles

Celtic Studies in North America

Celtic Studies in the rest of the world

Areas of Celtic Studies

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

Notable Celticists

Journals

  • 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.

Institutions offering courses in Celtic Studies

Europe

North America

See also

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