AHC: Celtic Language as a Global Language

Can anyone devise a scenario in which Scottish Gaelic, Manx, Irish, Welsh (unrhywun fynhyn yn siarad o?), Cornish or Breton is spoken by upwards of a hundred million people in 2014.

By that I mean the individual language needs that many speakers, not a combination. Also, the PoD can't be so far back that the language wouldn't be mutually unintelligible with its OTL equivalent in the present day.

Bonuses, of course, if you can get as many of them as possible to be a big deal, and even more bonuses if the scenario is cool.
 
Have one of them as a colonial power, Maybe don't have Scotland and England merge? Or, have them merge, then separate a generation or two later, with Scotland taking some of the colonies step up under England then the Union? From there the Scottish pop and the pop of the colonies could grow to upwards pf 100 million combined.
 
Have one of them as a colonial power, Maybe don't have Scotland and England merge? Or, have them merge, then separate a generation or two later, with Scotland taking some of the colonies step up under England then the Union? From there the Scottish pop and the pop of the colonies could grow to upwards pf 100 million combined.

I can get behind a Celtic colonial power, but why wouldn't a Scottish Empire be primarily Scots-speaking?
 
Saxons never invade or fail. Britain becomes largely Celtic.

This. Anything later is too difficult as a large Germanic-speaking population in England would dominate the British Isles.

Hell, if you really want to go back: abort Rome, then you've got a whole host of Celtic languages in western Europe, provided they don't get overrun by Germanic Hordes.
 
This. Anything later is too difficult as a large Germanic-speaking population in England would dominate the British Isles.

Hell, if you really want to go back: abort Rome, then you've got a whole host of Celtic languages in western Europe, provided they don't get overrun by Germanic Hordes.

While probably a lot more feasible, in this case the Celtic languages wouldn't be mutually intelligible with their OTL equivalents, which is the challenge. So this puts a PoD at around 1400, or later.
 
What about a stronger France absorbing England alongside the Scots around the Tims of OTLs Hundred Years War. This leads to Ireland unifying while Scotland grows stronger. After the French Kings are elected Holy Roman Emperors and a mix of the 30 Years War and Black Death occur. Ireland and Scotland both create colonies in north america, that funnel in immigrants from Europe, leading to millions of Celtic-speakers all over the coasts of northand south america.
 
What about a stronger France absorbing England alongside the Scots around the Tims of OTLs Hundred Years War. This leads to Ireland unifying while Scotland grows stronger. After the French Kings are elected Holy Roman Emperors and a mix of the 30 Years War and Black Death occur. Ireland and Scotland both create colonies in north america, that funnel in immigrants from Europe, leading to millions of Celtic-speakers all over the coasts of northand south america.

The problem is that the 100 Years' War took place starting in 1334-1453, whereas the Davidian Revolution in Scotland (which effectively sealed the fate of Gaelic as the common tongue thanks to the burgh system's promotion of Early Scots) happened between 1124-1153, with the Anglic dialects becoming the people's language before 1300. So...while I agree Ireland is well-placed to export Gaelic speakers depending on the circumstances relative to England, Scotland was linguistically Germanicized/Anglicized before your POD proposal.
 
The problem is that the 100 Years' War took place starting in 1334-1453, whereas the Davidian Revolution in Scotland (which effectively sealed the fate of Gaelic as the common tongue thanks to the burgh system's promotion of Early Scots) happened between 1124-1153, with the Anglic dialects becoming the people's language before 1300. So...while I agree Ireland is well-placed to export Gaelic speakers depending on the circumstances relative to England, Scotland was linguistically Germanicized/Anglicized before your POD proposal.
The POD doesn't necessarily have to be as late as 1300, just post-1100. In my original scenario, I was sort of thinking most of the settlers to Scotland's colonies would be Highlanders, who would spread Gaelic, which they still spoke, to other settlers.
 
Ah, that makes more sense then. Another possibility is if Wales can avoid being swallowed by England, they could potentially try for a miniature colonial empire (the Scots were able to almost pull it off, they just needed a better colony site than f**king Panama); they have good ports and/or access to the Atlantic, and as we get into the Industrial era, good amounts of industrial resources. Of course, there is the threat of English settlers coming in for the jobs and Anglicizing the place, but at least the possibility of a Welsh-speaking colony or two exists. Just let them have a large enough birthrate (simple yet difficult to achieve, I'd say) combined with immigration AND local promotion of Welsh as the official tongue, and you could have a significant Brythonic language speaking base by modern day.
 
The POD doesn't necessarily have to be as late as 1300, just post-1100. In my original scenario, I was sort of thinking most of the settlers to Scotland's colonies would be Highlanders, who would spread Gaelic, which they still spoke, to other settlers.

Based on the OP's request though, the potential problem with anything earlier than 1300 (and even that might be too early) is that it would probably be difficult to keep alternate Scottish or Irish Gaelic mutually intelligible to their OTL counterparts. 7+ centuries worth of linguistic evolution just might be too change.
 
If Ireland is able to unite and is able to keep independent we might very well see an Irish colonial empire. Ireland is extremely lucky and gets a significant part of the Americas, and later a big part of Africa. I'm thinking somewhere in Latin America like the Caribbean or Brazil would be a good place, Ireland has relatively few people to settle the territories and it can import African slaves easier here, whose descendants will speak Irish later, giving the Irish colony a larger population.

Avoid the Irish famine and we might see a lot more people in Ireland in the present day. (Ireland had 8 million in 1840 in OTL, so in the present day in ATL we might have about 20, maybe even 25 (optimistic but we need that) million Irish, seeing as Irelands population could also be higher initially due to increased wealth)

The rest would need to be in the former Irish colonies.

So L2 speakers count? If so, this is probably easier.
 
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