Surviving Continental Celtic languages?

What do you mean by that? Do you mean there was no difference in self-identification, linguistic, cultural, religious etc. or what specific combination of those?
I mean at the time the difference between a tribe on one side of the Rhine and a tribe on the other side of the Rhine was probably not much different than that between the, say, the Arverni and the Sequani. Certainly the presence of Ariovistus suggests the Gauls were no strangers to involving those beyond the Rhine in their political squabbles. It would also explain why it's so difficult to discern whether the Cimbri and Teutones were Gauls or Germans.
 
I would add that it appears the tribal structures of the Celts and Germanics were not exclusively monolingual and that any group accepting the tribal king as their king would be accepted.
 

Brunaburh

Gone Fishin'
The people that believe that parts of southern france is italic also believe that the celtic languages in Gallia Cisalpina are italic..basically Gallia Narbonensis and Gallia Cisalpina are transition zones between Celtic and Italic.

How do they explain the copious Celtic inscriptions in Gallia Cisalpina? Southeastern France (and Liguria) had Ligurians who appear not to have been either Celtic or Italic, but perhaps related closely to both. But they were largely coastal, further inland you had Gauls who spoke Gaulish. We know this from direct and indirect historical and archaeological evidence. Southwestern France is a different matter, there people most definitely didn't speak Gaulish, but something like Basque.
 
How do they explain the copious Celtic inscriptions in Gallia Cisalpina? Southeastern France (and Liguria) had Ligurians who appear not to have been either Celtic or Italic, but perhaps related closely to both. But they were largely coastal, further inland you had Gauls who spoke Gaulish. We know this from direct and indirect historical and archaeological evidence. Southwestern France is a different matter, there people most definitely didn't speak Gaulish, but something like Basque.
They tell that celts and italics coexisted in that place.
 
Gaulish as a languate survived until the 5th century AD. After four centuries of Roman rule. Which meant that it was not extinct during the first three centuries of Roman rule. St Jerome mentioned in the late 4th century that it was still spoken, that the language of the Belgic Treveri was similar to the language spoken in Galatia rather than to Latin. So all you have to do is to prevent the final extinction during the fifth century, during 400s A.D.

Since the OP only mentions survival, all you have to do is to keep one single locality to continually speak Gaulish rather than transitioning to Vulgar Latin in the fifth century.

That should be very doable.

Were there no pockets of Celtic languages surviving in western Europe after 500 AD?
 
Were there no pockets of Celtic languages surviving in western Europe after 500 AD?

There was of course Breton.

The general assumption is that Breton began as simply the British (Cornish/Welsh) language brought to Brittany, replacing the Gaulish (and/or Latin) that was previously spoken there, although this is not known for certain. Some think that it at least has a Gaulish substrate.
 
Would it be possible for a Celtiberian language to survive?

Obviously we knows Britons emigrated to north western Spain as well as Brittany and brought with them their British language. But could a Celtic tribe persist within Iberia? Some believe celtiberian was more related to Irish than the continental celtic languages however there are many contradictory theories based upon its lingual affiliation.

The Tartessian civilisation is also thought to speak a version of Celtic or proto Celtic. It would have to be a very early pod but could this civilisation persist and flourish for far longer?

Maybe a more successful Hannibal would inadvertently help to secure a longer lasting Celtic identity in Iberia also??
 
I guess highest chances for a Celtic survival is Auvergne in the Massif Central

Maybe, but I think the Alps (Rhaetic/Noric) or Iberia (Cantabrian/Gallaecian/Celtiberian) are more likely places for continental Celtic languages to survive. The only difference from Auvergne is that Auvergne actually has a record of a late survival of Gaulish. But since we know that some regional languages like Isaurian and Punic (in addition to various Celtic languages) were extant in the 5th century suggests that various Continental Celtic languages were holding on in certain places. Noric is attested in the 2nd century, and is in the borderland of Noricum, so it's definitely a possibility Noric survived until the Germanic peoples Germanicised the region.
 
I'd find it interesting in Gaulish survived in the Belgica area. It not succumbing to the Franks and the Low Countries area being primarily Celtic and Frisian would be quite cool, IMO.
 
Maybe, but I think the Alps (Rhaetic/Noric) or Iberia (Cantabrian/Gallaecian/Celtiberian) are more likely places for continental Celtic languages to survive. The only difference from Auvergne is that Auvergne actually has a record of a late survival of Gaulish. But since we know that some regional languages like Isaurian and Punic (in addition to various Celtic languages) were extant in the 5th century suggests that various Continental Celtic languages were holding on in certain places. Noric is attested in the 2nd century, and is in the borderland of Noricum, so it's definitely a possibility Noric survived until the Germanic peoples Germanicised the region.
Galicia, of course. I would have forgotten.
Considerring the Alps, Rhaetians don´t seem to be Celtic, if some language were to survive in the Alps, I can mostly likely see it in upper Carinthia, maybe some parts of Styria, or possibly the Valais region of Switzerland and the Lake Luzerne area. Although these areas might be refuge zones, you would also need a relativiely dense and numerous population there.

I think the one thing that fastened the disapearance of Celtic languages in the Continent was the Latin mass; either make those areas not go Christian or allow for a Celtic translation of the bible and Missal.
 
Similar to a previous suggestion - if the Romans failed to defeat the Etruscan and completely assimilate them then we would have a bufffer zone and more time and room for the Celtic civilisations to grow and prosper. However the butterflies here would render the western world incomprehensible to today
 
Galicia, of course. I would have forgotten.
Considerring the Alps, Rhaetians don´t seem to be Celtic, if some language were to survive in the Alps, I can mostly likely see it in upper Carinthia, maybe some parts of Styria, or possibly the Valais region of Switzerland and the Lake Luzerne area. Although these areas might be refuge zones, you would also need a relativiely dense and numerous population there.

I think the one thing that fastened the disapearance of Celtic languages in the Continent was the Latin mass; either make those areas not go Christian or allow for a Celtic translation of the bible and Missal.

The Rhaetians were Celticised pretty early on. Early Rhaetian seems to be non-Indo-European, but a later Celtic group seems to have taken over the name of the Rhaetians. Since Rhaetia is mostly Switzerland, there could perhaps be Gaulish-speaking peoples moving into Switzerland.

Carinthians, Styrians, well, that's the Noric peoples.

Getting a Bible translation would be huge, I mean, look at the Copts and Syriacs. But how much of a demand would there be for a Gaulish Bible in the 3rd century, or even in the post-Constantine era? It's like how there was never a Punic Bible despite how useful it would've been for North Africa (from a Christian POV) in the 3rd-4th century.
 
Galicia is where I would put my money. And given that modern Portugese originiated in Galicia, surely then if Galicia stays Celtic-Speaking, then Portugal would be.
 
Galicia is where I would put my money. And given that modern Portugese originiated in Galicia, surely then if Galicia stays Celtic-Speaking, then Portugal would be.

Not necessarily, since even in the pre-Roman period there was a distinction between the Gallaecians and the Lusitanians in modern Portugal. Besides, there's Cantabria and other mountains which are just as good.
 
Top