Uni project traces Celtic roots

Dr Alexander Falilevev will work with Prof Patrick Sims-Williams

A project exploring a theory that Celtic was one of the major languages of Europe alongside Greek and Latin has received extra funding.

Aberystwyth University's department of Welsh is tracing the roots of Celtic from which Welsh, Gaelic and Irish are derived.

The £390,889 grant will enable academics to search for evidence of the language in Romania and Turkey.

The money has come from the Arts and Humanities Research Council.

It is the third such grant from the council, which supports research projects focussing on topics such as history.

It is well known the roots of the Welsh language extend far back into the distant Celtic history.

'Exciting perspective'

The university said that ancient Celtic had been traced to northern Italy, Switzerland, Spain and France.

But academics added that it was spoken over a much wider area. Recently they have been searching for Celtic personal names in Roman inscriptions.

Professor Patrick Sims-Williams, who is leading the project, said the grant would enable Dr Alexander Falileyev, a scholar from St Petersburg working in Aberystwyth, to investigate Celtic in southern Romania and as far east as Galatia in Turkey.

Prof Sims-Williams said: "We know that these areas were colonized from the 3rd Century BC onwards by peoples who spoke Celtic languages.

"It's becoming clear that Celtic was one of the major languages of ancient Europe, alongside Greek and Latin, and that's an exciting perspective for people who tend to think of Celtic languages as minority languages.

"Somehow this research programme fits in with the fact that students now come from all over the world to Aberystwyth to study Celtic with us. It would appear that most EU countries have a Celtic past."