Use of Term
The modern term Continental Celtic is used in contrast to Insular Celtic. While many researchers agree that Insular Celtic is a distinct branch of Celtic (Cowgill 1975; McCone 1991, 1992; Schrijver 1995), having undergone common linguistic innovations, there is no evidence that the Continental Celtic languages can be similarly grouped. Instead, the term Continental Celtic is polyphyletic and refers simply to non-Insular Celtic languages. Since little material has been preserved in any of the Continental Celtic languages, historical linguistic analysis based on the comparative method is difficult to perform. However, other researchers see the Brythonic languages and Gaulish as forming part of a sub-group of Celtic languages known as P-Celtic. The Continental languages are all P-Celtic, except for the Celtiberian language which is Q-Celtic, and have had a definite influence on all the Romance languages.
Read more about this topic: Continental Celtic Languages
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