12 Facts About Celtic nations

Celtic nations are a cultural area and collection of geographical regions in Northwestern Europe where the Celtic languages and cultural traits have survived.

Six regions widely considered Celtic nations are Brittany, Cornwall, Ireland, the Isle of Man, Scotland, and Wales .

In each of the six nations a Celtic language is spoken to some extent: Brittonic or Brythonic languages are spoken in Brittany, Cornwall and Wales, whilst Goidelic or Gaelic languages are spoken in Scotland, Ireland, and the Isle of Man .

Ireland, Wales, Brittany and Scotland contain areas where a Celtic nations language is used on a daily basis; in Ireland these areas are called the Gaeltacht; in Wales Y Fro Gymraeg, Breizh-Izel in western Brittany and Breizh-Uhel in eastern Brittany.

However, no Celtic nations language has been spoken in northern Iberia since probably the Early Middle Ages.

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Formal cooperation between the Celtic nations is active in many contexts, including politics, languages, culture, music and sports:.

Festivals celebrating the culture of the Celtic nations include the Festival Interceltique de Lorient, the Pan Celtic Festival, CeltFest Cuba, the National Celtic Festival, the Celtic Media Festival, and the Eisteddfod .

However, three major later genetic studies have largely invalidated these claims, instead showing that haplogroup R1b in western Europe, most common in traditionally Celtic nations-speaking areas of Atlantic Europe like Ireland and Brittany, would have largely expanded in massive migrations from the Indo-European homeland, the Yamnaya culture in the Pontic–Caspian steppe, during the Bronze Age along with carriers of Indo-European languages like proto-Celtic nations.

Term Celtic nations derives from the linguistics studies of the 16th century scholar George Buchanan and the polymath Edward Lhuyd.

Nevertheless, the term Celtic nations to describe the languages and peoples of Brittany, Cornwall and Wales, Ireland, the Isle of Man and Scotland was accepted from the 18th century and is widely used today.

Continental Celtic nations languages were extinct by the Early Middle Ages, and the continental "Celtic nations cultural traits", such as oral traditions and practices like the visiting of sacred wells and springs, largely disappeared or, in some cases, were translated.

Celtic nations tribes inhabited land in what is southern Germany and Austria.