Reply #134: (ahem) Pedant Alert!

[Bridget Burke]

Living Celtic languages are usually divided into 2 groups. Goidelic includes Irish (which is called Gaelic by those who wish to deny that Irish is the true language of Ireland), Scots Gaelic (brought to Pictland by Irish then called "Scots") & (revived) Manx. Brythonic includes Welsh, Breton & (revived) Cornish. Yes, I used Wikipedia to refresh my memory.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Celtic_languages

According to Wiki, Gallego (Galicia/Northwestern Spain) belongs to the "Western Ibero Romance" family--in the same family as Spanish, etc. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gallego

But the Gallegos are sometimes considered a "Celtic" people. Inspired amateur Bob Quinn has a different take on the "Celtic" business; he speaks of the Atlantean peoples. That is, cultures living on the Atlantic seaboard & Islands of Europe, linked for thousands of years. NOTHING to do with Atlantis! He extends the area of influence north to Scandinavia--no surprise! And South to Morocco & into the Mediterranean. (My long-ago Medieval lit class mentioned the Egyptian roots of early Irish monasticism. But I never bothered to ask--how did this happen?) Quinn also sees non-"Celtic" influences in Irish; he does speak it.
www.lilliputpress.ie/listbook.html?oid=2733139

Time to get out those Irish tapes. I know English (no surprise), a fair amount of Spanish, a bit of Latin & traces of German. Therefore, I can at least see the patterns in many other Indo-European languages. Irish has me stymied. But it also stymied JRR Tolkien, so I don't feel so bad.