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The Celts is a group of Indo-European peoples in Europe and Anatolia distinguished by their use of the Celtic languages and other cultural identities.
The precise geographic spread of the ancient Celts is debated. According to one hypothesis, the Celtic languages’ general source appeared in Central Europe around 1200 BC (Late Bronze Age Urnfield culture).
According to another hypothesis offered in the 19th century, the first Celtic appeared in central Europe around c. 800–450 BC (Iron Age Hallstatt culture). According to this hypothesis, Celtic culture has expanded by trans-cultural dispersion or migration to the British Isles, France, Iberian Peninsula, northern Italy, the Low Countries, Bohemia, Poland, Central Europe, and Anatolia.
The earliest undisputed direct representatives of a Celtic language are the Lepontic inscriptions beginning in the sixth century BC. Continental Celtic languages are attested almost only by inscriptions and place-names. Below the map of the Celtic Nations with their native place names.
The Celtic Nations with their native place names
Reddit user: oglach
With the extension of the Roman Empire and moving Germanic tribes in the mid-first millennium, Celtic culture and Insular Celtic languages had become limited to Ireland, parts of Great Britain, the Isle of Man, and Brittany. By the sixth century, the Continental Celtic languages were no longer in wide use.
Group of Celtic languages of Britain, Ireland, and Brittany are varied into the Gaels (Irish, Manx, Scottish) and the Celtic Britons (Bretons, Cornish, Welsh). Nowadays, Breton, Gaelic, Irish, Scottish Gaelic, Welsh are still using in parts of their historical areas, and Cornish and Manx are experiencing a rebirth.
