Question about Brennos' interview

[ziegenpeter]

Good day fellow EB-Fans!
So I was reading the interview with Brennus/Brennos and stumbled upon the passage where he states that Brythonic and Iron Age Irish weren't Celts. He also says that he doesnt like the term itself. So I was wondering, if that term is so unclear, how can you say that they weren't? They spoke a 'celtic' language right? Or at least a language very close to Gaulish. As you can see my knowledge about this subject is very limited, please help my to broaden it.
Regards

[Maeran]

I thought Brennus explained it well enough. I'll try to do a stripped down version for clarity.

The British and Irish had the material culture called 'La Tene' by archeologists. An archeological culture doesn't necessarily mean an ethnic culture (e.g. if my car is from a French manufacturer, it doesn't mean I am French).
On the continent, Herodotus and Caesar together place a group of La Tene (maybe Halstatt for Herodotus) peoples in modern day southern France who are ethnically called 'Celts/Keltoi'.

Later on, in the 18th Century, Edward Lluyd proposed that the British languages that were not English formed a group that was closely related to Gallic.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Lluyd
As such Irish, Scottish and Welsh (and Cornish, but that was nearly extinct at the time) became called 'Celtic' although no-one had ever called them that before. But it soon became a foundation of nationalist movements in each country, although it hadn't been previously.

The disconnection between the classical celts and the modern day idea of celtic identity is what Brennus is trying to underline. In the classical period no-one ever called a Briton celtic.

[ziegenpeter]

Ok archeological culture doesnt equal ethnic culture, but what else have we got? Especially, when those Peoples spoke languages which shared a common ancenstor.
What you are saying is that "Celtoi" was a greco-roman term for mainland "celts" (or only gauls? I didnt get that) and only because they spoke similar languages and had archeological similarities, you couldnt call the iron age irish and british "celts".

Sooooo what term is there? How do we call this linguistic-archeological cultural continuum spanning from scotland to iberia, from armorica to galatia? Or are there hints that they werent related culturally?

[Brennus]

Sorry it took so long to answer this.

Within modern Celtic archaeology there are two opposing camps; Celticist, who see the aforementioned linguistic-archaeological cultural continuum, and anti-Celticists (like myself) who prefer to see a more complex pattern. In truth there are a variety of cultural differences which lead us to think that the "Celts" were not nearly as uniform as previously theorised. One of the first to be identified is the fact that house styles differed considerably. In temperate continental Europe (except for a few isolated finds in Normandy which appear to be the result of British immigrants) people inhabited rectilinear houes, the same is also true for Celtiberia. However in Britain (except for late 1st century BC and 1st century AD south east Britain), north western Iberia and, we think, Ireland, people lived in round houses. The round house and rectilinear house pattern has is a continuation of Bronze Age traditions and predates the Hallstatt and La Tene cultures which we associate with the Celts.

The cultual continuum is also not as uniform as it may appear. The Celtiberians did not make use of the La Tene style, except for a few imports from Gaul, and neither did southern Ireland or Galatia. The Britons, although usually classified as being part of the La Tene world, had a variant of La Tene which is unique enough to warrant it being ascribed its own typological sequence. Nor can we, with certainty, link the British style to the continental style and its developments. Also, within the continental style we find variations, most notably in Hungary where a regionalised style known as Dragon La Tene exists. The Gauls around Robertesque and in Bohemia produced stone sculptures whilst those else where produced wooden sculptures, or in some case no sculptures at all. Also a supposed cultural continuum doesn't explain why some Celts adopted coinage and some did not. Nor does it explain why those Celts who adopted coinage based their coinage on different Mediterranean models; the Belgae based their coinage on Tarentine and the Macedonian coinage of Phillip II, those east of the Rhine used the coinage of Alexander the Great, the Celtiberians used Roman and Punic coinage as the basis of their issues whilst the Arverni used Rhodian, Massaliote and Macedonian coinage. The Britons adopted Belgic coinage but then changed it so much that the later issues bear no similarity to the original Belgic coins. Likewise with the adoption of writing, the Gauls adopted the Greek alphabet, the Celtiberians used the Iberian and then the Latin script whilst some Britons used the Latin script whilst the Irish developed their own script, ogham.

It is also theorised that, until about c.200 BC, the phrase "Celt" was not commonplace among Celtic peoples. As a result of mercenary service in the Mediterranean and Near East and contact with Mediterranean societies who used the term, Celt was adopted by more people in Iberia and temperate Europe as a means of identifying themselves. However, until the 18th century, no-one in Britain or Ireland (except possibly the Belgae and Parisii) referred to themselves as Celts.

[Rex Somnorum]

What are the linguistic differences though? Modern day England and Germany vary considerably yet both countries speak Germanic languages.

[Dargaron]

So, would the proper way to use the term Celtic be similar to the proper use of the term "Semitic," to refer to a large group of related languages/peoples (depending on the context) that are more-or-less related to each other? So, no one would speak "Celtic," they would speak a Gallic, Brythonic, Goidilic, Celtiberian, Volcae etc language, which is part of a larger Celtic language family. It seems like splitting hairs, but it emphasizes the locality rather than just painting with a wide brush of "Celtic."