The remaining Insular Celtic languages may be divided into two categories "Brythonic" (coming from Britain) or "Goidelic" (coming from Gaelic). Both likely decended from the same language, although some hold the two are completely seperate. The main divergence came over the p/q sound (Gaels opting for a Q (Ceann 'head'') and the Britons opting for P (Penn 'head')).
The Gaels believed that, after the tower of Babel and the seperation of all the languages on Earth, the King Goidel went to the tower and there listened to all the various languages. From these he picked the most beautiful sounds and created the Goidelic language. While certainly mythical this shows that the early Irish were very concious of how beautiful the Celtic languages could be, after having been shaped for centuries by bardic poetry and harp singing.
Take some time a try out a phrase or two! And keep an eye out for the upcoming Celtic Society Language learning CD where we will walk you through sample conversations, proverbs, and general phrases in all the Celtic languages!
