This joint honours programme gives you the opportunity to develop your social scientific understanding of language while exploring the extraordinarily rich cultures of theAt all levels of study on this four-year programme, we offer courses in the languages, literatures, histories, and cultures of the Celtic world.You have the option to study Scottish Gaelic and build up to advanced competency in the language.A choice of pathways through the programme enables you to develop your own interests in particular areas, periods and disciplines of Celtic studies.Our expertise covers:Scottish Gaelic from the late Middle Ages to the present, including language policy and revitalisationthe medieval literary tradition in Early Irish and Medieval Welsh - the most extensive in the whole of Europethe rich oral tradition recorded from the 18th century to the present daypoetry from the 18th century golden age of Gaelic literature19th and 20th century responses to the rapid social, cultural, and linguistic changes in countries where the Celtic languages are spokenthe writing, song, and media production emerging from the lively and varied contemporary cultural scene in Gaelic Scotland, Ireland, and WalesIf you choose to study Scottish Gaelic, it does not matter if you are a complete beginner we stream our Year 1 classes to suit all levels of prior knowledge or none.You can also learn a medieval Celtic language at honours level (Years 3 and 4). Both Old Irish and Middle Welsh are available. For this path, you will study Celtic civilisation and literature in Years 1 and 2, with texts presented in English translation.Linguistics examines how language works, describing how sounds, words, sentences and conversations combine to express and create meaning.You will also study:the uses of language in everyday lifethe ways in which language varies across society and evolves over timehow language is mastered by childrenAs you progress through the programme, you will have the opportunity to plan and test scientific hypotheses about linguistic phenomena using specialist linguistics and phonetics equipment.Linguistics courses of particular relevance to students of Celtic cover:the speech sounds of the world's languagesvariation in the languages of the worldthe structure and history of world languages