8. Celtic Languages were many and varied.
The Celts spoke a variety of dialects which all sprang from a common root, believed to be the language of urnfield culture. The oldest records of a Celtic language come from the sixth century BC in northern Italy, in the region once known as Cisalpine Gaul. The language of the inscriptions is known as Lepontic dialect and is just one of the known ancient Celtic languages, another being Gaulish. Certain Celtic regions developed their own alphabets, as seen in Celtiberian inscriptions on the Botorrita plaques dating to 200 BC. However, the Celts were also happy to borrow other people’s alphabets. In Massalia, inscriptions were discovered dating to the La Tene period, written in Gaulish — using the Greek alphabet.
