Editing Celts (section)

===Linguistic evidence===
{{Main|Proto-Celtic language}}
{{Further|Celtic toponymy}}

The [[Proto-Celtic language]] is usually dated to the Late Bronze Age.<ref name="ChadCorc" /> The earliest records of a Celtic language are the [[Lepontic]] inscriptions of [[Cisalpine Gaul]] (Northern Italy), the oldest of which pre-date the [[La Tène period]]. Other early inscriptions, appearing from the early La Tène period in the area of [[Marseille|Massilia]], are in [[Gaulish language|Gaulish]], which was written in the [[Greek alphabet]] until the Roman conquest. [[Celtiberian language|Celtiberian]] inscriptions, using their own Iberian script, appear later, after about 200 BC. Evidence of [[Insular Celtic]] is available only from about 400 AD, in the form of [[Primitive Irish]] [[Ogham inscriptions]].{{Citation needed|date=April 2022}}

Besides epigraphic evidence, an important source of information on early Celtic is [[toponymy]] (place names).<ref>e.g. Patrick Sims-Williams, ''Ancient Celtic Placenames in Europe and Asia Minor'', Publications of the [[Philological Society]], No. 39 (2006);
Bethany Fox, 'The P-Celtic Place-Names of North-East England and South-East Scotland', ''The Heroic Age'', 10 (2007), {{cite web |url= http://www.heroicage.org/issues/10/fox.html |title=Fox—The P-Celtic Place-Names of North-East England and South-East Scotland |access-date=9 January 2018 |url-status=live |archive-url= http://archive.wikiwix.com/cache/20180111041001/http://www.heroicage.org/issues/10/fox.html |archive-date=11 January 2018}} (also available at [http://www.alarichall.org.uk/placenames/fox.htm Fox: P-Celtic Place-Names]).{{Dead link|date=July 2018 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}
See also [[List of Celtic place names in Portugal]].</ref>