Italo-Celtic, or Celto-Italic, is a hypothetical grouping of the Italic and Celtic branches of the Indo-European language family on the basis of features shared by these two branches and no others. There is controversy over the cause of the similarities; they are usually considered innovations likely to have developed after the breakup of Proto-Indo-European, though it is also possible some are shared conservative features retained from Proto-Indo-European itself and lost elsewhere. The archaeological horizon most often associated with a hypothetical Italo-Celtic language, before the split of Italic and Celtic, is the Bell Beaker culture.
Facts
Disputed
RegionHypothesized to have been spoken in the 3rd or 2nd millennium BCE in south-central Europe, possibly associated with the Bell Beaker culture 1 Applies only if the hypothesis that Proto-Italo-Celtic was a real historical language is accepted; not every scholar accepts the grouping Proto-Language StatusProposed and partly reconstructed, Kortlandt attempted a reconstruction of Proto-Italo-Celtic in 2007, but the underlying grouping remains contested among scholars 1 The Italo-Celtic grouping itself is not universally accepted, so the proto-language it implies is debated rather than settled Sources
1. Italo-Celtic, Wikipedia
Interpretations section
Scholars who believe that Proto-Italo-Celtic was an identifiable historical language estimate that it was spoken in the 3rd or 2nd millennium BCE somewhere in South-Central Europe, possibly the Bell Beaker culture.
Interpretations section, Kortlandt discussion
in 2007, Kortlandt attempted a reconstruction of a Proto-Italo-Celtic
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