The present and future situation of the Celtic languages is intrinsically interesting. Two are moribund, while the other four possess varying degrees of strength and institutional support. From the weakest to the strongest, however, there are pressing concerns about stability and maintenance, to say nothing of possible revitalisation. All are faced with powerful linguistic neighbours, and all have heartlands under pressure from the surrounding non-Celtic-speaking "mainstream". The activist community remains small and sometimes internally fragmented, and it struggles to transform a broad but passive societal goodwill--one that has, quite importantly, grown in recent years--into energised support for the language. But the Celtic languages also have a real and generalisable significance for other "small"-language settings, inasmuch as the features that bear upon their health and development are commonly found elsewhere. This article focuses mainly upon the difficulties besetting these varieties.