or Gallic is the name given to the
Celt ic language that was spoken in
Gaul before the
Vulgar Latin of the late
Roman Empire became dominant in
Roman Gaul . The language is known from several hundred inscriptions on
Stone , on
Ceramic vessels and other artifacts, and on
Coin s, and occasionally on metal (
Lead , and on one occasion
Zinc ). They are found in the entire area of Roman Gaul, i.e., mostly in the area of the west of
France , as well as parts of
Switzerland ,
Italy ,
Germany , and
Belgium (Meid 1994).
Gaulish is
Paraphyletic ally grouped with
Celtiberian ,
Lepontic , and
Galatian as
Continental Celtic .
The earliest Continental Celtic inscriptions, dating to as early as the 6th century BC, are in
Lepontic (sometimes considered a dialect of Gaulish), found in
Gallia Cisalpina and were written in a form of the
Old Italic Alphabet . Inscriptions in the
Greek Alphabet from the
3rd Century BC have been found in the area near the mouths of the
Rhône , while later inscriptions dating to
Roman Gaul are mostly in the
Latin Alphabet .
Gregory Of Tours wrote in the
6th Century that some people in his area could still speak Gaulish.
- vowels:
- ---short: a, e, i, o u
- ---long: ā, ē, ī, (ō), ū
- ---diphthongs: ai, ei, oi, au, eu, ou
- semivowels: w, y
- occlusives:
- ---voiceless: p, t, k
- ---voiced: b, d, g
- resonants
- ---nasals: m, n
- ---liquids r, l
- sibilant: s
- affricate: ts
{Link without Title} is an allophone of /k/ before /t/.
The diphthongs all transformed over the course of the historical period. ''Ai'' and ''oi'' collapsed into long ''ī''; ''eu'' merged with ''ou'', both becoming long ''ō''. ''Ei'' became long ''ē'' early on. In general, long diphthongs became short diphthongs and then collapsed into long vowels.
Other transformations include the transformation of unstressed ''i'' into ''e''. ''Ln'' became ''ll'', a stop + ''s'' became ''ss'', and a nasal + velar became /ng/ + velar.
The occlusives also seem to have been both
Lenis , as compared to Latin which distinguished voiced occlusives with a lenis realization from voiceless occlusives with a
Fortis realization, hence confusions like ''Glanum'' for ''Clanum'', ''vergobretos'' for ''vercobreto'', ''Britannia'' for ''Pritannia''Russell, Paul. ''An Introduction to the Celtic Languages''. London: Longman, 1995: p. 206-7.
The alphabet of
Lugano used in
Gallia Cisalpina for
Lepontic :
:AEIKLMNOPRSTΘUVXZ
The alphabet of Lugano does not distinguish
Voiced and unvoiced
Occlusive s, i.e. P represents /b/ or /p/, T is for /d/ or /t/, K for /g/ or /k/.
Z is probably for /t
s/. U /u/ and V /w/ are distinguished only in one early inscription. Θ is probably for /t/ and X for /g/ (Lejeune 1971, Solinas 1985).
The
Eastern Greek Alphabet used in southern
Gallia Transalpina :
:αβγδεζηθικλμνξοπρστυχω
χ is used for
{Link without Title} , θ for /t
s/, ου for /u/, /ū/, /w/,
η and ω for both long and short /e/, /ē/ and /o/, /ō/, while ι is for short /i/ and ει for /ī/. Note that the
Sigma in the Eastern Greek alphabet looks like a C (lunate sigma). All Greek letters were used except
Phi and
Psi .
Latin alphabet (monumental and cursive) in use in
Roman Gaul :
:ABCDÐEFGHIKLMNOPQRSTUVXZ
- kw). Ð and ð are used here to represent the letter ''Tau Gallicum'' (the Gaulish dental affricate), which has not yet been added to Unicode. In contrast to the Glyph for Ð, the central bar extends right across the glyph and also does not protrude outside it.
- Gaulish changed ''maqi'', which became ''mac'' in modern Irish. In modern Welsh the word ''map'' (''mab'') (or its contracted form ''ap''(''ab'')) is used to mean "son of". Similarly one Gaulish word for "horse" was ''epos'' while Old Irish has ''ech''; all derived from Indo-European ''---eqos'' (Delmarre 2003: 163-164)
- Voiced labiovelar ''gw'' became ''w'', e. g. ''gwediūmi'' > ''uediiumi'' "I pray" (cf. Old Irish ''guidiu'' "I pray", Welsh ''gweddi'' "to pray").
- PIE ''tst'' became /ts/, spelled ''ð'', e.g. ''---nedz-tamo'' > ''neððamon'' (cf. Old Irish ''nessam'' "nearest", Welsh ''nesaf'' "next").
- PIE ''eu'' became ''ou'', and later ''ō'', e.g. ''---teutā'' > ''touta'' > ''tōta'' "tribe" (cf. Old Irish ''tuath'', Welsh ''tud'' "people").
There was some areal (or genetic, see
Italo-Celtic ) similarity to Latin grammar, and the French historian A. Lot argued that this helped the rapid adoption of Latin in Roman Gaul.
Gaulish has six or seven
Cases (Lambert 2003 pp.51-67). In common with Latin it has
Nominative ,
Vocative ,
Accusative ,
Genitive , and
Dative ; where Latin has an
Ablative , Gaulish has an
Instrumental and may also have a
Locative . There is more evidence for common cases (nominative and accusative) and for common stems (-o- and -a- stems) than there is for cases less frequently used in inscriptions, or rarer stems such as -i-, -n- and occlusive. The following table summarizes the case endings which are most securely known. A blank means that the form is unattested.
In some cases a historical evolution is known, for example the dative singular of -a- stems is -ai in the oldest inscriptions, becoming first -e and finally -i.
Ordinal numerals from the
La Graufesenque Graffiti
#''cintus, cintuxos'' (Welsh ''cynt'' "before, in front", Breton ''kent'' "in front", Old Irish ''céta'', Modern Irish ''céad'' "first")
#''allos'' (Welsh ''ail'', Breton ''eil'', OIr ''aile'' 'other', Modern Irish ''eile'')
#''tritios'' (Welsh ''trydydd'', Breton ''trede'', OIr ''treide'', Modern Irish ''treas'')
#''petuarios'' (Welsh ''pedwerydd'', Breton ''pevare'', OIr ''cethramad'')
#''pinpetos'' (Welsh ''pumed'', Breton ''pempet'', OIr ''cóiced'')
#''suexos'' (maybe mistaken for ''suextos'', Welsh ''chweched'', Breton ''c'hwec'hved'', OIr ''seissed'')
#''sextametos'' (Welsh ''seithfed'', Breton ''seizhved'', OIr ''sechtmad'')
#''oxtumetos'' (Welsh ''wythfed'', Breton ''eizhved'', OIr ''ochtmad'')
#''nametos'' (Welsh ''nawfed'', Breton ''naved'', OIr ''nómad'')
#''decametos'', ''decometos'' (Welsh ''degfed'', Breton ''degvet'', OIr ''dechmad'', Celtiberian ''dekametam'')
The ancient Gaulish language was closer to
Latin than modern Gaelic languages are to modern Romance languages. The ordinal numerals in Latin are ''prímus, secundus/alter, tertius, quártus, quíntus, sextus, septimus, octávus, nónus, decimus''.
The majority of Gaulish sentences are SVO (subject-verb-object). However, other surface variations are attested: verb-initial, verb-medial, and verb-final. Verb-initial sentences can nonetheless be evaluated as pro-drop or imperative. Gaulish was certainly not a
Verb-second language, as evidenced by:
