Gaulish language

The Gaulic language was a language belonging to the group of Celtic languages of the Indo-European family. It was spoken in the area of ancient Gaul by the Gallic peoples, before Vulgar Latin at the end of the Roman Empire was imposed in those lands. The language is known from a few hundred inscriptions on stone, ceramics or other artifacts and coins, as well as on sheets of lead (and on one occasion zinc). These are found throughout ancient Gaul, that is, especially in modern-day France but also in parts of Switzerland, Italy, Germany and Belgium.

Galic is grouped together with Celtiberian, Lepontic and Galatian as continental Celtic languages.

History

Galic was at one time one of the most widespread languages in Europe despite being a dead language today, given the extension of the Celtic peoples on the continent before the Roman conquest of practically all of their territories. territories. It is hypothesized that the continental Celtic languages, although they did not form a unified language, must have been highly intelligible among themselves, given the uniformity of place names of Celtic origin throughout Europe. Thus, the Lepontic is sometimes called Cisalpine Gaul given its similarity to it and the Galatian, according to Saint Jerome in his writings, was very similar to the Gaul of Trier. It is estimated that Gaul survived at least until the V century or VI d. c.

Writing

The knowledge available about Gaulish today is obtained from various sources, such as words, names of people and tribes and toponyms from Latin and Greek sources or borrowings adopted by French, but especially it is due to hundreds of inscriptions found. However, these usually consist of only a few words, usually anthroponyms, within stereotyped and very fragmented phrases. Even so, Gaulish is the continental Celtic language for which there is the most written evidence. Throughout its history it was written in both the Latin alphabet and the Greek or Etruscan alphabet (Lugano alphabet).

About a hundred inscriptions in Gaulish are preserved, dating from the 3rd century BC. C., but most of the material comes from I BC. C., and although there are no inscriptions there are testimonies of having been spoken until the 4th century AD. C. Most inscriptions tend to be simple, which generally makes them easier to interpret.

Likewise, there are three extensive stone inscriptions, two of them are bilingual, in Gaulish and Latin: the funerary inscription from Todi (Umbria) and the dedication from Vercelli (eastern Piedmont). These inscriptions apparently date from a time when the political and linguistic influence of Rome was already considerable in northern Italy (III century BC or later).

Between the 70s and the mid-80s, three other inscriptions in cursive Latin alphabet of great length but difficult interpretation were found; one was Lezoux's fragmentary Plato, about 50 words, which appears to contain a list of moral maxims; another is the Chamaliéres slate plaque, with just over 50 words belonging to the beginning of the 1st century AD. C.; and finally another inscription also on slate, found in L'Hospitalet-du-Larzac, of approximately 200 words and dated around 100 AD. C., which includes magical imprecations.

The Latin alphabet (both monumental and cursive) that was used in Roman Gaul was:

ABCDÐEFGHIKLMNOPQRSTUVXZ

abcdðefghiklmnopqrstuvxz

G and K were sometimes used interchangeably. Ð, ð, ds and s may have represented t^s. X, x represents [χ] or /ks/. EV can be exchanged together with OV (e.g. L-3, L-12). Q is used rarely (e.g. Sequanni, Equos) and may have been an archaism. Ð and ð were used to represent the letter Tau Gallicum, which has not yet been added to Unicode. In contrast to Ð the central bar extends across the entire glyph. Inscriptions in this alphabet come from the period after Caesar's conquest of Gaul (52 BC) and have been found especially in the central area of present-day France. To about 15 short stone inscriptions, mainly funerary monuments and dedications, we must add the Coligny calendar, a bronze plate, preserved in 73 fragments that were originally 1.48 m wide and 0.9 m high, being Its origin probably dates back to the end of the II century.

The Eastern Greek alphabet used in Transalpine Gaul was:

αβγδεγθικλμρστυχω

χ is used for [χ], θ for t^s, ου for /u/, /ū/, /w/, η and ω for both the short and long /e/, /ē/, /o/, /ō/, while ι is for the /i / short and ει for /ī/. It should be noted that Sigma in the Eastern Greek alphabet looks like a C (lunate sigma). This alphabet was used mainly in the Marseille region, an area formerly colonized by the Greeks.

The Lugano alphabet, a variant of the Etruscan, used in Cisalpine Gaul for the Lepontic was:

AEIKLMNOPRST urgeUVXZ

The Lugano alphabet does not distinguish between voiceless and voiced stops, that is, P represents /b/ or /p/, T stands for / t/ or /d/, K for /g/ or /k/. Z probably represents t^s. U /u/ and V /w/ are distinguished. Θ was probably used for /t/ and X for /g/. Six inscriptions in this alphabet have been found in northern Italy.

Linguistic characteristics

As mentioned above, most of the knowledge we have today about Gaulish is due to various inscriptions, but also to place names, anthroponyms and vocabulary glosses in Gaulish attested by classical authors. In this way, about 1000 words are known, and others reconstructed through British Celtic and Gaelic words, as well as other Indo-European languages, can be added to our entire corpus; In total it can be stated that the known Gallic vocabulary exceeds 5000 words, being the best accredited extinct Celtic language.

Phonology

Vocals

The Gaulish vowel system distinguishes five timbres and two degrees of quantity:

Consonants

On the other hand, the consonant system would be more or less the following:

In addition, it must be kept in mind that:

[χ] is a /k/ ante /t/ phone.

One of the characteristics of Rooster is to be a Celtic-P language, transforming the Indo-European labiovelar sound /*k^w/ to /p/:

petri - 'four'.

It can also be stated that within the Gaulish language there were dialectal differences coinciding with the diversity of Gallic tribes, being able to define Eastern Gaulish or Volsco-Boyo, Central Gaulish, Cisalpalpine or Southwestern Gaulish, Narbonne, Aquitanian and Belgian. The possible Gallic Aquitanian dialect should not be confused with the unrelated Aquitanian language. However, other classifications only distinguish three dialects: Transalpine Gaulish, Cisalpine Gaulish and Galatian (considering the latter originally a Gaulish dialect).

Grammar

As will be seen below, grammatically Gaulish has many similarities with Latin. In its morphology, Gaulish presents a nominal inflection with typical Indo-European endings, normally distinguishing seven cases: nominative, vocative, accusative, genitive, dative-ablative and instrumental, which function in a very similar way to the Latin cases.

Likewise, as in Latin, there are isolated cases in some locative names and the declensions are classified according to the ending of the nominative. For example, the themes in -a and in -o, compared to Latin, are the following:

Personal pronouns, as in Latin, are declined depending on the case, in fact having forms similar to the Latin ones. In nominative they are:

In Gaulish we find interrogatives similar to the Latin ones, however showing the change *kw > p.:

pe-, 'quien' [indoeur., *kweiLatin, qui]

*po(n), 'when' [indoeur., *kwo(m)Latin quum 한]

Regarding verb conjugation, the verbal endings are very similar to those of Latin:

pis.si.u.miI'll see. spec.ie.m],

regu, 'enderezo [lat. Rego]

♪[Latin] capisIrish, gabi-]

ratet, 'bendice'

auot, 'doce'

Its linguistic typology is Subject Object Verb, being different from the insular Celtic languages, with a VSO typology.

The numbering in Gaulish is as follows: 1 cintuxo(s), 2 al(l)os, 3 trito(s), tr(itios), 4 petuar(ios), 5 pinpetos, 6 suexos, 7 sextametos, 8 oxtumeto(s), 9 namet(s), 10 decametos.

The imperative, also like in Latin, is characterized by the absence of ending:

da 'Dá(selo)' [Latin, da]

gabi[Latin] cape].

Also the passive voice, as in Latin, is characterized by the presence of r:

dedorIt's done.

Lexicon

Some of the Gaulish prepositions are:

ad 'do it, next to'

ambi, 'rounder'

ande, 'in front of'

are[both], 'before, before'

au-, 'from'

with, 'con'

of / di, 'from (outside)'

eni / in, 'en'

ex, 'out of'

inter, 'between'

ris [pens], 'by'

ro [ backwards], 'in favor of'

which coincide almost exactly with those of Latin: ad, amb(itus), ante, prae, ab/au, cum, de, in, ex, < i>inter, per, pro.

The ordinal numbers, obtained from La Graufesenque graffiti, are:

1. cintux[so] (galés) cyntafOld Irish cétnae)
2. there (galés) ailOld Irish aile = Other)
3. tritios (galés) trydyddOld Irish treid)
4. pentuary[ios (galés) pedweryddOld Irish cethramad)
5. pines (Ml Welsh) pymhet (now) pumed), ancient Irish cóiced)
6. Annexes (maybe confused with AnnexesWelsh. chwechedOld Irish Six.)
7. Sixth report (galés) seithfedOld Irish sechtmad)
8. oxtumeto[s] (galés) wythfedOld Irish ochtmad)
9. namet[os (galés) nawfedOld Irish Nomad)
10. decametos, decometos (galés) degfedOld Irish dechmadCeltiber dekametam)