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Gaulish language

The '''Gaulish''' (also '''Gallic''') '''language''' is the Celtic language that was spoken in Gaul (Cisalpine Gaul|Cisalpine and Gaul|Transalpine), Switzerland, eastern Belgium, Luxembourg and western Germany before being supplanted by Vulgar Latin, Dutch and German from around the 4th century A.D onwards. Gaulish is paraphyletically grouped with Celtiberian language|Celtiberian, Lepontic language|Lepontic, and Galatian language|Galatian as Continental Celtic. The Lepontic language is sometimes considered to be a dialect of Gaulish. Gaulish is a P-Celtic language, though some inscriptions (e.g. the Coligny Calendar) show Q-Celtic characteristics. It has a very close relationship to Insular Celtic (Goidelic and British language (Celtic)|Brythonic), and many forms are identical in the two. The Gaulish language is known from several hundred inscriptions on Rock (geology)|stone, on ceramic vessels and other artifacts, and on coins, and occasionally on metal (lead, and on one occasion zinc). Epigraphical remains have been uncovered across all of what used to be Roman Gaul, which covered the west of modern France, as well as parts of Switzerland, Italy, Germany, and Belgium.

History

The earliest Continental Celtic inscriptions, dating to as early as the sixth century BC, are in Lepontic language|Lepontic, found in Cisalpine Gaul and were written in a form of the Old Italic alphabet. Inscriptions in the Greek alphabet from the third century BC have been found in the area near the mouths of the Rhône River|Rhône, while later inscriptions dating to Roman Gaul are mostly in the Latin alphabet. According to his treatise ''On the Detection and Overthrow of the So-Called Gnosis'', Saint Irenaeus of Lyon still needed to preach in Gaulish in his diocese during the last quarter of the second century AD.Adv. haer., book I, praef. 3; book III, 4,1. Saint Jerome (ca. 340-425) remarks in a commentary on St. Paul's ''Epistle to the Galatians'' that the Treveri spoke almost the same language as the Galatians. Gregory of Tours wrote in the sixth century AD that a sanctuary in the Auverne was "called Vasso Galate in the Gallic tongue", which has been taken to mean that Gaulish was still spoken in the region in his time.hist. Franc., book I, 32. However, his remark primarily refers to the linguistic origin of the place name, not necessarily to the survival of the language.

Phonology

- 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: t^s χ 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, probably prior to the attestation of Gaulish. In general, long diphthongs became short diphthongs and then collapsed into long vowels. Long vowels shortened before nasals in Auslaut. 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 Fortis and lenis|lenis, unlike Latin, which distinguished voiced occlusives with a lenis realization from voiceless occlusives with a Fortis and lenis|fortis realization, hence confusions like ''Glanum'' for ''Clanum'', ''vergobretos'' for ''vercobreto'', ''Britannia'' for ''Pritannia''Paul Russell, ''An Introduction to the Celtic Languages'', (London: Longman, 1995), 206-7..

Orthography

The alphabet of Lugano used in Cisalpine Gaul for Lepontic:
- AEIKLMNOPRSTΘUVXZ The alphabet of Lugano does not distinguish voiced consonant|voiced and unvoiced occlusives, 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 χ, 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 (letter)|Sigma in the Eastern Greek alphabet looks like a C (lunate sigma). All Greek letters were used except phi and Psi (letter)|psi. Latin alphabet (monumental and cursive) in use in Roman Gaul:
- ABCDÐEFGHIKLMNOPQRSTUVXZ
- ''abcdðefghiklmnopqrstuvxz'' G and K are sometimes used interchangeably (especially after R). ''Ð''/''ð'', ''ds'' and ''s'' may represent /t^s/. X, ''x'' is for χ or /ks/. Q is only used rarely (e.g. ''Sequanni'', ''Equos'') and may represent an archaism (a retained *k^w) or a local Q-dialect. 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.

Sound laws

- Gaulish changed Proto-Indo-European language|PIE voiceless consonant|voiceless labiovelar consonant|labiovelars ''k^w'' to ''p'' (hence Proto-Celtic language|P-Celtic), a development also observed in Brythonic languages|Brythonic (as well as Greek language|Greek and some Italic languages), while the other Celtic, 'Q-Celtic', retained the labiovelar. Thus the Gaulish word for "son" was ''mapos''Delmarre 2003: 216-217, contrasting with Primitive Irish language|Primitive Irish ''*maqqas'' (attested in the genitive, ''maqqi''), which became ''mac'' (genitive ''mic'') in modern Irish. In modern Welsh the word ''map'' (''mab'') (or its contracted form ''ap''(''ab'')) is found in surnames. Similarly one Gaulish word for "horse" was ''epos'' (in Southern Gaulish Q-Celtic ''eqos'') while Old Irish language|Old Irish has ''ech'', Modern Gaelic (Irish and Scottish) ''each'', Manx ''egh''; all derived from Proto-Indo-European language|Indo-European ''*eḱu̯os''Delmarre 2003: 163-164.
- Voiced labiovelar ''g^w'' became ''w'', e. g. ''g^wediūmi'' > ''uediiumi'' "I pray" (cf. Irish ''guidhim'', Welsh ''gweddi'' "to pray").
- PIE ''t^st'' became /t^s/, spelled ''ð'', e.g. ''*nedz-tamo'' > ''neððamon'' (cf. Irish ''nesamh'' "nearest", Welsh ''nesaf'' "next").
- PIE ''eu'' became ''ou'', and later ''ō'', e.g. ''*teutā'' > ''touta'' > ''tōta'' "tribe" (cf. Irish ''tuath'', Welsh ''tud'' "people").
- Additionally, intervocalic /st/ became the affricate ts (alveolar stop + voiceless alveolar stop) and intervocalic /sr/ became ðr and /str/ became þr. Finally, when a labial or velar stop came before either a /t/ or /s/ the two sounds merged into the fricative x.

Morphology

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 vulgar Latin in Roman Gaul.

Noun cases

Gaulish had six or seven declension|casesLambert 2003 pp.51–67. As in Latin, Gaulish had nominative case|nominative, vocative case|vocative, accusative case|accusative, genitive case|genitive, and dative case|dative cases; however, where Latin had an ablative case|ablative, Gaulish had an instrumental case|instrumental and may also have had a locative case. Greater epigraphical evidence attests common cases (nominative and accusative) and common stems (-o- and -a- stems) than for cases less frequently used in inscriptions, or rarer -i-, -n- and -r- stems. The following table summarizes the best attested case endings. A blank means that the form is unattested. } inscribed in Latin cursive on a ceramic plate, is our most important source for Gaulish numerals. It was probably written in a ceramic factory, referring to furnaces numbered 1 to 10. A number of short inscriptions are found on spindle whorls and are among the most recent finds in the Gaulish language. Spindle whorls were apparently given to young girls by their suitors and bear such inscriptions as:
- ''moni gnatha gabi / buððutton imon'' (l. 119) "my girl, take my kiss"
- ''geneta imi / daga uimpi'' (l. 120) '"I am a young girl, good (and) pretty". Inscriptions found in Switzerland are rare, but many modern Swiss placenames are derived from Gaulish names as they are in the rest of Gaul. There is a statue of a seated goddess with a bear, Artio, found in Muri bei Bern|Muri near Berne, with a Latin inscription DEAE ARTIONI LIVINIA SABILLINA, suggesting a Gaulish ''Artiū'' "Bear (goddess)". A number of coins with Gaulish inscriptions in the Greek alphabet have been found in Switzerland, e.g. RIG IV Nrs. 92 (Lingones) and 267 (Leuci). A sword dating to the La Tène culture|La Tène period was found in Port, Berne|Port near Bienne, its blade inscribed with KORICIOC (Korisos), probably the name of the smith. The most notable inscription found in Helvetii|Helvetic parts is the ''Berne Zinc tablet'', inscribed ΔΟΒΝΟΡΗΔΟ ΓΟΒΑΝΟ ΒΡΕΝΟΔΩΡ ΝΑΝΤΑΡΩΡ, and apparently dedicated to Gobannus, the Celtic god of smithcraft. Caesar relates that census accounts written in the Greek alphabet were found among the Helvetii.

Notes

References

*
- Delamarre, Xavier. ''Dictionnaire de la langue gauloise'', 2nd ed. Paris: Editions Errance, 2003.
- Eska, Joseph F. and D. Ellis Evans. "Continental Celtic", ''The Celtic Languages'', ed. Martin J. Ball. London: Routledge, 1993.
- . Also available as an e-book, ISBN 1-85109-445-8.
- Lambert, Pierre-Yves. ''La langue gauloise'', 2nd ed. Paris: Editions Errance, 2003.
- Lejeune, Michel. ''Lepontica'' (Monographies linguistiques, 1). Paris: Société d’edition "les Belles Lettres", 1971. *
- ''Recueil des inscriptions gauloises'' (XLVe supplément à «GALLIA»). ed. Paul-Marie Duval et al. 4 vols. Paris: CNRS, 1985-2002. ISBN 2-271-05844-9
- Russell, Paul. ''An Introduction to the Celtic Languages''. London: Longman, 1995.
- Savignac, Jean-Paul. ''Dictionnaire français-gaulois''. Paris: Éditions de la Différence, 2004.
- Savignac, Jean-Paul. ''Les Gaulois, leurs écrits retrouvés : « Merde à César »''. Paris: Éditions de la Différence, 1994.
- Solinas, Patrizia (1995). ‘Il celtico in Italia’. ''Studi Etruschi'' 60:311-408
- Woodward, Roger G., ed. "Celtic Languages". ''Cambridge Encyclopedia of the World's Ancient Languages''. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004.