Gaulish language

The Gaulish (also Gallic) language is the Celtic language that was spoken in Gaul before the Vulgar Latin of the late Roman Empire became dominant in Roman Gaul. Gaulish is paraphyletically grouped with Celtiberian, Lepontic, and Galatian as Continental Celtic. The Lepontic language is sometimes considered to be a dialect of Gaulish. Gaulish is a P-Celtic language.

The Gaulish language is known from several hundred inscriptions on stone, on ceramic vessels and other artifacts, and on coins, and occasionally on metal (lead, and on one occasion zinc). They are found in the entire area of Roman Gaul, which covered the west of modern France, as well as parts of Switzerland, Italy, Germany, and Belgium (Meid 1994).

History

The earliest Continental Celtic inscriptions, dating to as early as the sixth century BC, are in Lepontic (sometimes considered a dialect of Gaulish), 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, while later inscriptions dating to Roman Gaul are mostly in the Latin alphabet.

Gregory of Tours wrote in the sixth century AD that some inhabitants of his region could still speak Gaulish.

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 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^[1].

Orthography

RIG G-172 inscription ϹΕΓΟΜΑΡΟϹ ΟΥΙΛΛΟΝΕΟϹ ΤΟΟΥΤΙΟΥϹ ΝΑΜΑΥϹΑΤΙϹ ΕΙωΡΟΥ ΒΗΛΗ ϹΑΜΙ ϹΟϹΙΝ ΝΕΜΗΤΟΝ "Segomaros, son of Uillo, toutious (tribe leader) of Namausos, dedicated this sanctuary to Belesama"

The alphabet of Lugano used in Cisalpine Gaul for Lepontic:

AEIKLMNOPRSTΘUVXZ

The alphabet of Lugano does not distinguish 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 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

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 PIE voiceless labiovelars k^w to p (hence P-Celtic), a development also observed in Brythonic (as well as 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 *maqqos (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 used to mean "son of". Similarly one Gaulish word for "horse" was epos (in Southern Gaulish eqos) while Old Irish has ech, Modern Gaelic (Irish adn Scottish) each, Manx egh; all derived from Indo-European *eq^wos (Delmarre 2003: 163-164)

• Voiced labiovelar g^w became w, e. g. g^wediūmi > uediiumi "I pray" (cf. Old Irish guidiu "I pray", Welsh gweddi "to pray").

• PIE t^st became /t^s/, spelled ð, e.g. *nedz-tamo > neððamon (cf. Old Irish nessam "nearest", Welsh nesaf "next", Irish neasa [now only used as a girl's name]).

• PIE eu became ou, and later ō, e.g. *teutā > touta > tōta "tribe" (cf. Old 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 Latin in Roman Gaul.

Noun cases

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.

Numerals

Ordinal numerals from the La Graufesenque graffiti

1. cintus, cintuxos (Welsh cyntaf "first", Breton kent "in front", Old Irish céta, Modern Irish céad "first")
2. allos (Welsh ail, Breton eil, OIr aile 'other', Modern Irish eile)
3. tritios (Welsh trydydd, Breton trede, OIr treide, Modern Irish treas)
4. petuarios (Welsh pedwerydd, Breton pevare, OIr cethramad, Modern Irish ceathrú)
5. pinpetos (Welsh pumed, Breton pempet, OIr cóiced, Modern Irish cúigiú)
6. suexos (maybe mistaken for suextos, Welsh chweched, Breton c'hwec'hved, OIr seissed, Modern Irish séú)
7. sextametos (Welsh seithfed, Breton seizhved, OIr sechtmad, Modern Irish seachtú)
8. oxtumetos (Welsh wythfed, Breton eizhved, OIr ochtmad, Modern Irish ochtú)
9. nametos (Welsh nawfed, Breton naved, OIr nómad, Modern Irish naoú)
10. decametos, decometos (Welsh degfed, Breton degvet, OIr dechmad, Modern Irish deichniú, Celtiberian dekametam)

The ancient Gaulish language was more similar 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.

Syntax

Word order

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:

• ratin briuatiom | frontu tarbetisonios | ie(i)uru
• NP.Acc.Sg. | NP.Nom.Sg. | V.3rd Sg.
  • "Frontus Tarbetisonios dedicated the board of the bridge."

Whenever a clitic pronominal object is present, it must be syntactically hosted (i.e., adjacent) to the verb, as per Vendryes' Restriction. Since Wackernagel's Law was strongly grammaticalized in Celtic, this had the effect of ensuring that the verb occupied clause-initial position. In such cases, the verb occupies absolute initial position in the clause or is preceded only by a null-position, semantically empty, sentential connective, the original purpose of which was to host the clitic phonologically.

• sioxt-i | albanos | panna(s) | extra tuð(on) | CCC
• V-Pro.Neut. | NP.Nom.Sg. | NP.Fem.Acc.Pl. | PP | Num.
  • "Albanos added them, vessels beyond the allotment (in the amount of) 300."

• to-me-declai obalda natina
• Conn.-Pro.1st.Sg.Acc.-V.3rd.Sg. | NP.Nom.Sg. | Appositive
  • Obalda, (their) dear daughter, set me up."

Vendryes' Restriction is believed to have played a large role in the development of Insular Celtic VSO word order.

Considering that Gaulish is not a verb-final language, it is not surprising to find other head-intitial features.

• Genitives follow their head nouns
  • atom teuoxtonion
    • "The border of gods and men."
• The unmarked position for adjectives is after their head nouns
  • toutious namausatis
    • "citizen of Nîmes"
• Prepositional phrases are headed by the preposition
  • in alixie
    • "in Alesia"
• Passive clauses
  • uatiounui so nemetos commu escengilu
    • "To Vatiounos this shrine (was dedicated) by Commos Escengilos

Subordination

Subordinate clauses follow their head and are characterized by the presence of an uninflected particle (jo) which is attached to the initial verb of the subordinate clause.

• gobedbi | dugijonti-jo | ucuetin | in alisija
• NP.Dat/Inst.Pl. | V.3rd.Pl.- Pcl. | NP.Acc.Sg. | PP
  • "to the smiths who serve Ucuetis in Alisia"

This particle is used in relative clauses and to construct the equivalent of THAT-clauses

• scrisu-mi-jo | uelor
• V.1st.Sg.-Pro.1st Sg.-Pcl. | V.1st Sg.
  • "I wish that I spit"

This particle is found residually in the Insular Languages, thus:

• Welsh
  • Middle Welsh yssyd, modern sydd "which is" from *esti-jo
  • vs. Welsh yd "is" from *esti

• Irish
  • Old Irish 3rd plural relative cartae "loves" from *caront-jo

Clitics

Gaulish has a number of clitic pronominals, such as the object pronominals:

• to-so-ko-te
• Conn. - Pro.3rd Sg.Acc - PerfVZ - V.3rd Sg
  • "he gave it"

Subject pronominals also exist: mi, tu, id, which function like the emphasizing particles known as notae augentes in the Insular Celtic languages.

• dessu-mii-iis
• V.1st.Sg. | Emph.-Pcl.1st Sg.Nom. | Pro.3rd Pl.Acc.
  • "I prepare them"
• buet-id
• V.3rd Sg.Pres.Subjunc.-Emph.Pcl.3rd Sg.Nom.Neut.
  • "it should be"

Clitic doubling is also found (along with left dislocation), where a neuter pronominal doubles an instrinsically inanimate but grammatically animate nominal, a construction which is also attested in Old Irish.

Corpus

Lead curse tablets from L'Hospitalet-du-Larzac, Musée de Millau. The inscription on the left hand tablet starts: In-sinde se—: bnanom bricto n,—eainom anuana sanander na:—brictom uidlaias uidli[..] tigontias so. Herein: a magical incantation of women, their special magical infernal names, the magical incantation of a seeress who fashions this prophecy.^[2]

The Gaulish corpus is edited in the Recueil des Inscriptions Gauloises (R.I.G.), in four volumes:

• Vol. 1: Inscriptions in the Greek alphabet, edited by Michel Lejeune (items G-1 –G-281)
• Vol. 2.1: Inscriptions in the Etruscan alphabet (Lepontic, items E-1 – E-6), and inscriptions in the Latin alphabet in stone (items l. 1 – l. 16), edited by Michel Lejeune
• Vol. 2.2: inscriptions in the Latin alphabet on instruments (ceramic, lead, glass etc.), edited by Pierre-Yves Lambert (items l. 18 – l. 139)
• Vol. 3: The calendars of Coligny (73 fragments) and Villards d'Heria (8 fragments), edited by Paul-Marie Duval and Georges Pinault
• Vol. 4: inscriptions on coins, edited by Jean-Baptiste Colbert de Beaulieu and Brigitte Fischer (338 items)

The longest known Gaulish text was found in 1983 in L'Hospitalet-du-Larzac () in Aveyron. It is inscribed in Latin cursive script on both sides of two small sheets of lead. Probably curse tablets (defixio), they contain magical incantations regarding one Severa Tertionicna and a group of women (often thought to be a rival group of witches), but the exact meaning of the text remains unclear.^[3][4]

The Coligny calendar was found in Coligny near Lyon, France with a statue identified as Apollo. The Coligny Calendar is a lunisolar calendar that divides the year into two parts with the months underneath. SAMON "summer" and GIAMON "winter". The date of SAMON- xvii is identified as TRINVX[tion] SAMO[nii] SINDIV.

Another major text is the lead tablet of Chamalières (l. 100), written on lead in Latin cursive script, in twelve lines, apparently a curse or incantation addressed to the god Maponos. It was deposited in a spring, much like defixiones often are.

The graffito of La Graufesenque, Millau ([1] ), 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 a lot of modern 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 near Berne, with a Latin inscription DEAE ARTIONI LIVINIA SABILLINA, suggesting a Gaulish Artiyon- "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 period was found in Port near Bienne, its blade inscribed with KORICIOC (Korisos), probably the name of the smith. The most notable inscription found in 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

• Ball, Martin; Fife, James (1993), The Celtic Languages, Routledge, pp. 26-63, ISBN 0415010357 
• Delamarre, Xavier. Dictionnaire de la langue gauloise, 2nd ed. Paris: Editions Errance, 2003.
• Eska, Joseph F. and D. Ellis Evans. "Continental Celtic".
• Koch, John T. (2005), Celtic Culture: A Historical Encyclopedia, ABC-CLIO, ISBN 1851094407 . 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.
• Meid, Wolfgang. Gaulish Inscriptions. Budapest: Archaeolingua, 1994.
• 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.

See also

• Languages of France

External links

• L.A. Curchin, "Gaulish language"
• Gaulish language on TIED
• The Coligny Calendar
• All Saints Day: Coligny Calendar
• two sample inscriptions on TITUS
• Langues et écriture en Gaule Romaine by Hélène Chew of the Musée des Antiquités Nationales (in French)