Gallo-Brittonic

Gallo-Brittonic is a term used to describe the common aspects between Celtic Gaul and Celtic Britain. These include linguistic and other cultural features, as well as history. The cultural aspects are commonality of art styles and worship of similar gods. The coinage just prior to the British Roman period was also similar. In Julius Caesar's time the Atrebates held land on both sides of the English Channel.

Linguistics

There is a hypothesis that the P-Celtic languages spoken in Gaul and in Great Britain were descended from a common ancestor. Gaul refers chiefly to France and the Low Countries. Gaulish is known from inscriptions and names from writings by Greek and Roman authors, as is Brythonic which is also known as Brittonic. There are a number of shared innovations that are not common between Brythonic and Goidelic as would be expected in the Insular Celtic hypothesis. However, these innovations could have been induced by contact in the Late Pre-Roman Iron Age or in the Roman period.

The shared innovations not in Goidelic are:

• Proto-Celtic kʷ > Gallo-Brittonic p (e.g. Gaulish mapos, Welsh mab ≠ Irish mac)
• Proto-Celtic mr and ml > Gallo-Brittonic br and bl (e.g. Gaulish broga, Welsh, Breton bro ≠ Old Irish mruig)
• Proto-Celtic wo, we > Gallo-Brittonic wa (e.g. Gaulish uassos, Welsh gwass ≠ Old Irish foss)
• Proto-Celtic ɡʷ > Gallo-Brittonic w
• Early loss of g between vowels in both Gaulish and Brythonic
• Proto-Celtic dj between vowels tended to give Gallo-Brittonic j
• First person singular verbs were suffxed in -mi in both languages
• Proto-Celtic *anman > Gallo-Brittonic anwan^[1]. (Gaulish anuana, Welsh enuein ≠ Irish ainm)^[2]

Notes

1. ^ Koch, John T. (2006). Celtic Culture: A Historical Encyclopedia. Santa Barbara, California: ABC-CLIO. ISBN 1851094407. 
2. ^ Lambert, Pierre-Yves. (1994). La langue gauloise, éditions errance. p. 19.