Encyclopedia
Gaulish is the name given to the
Celtic 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
coins, and occasionally on metal . They are found in the entire area of Roman Gaul, i.e., mostly in the area of modern
France, as well as parts of
Switzerland,
Italy,
Germany and
Belgium .
Gaulish is
paraphyletically grouped with
Celtiberian, Lepontic, and
Galatian as Continental Celtic.
History
The earliest Continental Celtic inscriptions, dating to as early as the 6th century BC, are in Lepontic , 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.
Phonology
- vowels:
- short: a, e, i, o u
- long a, e, i, , u
- semivowels: w, y
- occlusives:
- voiceless: p, t, k
- voiced: b, d, g
- resonants
- sibilant: s
- affricate: ts
[?] is an allophone of /k/ before /t/.
Orthography
The alphabet of
Lugano used in Gallia Cisalpina for Lepontic:
- AEIKLMNOPRSTTUVXZ
The alphabet of Lugano does not distinguish voiced and unvoiced occlusives, i.e. P represents /b/ or /p/, T is for /t/ or /d/, K for /g/ or /k/.
Z is probably for /t
s/. U /u/ and V /w/ are distinguished only in one early inscription. T is probably for /t/ and X for /g/ .
The Eastern Greek alphabet used in southern
Gallia Transalpina:
- aß?de??????µ???p?st???
? is used for [?], ? for /t
s/, ?? for /u/, /u/, /w/,
? and ? for both long and short /e/, /e/ and /o/, /o/, while ? is for short /i/ and e? for /i/. Note that the
Sigma in the Eastern Greek alphabet looks like a C . All Greek letters were used except phi and psi.
Latin alphabet in use in
Roman Gaul:
- ABCDÐEFGHIKLMNOPQRSTUVXZ
- abcdðefghiklmnopqrstuvxz
G and K are sometimes used interchangeably .
Ð/
ð,
ds and
s may represent /t
s/. X,
x is for [?] or /ks/. Q is only used rarely and may represenet an archaism . Ð and ð are used here to represent the letter
Tau Gallicum , 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 kw to p , a development also observed in Brythonic , while the other Celtic, 'Q-Celtic', retained the labiovelar. Thus the Gaulish word for "son" was mapos , contrasting with Primitive Irish maqi, which became mac in modern Irish. Similarly one Gaulish word for "horse" was epos while Old Irish has ech; all derived from Indo-European *eqos
- Voiced labiovelar gw became w, e. g. gwediumi > uediiumi "I pray" .
- PIE tst became /ts/, spelled ð, e.g. *nedz-tamo > neððamon .
- PIE ew became ow, and later o, e.g. *teuta > touta > tota "tribe" .
Grammar
There was some areal similarity to Latin grammar, and the French historian A. Lot argued that this helped the rapid adoption of Latin in Roman Gaul.
Cases
Gaulish has six or seven cases . 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 and for common 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.
Singular
| Case | -a stem | -o stem |
|---|
| Nominative | Epona | Maponos |
| Vocative | Epona | Mapone |
| Accusative | Eponin | Maponon |
| Genitive | Eponias | Maponi |
| Dative | Eponai | Maponu |
| Instrumental | Eponia | Maponu |
| Locative | | Mapone |
Plural
| Case | -a stem | -o stem |
|---|
| Nominative | Eponias | Maponi |
| Vocative | | |
| Accusative | Eponas | Maponus |
| Genitive | Eponanon | Maponon |
| Dative | Eponabo | Maponobo |
| Instrumental | | Maponus |
| Locative | | |
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- cintus
- allos
- tritios
- qetwarios
- qinqetos
- sueksos
- sectametos
- octumetos
- nametos
- decametos, decometos
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.
Corpus
The Gaulish corpus is edited in the
Receuil des Inscriptions Gauloises , in four volumes:
- Vol. 1: Inscriptions in the Greek alphabet, edited by Michel Lejeune
- Vol. 2.1: Inscriptions in the Etruscan alphabet , and inscriptions in the Latin alphabet in stone , edited by Michel Lejeune
- Vol. 2.2: inscriptions in the Latin alphabet on instruments , edited by Pierre-Yves Lambert
- Vol. 3: The calendars of Coligny and Villards d'Heria , edited by Paul-Marie Duval and Georges Pinault
- Vol. 4: inscriptions on coins, edited by Jean-Baptiste Colbert de Beaulieu and Brigitte Fischer
The longest known Gaulish text was found in 1983 in L'Hospitalet-du-Larzac in Aveyron. It is inscribed in Latin
cursive script on two small sheets of
lead. The content is a magical incantation, probably a curse , regarding one Severa Tertionicna and a group of women , but the exact meaning of the text remains unclear.
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 , 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 , 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. They are among the latest testimonies of Gaulish. These whorls were apparently presented to young girls by their suitors, and bear inscriptions such as
moni gnatha gabi / buððutton imon "my girl, take my kiss" and
geneta imi / daga uimpi '"I am a young girl, good 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 and 267 . A sword dating to the La Tène period was found in Port near
Bienne, its blade inscribed with KORICIOC , probably the name of the smith. The most notable inscription found in
Helvetic parts is the
Berne Zinc tablet, inscribed ????????? G????? ??????O? ??????O?, 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.
References
- Delamarre, X. . Dictionnaire de la langue gauloise . Paris: Editions Errance. ISBN 2-877-72237-6
- Lambert, Pierre-Yves La langue gauloise Paris: Editions Errance. ISBN 2-877-72224-4
- Lejeune, Michel . Lepontica . Paris: Société d’edition “les Belles Lettres”
- Meid, Wolfgang Gaulish Inscriptions. Budapest: Archaeolingua. ISBN 9-638-04606-6
- Recueil des inscriptions gauloises , ed. Paul-Marie Duval et al. 4 vols. Paris: CNRS, 1985-2002. ISBN 2-271-05844-9
- Solinas, Patrizia . ‘Il celtico in Italia’. Studi Etruschi 60:311-408
See also
External links
- by Hélène Chew of the Musés des Antiquites Nationale
