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Gaulish is an extinct Celtic language spoken in parts of Continental Europe before and during the period of the Roman Empire. In the narrow sense, Gaulish was the language of the Celts of Gaul (now France, Luxembourg, Belgium, most of Switzerland, Northern Italy, as well as the parts of the Netherlands and Germany on the west bank of the Rhine). In a wider sense, it also comprises varieties of Celtic that were spoken across much of central Europe ("Noric"), parts of the Balkans, and Anatolia ("Galatian"), which are thought to have been closely related.[1][2] The more divergent Lepontic of Northern Italy has also sometimes been subsumed under Gaulish.[3][4]
Together with Lepontic and the Celtiberian spoken in the Iberian Peninsula, Gaulish is a member of the geographic group of Continental Celtic languages. The precise linguistic relationships among them, as well as between them and the modern Insular Celtic languages, are uncertain and a matter of ongoing debate because of their sparse attestation.
Gaulish is found in some 800 (often fragmentary) inscriptions including calendars, pottery accounts, funeral monuments, short dedications to gods, coin inscriptions, statements of ownership, and other texts, possibly curse tablets. Gaulish was first written in Greek script in southern France and in a variety of Old Italic script in northern Italy. After the Roman conquest of those regions, writing shifted to Latin script.[5] During his conquest of Gaul, Caesar reported that the Helvetii were in possession of documents in the Greek script, and all Gaulish coins used the Greek script until about 50 BC.[6]
Gaulish in Western Europe was supplanted by Vulgar Latin.[7] It is thought to have been a living language well into the 6th century.[8]
The legacy of Gaulish can be observed in the modern French language, in which 150-400 words are derived from the extinct Celtic language. Some of these words have also found their way into the English language through the influence of Norman French.
^Stifter 2012, p. 107
^Eska 2008, p. 166
^Eska (2008); cf. Watkins 1999, p. 6
^McCone, Kim, Towards a relative chronology of ancient and medieval Celtic sound change, Maynooth, 1996
^Eska 2008, pp. 167–168
^The European Iron Age by John Collis p.144 ff
^for the early development of Vulgar Latin (the conventional term for what could more adequately be named "spoken Latin") see Mohl, Introduction à la chronologie du latin vulgaire (1899) and Wagner, Introduction à la linguistique française, avec supplément bibliographique (1965), p. 41 for a bibliography.
^Cite error: The named reference Helix was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
Gaulish is an extinct Celtic language spoken in parts of Continental Europe before and during the period of the Roman Empire. In the narrow sense, Gaulish...
5th century AD). Their homeland was known as Gaul (Gallia). They spoke Gaulish, a continental Celtic language. The Gauls emerged around the 5th century...
The Celtic Cisalpine Gaulish inscriptions are frequently combined with the Lepontic inscriptions under the term Celtic language remains in northern Italy...
attested continental Celtic languages, such as Celtiberian, Galatian and Gaulish. Beyond that there is no agreement on the subdivisions of the Celtic language...
South Gaulish cup, form Hofheim 8, with a marbled slip South Gaulish cup of form Dragendorff 27 Flanged bowl, Dr.38, with profile drawing Gaulish Dr.36...
A list of English Language words derived from the Celtic Gaulish language, entering English via Old Frankish or Vulgar Latin and Old French ambassador...
Belenus (Gaulish: Belenos, Belinos) is an ancient Celtic healing god. The cult of Belenus stretched from the Italian Peninsula to the British Isles, with...
Gaulish deity names were used as epithets for Roman deities, as with Lenus Mars or Jupiter Poeninus. In other cases, Roman gods were given Gaulish female...
Lugos (Gaulish) or Lugus (Latin), also known by other names, is a god of the Celtic pantheon. His name is rarely directly attested in inscriptions, but...
as an early outlying form of Gaulish and closely akin to other, later attestations of Gaulish in Italy (Cisalpine Gaulish), some scholars (notably Lejeune...
Cogad Gáedel re Gallaib. As adjectives, English has the two variants: Gaulish and Gallic. The two adjectives are used synonymously, as "pertaining to...
bearing written Gaulish, it is surmised that the most of the Celtic writings were destroyed by the Romans, though a written form of Gaulish using Greek,...
Emporiae and Rhoda, and was copied throughout southern Gaul. Northern Gaulish coins were especially influenced by the coinage of Philip II of Macedon...
The Gaulish language, and presumably its many dialects and closely allied sister languages, left a few hundred words in French and many more in nearby...
inscriptions referring to him, mainly in the north-eastern region of Gaul. The Gaulish form of the name Cernunnos is Karnonos, from the stem karnon which means...
local elite had been slowly abandoning Gaulish entirely, but the rural and lower class populations remained Gaulish speakers who could sometimes also speak...
god Esus is chopping down a tree, possibly a willow, with an axe. In the Gaulish language, taruos means "bull," found in Old Irish as tarb (/tarβ/), in...
They spoke Gaulish. The Celtic Britons inhabited most of the island of Great Britain and spoke Common Brittonic or British. Abnoba - Gaulish goddess worshipped...
Cisalpine Gaulish language. Transalpine Celtic refers to Celtic languages on the other side of the Alps (from Rome) such as Transalpine Gaulish. Lepontic...
Phantom" Brigid, from *Brigantia "the High one" Lugh and Lleu, cognate with Gaulish Lugus Many surnames of Gaelic origin in Ireland and the other Celtic nations...
example, the Gaulish tunic—which gave Emperor Caracalla his surname—had not been replaced by Roman fashion. Similarly, certain Gaulish artisan techniques...
equated them, a procedure that complicates the task of identifying his Gaulish deities with their counterparts in the insular Celtic literatures. He also...
between all the Celtic languages. Examples : Latin pater "father", but Gaulish *atir / ater (atrebo, dativ plural), (Old) Irish athair / athir. After...
which was considered by ancient Roman writers to come from the native Gaulish word for these figures. Other Roman texts employ the form druidae, while...
resurrection. Alaunus, Gaulish god of the sun, healing and prophecy associated with Greek god Helios-Apollo Atepomarus, Gaulish healing god associated...
inhabitants of Great Britain. The English words Gaul, Gauls (pl.) and Gaulish (first recorded in the 16–17th centuries) come from French Gaule and Gaulois...
war; member of the Morrígan Rudianos, Gaulish god of war Segomo, Gaulish god of war Teutates, British and Gaulish god of war and the tribe Neto, god believed...
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