Modern Gaulish

Galatac, modern Gaulish, neo-Gaulish, Gallic, neo-Gallic.
Created by	international collaborative effort
Date	2010 onwards
Setting and usage	The revival of the Gaulish language as a modern language.
Purpose	Indo-European Celtic Gallo-Brittonic languages Galatac, modern Gaulish, neo-Gaulish, Gallic, neo-Gallic.
Sources	a posteriori Celtic language derived from Old Gaulish
Language codes
ISO 639-3	In process.
Glottolog	mode1271

Modern Gaulish is a modern version of Old Gaulish, the old Celtic language of western Europe. It was designed with the intention to revive the Gaulish language as a modern, 21st century language for everyday use.

The Gaulish language ceased to be attested after the fifth century CE (Chateaubleau tile, dated to late fourth-early fifth century) and while it is clear that it became extinct sometime after that, leading scholars of Celtic philology consider it likely that it survived until the time of Charlemagne, i.e. the 9th century CE (Mees 2010, Stifter 2010, pers. com.). Additionally it has been asserted that communities of Gaulish speakers survived in remote areas of inaccessible wetlands in coastal Northern Gaul until the 10th century CE (Schrijver 1999).

Knowledge and understanding of the language has grown exponentially in the last decades of the 20th century, and in the early years of the 21st century the Gaulish language became the subject of a revival movement. Driven by a group of people passionately interested in Gaulish language, culture and history, and made possible by the advent of the internet, allowing easy communication between people in far off places, the Gaulish language was revived as a modern language. A strongly simplified grammar was developed, without the complex case and verbal system of the old language but retaining some diagnostic features attested in the historical data, with the intention to make it as easy as possible to use for as many people with diverse linguistic and cultural backgrounds as possible. As a result a version of Gaulish now exists that presents as a user-friendly, pragmatic and practical modern language. The full grammar and research is publicly available on the language's website at www.moderngaulish.org.

While there is no claim of historical continuity with classical Gaulish, the modern Gaulish language is nevertheless conceptualised as a modern development of the Gaulish language. In addition to the grammar a dictionary has been set up which currently contains a vocabulary of more than 12,000 words (https://app.glosbe.com/mis_glt/en/Galatac), videos with pronunciation, songs and spoken poetry have been produced, hard-copy collections of translations of poetry and prose have been published, a book of comprehensive grammar has been published, and a series of easy step-by-step lessons has been published in book form in 4 languages (English, French, Italian and German). Links to video playlists and hard-copy publications can be found on the language's website. Importantly, the language is currently being used as a vehicle for conversation and discussion on online forums and social media (e.g. Facebook groups and Youtube - links are provided on the website).

Furthermore the language is abundantly represented on Academia.edu (https://independent.academia.edu/ModernGaulish ) and background research for the language and the language itself have generated international interest (see e.g. this broadcast from BBC Scotland https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pgCldPUKfGE). The vocabulary is virtually exclusively derived from attested Old Gaulish lexical items, and makes extensive use of affixes and compounds to create new words, in a manner which is consistent with the practice of the old language.

Phonology

The phonology of Galatac is represented by the following graphemes.

a b c d e f g gw i l m n ng o p r s t u v w

a) Consonants

Consonants are pronounced as follows.

b: [b], Eng. bat, Fr. beau (beautiful)

c: [k], Fr. carré (square)

d: [d], Eng. down, Fr. debout (upright)

f: [f], Eng. finish, Fr. fini (finished)

g: [g], Eng. go, Fr. gare (station)

gw: [gw], Eng. Che Guevara

l: [l], Eng. let, Fr. livre (book)

m: [m], Eng. my, Fr. mon (my)

n: [n], Eng. no, Fr. non (no)

ng: [ɳ]: Eng. king

p: [p], Fr. pomme (apple)

r: [r], Span. pero (but)

s: [s], Eng. so, Fr. souvent (often)

t: [t], Fr. terre (land, Earth)

v: [v], Eng. very, Fr. vrai (true)

w: [w], Eng, water, Fr. oui (yes)

In addition the vowels /i/ and /u/ are semi-consonantal in nature. /i/ functions as a consonant in word-initial position when followed by a vowel, and in intervocalic position (between two vowels).

i: [j], Eng. you, Fr. voyou (thief)

Examples:

iar: [jar], chicken

caraiat: [kara:jat], lover

/u/ becomes a consonant, when following another consonant, and when followed by a vowel. In this case /u/ is written as /w/. This happens regularly when nouns on -u get converted into verbs by the addition of the suffix -i, which turns the cluster *-ui into -wi.

Examples:

agu: struggle

> agu + -i > *agui [agwi]

> agwi: to struggle

aidu: heat

> aidu + -i > *aidui

> aidwi: to heat

There is no doubling of consonants in Galatac.

b) Vowels

Vowels can be long or short. Short vowels are pronounced as follows.

a: [a], Eng. cat, Fr. chat (cat)

e: [e]. Eng. pen, Fr, personne (person, no one)

i: [i], Eng. sit, Fr. petit (small)

o: [o], Eng. got, Fr. copain (friend)

u: [u], Eng. bull, Fr, vous (you plural/polite)

Long vowels are pronounced as follows.

a: [a:], Eng. father

e: [e:], Fr. allez

i: [i:], Eng. sweep

o: [o:], Eng. more

u: [u:], Eng. pool

Each vowel other than /i/ can form a diphthong when followed by /i/. This makes that vowel long.

ai: [a:j], Eng. try

ei: [e:j], Eng. day

oi: [o:j], Eng. boy

ui: [u:j], Fr. brouillard

Vowel length is determined by the structure of a word, the placement of the emphasis, whether a syllable is open or closed, and whether a syllable is followed by a consonant cluster or not.

An open syllable is one that ends on a vowel, a closed syllable is one that ends on a consonant. A consonant cluster is a group of more than one consonant. The emphasis always falls on the penultimate sylable (the one-before-last one).

The following rules apply.

1. A vowel is long if it is emphasised and open. This is the case in one-syllable words where the syllable is open.

gni [gni:]: to know

cro [kro:]: blood

It is short when it is emphasised and closed.

men [men]: to think

gar [gar]: to call

2. A vowel is long, if it is emphasised and followed by an open syllable, and not separated from it by a consonant cluster.

mena mi [me:na mi]: I think

gara ti [ga:ra ti]: you call

It is short if it is separated from an open syllable by a consonant cluster.

antu [antu]: end

carni [karni]: to build

3. A vowel is long if it is emphasised and followed by another vowel.

caniat [kani:at]: singer

dinean [dine:an]: doubt

ateviu [atevi:u]: revived

4. A vowel is long when it is combined with the semi-vowel /i/ into a diphthong, regardless of position, emphasis or syllable structure.

ambai [ˈamba:j]: to delegate (“to go around”)

broi [ˈbro:j]: country

teidugilan [te:jduˈgilan]: factory

luitiat [lu:jˈti:at]: loader

In all other situations vowels are short. The pluralising suffix -e does not function as a vowel for vowel-lengthening purposes: it does not become an open syllable at the end of a word.

pren [ˈpren]: tree

prene [ˈprene]: trees

caran [ˈkaran]: friend

carane [kaˈrane]: friends

Vowels are not marked for length, since their length is determined structurally.

Exceptions to the rules for vowel length are the personal pronouns mi, ti, ni and swi (I, you [singular], we and you [plural]), and the adverb ma (if) which, despite being open one-syllable words, have short vowels. They further include the non-referential conjunction “o” [o] “that, which, who”, and the genitive particle “u” [u], “of”.

The phonology described above is largely identical to the phonology of Gaulish as discussed in Lambert 2003 (p. 43-49), with the exception of /gw/, which is not attested in the historical Gaulish data. It is however abundantly attested in Old French in Gaulish words absorbed into that language, as well as in words of Frankish origin, and remains an orthographic feature, if not a phonological one, of modern French (e.g. guerre < werra). It furthermore provides a point of striking parallel evolution between French (and Gallo-Romance languages in general) and the Brittonic languages. Its inclusion into the phonology of modern Gaulish is therefore considered explicitly warranted.

Sound Changes

A very small number of sound changes are applied to the corpus of the Gaulish language to serve in Galatac, because they are firmly attested in the historical record and are therefore deemed to form an inalienable part of the evolution of the language. These changes are as follows.

a) Word-final /g/ becomes /i/, [j]

Example:

dag- > dai “good”

brog- > broi “country, land”

This change is attested in the Gaulish data as follows.

Dagoberc-tus > Daiberi (Whatmough 1970, p. 1121, 1271; “well-carried”)

Brogilus > Broilus (Whatmough 1970, p. L 763; “small land area”)

This latter instance is also found in Endlicher’s glossary, where the word “breialo”, “small enclosed area of land”, from an earlier brogilos, shows the evolution brei- < brog- (Lambert 2003, p. 206-207; Delamarre 2003, pp. 91-92).

b) /b/ becomes /v/

/b/ becomes /v/ ([v]) in intervocalic position (between two vowels), in word-final position, and when in first position in clusters, i.e. following a vowel. When in second position in clusters, i.e. following after another consonant, it remains /b/.

Examples:

abona > avon “river”: attested as auona in Endlicher’s Glossary (Lambert 2003, p. 206-207)

aballo > aval “apple”: attested as auallo in Endlicher’s Glossary (Lambert 2003, p. 206-207)

galba > galv “fat”

dubi > duv “black”

subroni > suvron “good-breast”

albolon > albol “mint”

albio > albu “upper world, realm of the gods”

c) /x/ becomes /g/, /c/ or /s/

/x/ changes to /g/, /c/ or /s/ depending on the individual word and its etymology. The grapheme /x/ was used in the Gaulish data for a number of sounds, including [ks], [γ] and [χ] or [x]. In some cases it was etymologically associated with [g]. Depending on the etymology, discernible evolution in the Gaulish data, and on comparable attestation in Brittonic, the historic cousin-language, it is realised as either of the above.

1) /x/ > /g/

-tex- > teg- “to venture out, to travel”: found in moritex “seafarer”, from *teigh- (Delamarre 2003, p. 229-30)

axa- > aga “to bring”: found in axat “that he may bring”, from *ag-s-at, with -s subjunctive (Delamarre 2003, p. 63)

iex- > ieg- “to curse”: found in iexstu mi “I have cursed”, found alongside of iegu mi “I curse”, both attested at Chateaubleau (Mees 2011)

rix > rig “king”: found abundantly in personal names, e.g. Biturix, with the plural attested in the tribal name Bituriges (Delamarre 2003, p. 76-77)

2) /x/ > /s/

uxel- > usel “above”: found in Ussomarius, Uxsasus (Whatmough 1970, p. 535), Usius (Whatmough 1970, p. 660) Ussus (Whatmough 1070, p. 1153) Ussedati <> uxsedia <> upsedia (Venetic, Whatmough 1970, p. 660)

suex- > swes “six”: found in suex/os “six/sixth”, attested in the tribal name Suessiones (Delamarre 2003, p. 285-86)

ex- > es “out of, from”: attested in the Gaulish data as ex-, es- and ec- in compounds; found in Welsh as both es (when followed by consonant) and ech (when followed by vowel); Gaulish exobno- “fearless” found in Welsh as eofn “id.” < *ehofn < *esobn- < *exobn-, with regular Brittonic change of -s- > -h- > ∅

3) /x/ becomes /c/

esox > esoc “salmon”: found in Breton as eog “id.” < *ehog < *esoc < *esox, with regular Brittonic change of -s- > -h- > ∅; *esoc shows the plosive character of /x/ in Gallo-Brittonic esox

camox > camoc “chamois”, mountain goat-antelope: by analogy with esox above.

d) /x/ or /c/ before /t/ become /i/ [j]

Examples:

duxtir > duitir “daughter”

oct- > oit “eight”

This change is clearly attested in the Gaulish data.

rectugenus > reitugenus (“law/rights-born”; Delamarre 2003, p. 255)

Endlicher’s Glossary similarly shows the evolution of treide < treit- < *trect- < *tract- < *tragto- < *trageto-, “foot”, with syncope of the penultimate syllable /e/, devoicing of voiced /g/ to voiceless /c/ by assimilation to /t/, change of /ct/ to /it/, and post-Gaulish Romance lenition of /t/ > /d/ (Lambert 2003, p. 206-207; Delamarre 2003, p. 300).

e) /m/ after a consonant becomes /w/

Examples:

curm- > curu “beer”: found in Latin cerues- < *kerm- (Delamarre 2003, p. 133)

anman > anuan > anu “name”: found in anuana at Chateaubleau (Mees 2011).

f) Word-initial /u/ [w] becomes /gw/ [gw]

Examples:

uir- > gwir

uo > gwo

The evolution of Gaulish word-initial u- to gw- is supported by the attestation of words of Gaulish origin being retained in French, and other Romance languages of Gaul, with the evolution u- > gu-.

Gap “a place name” < Gaul. uepo “word, voice” (Gap < Uapincum < uepo-; Delamarre 2003, p. 438).

garenne “enclosure, pen” < *guarenne < Gaul. uarena, uarina “crowd, faction” (Delamarre 2003, p. 307; French Words of Gaulish Origin, Wikipedia; cf. Eng. warren).

guène, gâne “pond, pool” < gasne (muddy pool) < Gaul. uāgna “slope; moor” (Delamarre 2003, p. 305-306; French Words of Gaulish Origin, Wikipedia).

gué “ford” < Gaul. uer- “water course” (Delamarre 2003, p. 301; alternatively < Frankish *wat, Latin uadum, “ford, sandbank”; cf. Eng. to wade “to walk through water”).

goura “meadow” (Occitan) < Gaul. uorra, “area of grassland” (Kerkhof 2018)

gaur “ravine” (OProvençal) < Gaul. uabero “ravine” (Kerkhof 2018)

gasne “waterhole” (MFr.) < Gaul. uadana (Kerkhof 2018)

guaignun “bloodhound” (OFr.) < Gaul. uanno (Kerkhof 2018)

The process is also found extensively in French words that are often but not exclusively of non-Latinate origin. These include the following.

Gascogne < Uasconia (Euskara loanword into Latin; “region of Basque speakers”).

guerre, guerrier < werra “war” (Frankish; cf. Eng. war, warrior, id.).

gant < *guant < want “mitten” (Frankish).

garde < *guarde < ONFr. warder < *wardon “to protect” (Frankish; cf. Eng. ward, warden, id.; cf. E. guard, borrowed from French).

guêpe < uespa “wasp” (Latin), waspa “wasp”(Frankish; cf. Eng. wasp, id.).

garanti < guarantir < guarir < werento, weren “to defend” (Frankish; cf. Eng. warranty, id.).

guérir < *warjan “to defend” (Frankish; cf. Walloon weri, riweri “to heal, to cure”; Germ. wehren “to defend”).

garou < garulf < werawulf “werewolf” (Frankish; cf. Eng. werewolf, id.; found in loup-garou “werewolf”)

g) Words are denuded of their case endings

Examples:

mapos > map “son”

bena > ben “woman”

The process of loss of word endings and therefore case endings, and, by extension, grammatical meaning, is clearly attested in the inscription of Chateaubleau, the latest attestation of written Gaulish to date, thought to have been written in the fifth century. In this long running text a majority of words have lost their final consonants /s/ or /n/ (Mees 2011).

h) Words ending on -nd

Gaulish words of two syllables ending on –ndo/a lose the -do/a, and end on -n. Words with two or more syllables ending on -ndo/a retain -nd-, while /o/ or /a/ become /u/.

Examples:

uindo- > gwin “white”

sucondo > sucondu “sensible”

Exceptions occur in cases where homonymy needs to be avoided

condo > condu, “reason”, because **con would cause homonymy with con- “with”.

landa > landu, “open land”, because **lan would cause homonymy with lan “full”.

mandu > mandu, “pony”, because **man would cause homonymy with man “to march”

gando > gandu “rare”, because **gan would cause homonymy with gan “to generate”

londo > londu “wild”, because **lon would cause semi-homonymy with long “ship”

i) Words ending on -nt-

Gaulish words of more than two syllables ending on -nto- lose the -to-, but words of two syllables that end on -nto- retain it, with /o/ becoming /u/.

Examples:

arganto- > argan “money, silver”

caranto > caran “friend”

anto > antu “end”

panto- > pantu “pain”

j) Words ending on -gn-

One-syllable words ending on -gn reduce this to –n. This change is found in the historical record, which shows that the cluster -gn- becomes -nn- in words of one-syllable stems, where the cluster is followed only by the declination of the word. The cluster -nn- later became -un-: -gn- > -nn- > -un-.

uegno > uinno “chariot” (Delamarre 2003, p. 321)

uagna > ouannia > ouaunia “slope” (Delamarre 2003, p. 305)

This is maintained in Galatac in word-final position. The disappearance of the /g/ causes diphthongisation of the preceding vowel.

Examples:

uagna > ouaunia > gwaun “slope” (Delamarre 2003, p. 305)

uegno > uinno > gwiun “vehicle”

Summary of Galatac sound changes:

word final-g > -i

intervocal -b- > -v-

word-final -b > -v

syllable-final -b- > -v

syllable-initial -b- > -b-

-x- > c, g or s (etymologically determined)

-xt(-), -ct(-) > -it(-)

when preceded by a consonant -m- > -w-

word-initial u- > gw-

declinations > ∅

word-final -nd > -n in one-syllable words

word-final -ndo/a > -ndu in poly-syllable words

word-final -nto > -n in poly-syllable words

word-final -nto > -ntu in one-syllable words (not including the ending –tu)

word-final -gn > -un

Grammar

The grammar of Old Gaulish displayed a case system, inherited from Indo-European, that was comparable to the systems of contemporary Classical languages such as Ancient Greek and Latin, and of modern day Baltic and Slavic languages. However, late Gaulish inscriptions clearly show a deterioration and erosion of this system, as evidenced in the inscription of Chateaubleau, to date the latest Old Gaulish text available, where several words are featured with greatly reduced endings which no longer can convey meaning (e.g. coro bouido, dagisamo, uiro iono; in Mees 2010, p. 93).

The evidence of the Chateaubleau tile, thought to be from the late fourth or early fifth century CE, fits in well with the widespread decline of case systems in western European languages thought to have occurred, or become standardised, in or around the fifth-sixth centuries CE. Languages in this category include Vulgar Latin and the various Romance languages that were derived from it (French, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, etc.), Brittonic, which evolved into Welsh, Cornish and Breton, and the various Germanic languages represented near the periphery of the Roman Empire at that time, such as Frankish, Saxon and Frisian. While no contemporary records for these latter are in existence, when they do enter recorded history they do so denuded of the Indo-European case system.

The grammar of the modern Gaulish language is therefore situated in this area of convergence of languages which abandoned the case system. As a result the grammar of the modern language is simple, straightforward and streamlined.

While a comprehensive overview of the modern Gaulish grammar is beyond the scope of this article and can be found at the language’s main website (www.moderngaulish.org), a broad outline is provided here. The modern language features:

1. verbal roots marked for person and gender with pronouns only, and marked for tense with affixes and verbal particles
2. a non-referential relative pronoun
3. VSO word order
4. prepositions for grammatical function

Verbal roots marked for person and gender with pronouns, and marked for tense with affixes and verbal particles

The affixes used to mark tense include:

• preterising “re-“ (readdas, redresta, Delamarre 2003, p. 255-56)
• perfectivising –tu (carnitu, Delamarre 2003, p. 106; iexstu-, Mees 2010, p.93)
• future/subjunctive marking –si- (siaxsiou, marcosior, bissiet, toncsiiont-, Lambert 2003, p. 65)

Instances of verbal roots marked for person and gender with pronouns include:

• liíu-mi: “I denounce”
• peta-miíi: “I ask”
• iegu-mi-[sini]: “I curse [this]”
• iexstu-mi-sendi: “I [will?] have cursed this”
• iexsetesi sue: “you (pl.) [will?] curse"
• sete sue: “may you (pl.) be”
• desssu-mí-[is]: “I prepare [them]” (Chamalières, Delamarre 2003, p. 337)

A complete set of personal pronouns are attested in the Gaulish data.

iegu mi: curse I (Mees 2011); uediiu mi, pissiu mi: pray I, see  I (Lambert 2003, p. 69)

snies ti: contort you [singular] (snieđđic < snietsic < sniestic < snies-ti-c; “contort-you-and”; Lambert 2003, p. 69)

se rino-ti: this sells you (Lambert & Stfter, 2012; Rezé)

avote: made-he (Mees 2010; Lambert 2003, p. 122, 124)

avoti: made-it/her (Mees 2010; Lambert 2003, p. 122, 124)

buet-id: will-be-it (Delamarre 2003, p. 337; Chamalières)

sni eddic: we and-also (Delamarre 2003, p. 277, 337; Chamalières; alternative interpretation of snieđđic)

ni exuerti-ni-n: we without-turning-we/us (Koch in Lambert 2003, p. 128; Thiaucourt)

canti ris suis: with you [plural] (Lambert 2003, p. 6; Delamarre 2003, p. 337; Chamalières)

nitixintor sies: enchanted is they (Lambert 2003, p. 69; Larzac); petidsiiont sies: will-be-asking they (Delamarre 2003, p. 339, Lambert 2003, p. 69; 3rd person feminine plural; attested three times at Larzac)

They are used in modern Gaulish in the following forms.

mi: I [mi]

ti: you (singular) [ti]

e: he [e:]

i: she/it [i:]

ni: we [ni]

swi: you (plural) [swi]

si: they [si:]

A non-referential relative pronoun

A single non-referential pronoun is shared across all the contemporary Celtic languages, and stands in contrast with for instance the modern Romance and Germanic languages which use a number of relative pronouns depending on situation and grammatical requirement. It is attested as “o” in the inscription of Chateaubleau:

• iexsetesi sue regeniatu o quprinno: “may you (pl.) curse [the] family that buys”

VSO word order

Verb-Subject-Object word order is considered a peculiar characteristic of the modern Celtic languages. It is not found elsewhere as a default word order in Indo-European languages, and, cross-linguistically, is found in only around 8% of the world’s languages (http://udel.edu/~dlarsen/ling203/Handouts/Word%20Order.pdf ), although it is the third most common Word order worldwide. It is attested as such in Old Gaulish, and it has been argued by Celtic linguistic Graham Isaac that Gaulish showed a tendency towards VSO as early as the first century BCE (Isaac 2007).

Examples of VSO word order in the Old Gaulish data include:

• iegu-mi-sini: “I curse this”

V S O

• iexstu-mi-sendi: “I have cursed this/that”

V S O

• liíu-mi bena: “I denounce a woman”

V S O

• iexsetesi sue regeniatu o quprinno: “may you curse [the] family that buys”

V S O

• dessu-mí-is: “I prepare them” (Chamalières, Delamarre 2003, p. 337)

V S O

• sioxti Albannos pannas extra: “Albannos added vessels beyond [...]” (La Graufesenque, Delamarre 2003, p. 275)

V S O

• se rinoti Sequndo dinariíu: “Sequndo sells for dinars” (Rezé, Stifter 2012, online)

O V S

• se tigi prino Ascanius are: “Ascanius buys this contract before” (Rezé, Stifter 2012, online)

O V S

Galatac uses this word order as the default position.

Examples:

apis: to see

in gwir: the man

in ben: the woman

apisa in gwir in ben > “sees the man the woman” > the man sees the woman

V        S           O

apisa in ben in gwir > “sees the woman the man” > the woman sees the man

V        S          O

iegi: to curse

mi: I

ti: you

iega mi ti: “curse I you” > I curse you

V     S  O

iega ti mi: “curse you I” > you curse me

V    S  O

Prepositions for grammatical function

The use of prepositions to mark grammatical function is commonplace and occurs in the vast majority of modern western Indo-European languages, including all members of the Celtic, Germanic, Romance, Slavic and Baltic families.

Galatac is an analytic language and makes use of prepositions to convey grammatical meaning. A wide range of prepositions are attested in the Gaulish data, from which the following are derived. They are all found in Delamarre (2003), unless otherwise specified.

a: to, towards (< ad-)

au: away from      

en: in (< eni)

es: out of, from (< ex-)

can: with (< canti)

escan: without (< es + can, “out-of-with”, modern construction)

gwer: on, over (< uero)

gwo: under (< uo)

usel: above (< uxel-)

ander: below (< andero-)

am: about, around (< ambi)

er: all around (< eri)

ando: inside

eso: outside

urarpen: by, beside (ur + arpen, “against-side”, modern construction)

nes: near (< nessam)

u: of (< uciu < u-ciu “of-this”)

ri: for (< ris)

di: off

ar: in front, before (spatial) (< are)

eren: behind (< erno-, with epenthesis)

cin: before (time) (< cintus “first”)

os: after (time) (< ossim- “last”)

Examples:

au mi: away from me

a ti: to you

gwer e: on him

gwo i: under her

am ni: about us

er swi: around you (pl.)

ri si: for them

Comparison with contemporary Celtic languages

The following table provides a brief comparison of basic vocabulary with contemporary Celtic languages:

English	Old Gaulish	Modern Gaulish	Welsh	Cornish	Breton	Irish
head	pennos	pen	pen	pedn	penn	ceann
hand fist	lama durno-	lam durun	llaw dwrn	dorn	dorn dornad	lámh dorn
foot	tragetos	treg	troed	troos	troad traed	cos troigh
to sit	sedi-	sedi	saidid, eistedd	sedha esedha	azezañ	suigh
to stand	sta-	sta	sefyll	sav	sevel savel	seas
to run	reti-	reti	rhedeg	resegva	redek	rith
to speak	labaro-	lavar	siarad llefaru	kewsel, kows	komz	labhair
to see to perceive	apis- uelet-	apis gweleti	gweld	gweles	gwelet	feic
horse	epos caballo marco	ep caval marc	ceffyll march ebol (foal)	margh	marc’h	each capall
dog	cuno-	cun	ci, cu	kei, ki	ki	madra cú
cow	bou-	bo	buwch	bugh	buoc’h	bó
sheep ewe	molto- caerac-	molt cerac	dafad	davas	dañvad	caora
land (earth) country surface	litauia brogi talamon	litau broi talam	daear bro	bro	douar bro	talamh tír
sky	albio- nemo-	alv nem	awyr nem, nef	ebron	oabl, ebr neñv	neamh
water	dubron	duvur	dŵr, dwfr	dowr	dour	uisce dobhar
stone	acauno- carco-	acaun carc	carreg	labedha men	maen	cloch carraig
mountain hill peak	briga bronnio- banna-	bri bron ban	mynydd bryn, bre ban	menedh bronn, bre	menez brun, bre	sliabh beinn
river	abona	avon	afon	avon	stêr	abhainn
forest	ceto-	cet	coed coedwig	koos kooswik	koad	coill
language tongue	tengua tamo-	tengu tamu	iaith tafod	eth tavas	yezh teod	teanga teanga

Sample text

The following shows Article One of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in the modern Gaulish language, with Old Gaulish equivalent and English translation.

Esi done ol gentu riu ac cotamic en balcidas ac gwote. Si-esi condu ac cognion, ac re rincisi si ugri can done al en anew u braterait.

Esont doni olli gentus rios ac cotamicos eni balcidassu ac uoti. Siesesont condo ac cognion, ac re rincisiont sies ugri canti doni alli eni aneuo brateractias. (Old Gaulish)

All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.

Bibliography

• Albin, Jacques (2011) “La langue Gauloise – la tuile de Châteaubleau” – Academia.edu, http://www.academia.edu/1747376/La_langue_gauloise_-_la_tuile_de_Chateaubleau
• Ball, Martin J. & Fife, James (1993) The Celtic Languages. http://books.google.com/book?Ball+Fife+Celtic+Language
• Bauer, Brigitte L. M. (1996) ‘Language loss in Gaul: socio-historical and linguistic factors in language conflict’, Southwest Journal of Linguistics, v. 15, no. 1-2, pp. 23-44.
• Coskun, Altay & Zeidler, Jurgen (2003) “Covernames and Nomenclature in Late Roman Gaul: The Evidence of the Bordelaise Poet Ausonius”,http://www.books.google.com.au
• Delamarre, Xavier (2003) Dictionnaire de la Langue Gauloise, Editions Errance, Paris.
• Eska, Joseph (2008) “Continental Celtic”, in The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the World’s Ancient Languages, pp. 857-78.
• Gray, Louis H. (1944) ‘Mutation in Gaulish’, Language, v. 20, no. 4, pp. 223-30.
• Isaac, Graham R. (2007) “Celtic and Afro-Asiatic”, in The Celtic Languages in Contact, http://opus.kobv.de/ubp/volltexte/2007/1568/
• Lambert, Pierre-Yves (2003) La Langue Gauloise, Editions Errance, Paris.
• Mees, Bernard (2008) “The women of Larzac”, KF 3, pp. 169-88.
• Mees, Bernard (2010) “Words from the well at Gallo-Roman Châteaubleau”, pp. 89-106.
• Mees, Bernard (2011) “Wackernagel’s, pro-drop and verb-second in syntax in Continental Celtic”, Academia.edu. http://www.academia.edu/1701275/Wackernagels_law_pro-drop_and_verb-second_syntax_in_Continental_Celtic
• Mullen, Alex (2007) “Evidence for written Celtic from Roman Britain: a linguistic analysis of Tabellae Sulis 14 and 18”, Studia Celtica, XLI, pp. 31-45.
• Stifter, David (2000) “The Chateaubleau Tiles”, https://listserv.heanet.ie/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind0006&L=oldirish-I&O=D&P=12796
• Schrijver, Peter (1998) “The Chateaubleau tile as a link between Latin and French and between Gaulish and Brittonic”, EC 34, 3-47.
• Stifter, David (2008) “Old Celtic languages”, http://www.univie.ac/at/indogermanistik/
• Stifter, David (2009) “Notes on Châteaubleau (L-93)”, KF, pp. 229-244.
• Stifter, David (2012) “New Gaulish inscriptions”, http://www.rootsofeurope.ku.dk/.../New_Gaulish_Inscriptions_Copenhagen_p...
• Stifter, David (2012) “Gallo-Latin inscriptions”, Old Celtic Languages, Spring 2012. http://www.rootsofeurope.ku.dk/kalender/arkiv.../Gallish_2_WS_2010.pdf/
• Watkins, Calvert (1955) ‘The phonemics of Gaulish – The Dialect of Narbonensis’, Language, v.31, no. 1, pp. 9-19.
• Woodard, Roger (2008) The ancient languages of Europe. http://books.google.com.au

External Links

• www.moderngaulish.org
• https://app.glosbe.com/mis_glt/en/
• www.facebook.com/groups/moderngaulishlanguage
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OV-mTvteuR4&list=PLhTUHvgCLoUAEmRsQ9imUkR0JdoxWkq6K
• https://independent.academia.edu/ModernGaulish

This article "Modern Gaulish" is from Wikipedia. The list of its authors can be seen in its historical. Articles copied from Draft Namespace on Wikipedia could be seen on the Draft Namespace of Wikipedia and not main one.

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