Modern Gaulish

Modern Gaulish (Galáthach)
Created by	Steve Hansen
Date	c. 2000
Setting and usage	A thought experiment in alternate history, if Gaulish had not died out.
Purpose	Indo-European Celtic Modern Gaulish (Galáthach)
Sources	a posteriori Celtic language constructed from Gaulish
Language codes
ISO 639-3	–
Glottolog	None

Modern Gaulish is an invented language, or constructed language ("conlang"). It was created as a hobby in the late twentieth century by Steve Hansen from Australia, to serve an alternate history in which the Gaulish language had not died out, but continued to develop.

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 (Mees 2010, Stifter 2010, pers. com.).

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 fully fledged grammar was developed, based on old Gaulish grammar and complemented with post-Classical developments in the related Celtic languages, and a version of Gaulish now exists that presents as a user-friendly, pragmatic and practical modern language (see www.moderngaulish.com).

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 lists 7000 words (www.glosbe.com/mis_gal/en/), a Memrise learning resource has been constructed (http://www.memrise.com/course/802166/modern-gaulish-1/ ), videos with pronunciation, songs and spoken poetry have been produced (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OV-mTvteuR4&list=PLhTUHvgCLoUAEmRsQ9imUkR0JdoxWkq6K ), a collection of translations of poetry and prose has been published on Amazon (2015; http://www.amazon.com/Anthologia-Gallica-Senobrixta-Gal%C3%A1thach-hAthev%C3%ADu-Poetry/dp/1511644265 ), a second collection of original prose and poetry in the language is in the process of being prepared for publication and will be available later in 2016, and the language is currently being used as a vehicle for conversation and discussion on online forums (e.g. www.facebook.com/groups/CanthuColavaruGalathach/, a page where the modern Gaulish language is the only language used for communication). Furthermore the language is represented on Academia.edu (https://independent.academia.edu/ModernGaulish ) and is the subject of international interest. The vocabulary is 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 modern Gaulish is presented as the logical continuation of sound change processes which appear to be recorded in the attested data. Instances that indicate sound changes in process include:

• - sindi > sini, i.e. [nd] > [n], (iegu-mi-sini, Chateaubleau, Mees 2010, p. 93)
• - aballos > avallo; i.e. [b] > [v] (p. 29; Endlicher’s Glossary)
• - anman > anuan; i.e. [-nm-] > [-nw-] (p. 50; Larzac, Chateaubleau)
• - iouincos > ioinchus; i.e. [c] > [x] (p. 191, anthroponomy)
• - arganto- > arxanti; i.e. [g] > [γ] (Lambert 2003, p. 48; Suessons coin)
• > arganthoneia; i.e. [t] > [θ] (p. 53; Galatian source)
• - (g)nata > gnatha, i.e. [t] > [θ] (p. 181; spindle whorl of Saint-Révérien)
• - litan- > lithan-, i.e. [t] > [θ] (p. 204; anthroponomy)
• - ate- > atha-, i.e. [t] > [θ] (p. 57, p. 214; anthroponomy)
• - *sisagsiou > siaxsiou, i.e. [g] > [γ] (p. 273; Chateaubleau)
• - *agat > axat, i.e. [g] > [γ] (p. 63; Marcellus of Bordeaux)
• - luge > luxe, i.e. [g] > [γ] (p. 210; Chamalieres)
• - ambio > ape, i.e. [amb] > [ãb] (Bernard Mees 2010, Bhrghros 2013, pers. com.; Chateaubleau and Rom)
• - briuo > brio, i.e. [-w-] > [-ø-] (p. 89; Endlicher’s Glossary)
• - iouinc- > ioinc-, i.e. [-w-] > [-ø-] (p. 191, anthroponomy)
• - magiorix > maiorix, i.e. [-g-] > [-ø-] (Lambert 2003, p. 46; anthroponomy)
• - catugenus > catuenus, i.e. [-g-] > [-ø-] (Lambert 2003, p. 46; anthroponomy)
• - traget- > treide, i.e. [-g-] > [-i-] (p. 300; Endlicher’s Glossary)

[-t-] > [-d-], (p. 300; Endlicher’s Glossary)

• - *brogilos > breialo, i.e. [-g-] > [-i-] (p. 91; Endlicher’s Glossary)
• - badio > * baδio > baio, i.e. [-d-] > [δ] > [-ø-] (p. 63, anthroponomy)
• - Stirona > Ðirona > Sirona, i.e. [st-] > [ts-] > [s-] (p. 282, theonomy)

The above instances can be summarised as follows:

• nd > n
• b > u (v)
• c > ch (x)
• d > δ
• g > x (γ)
• g > i
• g > ø
• m > u (w)
• t > th (θ)
• t > d
• amb > ãb, assimilation of nasal to vowel
• st > ts > s

In the above, the grapheme “x” is considered to represent the spirantisation of intervocalic “g” > [γ] (Delamarre 2003, p. 63, p. 210; Lambert 2003, p. 46, p. 48)

An analysis of the above data indicates that the intervocalic consonants of Gaulish were subject to a process of spirantisation or fricativisation, which can be represented as follows:

• p > p
• t > th [θ]
• c > ch [x]
• b > u [v]
• * d > δ ?
• g > x [γ], i [j] or ø
• m > u [w]
• đ > ss [s]
• [mb > nasal-b]

The only exception to this appears to be the rendition of –t- as –d- in “treide”, which appears to indicate a voicing of an intervocalic consonant. Lambert (2003, p. 207) considers “treide” as having been treated as a word of Vulgar Latin and as such as having undergone Romance lenition, where intervocalic voiceless stops become voiced (Western Romance). In support, it is the opinion currently held by scholars in the field of Continental Celtic linguistics that the possibility that “treide” can be considered as indicative and representative of a genuine Gaulish sound change is negligeable (Bhrghros, Mees, Stifter, Gwinn pers. com. 2009).

The remainder of the data appears to uniformly point towards a process of spirantisation of intervocalic consonants. The existence of lenition, the process of weakening of pronunciation of consonants, in this case through spirantisation or fricativisation, in Gaulish has been proposed and defended by Gray (1944), accepted by Fleuriot (in Delamarre 2003, p. 63), rejected and objected against by Lambert (2003) among many others (e.g Watkins 1955), and cautiously and somewhat sceptically regarded as a possibility by Delamarre (2003). Nevertheless, as Eska (2008) emphatically suggests, proposes and defends, the data appear to point in this direction.

In addition to the above, there is widespread academic agreement on the disappearance of intervocalic –u- and –g- (Delamarre 2003; Lambert 2003). In regards to –g-, a position is adopted in modern Gaulish where –g- becomes spirantised when occurring in consonant clusters, and becomes –i- in intervocalic position and word finally when preceded by a vowel:

• -Cg- > -Cγ- (e.g. argant- > arxant-)
• -gC- > -γC-
• -VgV- > -ViV- (e.g. brogil- > breial-)
• -Vg > -Vi

While diphthongs are seen to become simplified in the record well before the end of attestation, vowels in general have largely remained unchanged. More information about this can be found in the body of grammar at www.moderngaulish.com .

Grammar

The grammar of Old Gaulish displayed a case system, inherited from Indo-European, that was comparable to the systems of contemporary Classical languageas 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. The surviving Celtic languages of the British Isles developed a number of features which are quite distinctive cross-linguistically, either in response to this collapse of the case system, or parallel to it. A number of these features, or the initial stages of their development, can be discerned in the late Gaulish data, and they have been further developed into a functional grammar system for the modern language.

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.com), a broad outline is provided here. The modern language features:

1. verbal roots marked for person and gender with pronouns, and marked for tense with affixes and verbal particles
2. a non-referential relative pronoun
3. VSO word order
4. fusion of prepositions with personal pronouns
5. mutation of initial consonants, marking grammatical function

While it is often claimed that these features are distinctive of the Insular Celtic languages alone and are not found in Gaulish, evidence will be provided here for their attestation in the Old Gaulish language.

1. 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)

2. 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”

3. VSO word order

Verb-Subject-Object word order is consider 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. It is attested as such in Old Gaulish, and it has been argued by scholar in Celtic linguistics 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

4. fusion of prepositions with personal pronouns

Fusion of prepositions with personal is also a feature that is unusual in the framework of Indo-European languages, although there are instances of it occurring, e.g. Spanish “contigo” (with-you) and Latin “[vade] mecum” ([go] with-me). In the Old Gaulish data there is, to date, one attestation of it:

• rissuis: “for you (pl.)” (Chamalières, Delamarre 2003, p. 337)

5. mutation of initial consonants, marking grammatical function

Mutation of initial consonants is a rare phenomenon cross-lingustically in the languages of the world, and is characteristic of the modern Celtic languages. It consists of a situation where the sound quality of the last letter of a preceding word changes the quality of the sound of the first letter of the following word, a phenomenon known as Sandhi (sometimes referred to as “trivial”), AND where this change has become endowed with grammatical meaning. The first component is not unusual, and in an Indo-European context is well attested in e.g. French (the “liaisons”; see Liaison (French)). The endowment of this phenomenon with grammatical meaning is unusual and, in the context of Indo-European, is restrcited to the modern Celtic languages.

In the Old Gaulish data there are a number of instances that can be singled out as possible candidates for an early developmental stage of sandhi and/or initial consonant mutation:

• Flatucias / Ulatucia: inscription of Larzac (Delamarre 2003, p. 338-339)
• se bnanom / se mnanom: inscription of Larzac (Delamarre 2003, p. 338-339)
• apeni: possibly contraction and assimilation of *ac beni “and a woman”, inscription of Chateaubleau (Schrijver 1998).

It is not possible, from the context of the inscriptions, to deduce whether these instances are an indication of fully developed grammatical initial consonant mutations as found, 200 years after the date of the last Gaulish inscription, in Insular Celtic languages. However it does appear to be reasonable to suggest that they represent traces of the sandhi phenomenon that gave rise to the above mutations. As such it has been deemed acceptable to incoporate into the grammar of the modern Gaulish language. A summary of the various changes as employed in the modern language can be found on the language’s website.

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 durn	llaw dwrn	dorn	dorn dornad	lámh dorn
foot	tragetos	tráieth	troed	troos	troad traed	cos troigh
to sit	sedi-	sédhi	saidid, eistedd	sedha esedha	azezañ	suigh
to stand	sta-	sá	sefyll	sav	sevel savel	seas
to run	reti-	rethi	rhedeg	resegva	redek	rith
to speak	labaro-	lavar	siarad llefaru	kewsel, kows	komz	labhair
to see perceive	apis- uelet-	ápis gweléthi	gweld	gweles	gwelet	feic
horse	epos caballo marco-	ép caval march	ceffyll march ebol (foal)	margh	marc’h	each capall
dog	cuno-	cun	ci, cú	kei, ki	ki	madra cú
cow	bou-	bó	buwch	bugh	buoc’h	bó
sheep ewe	molto- caerac--	molth cérach	dafad	davas	dañvad	caora
land country surface	litauia brogi talamon	lithau brói talam	daear bro	bro	douar bro	talamh tír
sky	albio- nemo-	alv nem	awyr nem, nef	ebron	oabl, ebr neñv	neamh
water	dubron	duvr	dŵr, dwfr	dowr	dour	uisce dobhar
stone	acauno- carco-	achaun carch	carreg	labedha men	maen	cloch carraig
mountain hill peak	briga bronnio- banna-	brí bron ban	mynydd bryn, bre ban	menedh bronn, bre	menez run, bre	sliabh beinn
river	abona	avon	afon	avon	stêr	abhainn
forest	ceto-	céth	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. Please click on the link below to hear the modern Gaulish version spoken.

Esi doné ol genthu ríu ach cothamich en valchas ach réithúé. Sí-esi conu ach conchwísu, ach ré ví certh richís adhávó can dhoné al en wénu bratheríu. (Modern Gaulish)

Esent doni olli gentui rii ac cotamici en balcassu ac rextoues. Siesesent condo ac conuissu, ac re bisiet certo rissies adauuo canti doni alli en menman braterione. (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.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BSRc5I0JJf8

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.com
• www.glosbe.com/mis_gal/en/
• http://www.memrise.com/course/802166/modern-gaulish-1/
• www.facebook.com/groups/moderngaulishlanguage
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OV-mTvteuR4&list=PLhTUHvgCLoUAEmRsQ9imUkR0JdoxWkq6K
• https://independent.academia.edu/ModernGaulish

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