Gaulish language
Spoken in
- Indo-European celtic Festlandkeltisch Gallic
-
Cel ( other Celtic languages )
- Xcg ( Cisalpine Gaulish )
- Xtg ( Transalpine Gaulish )
The Gallic is a Celtic language that was spoken in ancient Gaul. The Gaulish language is the best documented of the five mainland Celtic languages , all of which are now extinct. " Gallo " as a voice name is assigned ( c. AD 180) Aulus Gellius at least since.
Distribution and sources
The language was spoken aloud Caesar by various Celtic tribes in parts of present-day France to the Seine and Marne, and Switzerland on the Upper Rhine. A few labeled objects ( instrumenta ) are also north of the Seine ( to present-day Belgium) and in northern Italy. In northern Italy inscriptions prove a related language, Lepontische.
The earliest evidence of the language are BC dated to the 4th century, around the 3rd century AD break from the documents. The Celtic tribes themselves knew no writing, but learned to write from their neighbors. So Gallic inscriptions are preserved in two alphabets: partly in Greek and partly in Latin characters.
Get in the Gallic language, a number of stone inscriptions (often dedicatory inscriptions and partly bilingual Latin and Gallo ), a plurality of short graffiti on potsherds ( common pattern: " X has made this " ), a number of leaden curse tablets, the Calendar of Coligny and some more. These made a relatively good reconstruction of the Gallic possible, and the language will probably always remain a rubble language because, inter alia, very few verbs, adjectives, etc., are obtained.
Linguistic features
The Gallic is linguistically especially of great importance, as it almost entirely obtained from the Indo-European on the common Celtic ancestral endings. Formally, it therefore has a certain similarity with the Primitive Germanic, Latin and other ancient languages . In the (now no longer popular general ) Discrimination of the Celtic languages in q- Celtic and P- Celtic languages Gallic to the P - Celtic one. The name of a horse goddess Epona is for example ( cf. Latin equus, " horse ", but also Greek hippos "horse" ). The Gallic as well as the Lepontische and the gala tables is of the insular Celtic languages of the British group close. Linguist Karl Horst Schmidt even go out of a Gallo - Britannic subgroup within the Celtic languages . However, of the insular Celtic languages , the mainland Celtic differs mainly by the tendency to Anlautmutationen and the early elimination of inherited endings in the first group.
Samples
The second example is an inscription in Roman capitals.
MARTIALIS DANNOTALI IEVRV VCVETE Sosin CELICNON ETIC GOBEDBI DVGIIONTITO VCVETIN IN ALISIIA
Martialis, son of Dannotalus has dedicated to Ucuetis this sanctuary and the metallurgists who worship the Ucuetis in Alesia.