View source for Social:Gaulish language

{{short description|Extinct Celtic language}}
{{Infobox language
|name=Gaulish
|region=[[Place:Gaul|Gaul]]
|era=6th century BC to 6th century AD
|ethnicity=Gauls
|familycolor=Indo-European
|fam2=Celtic
|lc1=xtg |ld1=Transalpine Gaulish
|lc2=xga |ld2=[[Social:Galatian language|Galatian]]
|lc3=xcg |ld3=?[[Social:Cisalpine Gaulish|Cisalpine Gaulish]]
|lc4=xlp |ld4=?[[Social:Lepontic language|Lepontic]]
|linglist=xtg |lingname=Transalpine Gaulish
|linglist2=xga |lingname2=[[Social:Galatian language|Galatian]]
|linglist3=xcg |lingname3=?[[Social:Cisalpine Gaulish|Cisalpine Gaulish]]
|linglist4=xlp |lingname4=?[[Social:Lepontic language|Lepontic]]
|glotto=tran1289
|glottoname=Transalpine–Galatian Celtic 
|script=Old Italic, Greek, Latin
|notice=IPA
}}

'''Gaulish''' was an ancient Celtic language that was spoken in parts of [[Earth:Continental Europe|Continental Europe]] before and during the period of the Roman Empire. In the narrow sense, Gaulish was the language spoken by the Celtic inhabitants of [[Place:Gaul|Gaul]] (modern-day 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 ("[[Social:Noric language|Noric]]"), parts of the [[Place:Balkans|Balkans]], and [[Earth:Anatolia|Anatolia]] ("[[Social:Galatian language|Galatian]]"), which are thought to have been closely related.<ref name="Stifter 2012 page=107">{{harvnb|Stifter|2012|page=107}}</ref><ref name="harvnb|Eska|2008|page=166">{{harvnb|Eska|2008|page=166}}</ref> The more divergent [[Social:Lepontic language|Lepontic]] of Northern Italy has also sometimes been subsumed under Gaulish.<ref>{{harvs|txt|last=Eska|year=2008|pages=165–166}}; cf. {{harvnb|Watkins|1999|page=6}}</ref><ref>McCone, Kim, ''Towards a relative chronology of ancient and medieval Celtic sound change,'' Maynooth, 1996</ref>

Together with Lepontic and the [[Social:Celtiberian language|Celtiberian language]] spoken in the [[Place:Iberian Peninsula|Iberian Peninsula]], Gaulish helps form 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 [[Social:Curse tablet|curse tablet]]s. Gaulish texts were first written in the Greek alphabet in southern France and in a variety of the [[Social:Old Italic script|Old Italic script]] in northern Italy. After the Roman conquest of those regions, writing shifted to the use of the Latin alphabet.<ref>{{harvnb|Eska|2008|pages=167–168}}</ref> 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.<ref name="Collis144">[https://books.google.com/books?id=RH2_tBxajDsC&pg=PA144 ''The European Iron Age'' by John Collis p.144 ''ff'']</ref>

Gaulish in Western Europe was supplanted by Vulgar Latin<ref>for the early development of Vulgar Latin (the conventional term for what could more adequately be named "spoken Latin"<!--this point from Wagner (1965:40)-->) 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.</ref> and various Germanic languages from around the 5th century AD onwards. It is thought to have gone extinct some time around the late 6th century.<ref name="Helix"/>

==Classification==
It is estimated that during the [[History:Bronze Age|Bronze Age]], Proto-Celtic started fragmenting into distinct languages, including Celtiberian and Gaulish.{{sfn|Forster|Toth|2003}} As a result of the expansion of Celtic tribes during the 4th and 3rd centuries BC, closely related varieties of Celtic came to be spoken in a vast arc extending from present-day Britain and France through the Alpine region and Pannonia in central Europe, and into parts of the [[Place:Balkans|Balkans]] and [[Earth:Anatolia|Anatolia]]. Their precise linguistic relationships are uncertain because of the fragmentary nature of the evidence.

The Gaulish varieties of central and eastern Europe and of Anatolia (known as [[Social:Noric language|Noric]] and [[Social:Galatian language|Galatian]], respectively) are barely attested, but from what little is known of them it appears that they were still quite similar to those of Gaul and can be considered dialects of a single language.<ref name="Stifter 2012 page=107"/> Among those regions where substantial inscriptional evidence exists, three varieties are usually distinguished. 
* [[Social:Lepontic language|Lepontic]], attested from a small area on the southern slopes of the [[Place:Alps|Alps]], around the present-day Swiss town of Lugano, is the oldest Celtic language known to have been written, with inscriptions in a variant of the [[Social:Old Italic script|Old Italic script]] appearing circa 600 BC. It has been described as either an "early dialect of an outlying form of Gaulish" or a separate Continental Celtic language.{{sfn|Eska|2012|page=534}}
* Attestations of Gaulish proper in present-day France are known as "Transalpine Gaulish". Its written record begins in the 3rd century BC with inscriptions in the Greek alphabet, found mainly in the Rhône area of southern France, where Greek cultural influence was present via the colony of Massilia, founded circa 600 BC. After the Roman conquest of Gaul (58–50 BC), the writing of Gaulish shifted to the Latin alphabet.
* Finally, there are a small number of inscriptions from the second and first centuries BC in Cisalpine Gaul (modern northern Italy), which share the same archaic alphabet as the Lepontic inscriptions but are found outside the Lepontic area proper. As they were written after the time of the Gaulish conquest of Cisalpine Gaul, they are usually identified as "[[Social:Cisalpine Gaulish|Cisalpine Gaulish]]". They share some linguistic features both with Lepontic and with Transalpine Gaulish; for instance, both Lepontic and Cisalpine Gaulish simplify the consonant clusters ''-nd-'' and ''-χs-'' to ''-nn-'' and ''-ss-'' respectively, while both Cisalpine and Transalpine Gaulish replace inherited word-final ''-m'' with ''-n''.<ref>{{harvnb|Stifter|2012|page=27}}</ref> Scholars have debated to what extent the distinctive features of Lepontic reflect merely its earlier origin or a genuine genealogical split, and to what extent Cisalpine Gaulish should be seen as a continuation of Lepontic or an independent offshoot of mainstream Transalpine Gaulish.

The relationship between Gaulish and the other Celtic languages is also subject to debate. Most scholars today agree that [[Social:Celtiberian language|Celtiberian]] was the first to branch off from the remaining Celtic languages.{{sfn|Eska|2008|page=165}} Gaulish, situated in the centre of the Celtic language area, shares with the neighbouring Brittonic languages of Great Britain, the change of the Indo-European labialized voiceless velar stop /kʷ/ > /p/, whereas both Celtiberian in the south and Goidelic in Ireland retain /kʷ/. Taking this as the primary genealogical [[Social:Isogloss|isogloss]], some scholars see the Celtic languages to be divided into a "q-Celtic" group and a "p-Celtic" group, in which the p-Celtic languages Gaulish and [[Social:Common Brittonic|Brittonic]] form a common "Gallo-Brittonic" branch. Other scholars place more emphasis on shared innovations between Brittonic and Goidelic and group these together as an Insular Celtic branch. {{harvtxt|Sims-Williams|2007}} discusses a composite model, in which the Continental and Insular varieties are seen as part of a dialect continuum, with genealogical splits and areal innovations intersecting.<ref>Cited after {{harv|Stifter|2012|page=12}}</ref>

==History==
===Early period===
Although Gaulish personal names written by Gauls in the Greek alphabet are attested from the region surrounding Massalia by the 3rd century BC, the first true inscriptions in the Gaulish language appeared in the 2nd century BC.{{sfn|Vath|Ziegler|2017|p=1174}}<ref>{{cite book|last=de Hoz|first=Javier|year=2005|chapter=Ptolemy and the linguistic history of the Narbonensis|title=New approaches to Celtic place-names in Ptolemy’s Geography|editor-last=de Hoz|editor-first=Javier|editor-last2=Luján|editor-first2=Eugenio R.|editor-last3=Sims-Williams|editor-first3=Patrick|publisher=Ediciones Clásicas|isbn=978-8478825721|p=174}}</ref>

At least 13 references to Gaulish speech and Gaulish writing can be found in Greek and Latin writers of antiquity. The word "Gaulish" (''gallicum'') as a language term is first explicitly used in the ''Appendix Vergiliana'' in a poem referring to Gaulish letters of the alphabet.<ref>''Corinthiorum amator iste uerborum, iste iste rhetor, namque quatenus totus Thucydides, tyrannus Atticae febris: tau Gallicum, min et sphin ut male illisit, ita omnia ista uerba miscuit fratri.'' — Virgil, Catalepton II: "THAT lover of Corinthian words or obsolete, That--well, that spouter, for that all of Thucydides, a tyrant of Attic fever:  that he wrongly fixed on the Gallic tau and min and spin, thus he mixed all those words for [his] brother".</ref> Julius Caesar reported in his ''Commentarii de Bello Gallico'' of 58 BC that the Celts/Gauls and their language are separated from the neighboring [[Social:Aquitanian language|Aquitanians]] and [[Place:Belgae|Belgae]] by the rivers Garonne and Seine/Marne, respectively.<ref name="mit.edu">{{cite web|url=http://classics.mit.edu/Caesar/gallic.1.1.html|title=The Internet Classics Archive - The Gallic Wars by Julius Caesar|work=mit.edu|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170106161211/http://classics.mit.edu/Caesar/gallic.1.1.html|archive-date=2017-01-06}}</ref> Caesar relates that census accounts written in the Greek alphabet were found among the Helvetii.<ref>BG I 29,1 ''In castris Helvetiorum tabulae repertae sunt litteris Graecis confectae et ad Caesarem relatae, quibus in tabulis nominatim ratio confecta erat, qui numerus domo exisset eorum qui arma ferre possent, et item separatim, quot pueri, senes mulieresque.'' "In the camp of the Helvetii, lists were found, drawn up in Greek characters, and were brought to Caesar, in which an estimate had been drawn up, name by name, of the number who had gone forth from their country who were able to bear arms; and likewise the numbers of boys, old men, and women, separately."</ref> He also notes that as of 53 BC the Gaulish [[Religion:Druid|druid]]s used the Greek alphabet for private and public transactions, with the important exception of druidic doctrines, which could only be memorised and were not allowed to be written down.<ref>BG VI 6,14 ''Magnum ibi numerum versuum ediscere dicuntur. Itaque annos nonnulli vicenos in disciplina permanent. Neque fas esse existimant ea litteris mandare, cum in reliquis fere rebus, publicis privatisque rationibus Graecis litteris utantur. Id mihi duabus de causis instituisse videntur, quod neque in vulgum disciplinam efferri velint neque eos, qui discunt, litteris confisos minus memoriae studere: quod fere plerisque accidit, ut praesidio litterarum diligentiam in perdiscendo ac memoriam remittant.'' "They are said there to learn by heart a great number of verses; accordingly some remain in the course of training twenty years. Nor do they regard it divinely lawful to commit these to writing, though in almost all other matters, in their public and private transactions, they use Greek letters. That practice they seem to me to have adopted for two reasons: because they neither desire their doctrines to be divulged among the mass of the people, nor those who learn, to devote themselves the less to the efforts of memory, relying on writing; since it generally occurs to most men, that, in their dependence on writing, they relax their diligence in learning thoroughly, and their employment of the memory."</ref> According to the ''Recueil des Inscriptions Gauloises'', nearly three quarters of Gaulish inscriptions (disregarding coins) are in the Greek alphabet. Later inscriptions dating to Roman Gaul are mostly in the Latin alphabet and have been found principally in central France.<ref name="Pierre-Yves Lambert 1994">Pierre-Yves Lambert, ''La langue gauloise'', éditions errance 1994.</ref>

===Roman period===
Latin was quickly adopted by the Gaulish aristocracy after the Roman conquest to maintain their elite power and influence,<ref>Bruno Rochette, "Language Policies in the Roman Republic and Empire," translated by James Clackson, in ''A Companion to the Latin Language'' (Blackwell, 2011), p. 550; Stefan Zimmer, "Indo-European," in ''Celtic Culture: A Historical Encyclopedia'' (ABC-Clio, 2006), p. 961; Leonard A. Curchin, "Literacy in the Roman Provinces: Qualitative and Quantitative Data from Central Spain," ''American Journal of Philology'' 116.3 (1995), p. 464; Richard Miles, "Communicating Culture, Identity, and Power," in ''Experiencing Rome: Culture, Identity and Power in the Roman Empire'' (Routledge, 2000), pp. 58–59.</ref> trilingualism in southern Gaul being noted as early as the 1st century BC.<ref>Alex Mullen, ''Southern Gaul and the Mediterranean: Multilingualism and Multiple Identities in the Iron Age and Roman Periods'' (Cambridge University Press, 2013), p. 269 (note 19) and p. 300 on trilingualism.</ref>

Early references to Gaulish in Gaul tend to be made in the context of problems with Greek or Latin fluency until around 400, whereas after c. 450, Gaulish begins to be mentioned in contexts where Latin has replaced "Gaulish" or "Celtic" (whatever the authors meant by those terms), though at first these only concerned the upper classes. For [[Place:Galatia|Galatia]] (Anatolia), there is no source explicitly indicating a 5th century language replacement:

*During the last quarter of the 2nd century, Irenaeus, bishop of Lugdunum (present-day Lyon), apologises for his inadequate Greek, being "resident among the Keltae and accustomed for the most part to use a barbarous dialect".<ref>''On the Detection and Overthrow of the So-Called Gnosis''; Adv. haer., book I, praef. 3 "You will not expect from me, as a resident among the Keltae, and accustomed for the most part to use a barbarous dialect, any display of rhetoric"</ref>
*According to the ''Vita Sancti Symphoriani'', Symphorian of Augustodunum (present-day Autun) was executed on 22 August 178 for his Christian faith. While he was being led to his execution, "his venerable mother admonished him from the wall assiduously and notable to all (?), saying in the Gaulish speech: Son, son, Symphorianus, think of your God!" (''uenerabilis mater sua de muro sedula et nota illum uoce Gallica monuit dicens: 'nate, nate Synforiane, mentobeto to diuo' ''<ref>R. Thurneysen, "Irisches und Gallisches," in: Zeitschrift für Celtische Philologie 14 (1923) 1-17.</ref>). The Gaulish sentence has been transmitted in a corrupt state in the various manuscripts; as it stands, it has been reconstructed by Thurneysen. According to David Stifter (2012), *mentobeto looks like a Proto-Romance verb derived from Latin mens, mentis ‘mind’ and habere ‘to have’, and it cannot be excluded that the whole utterance is an early variant of Romance, or a mixture of Romance and Gaulish, instead of being an instance of pure Gaulish. On the other hand, ''nate'' is attested in Gaulish (for example in Endlicher's Glossary<ref name="univie.ac.at">{{cite web |url=http://www.univie.ac.at/indogermanistik/bilder/quellentexte/endlicher.jpg |title=Archived copy |access-date=2013-10-31 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131102134743/http://www.univie.ac.at/indogermanistik/bilder/quellentexte/endlicher.jpg |archive-date=2013-11-02 }}</ref>), and the author of the ''Vita Sancti Symphoriani'', whether or not fluent in Gaulish, evidently expects a non-Latin language to have been spoken at the time.
*The Latin author Aulus Gellius (c. 180) mentions Gaulish alongside the [[Social:Etruscan language|Etruscan language]] in one anecdote, indicating that his listeners had heard of these languages, but would not understand a word of either.<ref name="ReferenceA">Aulus Gellius, ''Noctes Atticae'', Extract: ''ueluti Romae nobis praesentibus uetus celebratusque homo in causis, sed repentina et quasi tumultuaria doctrina praeditus, cum apud praefectum urbi uerba faceret et dicere uellet inopi quendam miseroque uictu uiuere et furfureum panem esitare uinumque eructum et feditum potare. "hic", inquit,"eques Romanus apludam edit et flocces bibit". aspexerunt omnes qui aderant alius alium, primo tristiores turbato et requirente uoltu quidnam illud utriusque uerbi foret: post deinde, quasi nescio quid Tusce aut Gallice dixisset, uniuersi riserunt.''
"For instance in Rome in our presence, a man experienced and celebrated as a pleader, but furnished with a sudden and, as it were, hasty education, was speaking to the Prefect of the City, and wished to say that a certain man with a poor and wretched way of life ate bread from bran and drank bad and spoiled wine. 'This Roman knight', he said, 'eats apluda and drinks flocces.' All who were present looked at each other, first seriously and with an inquiring expression, wondering what the two words meant; thereupon, as if he might have said something in, I don’t know, Gaulish or Etruscan, all of them burst out laughing."(based on BLOM 2007: 183)</ref>

*The ''Roman History'' by Cassius Dio (written AD 207-229) may imply that Cis- and Transalpine Gauls spoke the same language, as can be deduced from the following passages: (1) Book XIII mentions the principle that named tribes have a common government and a common speech, otherwise the population of a region is summarised by a geographic term, as in the case of the Spanish/Iberians.<ref>Cassius Dio ''Roman History'' XIII, cited in Zonaras 8, 21 "Spain, in which the Saguntines dwell, and all the adjoining land is in the western part of Europe. It extends for a great distance along the inner sea, past the Pillars of Hercules, and along the Ocean itself; furthermore, it includes the regions inland for a very great distance, even to the Pyrenees. This range, beginning at the sea called anciently the sea of the Bebryces, but later the sea of the Narbonenses, reaches to the great outer sea, and contains many diverse nationalities; it also separates the whole of Spain from the neighbouring land of Gaul. The tribes were neither of one speech, nor did they have a common government. As a result, they were not known by one name: the Romans called them Spaniards, but the Greeks Iberians, from the river Iberus [Ebro]."</ref> (2) In Books XII and XIV, Gauls between the Pyrenees and the River Po are stated to consider themselves kinsmen.<ref>Cassius Dio ''Roman History'' XII,20 "The Insubres, a Gallic tribe, after securing allies from among their kinsmen beyond the Alps, turned their arms against the Romans"</ref><ref>Cassius Dio ''Roman History'' XIV, cited in Zonoras 8 "Hannibal, desiring to invade Italy with all possible speed, marched on hurriedly, and traversed without a conflict the whole of Gaul lying between the Pyrenees and the Rhone. Then Hannibal, in haste to set out for Italy, but suspicious of the more direct roads, turned aside from them and followed another, on which he met with grievous hardships. For the mountains there are exceedingly precipitous, and the snow, which had fallen in great quantities, was driven by the winds and filled the chasms, and the ice was frozen very hard. ... For this reason, then, he did not turn back, but suddenly appearing from the Alps, spread astonishment and fear among the Romans. Hannibal ... proceeded to the Po, and when he found there neither rafts nor boats — for they had been burned by Scipio — he ordered his brother Mago to swim across with the cavalry and pursue the Romans, whereas he himself marched up toward the sources of the river, and then ordered that the elephants should cross down stream. In this manner, while the water was temporarily dammed and spread out by the animals' bulk, he effected a crossing more easily below them. [...] Of the captives taken he killed the Romans, but released the rest. This he did also in the case of all those taken alive, hoping to conciliate the cities by their influence. And, indeed, many of the other Gauls as well as Ligurians and Etruscans either murdered the Romans dwelling within their borders, or surrendered them and then transferred their allegiance."</ref> (3) In Book XLVI, Cassius Dio explains that the defining difference between Cis- and Transalpine Gauls is the length of hair and the style of clothes (i.e., he does not mention any language difference), the Cisalpine Gauls having adopted shorter hair and the Roman toga at an early date (''Gallia Togata'').<ref>Cassius Dio ''Roman History'' XLVI,55,4-5 "Individually, however, in order that they should not be thought to be appropriating the entire government, they arranged that both Africas, Sardinia, and Sicily should be given to Caesar to rule, all of Spain and Gallia Narbonensis to Lepidus, and the rest of Gaul, both south and north of the Alps, to Antony. The former was called Gallia Togata, as I have stated, [evidently in a lost portion of Cassius Dio's work] because it seemed to be more peaceful than the other divisions of Gaul, and because the inhabitants already employed the Roman citizen-garb; the other was termed Gallia Comata because the Gauls there for the most part let their hair grow long, and were in this way distinguished from the others."</ref> Potentially in contrast, Caesar described the river Rhone as a frontier between the Celts and ''provincia nostra''.<ref name="mit.edu"/>
*In the Digesta XXXII, 11 of Ulpian (AD 222–228) it is decreed that fideicommissa (testamentary provisions) may also be composed in Gaulish.<ref>''Fideicommissa quocumque sermone relinqui possunt, non solum Latina uel Graeca, sed etiam Punica uel Gallicana uel alterius cuiuscumque genti'' Fideicommissa may be left in any language, not only in Latin or Greek, but also in Punic or Gallicanian or of whatever other people. David Stifter, ‘Old Celtic Languages’, 2012, p110</ref>
*Writing at some point between c. AD 378 and AD 395, the Latin poet and scholar Decimus Magnus Ausonius, from Burdigala (present-day [[Earth:Bordeaux|Bordeaux]]), characterizes his deceased father Iulius's ability to speak Latin as ''inpromptus'', "halting, not fluent"; in Attic Greek, Iulius felt sufficiently eloquent.<ref>Ausonius, ''Epicedion in patrem'' 9–10 (a [[Social:First-person narrative|first-person]] poem written in the voice of his father), "Latin did not flow easily, but the language of Athens provided me with sufficient words of polished eloquence" ''(sermone inpromptus Latio, verum Attica lingua suffecit culti vocibus eloquii)''; J.N. Adams, ''Bilingualism and the Latin Language'' (Cambridge University Press, 2003), pp. 356–357, especially note 109, citing R.P.H. Green, ''The Works of Ausonius'' (Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. 1991), p. 276 on the view that Gaulish was the native language of Iulius Ausonius.</ref> This remark is sometimes taken as an indication that the first language of Iulius Ausonius (c. AD 290-378) was Gaulish,<ref>Bordeaux [Burdigala] was a Gaulish enclave in Aquitania according to Strabo's Geographia IV, 2,1</ref> but may alternatively mean that his first language was Greek. As a physician, he would have cultivated Greek as part of his professional proficiency.
*In the Dialogi de Vita Martini I, 26 by Sulpicius Seuerus (AD 363–425), one of the partners in the dialogue utters the rhetorical commonplace that his deficient Latin might insult the ears of his partners. One of them answers: ''uel Celtice aut si mauis Gallice loquere dummodo Martinum loquaris'' ‘speak Celtic or, if you prefer, Gaulish, as long as you speak about Martin’.<ref>David Stifter, ‘Old Celtic Languages’, 2012, p110</ref>
*Saint [[Biography:Jerome|Jerome]] (writing in AD 386/387) remarked in a commentary on St. Paul's ''Epistle to the Galatians'' that the Belgic Treveri spoke almost the same language as the Galatians, rather than Latin.<ref>[[Biography:Jerome|Jerome (Latin: Hieronymus)]], writing in AD 386-7, ''Commentarii in Epistulam ad Galatas II, 3 =Patrologia Latina 26, 357'', cited after David Stifter, ''Old Celtic Languages'', 2012, p.110. ''Galatas excepto sermone Graeco, quo omnis oriens loquitur, propriam linguam eandem paene habere quam Treuiros'' "Apart from the Greek language, which is spoken throughout the entire East, the Galatians have their own language, almost the same as the Treveri".</ref> This agrees with an earlier report in AD180 by Lucian.<ref>Lucian, ''Pamphlet against the pseudo-prophet Alexandros'', cited after Eugenio Luján, ''The Galatian Place Names in Ptolemy'', in: Javier de Hoz, Eugenio R. Luján, Patrick Sims-Williams (eds.), ''New Approaches to Celtic Place-Names in Ptolemy's Geography'', Madrid: Ediciones Clásicas 2005, 263. Lucian, an eye-witness, reports on Alexandros (around AD 180) using interpreters in Paphlagonia (northeast of Galatia): ἀλλὰ καὶ βαρβάροις πολλάκις ἔρχησεν, εἴ τις τῇ πατρίῳ ἔροιτο φωνῇ, Συριστὶ ἢ Κελτιστὶ, ῥᾳδίως ἐξευρίσκων τινὰς ἐπιδημοῦντας ὁμοεθνεῖς τοῖς δεδωκόσιν. "But he [Alexandros] gave oracles to barbarians many times, given that if someone asked a question in his [the questioner's] native language, in Syrian or in Celtic, he [Alexandros] easily found residents of the same people as the questioners"</ref>
*In a letter of AD 474 to his brother-in-law, Sidonius Apollinaris, bishop of Clermont in the Auvergne, states that in his younger years, "our nobles... resolved to forsake the barbarous Celtic dialect", evidently in favour of eloquent Latin.<ref>Sidonius Apollinaris (Letters, III.3.2) ''mitto istic ob gratiam pueritiae tuae undique gentium confluxisse studia litterarum tuaeque personae quondam debitum, quod sermonis Celtici squamam depositura nobilitas nunc oratorio stilo, nunc etiam Camenalibus modis imbuebatur.''  I will forget that your schooldays brought us a veritable confluence of learners and the learned from all quarters, and that if our nobles were imbued with the love of eloquence and poetry, if they resolved to forsake the barbarous Celtic dialect, it was to your personality that they owed all. Alternative translation according to David Stifter: ''...sermonis Celtici squamam depositura nobilitas nunc oratorio stilo, nunc etiam Camenalibus modis imbuebatur'' ‘...the (Arvernian) nobility, wishing to cast off the scales of Celtic speech, will now be imbued (by him = brother-in-law Ecdicius) with oratorial style, even with tunes of the Muses’.</ref>

===Medieval period===
*Cassiodorus (ca. 490–585) cites in his book Variae VIII, 12, 7 (dated 526) from a letter to king Athalaric: ''Romanum denique eloquium non suis regionibus inuenisti et ibi te Tulliana lectio disertum reddidit, ubi quondam Gallica lingua resonauit'' ‘Finally you found Roman eloquence in regions that were not originally its own; and there the reading of Cicero rendered you eloquent where once the Gaulish language resounded’<ref>after BLOM 2007:188, cited from David Stifter, ‘Old Celtic Languages’, 2012, p110</ref>
*In the 6th century Cyril of Scythopolis (AD 525-559) tells a story about a Galatian monk who was possessed by an evil spirit and was unable to speak, but if forced to, could speak only in Galatian.<ref>εἰ δὲ πάνυ ἐβιάζετο, Γαλατιστὶ ἐφθέγγετο. ‘If he was forced to, he spoke in Galatian’ (Vita S. Euthymii 55; after Eugenio Luján, ‘The Galatian Place Names in Ptolemy’, in: Javier de Hoz, Eugenio R. Luján, Patrick Sims-Williams (eds.), New Approaches to Celtic Place-Names in Ptolemy's Geography, Madrid: Ediciones Clásicas 2005, 264).</ref>
*Gregory of Tours wrote in the 6th century (c. 560-575) that a shrine in Auvergne which "is called Vasso Galatae in the Gallic tongue" was destroyed and burnt to the ground.<ref>''Hist. Franc.'', book I, 32 ''Veniens vero Arvernos, delubrum illud, quod Gallica lingua Vasso Galatæ vocant, incendit, diruit, atque subvertit.'' And coming to Clermont [to the Arverni] he set on fire, overthrew and destroyed that shrine which they call Vasso Galatæ in the Gallic tongue.</ref> This quote has been held by historical linguistic scholarship to attest that Gaulish was indeed still spoken as late as the mid to late 6th century in France.<ref name=Helix>{{cite book|author=Laurence Hélix| title=Histoire de la langue française|isbn=978-2-7298-6470-5|publisher=Ellipses Edition Marketing S.A.|page=7|quote=Le déclin du Gaulois et sa disparition ne s'expliquent pas seulement par des pratiques culturelles spécifiques: Lorsque les Romains conduits par César envahirent la Gaule, au 1er siecle avant J.-C., celle-ci romanisa de manière progressive et profonde. Pendant près de 500 ans, la fameuse période gallo-romaine, le gaulois et le latin parlé coexistèrent; au VIe siècle encore; le temoignage de Grégoire de Tours atteste la survivance de la langue gauloise.| year=2011}}</ref><ref>Blom, Alderik. [https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:eec44e1b-2292-4d96-a273-2f99a60b19f3/download_file?file_format=pdf&safe_filename=KF%2B4%2B-%2BBlom%2B7-54.pdf&type_of_work=Journal+article "Lingua gallica, lingua celtica: Gaulish, Gallo-Latin, or Gallo-Romance?."] Keltische Forschungen 4 (2009).<!-- Pages 17-18: "According to Wilmotte and Weisgerber, celtica lingua should be interpreted as ‘Gallo-Ro mance’  (Wilmotte 1918: 28–29; Wilmotte 1927: 228–229; Weis-GerBer 1969: 154). By contrast, Dumville suggests that, if Saxonica ore (the term employed to describe the homeland of Ekiurid: a Saxonis [...] oris gen-eratus) is identified as the old litus  Saxonicus (the  coastline  of  Brittany  and Normandy)  instead  of  ‘Saxony’,  the lingua  celtica  spoken  by  its  inhabitants may  be  seen  as  either  Gaulish  (presuming  that  the  language  survived  in  this area up to this time) or Breton – in which case lingua celtica would be used specifically for what modern scholarship understands as a ‘Celtic’ language (Dumville 1983: 87–93). The latter option seems most unlikely, since the In-sular  Celtic  languages  were  never  referred  to  as linguae  celticae (vel  sim.) before  well  into  the  Early  Modern  period  (sims-Williams 1998: 347).25  The former option suggested by Dumville would imply that at least a memory of Gaulish had survived up to the ninth or even tenth century. We saw that Heiric of Auxerre  may  have  used  the  term  with  this  meaning,  so  this  would  not  be im poss ible.  However,  an  awareness  of  the  existence  of  a  pre-Latin  language in Gaul (probably derived from study of the classical authors) and some eru-dite place-name etymologies in Heiric’s work should not be confused with a knowledge of that language or its classification in the modern sense. In fact, I  will  suggest  below  that  the  modern  separation  of  the  two  concepts  ‘Celtic lan guage of Gaul’ and ‘Romance vernacular of Gaul’ is very unlikely to have been valid for early mediaeval scholars. They probably regarded them as one and  the  same,  which  continued  to  be  a  respectable  idea  well  into  the  Early Modern period (see tourneur 1905: 191–192)." Page 41: "he terms celtica and gallica are used  by  Gessner  for  the  ancient  language  of  central  Europe  (regarded  as  the pre decessor  of  German),  and  this  usage  would  remain  current  in  (especially German) scholarship until the eighteenth century, even if various scholars used the term with different meanings (Dottin 1920: 3–11; Bonfante 1956: 23–34; PoPPe1992: 246–247).91 Even so, the term Celtic came to be preferred to Gal-lic as the term for the newly identified language family ‘because the term Gal-lic was too closely associated with French by Lhuyd’s day.’" Page 42: " Nonetheless, most authors writing before the third century (Suetonius, Festus, Aulus Gellius, Ulpianus, and Nonius Marcellus) seem, as far  as  can  be  ascertained,  to  use  the  term  to  indicate  the  indigenous  Celtic language of Gaul... [later] authors  such  as  Eucherius, Macrobius (the cases of Claudian and Cassio dorus are ambiguous), and Lydus generally use the term, consciously or not, to identify Gaulish. So do Gregory of Tours and Julian of Toledo. Still, Isidore’s use of the term appears confused and includes non-Celtic terms. Finally, Bede clearly does ''not'' use the term to refer to Gaulish. From the later ninth century on several (Frankish) authors (both from West and East Francia) used the term for Gallo-Romance/French, for example Notker Balbulus  of  St.  Gall,  Widukind  of  Corvey,  Richer  of  St.  Rémy,  Ademar  of Chabannes, etc. Weisgerber suggested that after a.D. 800 (the approximate date of the Vita sanctorum patrum Iurensium) the use of the ad jective priscus was introduced in order to avoid confusion with lingua gallica or sermo gallicus,which, as we have seen, tended to indicate Gallo-Latin/Gallo-Romance at that stage... even if Sigibert of Gembloux could still use the term in the twelfth century to refer to a Gaulish place-name (Augusto-dunum) because he copied this inform ation from Heiric of Auxerre..." Page 45: " In fact, our confusion about the simultaneous use of the two meanings ‘Cel tic language of Gaul’ and ‘Gallo-Latin’ or ‘Gallo-Ro-mance’ stems from the modern separation of the two concepts. The ambiguous use of the term lingua gallica probably indicates that they were not regarded as  two  different  languages.  In  fact,  the  (Celtic)  placenames Augustodunum or Agaunum (Heiric, Vita  sanctorum  Iurensium)  may  have  been  regarded  as springing from the same ‘indigenous language of Gaul’ as the (Old French) noun veltre (Notker). This need not be surprising – in fact, the idea that French sprang from Gaulish was still common enough in the Renaissance..." Page 46: "For the chronological development of celtica I  established  that,  considering its sparse at tes ta   tion, the word probably never gained wide currency. While it certainly indicated  Gaulish in the works of Pliny, in late antique works it may refer either to the ‘language of central Gaul’, or to a rustic, geographically de-fined dialect, accent, or rustic style of Latin. However, the con not   ations of the term seem to be geographic rather than linguistic. Its meaning remains ambiguous in the early Middle Ages, but seems to have developed into a synonym for ''gallica'' (indicating Gallo-Romance) by the ninth-century even if Heiric of Auxerre (ninth-century) and Sigibert of Gembloux (eleventh century) still use it to refer to a genuine Gaulish place-name element...For the chronological development of gallica, for which there is much more evidence,I established that most authors writing before the third century used the term to indicate the indigenous language of Gaul, even if this may not al-ways mean ‘Gaulish’. This also seems to be the case for late antique and early mediaeval authors up to c. a.D. 800, even though it has to be taken into account that these were generally recycling material from (much) earlier sources, and their usage probably reflects an earlier meaning of the term. From the ninth century the term demonstrably indicates the contemporary Romance vernac-ular  of  Gaul.  This  meaning  was  retained  until  well  into  the  Early  Modern period."--></ref>

====Conditions of final demise====
Despite considerable Romanization of the local material culture, the Gaulish language is held to have survived and coexisted with spoken Latin during the centuries of Roman rule of Gaul.<ref name=Helix/> The exact time of the final extinction of Gaulish is unknown, but it is estimated to have been in the late 5th or early 6th century AD,{{sfn|Stifter|2012|page=109}} after the collapse of the Western Roman Empire.<ref name=Mufwene/>

The language shift was uneven in its progress and shaped by sociological factors. Although there was a presence of retired veterans in colonies, these did not significantly alter the linguistic composition of Gaul's population, of which 90% was autochthonous;<ref>{{cite book |last1=Lodge |first1=R. Anthony |title=French: From Dialect to Standard |date=1993 |isbn=9780415080712 |pages=46 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hfanhTGi-z0C}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Craven |first1=Thomas D. |title=Comparative Historical Dialectology: Italo-Romance Clues to Ibero-Romance Sound Change |date=2002 |publisher=John Benjamins Publishing |pages=51 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XvODm8_Y6CgC&q=Braudel&pg=PA1|isbn=1588113132 }}</ref> instead, the key Latinizing class was the coopted local elite, who sent their children to Roman schools and administered lands for Rome. In the 5th century, at the time of the Western Roman collapse, the vast majority (non-elite and predominantly rural) of the population remained Gaulish speakers, and acquired Latin as their native speech only after the demise of the Empire, as both they and the new Frankish ruling elite adopted the prestige language of their urban literate elite.<ref name=Mufwene>Mufwene, Salikoko S. "Language birth and death." Annu. Rev. Anthropol. 33 (2004): 201-222. Page 213: "... the Romans did not colonize Europe on the settlement model... However, the local rulers, who had Romanized already, maintained Latin as the language of their administrations... (footnote) Latin was spread outside Rome largely by foreign mercenaries in Roman legions, similar to how English is spreading today as a world lingua franca significantly by nonnative speakers using it and teaching it to others.. (main) More significant is that the Roman colonies were not fully Latinized in the fifth century. When the Romans left, lower classes (the population majority) continued to use Celtic languages, especially in rural areas..." Page 214: "The protracted development of the Romance languages under the substrate influence of Celtic languages is correlated with the gradual loss of the latter, as fewer and fewer children found it useful to acquire the Celtic languages and instead acquired [regional Latin]... Today the Celtic languages and other more indigenous languages similar to Basque, formerly spoken in the same territory, have vanished." Page 215: "[In contrast to the Angles and Saxons who kept Germanic speech and religion], the Franks surrendered their Germanic traditions, embracing the language and religion of the indigenous rulers, Latin and Catholicism."</ref>

Bonnaud<ref>{{cite book|author=P Bonnaud|year=1981|title=Terres et langages. Peuples et régions|location=Clermont-Ferrand|publisher=Auvernha Tara d'Oc|pages=109–110}}</ref> maintains that while Latinisation occurred earlier in Provence and in major urban centrers, while Gaulish persisted longest, possibly as late as the tenth century<ref>{{cite book |last1=Lodge |first1=R. Anthony |title=French: From Dialect to Standard |date=1993 |isbn=9780415080712|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hfanhTGi-z0C|page=43}}</ref> with evidence for continued use according to Bonnaud continuing into the ninth century,<ref>{{cite book|author=P Bonnaud|year=1981|title=Terres et langages. Peuples et régions|location=Clermont-Ferrand|publisher=Auvernha Tara d'Oc|pages=38}}</ref> in Langres and the surrounding regions, the regions between Clermont, Argenton and Bordeaux, and in Armorica. Fleuriot,<ref>{{cite book|author=Léon Fleuriot|title=Les origins de la Bretagne|location=Paris|publisher=Bibliothèque historique Payot, Éditions Payot|page=77}}</ref> Falc'hun,<ref>{{cite journal|author=François Falc'hun|title=Celtique continental et celtique insulaire en Breton|journal=Annales de Bretagne|volume=70|issue=4|pages=431–432}}</ref> and Gvozdanovic<ref>{{cite book|author=Jadranka Gvozdanovic|title=Celtic and Slavic and the Great Migrations|year=2009|location=Heidelberg|publisher=Winter Verlag}}</ref> likewise maintained a late survival in Armorica and language contact of some form with the ascendant [[Social:Breton language|Breton language]]; however, it has been noted that there is little uncontroversial evidence supporting a relatively late survival specifically in Brittany whereas there is uncontroversial evidence that supports the relatively late survival of Gaulish in the Swiss Alps and in regions in Central Gaul.<ref name=Kerkhof50>Kerkhof, Peter Alexander (2018). "Language, law and loanwords in early medieval Gaul: language contact and studies in Gallo-Romance phonology". Page 50</ref> Drawing from these data, which include the mapping of substrate vocabulary as evidence, Kerkhof argues that we may "tentatively" posit a survival of Gaulish speaking communities in the "at least into the sixth century" in pockets of mountainous regions of the Central Massif, the Jura, and the Swiss Alps.<ref name=Kerkhof50/>

==Corpus==
===Summary of sources===
[[File:coligny.jpg|thumb|400px|The re-assembled tablet of the Coligny calendar]]
According to the ''Recueil des inscriptions gauloises'', more than 760 Gaulish inscriptions have been found throughout present-day France, with the notable exception of [[Place:Aquitaine|Aquitaine]], and in northern Italy.<ref>Peter Schrijver, "Gaulish", in ''Encyclopedia of the Languages of Europe'', ed. Glanville Price (Oxford: Blackwell, 1998), 192.</ref> Inscriptions include short dedications, funerary monuments, proprietary statements, and expressions of human sentiments, but the Gauls also left some longer documents of a legal or magical-religious nature,<ref name="harvnb|Eska|2008|page=166"/> the three longest being the Larzac tablet, the Chamalières tablet and the Lezoux dish. The most famous Gaulish record is the [[Social:Coligny calendar|Coligny calendar]], a fragmented bronze tablet dating from the 2nd century AD and providing the names of Celtic months over a five-year span; it is a [[Astronomy:Lunisolar calendar|lunisolar calendar]] attempting to synchronize the solar year and the lunar month by inserting a thirteenth month every two and a half years.

Many inscriptions consist of only a few words (often names) in rote phrases, and many are fragmentary.<ref>Schmidt, Karl Horst, "The Celtic Languages of Continental Europe" in: ''Bulletin of the Board of Celtic Studies'' volume XXVIII. 1980. University of Wales Press.</ref><ref>Article by Lambert, Pierre-Yves, ''Bulletin of the Board of Celtic Studies'' volume XXXIV. 1987. University of Wales Press.</ref> They provide some evidence for [[Social:Morphology (linguistics)|morphology]] and better evidence for personal and mythological names. Occasionally, marked surface clausal configurations provide some evidence of a more formal, or poetic, register. It is clear from the subject matter of the records that the language was in use at all levels of society.

Other sources also contribute to knowledge of Gaulish: [[Social:Ancient Greek|Greek]] and [[Social:Latin|Latin]] authors mention Gaulish words,<ref name="Pierre-Yves Lambert 1994"/> personal and tribal names,<ref>C. Iulius Caesar, "Commentarii de Bello Gallico"</ref> and toponyms. A short Gaulish-Latin vocabulary (about 20 entries headed ''De nominib[us] Gallicis'') called "Endlicher's Glossary", is preserved in a 9th century manuscript (Öst. Nationalbibliothek, MS 89 fol. 189v).<ref name="univie.ac.at"/>

Some Gaulish loanwords are found in the [[Social:French language|French language]]. Today, French contains approximately 150 to 180 words known to be of Gaulish origin, most of which concern pastoral or daily activity.<ref>Pierre-Yves Lambert, ''La langue gauloise'', éditions errance 1994. p. 185.</ref><ref>M. H. Offord, ''French words: past, present, and future'',  [https://books.google.com/books?id=FXystBj82S8C&pg=PA36&lpg=PA36#v=onepage&q&f=false pp. 36-37]</ref> If dialectal and derived words are included, the total is approximately 400 words, the largest stock of Celtic words in any Romance language.<ref>W. Meyer-Lübke, ''Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch'', Heidelberg, 3rd edition 1935.</ref><ref>Lambert 185</ref>

===Inscriptions===
[[File:Tablette de défixion de l'Hospitalet-du-Larzac 2.jpg|thumb|The Curse tablet from L'Hospitalet-du-Larzac, Musée de Millau.<ref>{{harvnb|Koch|2005|p=1106}}</ref>]]

Gaulish inscriptions are edited in the ''Recueil des Inscriptions Gauloises'' (R.I.G.), in four volumes: {{date?|date=July 2019}}
*Volume 1: Inscriptions in the Greek alphabet, edited by Michel Lejeune (items G-1 &ndash;G-281){{date?|date=July 2019}}
*Volume 2.1: Inscriptions in the [[Social:Old Italic script#Etruscan alphabet|Etruscan alphabet]] ([[Social:Lepontic language|Lepontic]], items E-1 &ndash; E-6), and inscriptions in the Latin alphabet in stone (items l. 1 &ndash; l. 16), edited by Michel Lejeune{{date?|date=July 2019}}
*Volume 2.2: inscriptions in the Latin alphabet on instruments (ceramic, lead, glass etc.), edited by Pierre-Yves Lambert (items l. 18 &ndash; l. 139){{date?|date=July 2019}}
*Volume 3: The [[Social:Coligny calendar|Coligny calendar]] (73 fragments) and that of Villards-d'Héria (8 fragments), edited by Paul-Marie Duval and Georges Pinault{{date?|date=July 2019}}
*Volume 4: inscriptions on Celtic coinage, edited by Jean-Baptiste Colbert de Beaulieu and Brigitte Fischer (338 items){{date?|date=July 2019}}

The longest known Gaulish text is the Larzac tablet, found in 1983 in l'Hospitalet-du-Larzac, France. It is inscribed in [[Social:Roman cursive|Roman cursive]] on both sides of two small sheets of lead. Probably a [[Social:Curse tablet|curse tablet]] (''defixio''), it clearly mentions relationships between female names, for example ''aia duxtir adiegias [...] adiega matir aiias'' (Aia, daughter of Adiega... Adiega, mother of Aia) and seems to contain [[Unsolved:Incantation|incantation]]s regarding one Severa Tertionicna and a group of women (often thought to be a rival group of witches), but the exact meaning of the text remains unclear.<ref>{{citation|title=Le plomb magique du Larzac et les sorcières gauloises|last1=Lejeune|first1= Michel|last2= Fleuriot|first2= L.|last3=Lambert|first3= P. Y. |last4= Marichal|last5=Vernhet|first5= A. |publisher=CNRS|year=1985|isbn= 2-222-03667-4|first4= R.}}</ref><ref>
[http://www.arbre-celtique.com/encyclopedie/plomb-du-larzac-233.htm Inscriptions and French translations on the lead tablets from Larzac] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080629223031/http://www.arbre-celtique.com/encyclopedie/plomb-du-larzac-233.htm |date=2008-06-29 }}</ref>

The Coligny calendar was found in 1897 in Coligny, France, with a statue identified as [[Religion:Mars (mythology)|Mars]]. The calendar contains Gaulish words but Roman numerals, permitting translations such as ''lat'' evidently meaning days, and ''mid'' month. Months of 30 days were marked ''matus'', "lucky", months of 29 days  ''anmatus'', "unlucky", based on comparison with Middle Welsh ''mad'' and ''anfad'', but the meaning could here also be merely descriptive, "complete" and "incomplete".<ref name="BM1">Bernhard Maier: ''Lexikon der keltischen Religion und Kultur''. S.&nbsp;81&nbsp;f.</ref>

The pottery at La Graufesenque<ref>{{cite web|url=http://pedagogie.ac-toulouse.fr/culture/divers/lagraufesenque.htm|title=la graufesenque|work=ac-toulouse.fr|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050305121013/http://pedagogie.ac-toulouse.fr/culture/divers/lagraufesenque.htm|archive-date=2005-03-05}}</ref> is our most important source for Gaulish numerals. Potters shared [[Engineering:Furnace|furnace]]s and kept tallies inscribed in Latin cursive on ceramic plates, referring to kiln loads numbered 1 to 10:

*1st ''cintus, cintuxos'' (Welsh ''cynt'' "before", ''cyntaf'' "first", Breton ''kent'' "in front" ''kentañ'' "first", Cornish ''kynsa'' "first", Old Irish ''céta'', Irish ''céad'' "first")
*2nd ''allos'', ''alos'' (W ''ail'', Br ''eil'', OIr ''aile'' "other", Ir ''eile'')
*3rd ''tri[tios]'' (W ''trydydd'', Br ''trede'', OIr ''treide'')
*4th ''petuar[ios]'' (W ''pedwerydd'', Br ''pevare'')
*5th ''pinpetos'' (W ''pumed'', Br ''pempet'', OIr ''cóiced'')
*6th ''suexos'' (possibly mistaken for ''suextos'', but see Rezé inscription below; W ''chweched'', Br ''c'hwec'hved'', OIr ''seissed'')
*7th ''sextametos'' (W ''seithfed'', Br ''seizhved'', OIr ''sechtmad'')
*8th ''oxtumeto[s]'' (W ''wythfed'', Br ''eizhved'', OIr ''ochtmad'')
*9th ''namet[os]'' (W ''nawfed'', Br ''naved'', OIr ''nómad'')
*10th ''decametos'', ''decometos'' ([[Social:Celtiberian language|CIb]] ''dekametam'', W ''degfed'', Br ''degvet'', OIr ''dechmad'')

The lead inscription from Rezé (dated to the 2nd century, at the mouth of the Loire, {{convert|450|km}} northwest of La Graufesenque) is evidently an account or a calculation and contains quite different ordinals:<ref>Pierre-Yves Lambert, David Stifter ‘Le texte gaulois de Rezé’, Études Celtiques 38:139-164 (2012)</ref>

*3rd ''trilu''
*4th ''paetrute''
*5th ''pixte''
*6th ''suexxe'', etc.

Other Gaulish numerals attested in Latin inscriptions include ''*petrudecametos'' "fourteenth" (rendered as ''petrudecameto'', with Latinized dative-ablative singular ending) and ''*triconts'' "thirty" (rendered as ''tricontis'', with a Latinized ablative plural ending; compare Irish ''tríocha''). A Latinized phrase for a "ten-night festival of ([[Unsolved:Apollo|Apollo]]) [[Religion:Grannus|Grannus]]", ''decamnoctiacis Granni'', is mentioned in a Latin inscription from Limoges. A similar formation is to be found in the Coligny calendar, in which mention is made of a ''trinox[...] Samoni'' "three-night (festival?) of (the month of) Samonios". As is to be expected, the ancient Gaulish language was more similar to [[Social:Latin|Latin]] than modern Celtic languages are to modern Romance languages. The ordinal numerals in Latin are ''prīmus''/''prior'', ''secundus''/''alter'' (the first form when more than two objects are counted, the second form only when two, ''alius'', like ''alter'' means "the other", the former used when more than two and the latter when only two), ''tertius'', ''quārtus'', ''quīntus'', ''sextus'', ''septimus'', ''octāvus'', ''nōnus'', and ''decimus''.

A number of short inscriptions are found on [[Engineering:Spindle whorl|spindle whorl]]s and are among the most recent finds in the Gaulish language. Spindle whorls were apparently given to girls by their suitors and bear such inscriptions as:
*''moni gnatha gabi / buððutton imon'' (RIG l. 119) "my girl, take my penis(?)<ref>Delamarre 2008, p. 92-93</ref>"
*''geneta imi / daga uimpi'' (RIG l. 120) '"I am a young girl, good (and) pretty".

Inscriptions found in Switzerland are rare. The most notable inscription found in Helvetic parts is the ''[[Chemistry:Bern zinc tablet|Bern zinc tablet]]'', inscribed ΔΟΒΝΟΡΗΔΟ ΓΟΒΑΝΟ ΒΡΕΝΟΔΩΡ ΝΑΝΤΑΡΩΡ (''Dobnorēdo gobano brenodōr nantarōr'') and apparently dedicated to Gobannus, the Celtic god of [[Engineering:Metalsmith|metalwork]]. Furthermore, there is a statue of a seated goddess with a bear, Artio, found in Muri bei Bern, with a Latin inscription DEAE ARTIONI LIVINIA SABILLINA, suggesting a Gaulish ''Artiū'' "Bear (goddess)".

Some coins with Gaulish inscriptions in the Greek alphabet have also been found in Switzerland, e.g. RIG IV Nos. 92 (Lingones) and 267 (Leuci). A sword, dating to the La Tène period, was found in Port, near Biel/Bienne, with its blade inscribed with KORICIOC (''Korisos''), probably the name of the smith.

==Phonology==
{| class="wikitable" 
|+Vowel phonemes of Gaulish
|-
!
!Front
!Central
!Back
|-align=center
!Close
|{{IPA|i iː}} || || {{IPA|u uː}}
|-align=center
!Mid
|{{IPA|e eː}} || || {{IPA|o oː}}
|-align=center
!Open 
| || {{IPA|a aː}} ||
|}
*vowels:
**short: a, e, i, o u
**long: ā, ē, ī, (ō), ū
**diphthongs: ai, ei, oi, au, eu, ou
{| class="wikitable"
|+Consonant phonemes of Gaulish
! &nbsp;
!Bilabial
!Dental<br/>Alveolar
!Palatal
!Velar
|-align=center
!Nasals
| {{IPA|m}}
| {{IPA|n}}
|
|
|-align=center
!Stops
| {{IPA|p&nbsp;&nbsp;b}}
| {{IPA|t&nbsp;&nbsp;d}}
|
| {{IPA|k&nbsp;&nbsp;ɡ}}
|-align=center
!Affricates
|
| {{IPA|ts}}
| 
| 
|-align=center
!Fricatives
|
| {{IPA|s}}
| 
| {{IPA|(x)}}<sup>1</sup>
|-align=center
!Approximants
|
|
| {{IPA|j}}
| {{IPA|w}}
|-align=center
!Liquids
|
| {{IPA|r, l}}
| 
|
|}
#[x] is an allophone of /k/ before /t/.

*occlusives:
**voiceless: p, t, k
**voiced: b, d, g
*resonants
**nasals: m, n
**liquids r, l
*sibilant: s
*affricate: t<sup>s</sup>
*semi-vowels: w, y

The diphthongs all transformed over the historical period. ''Ai'' and ''oi'' changed into long ''ī'' and ''eu'' merged with ''ou'', both becoming long ''ō''. ''Ei'' became long ''ē''. In general, long diphthongs became short diphthongs and then long vowels. Long vowels shortened before nasals in coda.

Other transformations include unstressed ''i'' became ''e'', ''ln'' became ''ll'', a stop + ''s'' became ''ss'', and a nasal + velar became /ŋ/ + velar.

The voiceless plosives seem to have been lenis,{{clarify|date=March 2020}}{{fix|text=does this mean unaspirated?}} unlike in Latin, which distinguished voiced occlusives with a lenis realization from voiceless occlusives with a fortis realization, which caused confusions like ''Glanum'' for ''Clanum'', ''vergobretos'' for ''vercobreto'', ''Britannia'' for ''Pritannia''.<ref>Paul Russell, ''An Introduction to the Celtic Languages'', (London: Longman, 1995), 206-7.</ref>

===Orthography===
[[File:Dédicace de Segomaros (inscription gallo-grecque).png|thumb|RIG G-172 Gallo-Greek inscription ϹΕΓΟΜΑΡΟϹ ΟΥΙΛΛΟΝΕΟϹ ΤΟΟΥΤΙΟΥϹ ΝΑΜΑΥϹΑΤΙϹ ΕΙωΡΟΥ ΒΗΛΗϹΑΜΙ ϹΟϹΙΝ ΝΕΜΗΤΟΝ (''Segomaros Uilloneos toutius Namausatis eiōru Bēlēsami sosin nemēton'') "Segomaros, son of Uillū, citizen<ref name="Delamarre 2008">Delamarre, Xavier. Dictionnaire de la langue gauloise. Editions Errance, Paris, 2008, p. 299</ref><ref name="Woolf2007">{{cite book|author=Greg Woolf|title=Ancient civilizations: the illustrated guide to belief, mythology, and art|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=94NuSg3tlsgC&q=Gaulish+Greek|year=2007|publisher=Barnes & Noble|isbn=978-1-4351-0121-0|page=415}}</ref> (''toutious'') of Namausos, dedicated this sanctuary to Belesama"]]
[[File:Tau gallic CourDOr Metz 3147.jpg|thumb|The name ARAÐÐOVNA on a Gaulish tomb, illustrating the use of the ''tau gallicum'' (in this case doubled).]]
[[File:leponzio.png|thumb|Lepontic alphabet]]

The alphabet of Lugano used in Cisalpine Gaul for Lepontic:
:AEIKLMNOPRSTΘVXZ

The alphabet of Lugano does not distinguish voicing in stops: P represents /b/ or /p/, T is for /d/ or /t/, K for /g/ or /k/.
Z is probably for /t<sup>s</sup>/. U /u/ and V /w/ are distinguished in only one early inscription. Θ is probably for /t/ and X for /g/ (Lejeune 1971, Solinas 1985).

The [[Social:History of the Greek alphabet|Eastern Greek alphabet]] used in southern Gallia Narbonensis:
:{{lang|grc|αβγδεζηθικλμνξοπρϲτυχω}}
:{{lang|grc|ΑΒΓΔΕΖΗΘΙΚΛΜΝΞΟΠΡϹΤΥΧΩ}}

{{lang|grc|Χ}} is used for {{ipa|[x]}}, {{lang|grc|θ}} for /t<sup>s</sup>/, {{lang|grc|ου}} for /u/, /ū/, /w/, {{lang|grc|η}} and {{lang|grc|ω}} for both long and short /e/, /ē/ and /o/, /ō/ while {{lang|grc|ι}} is for short /i/ and ει for /ī/. Note that the sigma, in the Eastern Greek alphabet, is a Ϲ (lunate sigma). All Greek letters were used except phi and psi.

Latin alphabet (monumental and cursive) in use in Roman Gaul:
:ABCDÐEFGHIKLMNOPQRSTVXZ
:abcdðefghiklmnopqrstvxz

G and K are sometimes used interchangeably (especially after R). ''Ð''/''ð'', ''ds'' and ''s'' may represent /ts/ and/or /dz/. X, ''x'' is for [x] or /ks/. Q is only used rarely (''Sequanni'', ''Equos'') and may represent an archaism (a retained *k<sup>w</sup>) or, as in Latin, an alternate spelling of ''-cu-'' (for original /kuu/, /kou/, or /kom-u/).<ref>Stifter, David. (Recension of) Helmut Birkhan, Kelten. Celts. Bilder ihrer Kultur. Images of their Culture, Wien 1999, in: Die Sprache, 43/2, 2002-2003, pp. 237-243</ref> Ð and ð are used to represent the letter [[File:Aa taugallicum.svg|8px]] (''tau gallicum'', the Gaulish dental affricate).  In March, 2020 [[Unicode]] added four characters to represent ''tau gallicum'':<ref name="L219179">{{Cite web|url=https://www.unicode.org/L2/L2019/19179-n5044-tau-gallicum.pdf|title=L2/19-179: Proposal for the addition of four Latin characters for Gaulish|date=2019-05-26|first1=Michael|last1=Everson|first2=Chris|last2=Lilley}}</ref>
*{{unichar|A7C7|LATIN CAPITAL LETTER D WITH SHORT STROKE OVERLAY}}
*{{unichar|A7C8|LATIN SMALL LETTER D WITH SHORT STROKE OVERLAY}}
*{{unichar|A7C9|LATIN CAPITAL LETTER S WITH SHORT STROKE OVERLAY}}
*{{unichar|A7CA|LATIN SMALL LETTER S WITH SHORT STROKE OVERLAY}}

===Sound laws===
* Gaulish changed the [[Social:Proto-Indo-European language|PIE]] voiceless labiovelar ''kʷ'' to  ''p'', a development also observed in the Brittonic languages (as well as Greek and some [[Social:Italic languages|Italic languages]] like the Osco-Umbrian languages), while other Celtic languages retained the labiovelar. Thus, the Gaulish word for "son" was  ''mapos'',<ref>Delamarre 2008, p. 215-216</ref> contrasting with Primitive Irish *''maq(q)os'' (attested genitive case ''maq(q)i''), which became ''mac'' (gen. ''mic'') in modern Irish. In modern Welsh the word ''map'', ''mab'' (or its contracted form ''ap'', ''ab'') is found in surnames. Similarly one Gaulish word for "horse" was ''epos'' (in Old Breton ''eb'' and modern [[Social:Breton language|Breton]] ken''eb'' "pregnant mare")  while [[Social:Old Irish|Old Irish]] has ''ech'', the modern [[Social:Irish language|Irish language]] and [[Social:Scottish Gaelic|Scottish Gaelic]] ''each'', and [[Biography:Manx language|Manx]] ''egh'', all derived from [[Social:Proto-Indo-European language|proto-Indo-European]] *''h₁eḱwos''.<ref>Delamarre 2008, p. 163</ref> The retention or innovation of this sound does not necessarily signify a close genetic relationship between the languages; Goidelic and Brittonic are, for example, both Insular Celtic languages and quite closely related.
* The Proto-Celtic voiced labiovelar ''*gʷ'' (From PIE ''*gʷʰ'') became ''w'': *''gʷediūmi'' → ''uediiumi'' "I pray" (but [[Social:Celtiberian language|Celtiberian]] Ku.e.z.o.n.to /gueðonto/ < *gʷʰedʰ-y-ont 'imploring, pleading', Old Irish ''guidim'', Welsh ''gweddi'' "to pray").
* PIE ''ds'', ''dz'' became /tˢ/, spelled ð: *''neds-samo'' → ''neððamon'' (cf. Irish ''nesamh'' "nearest", Welsh ''nesaf'' "next"). Modern Breton ''nes'' and ''nesañ'' "next".
* PIE ''ew'' became ''eu'' or ''ou'', and later ''ō'': PIE *''tewtéh₂'' →  ''teutā''/''toutā'' → ''tōtā'' "tribe" (cf. Irish ''túath'', Welsh ''tud'' "people").
*PIE ''ey'' became ''ei, ē'' and ''ī''  PIE *''treyes →  treis → trī'' (cf. Irish ''trí'' "three").
* Additionally, intervocalic /st/ became the affricate [tˢ] (alveolar stop + voiceless alveolar stop) and intervocalic /sr/ became [ðr] and /str/ became [θr]. Finally, when a labial or velar stop came before /t/ or /s/, the two sounds merged into the fricative [χ].

==Morphology==
There was some areal (or genetic, see [[Social:Italo-Celtic|Italo-Celtic]]) similarity to Latin grammar, and the French historian Ferdinand Lot argued that it helped the rapid adoption of Vulgar Latin in Roman Gaul.<ref>''La Gaule'' (1947); for the relevance of the question of the transition from Gaulish to Latin in French national identity, see also ''Nos ancêtres les Gaulois''.</ref>

===Noun cases===
Gaulish had seven [[Social:Declension|cases]]: the nominative, vocative, accusative, genitive, dative, instrumental and the locative case. Greater epigraphical evidence attests common cases (nominative and accusative) and common stems (-o- and -a- stems) than for cases less frequently used in inscriptions or rarer -i-, -n- and -r- stems. The following table summarises the reconstructed endings for the words ''*toṷtā'' "tribe, people", ''*mapos'' "boy, son", ''*ṷātis'' "seer", ''*gutus'' "voice", ''*brātīr'' "brother".<ref>Lambert 2003 pp.51–67</ref><ref name=":0">{{Cite web|url=https://digilib.phil.muni.cz/handle/11222.digilib/114125|title=Gaulish language|last=Václav|first=Blažek|website=digilib.phil.muni.cz|access-date=2018-10-20}}</ref>

{| class="wikitable"
! rowspan="2" | Case
! colspan="5" | Singular
! rowspan="9" | &nbsp;
! colspan="5" | Plural
|-
! ā-stem
! o-stem
! i-stem
! u-stem
! r-stem
! ā-stem
! o-stem
! i-stem
! u-stem
! r-stem
|-
! style="text-align: left;" | Nominative
| *toṷtā
| *mapos (n. *-on)
| *ṷātis
| *gutus
| *brātīr
| *toṷtās
| *mapoi
| *ṷātīs
| *gutoṷes
| *brāteres
|-
! style="text-align: left;" | Vocative
| *toṷtā
| *mape
| *ṷāti
| *gutu
| *brāter
| *toṷtās
| *mapoi
| *ṷātīs
| *gutoṷes
| *brāteres
|-
! style="text-align: left;" | Accusative
| *toṷtan ~ *toṷtam > *toṷtim
| *mapon ~ *mapom (n. *-on)
| *ṷātin ~ *ṷātim
| *gutun ~ *gutum
| *brāterem
| *toṷtās
| *mapōs > *mapūs
| *ṷātīs
| *gutūs
| *brāterās
|-
! style="text-align: left;" | Genitive
| toṷtās > *toṷtiās
| *mapoiso > *mapi
| *ṷātēis
| *gutoṷs > *gutōs
| *brātros
| *toṷtanom
| *mapon
| *ṷātiom
| *gutoṷom
| *brātron
|-
! style="text-align: left;" | Dative
| *toṷtai > *toṷtī
| *mapūi > *mapū 
| *ṷātei > *ṷāte
| *gutoṷei > gutoṷ
| *brātrei
| *toṷtābo(s)
| *mapobo(s)
| *ṷātibo(s)
| *gutuibo(s)
| *brātrebo(s)
|-
! style="text-align: left;" | Instrumental
| *toṷtia > *toṷtī
| *mapū
| *ṷātī
| *gutū
| *brātri
| *toṷtābi(s)
| *mapuis > *mapūs
| *ṷātibi(s)
| *gutuibi(s)
| *brātrebi(s)
|-
! style="text-align: left;" | Locative
| *toṷtī
| *mapei > *mapē
| *ṷātei
| *gutoṷ
| *brātri
| *toṷtābo(s)
| *mapois
| *ṷātibo(s)
| *gutubo(s)
| *brātrebo(s)
|}

In some cases, a historical evolution is attested; for example, the dative singular of a-stems is ''-āi'' in the oldest inscriptions, becoming first *''-ăi'' and finally ''-ī'' as in Irish ''a''-stem nouns with attenuated (''slender'') consonants: nom. ''lámh'' "hand, arm" (cf. Gaul. ''lāmā'') and dat. ''láimh'' (< *''lāmi''; cf. Gaul. ''lāmāi'' > *''lāmăi'' > ''lāmī''). Further, the plural instrumental had begun to encroach on the dative plural (dative ''atrebo'' and ''matrebo'' vs. instrumental ''gobedbi'' and ''suiorebe''), and in the modern Insular languages, the instrumental form is known to have completely replaced the dative.

For o-stems, Gaulish also innovated the pronominal ending for the nominative plural -''oi'' and genitive singular -''ī'' in place of expected -''ōs'' and -''os'' still present in Celtiberian (-''oś'', -''o'').  In a-stems, the inherited genitive singular -''as'' is attested but was subsequently replaced by ''-ias'' as in Insular Celtic. The expected genitive plural -''a-om'' appears innovated as ''-anom'' (vs. Celtiberian -''aum'').

There also appears to be a dialectal equivalence between -''n'' and -''m'' endings in accusative singular endings particularly, with Transalpine Gaulish favouring -''n'', and Cisalpine favouring -''m''. In genitive plurals the difference between -''n'' and -''m'' relies on the length of the preceding vowel, with longer vowels taking -''m'' over -''n'' (in the case of -''anom'' this is a result of its innovation from -''a-om'').

===Verbs===
Gaulish verbs have present, future, perfect, and imperfect tenses; indicative, subjunctive, optative and imperative moods; and active and passive voices.<ref name=":0" /><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://eprints.maynoothuniversity.ie/3740/|title=Old Celtic Languages: Gaulish. General Information|last=David|first=Stifter|date=2008|website=eprints.maynoothuniversity.ie|language=en|access-date=2018-10-20}}</ref> Verbs show a number of innovations as well. The Indo-European s-aorist evolved into the Gaulish t-preterit, formed by merging an old 3rd personal singular imperfect ending -''t''- to a 3rd personal singular perfect ending -''u'' or -''e'' and subsequent affixation to all forms of the t-preterit tense. Similarly, the s-preterit is formed from the extension of -''ss'' (originally from the third person singular) and the affixation of -''it'' to the third person singular (to distinguish it as such). Third-person plurals are also marked by the addition of -s in the preterit system.

==Syntax==
===Word order===
Most Gaulish sentences seem to consist of a [[Social:Subject–verb–object|subject–verb–object]] word order:
::{|
|-style="background: #EEEEEE"
||Subject
||Verb
||Indirect Object
||Direct Object
|-
||'''martialis dannotali'''
||'''ieuru'''
||'''ucuete'''
||'''sosin celicnon'''
|-
|colspan="4"|''Martialis, son of Dannotalos, dedicated this edifice to Ucuetis''
|}

Some, however, have patterns such as [[Social:Verb–subject–object|verb–subject–object]] (as in living Insular Celtic languages) or with the verb last. The latter can be seen as a survival from an earlier stage in the language, very much like the more archaic [[Social:Celtiberian language|Celtiberian language]].

Sentences with the verb first can be interpreted, however, as indicating a special purpose, such as an imperative, emphasis, contrast, and so on. Also, the verb may contain or be next to an enclitic pronoun or with "and" or "but", etc. According to J. F. Eska, Gaulish was certainly not a verb-second language, as the following shows:

::{|
|-
||'''ratin briuatiom'''
||'''frontu tarbetisonios'''
||'''ie(i)uru'''
|-
||NP.Acc.Sg.
||NP.Nom.Sg.
||V.3rd Sg.
|-
|colspan="3"|''Frontus Tarbetisonios dedicated the board of the bridge.''
|}

Whenever there is a pronoun object element, it is next to the verb, as per '''[[Biography:Joseph Vendryes|Vendryes']] Restriction'''. The general Celtic grammar shows [[Social:Clitic|Wackernagel's Rule]], so putting the verb at the beginning of the clause or sentence. As in Old Irish<ref>{{cite book|last=Thurneysen|first=Rudolf|title=A Grammar of Old Irish|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CTSANgAACAAJ|year=1993|publisher=School of Celtic Studies, Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies|isbn=978-1-85500-161-9}}</ref> and traditional literary Welsh,<ref>Williams, Stephen J., ''Elfennau Gramadeg Cymraeg''. Gwasg Prifysgol Cymru, Caerdydd. 1959.</ref> the verb can be preceded by a particle with no real meaning by itself but originally used to make the utterance easier.

::{|
|-
||'''sioxt-i'''
||'''albanos'''
||'''panna(s)'''
||'''extra tuð(on)'''
||'''CCC'''
|-
||V-Pro.Neut.
||NP.Nom.Sg.
||NP.Fem.Acc.Pl.
||PP
||Num.
|-
|colspan="5"|''Albanos added them, vessels beyond the allotment (in the amount of) 300.''
|}

::{|
|-
||'''to-me-declai'''
||'''obalda'''
||'''natina'''
|-
||Conn.-Pro.1st.Sg.Acc.-V.3rd.Sg.
||NP.Nom.Sg.
|| Appositive
|-
|colspan="3"|''Obalda, (their) dear daughter, set me up.''
|}

According to Eska's model, Vendryes' Restriction is believed to have played a large role in the development of Insular Celtic verb-subject-object word order. Other authorities such as John T. Koch, dispute that interpretation.{{citation needed|date=December 2010}}

Considering that Gaulish is not a verb-final language, it is not surprising to find other "head-initial" features:
*Genitives follow their head nouns:
::{|
|-
||'''atom deuogdonion'''
|-
||''The border of gods and men.''
|}
*The unmarked position for adjectives is after their head nouns:
::{|
|-
||'''toutious namausatis'''
|-
||''citizen of Nîmes''
|}
*Prepositional phrases have the preposition, naturally, first:
::{|
|-
||'''in alixie'''
|-
||''in Alesia''
|}
*Passive clauses:
::{|
|-
||'''uatiounui so nemetos commu escengilu'''
|-
||''To Vatiounos this shrine (was dedicated) by Commos Escengilos''
|}

===Subordination===
Subordinate clauses follow the main clause and have an uninflected element (''jo'') to show the subordinate clause. This is attached to the first verb of the subordinate clause.
::{|
|-
||'''gobedbi'''
||'''dugijonti-''jo'''''
||'''ucuetin'''
||'''in alisija'''
|-
||NP.Dat/Inst.Pl.
||V.3rd.Pl.- Pcl.
||NP.Acc.Sg.
||PP
|-
|colspan="4"|''to the smiths who serve Ucuetis in Alisia''
|}

''Jo'' is also used in relative clauses and to construct the equivalent of THAT-clauses
::{|
|-
||'''scrisu-mi-''jo'''''
||'''uelor'''
|-
||V.1st.Sg.-Pro.1st Sg.-Pcl.
||V.1st Sg.
|-
|colspan="3"|''I wish that I spit''
|}

This element is found residually in the Insular Celtic languages and appears as an independent inflected relative pronoun in Celtiberian, thus:
*Welsh
**modern ''sydd'' "which is" ← Middle Welsh ''yssyd'' ← *''esti-jo''
**vs. Welsh ''ys'' "is" ← *''esti''
*Irish
**Old Irish relative ''cartae'' "they love" ← *''caront-jo''
*Celtiberian
**masc. nom. sing. ''ioś'', masc. dat. sing. ''iomui'', fem. acc. plural ''iaś''

===Clitics===
Gaulish had object pronouns that infixed inside a word:
::{|
|-
||'''to-'''
||'''''so'''''
||'''-ko'''
||'''-te'''
|-
||Conn.-
||Pro.3rd Sg.Acc
||- PerfVZ
||- V.3rd Sg
|-
|colspan="4"|''he gave '''it'''''
|}

Disjunctive pronouns also occur as clitics: ''mi, tu, id''. They act like the emphasizing particles known as ''notae augentes'' in the Insular Celtic languages.
::{|
|-
||'''dessu-'''
||'''''mii'''''
||'''-iis'''
|-
||V.1st.Sg.
||Emph.-Pcl.1st Sg.Nom.
||Pro.3rd Pl.Acc.
|-
|colspan="3"|'''''I''' prepare them''
|}

::{|
|-
||'''buet-'''
||'''''id'''''
|-
||V.3rd Sg.Pres.Subjunc.-
||Emph.Pcl.3rd Sg.Nom.Neut.
|-
|colspan="2"|'''''it''' should be''
|}

Clitic doubling is also found (along with left dislocation), when a noun antecedent referring to an inanimate object is nonetheless grammatically animate. (There is a similar construction in Old Irish.)

==Modern usage==
In an interview, Swiss folk metal band Eluveitie said that some of their songs are written in a reconstructed form of Gaulish. The band asks scientists for help in writing songs in the language.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.headbangers.in/interviews/interview-eluveitie/ |title=Interview With Eluveiti |publisher=Headbangers India |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150402124603/http://www.headbangers.in/interviews/interview-eluveitie/ |archive-date=2015-04-02 }}</ref> The name of the band comes from graffiti on a vessel from Mantua (c. 300 BC).<ref>Reproduction in Raffaele Carlo De Marinis, ''Gli Etruschi a nord del Po,'' Mantova, 1986.</ref> The inscription in Etruscan letters reads ''eluveitie,'' which has been interpreted as the [[Social:Etruscan language|Etruscan]] form of the Celtic ''(h)elvetios'' ("the Helvetian"),<ref>{{cite web|last1=Stifter|first1=David|title=MN·2 – Lexicon Leponticum|url=http://www.univie.ac.at/lexlep/wiki/MN·2|website=An Interactive Online Etymological Dictionary of Lepontic|publisher=University of Vienna|access-date=9 July 2014|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151106230003/http://www.univie.ac.at/lexlep/wiki/MN%C2%B72|archive-date=6 November 2015}}</ref> presumably referring to a man of Helvetian descent living in Mantua.<!-- ANNA MURPHY'S EXPLANATION IS NOT QUITE CORRECT:<ref>http://hearevil.com/eluveitie-anna-murphy-interview/ "ELUVEITIE – ANNA MURPHY INTERVIEW"</ref> -->

== See also ==
*[[Social:Italo-Celtic|Italo-Celtic]]
*[[Social:Lepontic language|Lepontic language]]
*[[Social:Celtiberian language|Celtiberian language]]
*Languages of France
*List of English words of Gaulish origin
*List of French words of Gaulish origin

==References==
===Citations===
{{reflist|30em}}

===Bibliography===
{{refbegin}}

*{{Cite book|last=Delamarre|first=Xavier|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=C3BKPgAACAAJ|title=Dictionnaire de la langue gauloise: Une approche linguistique du vieux-celtique continental|date=2003|publisher=Errance|isbn=9782877723695|language=fr|}}
*{{citation|last=Delamarre|first=Xavier|title=Noms de lieux celtiques de l'Europe Ancienne. -500 +500|place=Arles|publisher=Errance|year=2012}}
*{{citation|last=Eska|first=Joseph F.|chapter=Celtic Languages|title=Cambridge Encyclopedia of the World's Ancient Languages|editor-last=Woodard|editor-first=Roger D.|place=Cambridge|publisher=Cambridge UP|year=2004|pages=857–880}}
*{{citation|last=Eska|first=Joseph F.|chapter=Continental Celtic|title=The Ancient Languages of Europe|editor-last=Woodard|editor-first=Roger D.|place=Cambridge|publisher=Cambridge UP|year=2008|pages=165–188}}
*{{citation|last=Eska|first=Joseph F|title=The linguistic position of Lepontic|journal=Proceedings of the Berkeley Linguistics Society|volume=24|issue=2|pages=2–11|doi=10.3765/bls.v24i2.1254|year=1998|doi-access=free}}
*{{citation|last1=Eska|first1=Joseph F.|chapter=The emergence of the Celtic languages|title=The Celtic Languages|editor1-last=Ball|editor1-first=Martin J.|editor2-last=Müller|editor2-first=Nicole|place=London|publisher=Routledge|edition=2nd|year=2010|pages=22–27}}
*{{citation|last=Eska|first=Joseph F.|chapter=Lepontic|title=The Celts: History, Life, and Culture|editor1-last=Koch|editor1-first=John T.|editor2-last=Minard|editor2-first=Antoine|year=2012|place=Santa Barbara|publisher=ABC Clio|page=534}}
*{{citation|last1=Eska|first1=Joseph F.|last2=Evans|first2=D. Ellis|chapter=Continental Celtic|title=The Celtic Languages|editor1-last=Ball|editor1-first=Martin J.|editor2-last=Müller|editor2-first=Nicole|place=London|publisher=Routledge|edition=2nd|year=2010|pages=28–54}}
*{{Cite book|last=Evans|first=David E.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9WBmAAAAMAAJ|title=Gaulish Personal Names: A Study of Some Continental Celtic Formations|date=1967|publisher=Clarendon Press|language=en|}}
*{{citation|last=Dottin|first=Georges|title=La langue gauloise: grammaire, textes et glossaire|place=Paris|publisher=C. Klincksieck|year=1920|url=https://archive.org/details/lalanguegauloise00dottuoft}}
*{{citation|last1=Forster|first1=Peter |last2=Toth |first2=Alfred |year=2003|title=Toward a phylogenetic chronology of ancient Gaulish, Celtic, and Indo-European|journal=Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA|volume=100|issue=15|pages=9079–9084|doi=10.1073/pnas.1331158100|pmid=12837934|pmc=166441|bibcode=2003PNAS..100.9079F }}
*{{citation|last= Koch|first=John T.|title=Celtic Culture: A Historical Encyclopedia|publisher= ABC-CLIO|year=2005|isbn=1-85109-440-7}}. 
*{{Cite book|last=Lambert|first=Pierre-Yves|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TjMcAQAAIAAJ|title=La langue gauloise: description linguistique, commentaire d'inscriptions choisies|date=1994|publisher=Errance|isbn=978-2-87772-089-2|language=fr|}}
*{{citation|last=Lejeune|first=Michel|title=Lepontica|place=Paris|publisher=Belles Lettres|year=1971}}
*{{citation|last=Meid|first= Wolfgang|title=Gaulish Inscriptions|publisher= Archaeolingua|year=1994}}
*''Recueil des inscriptions gauloises'' (XLVe supplément à «GALLIA»). ed. Paul-Marie Duval et al. 4 vols. Paris: CNRS, 1985–2002. {{ISBN|2-271-05844-9}}
*{{citation|last=Russell|first=Paul|title=An Introduction to the Celtic Languages|place=London |publisher=Longman|year=1995}}
*{{citation|last=Savignac|first=Jean-Paul|title=Dictionnaire français-gaulois|place=Paris|publisher=Éditions de la Différence|year=2004}}
*{{citation|last=Savignac|first=Jean-Paul|title=Les Gaulois, leurs écrits retrouvés: "Merde à César"|place=Paris|publisher=Éditions de la Différence|year=1994}}
*{{citation|last=Sims-Williams|first=Patrick|chapter=Common Celtic, Gallo-Brittonic and Insular Celtic|title=Gaulois et celtique continental|editor1-last=Lambert|editor1-first=Pierre-Yves|editor2-last=Pinault|editor2-first=Jean|place=Genève|publisher=Librairie Droz|year=2007|pages=309–354}}
*{{citation|last=Solinas|first=Patrizia|title=Il celtico in Italia|journal=Studi Etruschi|volume=60|year=1995|pages=311–408}}
*{{citation|last=Stifter|first=David|title=Old Celtic Languages (lecture notes)|url=http://rootsofeurope.ku.dk/kalender/arkiv_2012/celtic_spring/|publisher=University of Kopenhagen|year=2012}}
*{{Cite book|last=Vath|first=Bernd|last2=Ziegler|first2=Sabine|title=Handbook of Comparative and Historical Indo-European Linguistics|date=2017|publisher=Walter de Gruyter|isbn=978-3-11-054243-1|editor-last=Klein|editor-first=Jared|chapter=The documentation of Celtic|volume=2|editor-last2=Joseph|editor-first2=Brian|editor-last3=Fritz|editor-first3=Matthias}}
*{{citation|last=Watkins|first=Calvert|chapter=A Celtic miscellany|title=Proceedings of the Tenth Annual UCLA Indo-European Conference, Los Angeles 1998|editor=K. Jones-Blei |display-editors=etal |pages=3–25|year=1999|location=Washington|publisher=Institute for the Study of Man}}
{{refend}}

==Further reading==
* Beck, Noémie. "Celtic Divine Names Related to Gaulish and British Population Groups." In: ''Théonymie Celtique, Cultes, Interpretatio - Keltische Theonymie, Kulte, Interpretatio''. Edited by Hofeneder, Andreas and De Bernardo Stempel, Patrizia, by Hainzmann, Manfred and Mathieu, Nicolas. Wein: Austrian Academy of Sciences Press, 2013. 51-72. www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctv8mdn28.7.
* Hamp, Eric P. "Gaulish ordinals and their history". In: ''Études Celtiques'', vol. 38, 2012. pp.&nbsp;131–135. [DOI: https://doi.org/10.3406/ecelt.2012.2349]; [www.persee.fr/doc/ecelt_0373-1928_2012_num_38_1_2349]
* Lambert, Pierre-Yves. "Le Statut Du Théonyme Gaulois." In Théonymie Celtique, Cultes, Interpretatio - Keltische Theonymie, Kulte, Interpretatio, edited by Hofeneder Andreas and De Bernardo Stempel Patrizia, by Hainzmann Manfred and Mathieu Nicolas, 113-24. Wein: Austrian Academy of Sciences Press, 2013. www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctv8mdn28.11.
* {{cite journal|last=Kennedy|first=James|title=On the Ancient Languages of France and Spain|journal=Transactions of the Philological Society|volume=2|url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uc1.b3924121;view=1up;seq=165|year=1855|issue=11|pages=155–184|ref=Kennedy|doi=10.1111/j.1467-968X.1855.tb00784.x}}
* Mullen, Alex; Darasse, Coline Ruiz. "Gaulish". In: ''Palaeohispanica: revista sobre lenguas y culturas de la Hispania antigua'' n. 20 (2020): pp. 749-783. {{ISSN|1578-5386}} DOI: 10.36707/palaeohispanica.v0i20.383
* Witczak, Krzysztof Tomasz. "Gaulish SUIOREBE ‘with two sisters’", Lingua Posnaniensis 57, 2: 59-62, doi: https://doi.org/10.1515/linpo-2015-0011

==External links==
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20180218100057/http://www.orbilat.com/Encyclopaedia/G/Gaulish_language.html L.A. Curchin, "Gaulish language"]
*{{in lang|fr}} Langues et écriture en Gaule Romaine by Hélène Chew of the Musée des Antiquités Nationales
*[http://titus.fkidg1.uni-frankfurt.de/didact/idg/kelt/gallbs.htm two sample inscriptions on TITUS]


{{DEFAULTSORT:Gaulish Language}}
[[Category:Subject–verb–object languages]]
[[Category:Extinct languages of Europe]]

{{Sourceattribution|Gaulish language|1}}