Gaulish

Introduction

Gaulish or Gallic is the name given to the Celtic language that was spoken in Gaul before the Vulgar Latin of the late Roman Empire became dominant in Roman Gaul. According to Julius Caesar in his Gallic Wars it was one of three languages in Gaul, the others being Aquitanian and Germanic. Gaulish is paraphyletically grouped with Celtiberian, Lepontic, and Galatian as Continental Celtic. The Lepontic language is sometimes considered to be a dialect of Gaulish. Gaulish is a P-Celtic language.

The Verb

Verbs were marked for tense, voice, mood, person and number.

• Voide: active.
• Mood: indicative, subjunctive, imperative.
• Tense: present, preterite, future.
• Number: singular and plural.
• Person: 1st, 2nd, and 3rd.

The Indo-European s-aorist became 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 addition of -s in the preterit.

Sample

 ateknati trutikni
 karnitu lokan koisis

 trutiknos

Translation: "Coisis [younger brother of Ategnatos], son of Drutos, built the tomb of Ategnatos, son of Drutos"

Verb:

• karnitu; 3rd sg. preterite of verb kar- to construct with stone, to amass stones