Ancient dead languages are of little interest to people. However, they play a very important role for scientists - they help to find interconnections with modern languages. Finding a relationship with modern languages can help study the history of certain peoples.
History
The Gallic language belongs to the Celtic group, was widely spoken in Gaul (the territory of modern France, Belgium and Switzerland) in the pre-Roman period. Unfortunately, immediately after the conquest of the Gauls, the Romans began to pursue a policy of Romanization, and the Gallic was quickly replaced by Latin in everyday communication. Finally became dead in the II-III centuries. Recently, groups of enthusiasts have appeared who want to revive the language, while some, on the basis of already known knowledge, make artificial Gallic languages.
Learning a language by scientists
The language itself is known to scientists by numerous finds. Inscriptions were found on various objects of Gallic life. Therefore, at present, researchers have been able to recover only a small part of the vocabulary. For example, it was possible to restore the alphabet, most of the phonology, information about some declensions, as well as most of the numerals. Separate phrases as well as a number of proper names were found in the works of authors who were contemporaries of the Gallic wars. A complete collection of the remains of the Gallic language is not yet available.
Proper names and individual Gallic words found by Greek and Latin writers were already partly developed in Grammatica Celtica (Berlin, 1871). A certain number of Gallic words passed into modern French and Italian languages, as well as into their dialects. Recently, quite voluminous Gallic texts have been found in which there is a very diverse vocabulary, most of which was previously unknown. With each found monument of this ancient language, scientists gain new knowledge that helps in learning the rules of the language.
The influence of the Gallic language on French
Many people believe that the French language is a descendant of the Gallic, but this is just a common misconception. Most words in French have Latin roots. Gallic origin has only about 180 words. However, most of these words are not the literary norm, but comprise the vocabulary of various dialects. This is most likely due to the fact that the Gallic language was very quickly replaced by Latin. Moreover, due to romanization, the Gallic elite abandoned many of their linguistic features.
The only thing left of the Gauls in the French language is the method of counting, the decimal system. An additional problem for researchers is that Latin and the Gallic language are very similar to each other, and therefore it is very difficult to find out where the root is Gallic and where Latin is. Such a historical fact is known that during the Gallic wars Roman correspondence was actively intercepted and read by the Gauls, and in order to stop this, Julius Caesar himself began and ordered the others to conduct correspondence exclusively in Greek, which the Gauls did not understand. This only confirms the guesses of scientists about the proximity of the Gallic language and Latin.
Prospects
Despite the "dead status", the Gallic language has the opportunity to become "alive" again. As already written, enthusiasts based on known facts make artificial languages. There are at least two well-known reconstructions.
- From the Eluveitie group.
- Modern Gaulish, created by a group of enthusiasts from Australia. Their goal was to imagine how the language would develop further if it did not disappear. They performed the same operations that the rest of the Celtic languages that are currently in use. As a result, phonetics changed, nominal endings disappeared, the language became very close to British.
However, if you want to learn this language in any version, in the one in which it existed, or in an artificial one, then you can immediately get upset, because at the moment there is not enough complete vocabulary of words, not to mention a full textbook of the Gallic language. If there is a great desire to get acquainted with this beautiful language, there are still books with vocabulary and some rules. These are books:
- La Langue Gaulois.
- Dictionnaire de la langue gauloise.
- Gaulish Personal Names.
Moreover, seeing the progress in the study of the language by researchers, it can be assumed that in a few decades or centuries, a person can simply go to a bookstore and buy a Gallic language dictionary along with a textbook that will help to master the beautiful language of the comic book characters of Gallic origin Asterix and Obelix. At the end of the 20th century, the Cornish language was revived, which was "dead" for 200 years. The Manx language, which has also been actively developing recently, has been revived. Perhaps it will be possible to learn the Gallic language once.