Galthach hAthevu Modern (Revived) Gaulish Tengu in Galthed

ei galataca atebiu tengua senna inda brogi galataca auuot inte noio ris dumno noio inda aiucanto uoconti cinto dhi Galthach hAthevu tengu sen in bri Galthach, voth inth nhi ri dhumon ni in iu-canth gwochon-cinth. Modern Gaulish is the old language of the Gaulish country, made new for the new world of the twentyfirst century.

Contents Section Page

Galthach hAthevu - Modern Gaulish ...4 I. Introduction .7 II. Grammar .13 Orthography and Phonology......13 Morphology16 Phonetics17 Summary of Postulated Historical Sound Changes ..19 Spelling Rules ...20 Personal Pronouns .....................21 The Verb to be25 Conjugation and Tenses of Verbs..26 Basic Word Order .33 The Verb to have34 Use of the Verbal Noun 36 The Article.....36 Plural Formation37

Gender Distinction 39 Adjectives..40 Adjective Formation .40 Spatial Paradigm42 Temporal Paradigm43 Adverbial Expression 44 Indication of Possession.45 Questions, Answers, Negations, Questionwords ..46 Compound Sentences and Conjunctions ..48 Demonstratives..50 Prepositions....51 Initial Consonant Mutation....................52 Numerals ...57 Compound Word Construction .58 Prefixes .59 Word Derivation ...61 Comparitive Forms ...68 Diminutive Form ..70 Expressions and Turns of Phrase..70 Cultural Background.73 Conclusion.79 References..81 III. Vocabulary/ Gwepali: Galthach hAthevu English Dictionary87 IV. English Gaulish dictionary ....181 V. Appendix. Lesson One: Gavi Geneth an D-curu.. Tri Wanech.

A Morthchi... Short Polemic On The Origin Of The Celtic People and Language .

Galthach hAthevu - Modern Gaulish

dhi Galatha hol rhanthu en dri ranon, pluch dhi in Belghed en athrvi on echs, dhi in hAchithaned en athrvi al, ach pluch dhi athrvi in treth ars anwthu Celthed gwe Galthed en s dengu ch, ach Galli en in tengu Rmach. dhi dimilined tengu, achothed ach ased ars ol. dhi in avon Garun enther in Galthed ach in hAchithaned, ach in avned Mathron ach Schan enther in Galthed ach in Belghed. dhi in Belghed lonam in tuthed-sin ol. dhi s pelam ao vesl ach hachthed dichwru in Brvins Rhrmach, ach dhi bachanam ars clan in gwenethed o ch chan druthched o ch vo blath in tth. Geth, dhi s nedham in Gerwned tr in avon Rin, ach dhi cingon enthers aman hol.

All Gaul is divided into three parts, of which the Belgae inhabit one, the Aquitani another, the third, those who in their own language are called Celts or Galates, and in the Roman language, Galli. All these differ from each other in language, customs and laws. The river Garonne separates the Galtes from the Aquitani; the Marne and the Seine separate them from the Belgae. Of all these people the bravest are the Belgae. They are the furthest away from the culture and civilized ways of the Roman Province, and are least often visited by the merchants who bring luxuries which tend to make people soft; also they are nearest to the Germans across the river Rhine and are continually at war with them."

On Methin

Pan r hi mi on methin, nedh in methinoch dawn r hpis mi luran, b en ghnathedhoch pregnant r rhdhi mi ch bolal, en penoch skull f f f f foch fa full

When I went one morning, close to

I saw a vixen, she was

I gave her a bullet in her

fee fa foo

Pan r hi mi on methin, en havnal anel bren a tree r hpis mi crachonth, b mr ach sen and old

w. I wo m, in a creek, below

I saw a toad, he was big

r vathi mi ch inth nherthach, math ar ben head f f f f fen foo fa fed

I hit him strongly, well on his

fee fa

Ach dhi on riem, on rieth for you gavu ni in canchon, ach ranu ni ch split it on riem ach on rieth for you f f f f f-eth foowha

and there is one for me, one

we take the treasure and we

one for me and one

fee fa foo fa

Pan r hi mi on methin, ri gn in dur alved rain

wIwom, for the knowing of the

r hpis mi ton molthed, en deper brach harnched I saw then sheep eating malt of wheats r rhithi mi chs di groch, a brs s gerved I ran them off a cliff, to break their brains f f f f fed fa fain fee fa foo

Pan r hi mi on methin, a chalan tr in vrach the fog r hpis mi gath-gwir, galv, dwied, gwrach feral

wIwom, to wander through

I saw a tomcat, fat, ugly,

r hli mi m gun grd, ghoch en voch crach I fed my dog his heart, red in his bloody

mouth f f f f fach fa fouth fee fa foo

Ach dhi on riem, on rieth for you gavu ni in canchon, ach ranu ni ch

and there is one for me, one

split it

we take the treasure and we

on riem ach on rieth for you f f f f f-eth foowha

one for me and one

fee fa foo fa

Pan r hi mi on methin, a cam ap ar vri mi land r hpis mi ins cluth pluch r shthi cenen bri rabbit sat r ghavi mi grchin, r hvo mi cuchul di good hat fi f f f fi foo fa fat

w.I.w.o.m., to walk around on flat

I saw a hole where a foul

I took his skin,I made a

fee fa

Pan r hi mi on methin, a tan ardh ar vr a hill r hpis mi ins bed, en dir wars en l dead land r v mi s ghiled, ganth m dhalam ich hands f f f f fch fa fand

wIwom, to stand high on

I saw there cows, lying in

I cut their throats, with my own

fee fa foo

Ach dhi on riem, on rieth for you gavu ni in canchon, ach ranu ni ch split it on riem ach on rieth for you f f f f f-eth foowha

and there is one for me, one

we take the treasure and we

one for me and one

fee fa foo fa

Pan r hi mi on methin, in genar a chdhan to feel r hpis mi ins cench en vo cluthed en in lhan field r ghavi mi ch a doch, r chwen mi in hisaran steel

wIwom, the earlyness

I s. a plough making holes in a

I took it home, I sold the

f f f f fan fa feel

fee fa foo

Pan r hi mi on methin, r lh in du a hr ahead

wIwom, the day it lay

r hpis mi ins carech, pluch r gami mi ar nhather Isarock, where I stepped on a snake r gni ton m gch, mar adhim en ber death to me f f f f fer fa fee he then bit my leg, carrying

fee fa fu

Ach dhi on riem, on rieth for you gavu ni in canchon, ach ranu ni ch split it on riem ach on rieth for you f f f f f-eth foowha

and there is one for me, one

we take the treasure and we

one for me and one

fee fa foo fa

The two first documents ever produced in Modern Gaulish: the opening paragraph of De Bello Gallico Ar In Cingon Celthach, and On Methin, a song about applied Australian ecology.

I. Introduction

This document constitutes the reinvention of Gaulish for the 21st century. It is not a reconstruction: although historically attested soundchanges and developmental trends are faithfully followed and emulated, no attempt is made to approximate what the language was like at a given point in history. Rather, the language is revived and modernised with a view to being a proper, living and useable language, even if its not actually spoken by anyone: Galthach hAthevu, Modern (literally revived) Gaulish. As much as possible, attested and accurate historical data have been worked from, as far as vocabulary and grammar are concerned. The language was possibly last attested in the mid sixth century by Gregory of Tours, giving a date of approx. 550 CE. It is easy to imagine that in remote rural areas it survived a lot longer than that; a wild guess might put its demise in those areas into the late 700s. This position is supported by the fact that there is evidence of non-culturally dominant languages in conquest situations that have survived as peasant languages for several hundred years. While the longest historically attested such survival (Elamite) runs up to 1300 years post conquest, there is a certain indication that a survival of 800-900 years is quite common. Several examples of such a survival of minority peasant languages not supported by the culturally and politically dominant classes are known and documented, such as Elamite (1300 years without written attestation, Central Asia), Ladin (850 years, South Tyrol), Cornish (approx. 850 years), Polabe (775 years, Central Europe), Crimean Gothic (1100-1300 years, arguably; Eastern Europe), and Dalmatian (approx. 1000 years, extinct 1898, descended from Latin, Mediterranean) (Sala & Vintila-Radelescu 1984). Charlemagne gathered a collection of ancient folktales, beliefs and legends from among the people of the countryside. It may well have contained the last records of the language. The collection was burned by one of his successors as being pagan and therefore evil. Walloon Gaulish scholar Olivier Piqueron (yahoo conceltic/celticaconlang 2006) suggests the time of Charlemagne as the period of widespread decline of the language, because of state-enforced Christianity, and mentions claims that the last survivals lasted into the 12th century in remote mountainous areas which is contested by many, considered as possible by some, and an exciting notion either way. Suggestions to this effect are found in Hubschmied (1938), but these have in more recent years been severely criticised by linguists and experts in the field. So at an outside estimation, the language has been extinct for at least 800 years, maybe 1200, maybe 1500. The intervening span would have seen considerable evolution in vocabulary, phonology, morphology, syntax and grammar. What has been constructed here is one interpretation of what this evolution could have led to. This construction situates the evolution of Modern Gaulish in the cultural continuum of the surviving Celtic languages, and adopts grammatical innovations that are common to all surviving or revived Celtic languages. As such, this work adopts the theory advocated by Isaac (2007) which holds that many of the unusual features of modern Celtic languages are due to linguistic factors demonstrably inherent and innate to the Celtic language family, and are not due to the presence of a presumed

and unproven prehistoric Hamito-Semitic substrate language, as suggested and defended most recently by Venneman (2003), building on the earlier work of MorrisJones, Pokorny and Gensler (in Venneman 2003). As such, grammar in modern Gaulish has become much simplified. Verbs are no longer inflected, instead person and number are marked by pronouns. Of the six cases attested in ancient Gaulish, none remain. A definite article has been developed. Compound tenses using periphrastic constructions have come into being, making extensive use of the verbal noun in various combinations. Final syllables and vowels have been dropped, final, intervocalic and wordmedial consonants have mutated. Mutation of initial consonants through a variety of phonetic processes is established as a grammatical feature. Pronouns are no longer infixed, and synthetic constructions have been largely abandoned in favour of analytic forms. Word order, of which a wide variety is historically attested, has become fixed as VSO. While this may appear controversial, it is due to the Celtic languages treatment of personal pronouns as clitics (words that are somewhere between independent words and affixes, and which need a host to graft themselves onto a linguistic equivalent of mistletoe, so to speak). This treatment of pronouns as clitics is also evident in the fusion of prepositions with pronouns, the so-called conjugated prepositions typical of modern Celtic languages, attested in Classical Gaulish and also found in Modern Gaulish. Vendryes Restriction stipulates that such a clitic pronoun must be adjacent to the verb, in other words can not be separated from it, and Wackernagels Law requires these adjacent clitics to appear in second position, after the first syntactic phrase or the first stressed word in a clause. This leads to a form verb + subject (pronoun) + object, which has been strongly grammaticalised and ensures that the verb occupies clause-initial position under all circumstances excepting preverbal particles (see Isaac 2007). Several examples of the clitic treatment of personal pronouns resulting in the form verb + pronoun are historically attested. One example is uediiumi (Chamalires, disc. 1971, in Delamarre 2003, p. 309, 337), which is interpreted as uediu mi, [wediyumi], and translated as I pray, literally pray me. In Modern Gaulish, applying modern gw for consonantal u, i.e. [w], this is rendered as gwdhu mi. As such, uediumi ris curmi uer elu is transposed as gwedhu mi r guru gwer hlu, Modern Gaulish for I pray for more beer. The rendition of word initial consonantal u-, thought to have been [w] in Classical Gaulish (Lambert 2003; Mees, Stifter pers. comm. 2009) as gw- is apt to cause controversy, as there is no indication in the attested Classical/ Late Gaulish material of any such change. However, it is generally accepted that the phenomenon of changing word initial [w] to [gw] through fortition or strengthening is fairly common cross linguistically (B. Mees pers. comm. 2009). While it happened in Brythonic across the three attested languages Welsh, Cornish and Breton, it didnt occur in Breton until the eleventh century (UT n.d.), a date well past the linguistic and cultural unity of Breton with the other Brythonic languages. This appears to indicate that the fortition of word initial [w] to [gw] happened due to internal processes, as opposed to shared innovations across the Brythonic family that could possibly be postulated. In addition to the above, the French language has also known a change of word initial [w] to [gw], often in words of Germanic origin, but not restricted to them; to wit guerre (war), Guillaume (William), g(u)arde (ward), gant (want i.e. mitten), and Gascogne (Wasconia). The French language came to replace the Gaulish language in much of its domain and in the process demonstrably absorbed a certain amount of Gaulish substrate influence (Lambert 2003). Since the evolution of Brythonic [w] to [gw] appears to be partially paralleled in French, it is deemed acceptable to postulate an evolution of word initial [w] to [gw] for Modern Gaulish.

Further points of controversy may lay in the representation of the verb to be, which is discussed in detail in the section dealing with verbs, and in the choice of the words Galthach hAthevu to mean Modern Gaulish. The provenance of these two words, being as they are the flagship of the language, is justified as follows. The question of how the Gauls refered to themselves has long been and continues to be the subject of intense debate, heated argument and imaginative speculation. Two parallel terms can be identified as having historical and cultural authenticity. On the one hand, the word Keltoi has been associated with the Celtic people of Western Europe since they were first mentioned by Classical Greek authors (McCone 2006). Caesar indicated that in his day, the Gauls refered to themselves as Celtae at least those Gauls inhabiting the area between the Garonne and Seine rivers (see e.g. McCone 2006). The etymology of the word Keltoi/ Celtae is not widely agreed upon, and is sometimes held to refer to a state of being hidden, or unseen, which in turn is often tentatively linked to Caesars statement that the Celts considered themselves to be descended from their god of the underworld (Caesars Dis Pater). The notion of hailing from the underworld and therefore coming from under the ground, can with some goodwill be conceptually linked with the concept of being hidden, as someone who is under the ground can certainly be said to be hidden from the view of someone above the ground (McCone 2006). Be that as it may, the fact remains that the name Keltoi, whatever its meaning may have been, is historically inextricably linked with the people of Western Europe. A second appellation that is historically linked with the people of prehistoric Western Europe is that of Galatae (McCone 2006). It has been argued that the term Galatae refered to the young, possibly landless and presumably restless male warriors of Celtic society, and was derived from the root *gal-, meaning vigour, fighting, endowed with the regular Celtic suffix of agency (i)ati. The meaning of Galatae would thus be the warriors, the vigorous ones (McCone 2006, Bernard Mees 2008, pers. com.). This interpretation is reinforced by the documented existence in central Gaul (Auvergne) of a shrine or temple dedicated to or named in honour of Uasso Galatae, a name in which the component Uasso appears to refer to young male(s) (McCone 2006). The term Uasso Galatae appears to have survived to this day in the name of the Central French village Jaude (*galat- > *gald- > *jald- > * jaud-), and the word Galatae has been argued to have led, through a process of linguistic distortion and cultural misinterpretation, to the appellation Galli as used by Caesar (McCone 2006). In view of the above information, it would appear that the two terms are mutually compatible and complementary, in as much that it appears that the word Celtae seems to refer to the main body of the nation(s), and that the word Galatae seems to refer to the young males who set forth to carve out a piece of world of their own. The association of the term Galatae with roving warrior bands and groups of mercenaries, such as those who settled in Asia Minor, appears to confirm this notion. A parallel can be drawn with the middle ages, when the crusades were welcomed by certain sections of society as a way of getting rid of young males with nothing to do, no land to inherit and too much time on their hands. As such, it could be said that the word Celtae refers to the core of the people or nations who stayed at home, tended their fields and told stories to their kids, and that the word Galatae refers to the young guns who left home to fight, rape and pillage and generically seek their fortune elsewhere. The above notion also appears to be reinforced by the report of the Sicilian-Greek historian Diodorus Siculus, writing between 60 and 35 BC, who describes the people referred to as Celts as living in the hinterland of Massilia and on the slopes of the Alps and Pyrenees, i.e. the area roughly corresponding to the Roman Province of Narbonensis. According to Siculus, the people North of that region were known as

Galatae, all the way North and East to Scythia. In addition, Siculus provides a suitably heroic mythology for the origin of the name, which, tellingly, was based on conquest and expansion by force. Although it may appear that the term Celtae has the older tradition, it seems quite certain that the term Galatae is a native appellation, and one, moreover, which seems to have been associated with rather a larger area, i.e. all of Gaul North of Narbonensis and Galatia in Asia Minor. In addition, it appears to be this term which has led to the use of the word Galli by the Romans, which in turn, handed down through the centuries, has come to be associated with the Celtic people of Western Europe, and which has become absorbed into most if not all Western European languages to designate those people, their culture and their language (Eng. Gaulish, Fr. Gaulois, Ger. Gallisch). As such, it seems that the root gal- is linked inextricably with the ethnographic designation of the aboriginal people of Western Europe between the Rhine, the Alps, the Pyrenees and the Garonne. In the above context it is also worth noting that the Central Gaulish village now known as Jaude was located in the heart of what was designated by Caesar as Gallia Celtica, indicating either that a) Caesar was a liar; b) Caesar made things up as he wished to suit his own purposes; or c) that the use of the term Celtae was confined to the area South of the Massif Central, i.e. Gallia Narbonensis, or was at the very least used in conjunction with the term Galatae in Auvergne and presumably North from there, if Siculus is to be believed. Then again, it is also worthwhile being aware of the fact that Siculus at various times has been referred to as the greatest liar in history. In the matter of deciding which term is appropriate for an ethnic appellation of the Gaulish people, as would be applied internally to the modern, revived Gaulish language continuum, it may be worth considering the fact that by and large in modern Western European language families languages are named after the nations, ethnic groups or regions that speak them. Of these, generally speaking there are none, or not many, that retain the name originally associated with the mother language. Thus the Romance language group, derived from the Roman peoples language the name of which was originally Latin, includes French, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, Catalonian, Provenal and many others, as well as, admittedly, Romansh, Roumanian and Ladin. The Germanic group includes English, Flemish, Dutch, Frisian, German, Danish, Norwegian, Swedish and Icelandic. However, in reality there is no language named German in its own idiom: the German language is called Deutsch in German. In the 21st century, the Celtic language family is well defined as containing Welsh, Cornish, Breton, Irish, Manx and Scottish Gaelic. None of these languages retain a linguistic link with the word Celtic, nor indeed were they ever linked to the concept of Celtic until 1707 when Edward Lluyd published his linguistic analysis of the languages of Britain. As such, it would seem both misleading and presumptuous to lay claim to the word Celtic to refer to what is known in English as Gaulish. Therefore, for he sake of clarity as well as historical accuracy and continuity, Modern Gaulish will be called Galthach in Modern Gaulish. In keeping with historical records, the attested term of Galatia, rendered as Galatha will be proposed as the indigenous name of Gaul and will be used as such. The word athevu to designate modern is of contemporary origin and only translates as modern by proxy. Literally translating as again-alive, a better rendition is revived. As such it is a combination of two historically attested words, the prefix ate, indicating a repetition or renewal of something (Delamarre 2003, p. 59), and the word bio-, meaning alive (Delamarre 2003, p. 77). Applying the proposed

modern soundchanges (see further below) to the word atebio gives us athevu. It is reasoned that while Galthach hAthevu accurately conveys the essential idea of the revived language, the term Modern Gaulish is a more straightforward practical working title for discussion of the language in the English language. Therefore, Galthach hAthevu is Modern Gaulish, the beautiful Gaulish language. It may also be appropriate to provide justification for the choice of the word tengu to mean language. While tengu appears to have Indoeuropean cognates in English (tongue although it is contested that this is a cognate W. De Reuse, pers. Com. 2009) as well as in Gaelic (teanga), the word is historically attested in a Cisalpine Celtic inscription from Oderzo under the form pompete(n)guaios, i.e. (son of) he who speaks five languages (Koch 2006, p.969; Coskun & Zeidler 2003, p. 44; Stifter 2008; Bernard Mees 2007 & 2009 pers. comm.). The attested word tengua, leads through a straightforward standard loss of final vowel [a] directly to the form tengu. Conversely, it has been asserted that there is no evidence on the continent of a word Celtic or other - for language that would be derived from the root *yek-, which has produced the Welsh and Breton words for language, ieith and yezh respectively (Mees 2009, pers. comm.). Therefore, Galthach hAthevu is Tengu in Galthed, i.e. the language of the Gauls. An indication of the phonetical and grammatical evolution of the language may be gleaned from the comparison of a few phrases in both Modern and Classical/ Late Gaulish. The first is a translation of the lines introducing Modern Gaulish to the world. One hypothetical Late Gaulish version (with loss of case endings) could run like this: ei galataca atebio tengua senna brogi galataca avot inte noio ris dumno noio aiucanto uoconti cinto In Modern Gaulish this is rendered as follows: dhi Galthach hAthevu tengu sen in bri Galthach, voth inth nhi ri dhumon ni in iu-canth gwochon-cinth.

Finally, it is possible to produce a representation of the famous last words of Dumnorix, chief of the Aedui, when murdered on Caesars orders in 54 BCE, given here first in the tentatively reconstructed original Classical Gaulish, and followed by its rendition in Modern Gaulish:

Immi uiros rios toutias rii

dhi mi gwir ru ech duth ru

I am a free man of a free nation

II. Grammar

Orthography and phonology

The Gaulish alphabet has 20 characters: a, b, c, d, e, f, g, h, i, l, m, n, o, p, r, s, t, u, v, w. Of these: - c is always [k] - g is always [g] - r represents the rolling r of Scottish borrow.

Vowels: Can be either long or short. Short vowels are a e o u i, long vowels are .

a = [a] as in at e = [e] as in hell o = [o] as in fog u = [u] as in book i = [i] as in it = [a:] as in father = [e:] as in lay, but without the yod sound = [o:] as in tote

 = [u:] as in shoe = [i:] as in see Gaulish has the following diphthongs: o = [au] as in how -i = [a:y] as in good bye -i = [e:y] as in day -i = [o:y] as in toy -i = [u:y] All other vowels can occur adjacent to other vowels without combining their sounds into diphthongs, so that each vowel is pronounced independently with its own syllabic peak: e.g. brach = [bru:ax] (fog) The above described diphthongs on i are invariably the result of the evolution of Classical vowel+g: e.g.: dago- > di (good) The consonant g- does not occur in intervocalic position; attested Classical intervocalic g- is rendered in Modern Gaulish as i- and pronounced [y], yod. e.g. trageto- > trieth [tra:ye] foot agedo- > ied [a:yed] - face By analogy, Modern Gaulish constructions which place regular word initial g- in intervocalic position turn this g- into an i-: e.g.: a gar - to call > s + gar > a siar to laugh [su:yar] By contrast, word initial i- when followed by a vowel is always pronounced [i]: e.g.: iachu well being: [iaxu], not [yaxu] If the vowel u- (long or short) is followed by a vowel, it changes depending on whether it receives the emphasis or not; emphasis usually falls on the penultimate syllable (see below for more). If it receives the emphasis, it remains unchanged, is written u- (long or short) and is pronounced as [u], long or short: e.g. a ch arer to please: [aru:er] a bori to boil: [boru:i] However, if u- is followed by one or more vowels and does not receive the emphasis, it changes into the semi consonant w, written w- and pronounced [w]:

e.g. arwru ti mi you please me: [arwe:ru] borwu it boils: [borwi:u] Exceptions to this rule are cases where a cluster of consonants preceding emphasised u/- creates a situation where unemphasised w- would be unpronounceable: e.g.: a covrer - to covet (to desire jealously) > covruron - greed In the above example , - becomes u- and not w- because covrwron would not be pronounceable.

Consonants:

In addition to the regular consonants of the alphabet, Gaulish has: ch = [x] as in Scottish loch dh: is [] like English there gh = [] as in Greek lh = [xl] nh = [xn] rh = [xr] sh = [] like English shine th = [] like English thin chw= [xw] The occurrence of some of these is restricted. See the section Initial Consonant Mutations for their use. Word final s- is pronounced [z], word initial and word medial s- is pronounced [s].

Emphasis

Is mostly on the penultimate syllable, e.g. caranth = friend caranthach = friendly (m)

Exceptions to the penultimate emphasis rule are conjugated pronouns, where the emphasis falls on the last syllable:

e.g.: ganthith: with you, emphasis on ith If an emphasised vowel in a second or subsequent syllable is followed by a single consonant, the emphasising of the vowel will make it long. When it is followed by a consonant cluster it will be short. However, this does not always apply to verbal stems: the first syllable of a verbal stem is often short, even when followed by a single consonant + vowel. e.g.: a garan to shout, [a]; garnoch a shout, [a:] caranth friend, [a]; caranthach friendly, [a]

Morphology

The following two areas of morphology where relating to consonants are apt to cause controversy: 1. The use of the modern morphemes gw (word initially before vowels) and f (word initially before consonants) to represent consonantal u in classical Gaulish. Their use is justified by the following paths of reasoning: a) u is generally held to represent [w] in Classical Gaulish (see Lambert 2003, p. 46). Modern Gaulish postulates an evolution of [w] to [gw], in parallel with Brythonic and Romance. See Introduction for discussion in greater detail. b) The attested use of f to represent consonantal u before a consonant in a Gaulish context (Flatucia, Larzac, Lambert 2003, p. 46, 170) and elsewhere (Fritus, Whatmough, in Delamarre 2003, p. 329) 2. The existence of lenited consonants. Lenition 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). Its occurrence in Modern Gaulish is an essential part of the hypothetic phonetic evolution of the language, and is in accordance with historical sound change patterns known to have occurred in early stages of modern Insular Celtic languages. Justification for its incorporation is based on the following attested forms of Late Gaulish: aballos > avallo; i.e. [b] > [v], transcribed as v in Modern Gaulish anman > anuan; i.e. [m] > [w], transcibed as w in Modern Gaulish arcanto- > arxanti; i.e. [c] > [], transcribed as ch in Modern Gaulish (g)nata > gnatha, i.e. [t] > [], transcribed as th in Modern Gaulish

litan- > lithan-, as above (Delamarre 2003, p. 204) *sisagsiou > siaxsiou, i.e. [g] > a more aspirated sound, usually assumed to be []. It is postulated that in this case x is meant to represent [], transcribed as gh in Modern Gaulish *agat > axat, i.e. [g] > becoming aspirated in intervocalic position, as above postulating [] for x luge > luxe, i.e. [g] > as above (Chamalieres) ambio > ape, i.e. [mb] > [p] (Chateaublau and Rom), indicating a devoicing process

and on the attested or agreed upon disappearance of intervocalic -g- and u- (see Lambert 2003, p. 46-47, Delamarre 2003): briuo > brio magupennos > maupennos traget > treide *brogilos > breialo (-g-> -i-) The latter two indicate the position of intervocalic -g- as [y] (yod), possibly as an intermediary stage before disappearing altogether. The notion of g(-) becoming [y] is retained in Modern Gaulish in the diphthongs i, i, i, i, [a:y] etc., where the i represents the [y]. Thus Classical dag- > Modern di (good), as mentioned above. A position is postulated where word initially [s] palatalises to [], transcribed as sh in Modern Gaulish. The unattested lenition of d to dh is arrived at by analogy, and feasibly supported by the frequent occurrence of intervocalic dd- (e.g. readdas, Delamarre 2003, p. 254), which may or may not indicate a softening of intervocalic d- (a comparison with Welsh dd- for is tempting but would be anachronistic and inappropriate). Lenited d is amalgamated with the Tau Gallicum, which is historically equated with (attested use of theta for tau Gallicum, see Lambert 2003, p. 46) and in Modern Gaulish is rendered as dh. It is worth noting that d does not lenite in wordfinal position.

Phonetics

The above discussion outlines the postulated hypothetical sound changes for Gaulish. From the attested examples cited it becomes clear that the lenition of intervocalic consonants in Gaulish follows the pathway of an opening of articulation,

resulting in spirantisation and, occasionally, in elision. There appears to be no indication of sonorisation. On the contrary, the tendency of Late Gaulish towards desonorisation is attested at Larzac (Lambert 2003, p. 46), where [w] is rendered as [f] in a Gaulish context. This means that the phonetic evolution of Gaulish seems to be have been set on a trajectory resembling that taken by the Goidelic languages. The Brittonic languages, on the other hand, have followed a pathway where a process of sonorisation took place first, which was then followed by spirantisation. The following example illustrates the diverging pathways: Attested Gaulish name Caratacos; loss of final syllable (attested, see Lambert 2003, p. 28, 47) gives a form Caratac. In Goidelic, this becomes Carthach In Brittonic, this becomes Caradog In Gaulish, this becomes Carthach An important corrollary of this phonetic evolution is that while Gaulish and Brittonic are attested as being mutually comprehensible in antiquity and are generally accepted by linguists as being very closely related (see Lambert 2003, p. 18-19), they have taken phonetic trajectories that differ to such an extent that they have reached a point where it is no longer easy to identify kinship between Modern Gaulish and Modern Welsh. If this may seem inappropriate, it is worth bearing in mind that Modern Welsh is mutually intelligible neither with Modern Breton nor with Modern (Revived) Cornish, in spite of the fact that the three languages have demonstrably evolved from a common mother tongue considerably less than 1500 years ago. The absence of a process of sonorisation in the proposed hypothetical sound changes of Modern Gaulish is likely to cause, and indeed has caused, considerable controversy (celticaconlang yahoo group 2008-2009). There is a school of thought that holds that any sound changes Gaulish would undergo would be similar to those shared between Brythonnic and Western Romance (French/ Portuguese), the similarities of which are indeed considerable. However, there is to date not one single item of evidence that points towards a sonorisation process taking place in a Gaulish context. Though the attested material and thus indications of processes are meagre and unreliable, it is possible to identify several instances where a process of spirantisation seems to have been at work, in a Gaulish context, i.e. in a body of work (document or inscription) written entirely in the Gaulish language (see above for details). On the other hand, there is exactly one example that shows clear indication of a sonorisation process: the word treide, having evolved from trageto- and as such showing voicing of an intervocalic voiceless consonant (-t- > -d-). It is argued here that treide is misleading and can not be counted as evidence, because its provenance is well outside of a native Gaulish context. treide is attested in Endlichers Glossary, one of a series of seventeen words of supposed Gaulish, translated into Latin by a medieval scribe. It appears from the wildly inaccurate translations of several other words on the list that the person who recorded and translated the words was either not a Gaulish speaker, or had only a vague grasp of the language. Moreover, the list and indeed the whole document only deals with words of a geographic nature, and the word treide is identified as a component of the word briotreide, attested as the 6th century name of the town of Blr in the department of the Indres-et-Loire, from a previous *briua-tragetio-.

It is obvious that a name of a town can be retained in a language after that language has ceased to be spoken (to wit thousands of Gaulish placenames between the Rhine, the Alps and the Pyrenees); it is currently thought that briotreide is the result of the name being used by speakers of Vulgar Latin, who by using it put it through the soundchanges that Vulgar Latin is known to have gone through, resulting in the sonorisation of intervocalic t-. As such, the word is not the result of a Gaulish context and the possibility that it can be considered as indicative and representative of a genuine Gaulish sound change is currently thought to be negligeable (continentalceltic 2009; Lambert (2003, p. 207) asserts that treide has undergone Romance lenition). Therefore, interpretation of the evidence from Gaulish contexts indicates that a process of spirantisation can be proposed as a plausible course of action in the application of hypothetical sound changes to Modern Gaulish.

Summary of postulated historical sound changes

attested Gaulish

modern Gaulish: word initial

initial consonant mutation

word medial, inter vocalically

word medial, with consonants

word final

p t c b

p t c b

b d g v

p th ch v

p th ch v after m: p

p th ch v

d g m

d g m

dh gh w

dh i [y] m

dh gh 1 pos.: m 2 pos.: w after gh: m

d i [y] m

n l r s u [w]

n l r s gw

nh lh rh sh chw

n l r s -

n l r s [s] u [u] if emph w if n. emph

n l r s [z] u [u]

x xt nd nt Tau Gallicum

ch (anywhere) -ith (anywhere) n (anywhere) nth or n, anywhere dh (anywhere)

mb

p (anywhere)

Spelling rules

Modern Gaulish is a phonetic language, and its spelling conventions are aimed at preserving the direct phonetic relationship between sounds and phonemes. The only exceptions are the mutated forms of n, r and l (nh, rh, lh) where the postconsonantal h- indicates a pre-consonantal [x]. Vowel length is indicated by diacritics exclusively. Three points are worth taking note of: 1. g does not occur intervocalically. Classical intervocalic g- is rendered i(-) and pronounced [y]. e.g.: agedo- (face) > ied Words ending in e/-, take an i- before the plural ending, for phonetic reasons: e.g.: b cutting; bied - cuttings 2. w does not occur intervocalically. In words where the vowel u/- is followed by another vowel, a [w] sound may be heard. This sound is considered a natural byproduct of the vowel u/- and is never written. e.g. brach fog, [bru:wax] 3. the bifurcated demonstrative construction hyphenates the suffixed demonstrative, in a direct parallel with the French language: e.g.: in cun the dog; in cun-sin this dog (ce chien-ci) in gwir the man; in gwir-s that man (cet homme-la) 4. compound words are spelled with a hyphen: e.g.: gwir-pen headman (chief) t-curu pub (beer-house)

Personal pronouns

Personal pronoun morphology The personal pronouns of Gaulish are as follows: mi ti I you he < mi attested, Lambert (2003, p. 69) < ti attested, Lambert (2003, p. 69) < *es attested (lopites, David Stifter and Bernard Mees, pers. comm. 2009, after Orecilla 1997); *es >; also arguably contested in avot-e (B. Mees pers. com. 2009) com. she < i, arguably attested in avot-i, (B. Mees pers.

2009) it (Delamarre < id, affixed 3rd sg neutral pronoun, buet-id

2003, p. 93); *id > ni com. we < ni, arguably attested in avot-ni (B. Mees pers.

2009) s s you (pl) they (m & f pl) < suis, attested, > *sui > *s < sies, attested, 3rd p. pl. f., Lambert 2003, p. 69 with postulated generalising extension to

include

Modern

masculine and feminine, as is the norm in

(Insular) Celtic; sies > s For attested forms, see Lambert (2003, p. 69) and Delamarre (2003, p. 269, 277). For all intents and purposes, the 3rd pers. sing. fem.and neutre have become one and the same. As such, is used to indicate feminine subjects, in which case ICM is applied in the appropriate places, as well as neutre subjects, i.e. undefined,

generalistic subjects such as the weather, or subjects which have not or nor yet been specified; in those cases, since no gender is known as yet, no ICM is applied. e.g.: cnu she sings dhi dhi she [the woman] is good (ICM) dhi math it [the weather] is fine (no ICM)

Personal pronouns as subject or object of a verb The above pronouns are used when they are the subject of a sentence. When used as object in a sentence, the personal pronouns are largely the same as the above, with a few exceptions. Based on the following Classical Gaulish data, it is possible to extrapolate tentative forms for object pronouns: avot-ni: made us avot-ide: made it avot-i: made her avot-e: made him avot-is: made them (in Receuil des Inscriptions Gauloises, from Bernard Mees, pers. com. 2009) This indicates that when used as object (in the accusative case), the Gaulish pronouns take the same form as when used as subject (in the nominative case). An example of this is avot-ni where the form ni, used in the accusative, is the same as the form ni encountered elsewhere in the nominative (e.g. at Thiaucourt, Delamarre 2003, p. 336, B. Mees, p.c. 2009). This position is further reinforced by the Banassac word tiei, which is translated as at/to you-is, where the accusative form of the second person singular pronoun appears to be the same as the nominative form of the same pronoun, also attested elsewhere (Lambert 2003, p. 69). Nevertheless, the 3rd pers. pl. is attested as -is when used as object: avot-is made them (RIG, B. Mees p.c. 2009) dessu-mi-is I prepare them (Henry 1984, in Delamarre 2003, p. 141; B. Mees p.c. 2009) This is divergent from the attested third person plural (fem.) sies. While there may be an unattested difference between the third persons plural masculine and feminin, since Modern Gaulish no longer distinguishes between masculine and feminin in the third person plural, it is posited here that -is represents the generic third person plural.

In view of the above information, a position is proposed for Modern Gaulish where the personal pronouns when used as object are the same as the subject pronouns, with the exception of the third person plural, and with the addition of phonetic modifications to the third persons singular and plural when necessary. These are introduced to allow for clear phonetic distinction to be made between two words ending and starting on a vowel where such a distinction is deemed important, and only occur if the word preceding the object pronoun ends in a vowel. In these cases the third persons singular and plural are provided with a semantically empty particle ch , a practice which is current in Modern Breton (see MacAuley 1992). Bearing the above in mind, the Modern Gaulish personal pronouns when used as object present as follows: mi me ti you [ch] him [ch] - her While in Classical Gaulish both the subject pronoun and the object pronoun were cliticised onto the verb, as shown in the example below, in Modern Gaulish these have become detached. Revisiting the previously used example, the evolution sketched above can be illustrated: dessumiis > dsu mi ch s I prepare them Further examples are provided below: apsu mi ch I see her apsu mi she sees me bathu mi ch I hit him bathu mi he hits me The need for the particle ch as a phonetic bridge is demonstrated below: apsu ch she sees her apsu ch he sees him apsu ch s she sees them instead of apsu , apsu and apsu s, which would be phonetically awkward. However, when the preceding word does not end in a vowel, the phonetic bridge particle is not used as it is not required: gwlu mi a ch apis I want to see her Unambiguous meaning is further conveyed by the strict VSO word order, which places the subject always before the object in a multiple pronoun phrase. ni - us s you(s) [ch] s - them

e.g.: apsu mi ti I see you apsu ti mi you see me

Personal pronouns and prepositions When used in conjunction with prepositions, the above pronouns fuse into conjugated prepositions. The most clearly attested instance of a (near) fusion of preposition and pronoun in the Classical material is cant-[irt]-suis (Chamalieres, in Lambert 2003, p. 69), which is interpreted as with-[]-you(s). Employing the full form of the preposition, with-me would be *canti-mi. A position is postulated where *canti-mi > *cantimi > *cantim > *ganthim, with loss of final syllable/vowel and permanent mutation of c > g to allow distinction from the word canth, hundred. Pronouns of all seven numbers and genders inflect by analogy with the pattern established by *ganthim, as is shown below.

ganth = with ganthim with me ganthith with you ganth with him ganth with her/it The above pattern of inflection is also followed by prepositions which historically did not end in i, e.g. ad, modern adh, to(wards), through a combination of hypothetical analogy with *canti-mi and of hypothetical metathesis of *ad-mi > *adim > adhim: ganthin with us ganth with you (pl.) ganths with them

adhim to me adhith to you adh to him adh to her/it

adhin to us adh to you (pl.) adhs to them

In addition to to(wards), the preposition adh can also take the meanings of at and of, depending on the circumstances. A slight exception to the above pattern of declension is the preposition ri, for, which, ending in i, uses e- in the declensions, as shown below: riem for me rieth for you ri for him rich for her/ it rien for us ris for you (pl.) ries for them

Note the inclusion of the phonetically empty particle ch in the third person singular feminin, this time integrated into the word rich, for her, and the retention of s- in the second person plural, to distinguish from the word ru, free. The existence of conjugated pronouns is an unusual (for Indo-European languages) feature of modern Insular Celtic languages. Its incorporation into Modern Gaulish is potentially highly controversial. Cause for justification for its inclusion is found in the work of Lambert (2003), who identifies two instances where a fusion of pronoun and preposition can be found in attested Late Gaulish: cant(irts)suis: with-[]-you (pl) (Chamalieres, in Lambert 2003, p. 69), modern Gaulish ganth (*canti-suis > *canth-sui > *canth-s > *canths

>

* ganth tamiIi: at/to-me (Chateaublau, in Lambert 2003, p.211), Modern Gaulish adhim (*ad-mi > *adhimi > *adhim)

A third example can tentatively be identified in the Chamalieres incription (Delamarre 2003, p. 259): rissuis: for-you (pl.), which is rendered in modern Gaulish as rs (*rissuis > *rissui > *ris).

The verb to be

The Gaulish verb to be is attested in a variety of forms and conjugations. Modern Gaulish chooses to take its lead from the Banassac inscription where tiei is tentatively translated as to/at you is, with ei representing the root of the verb to be. Since the Tau Gallicum represented by in Classical Gaulish is consistently rendered dh in Modern Gaulish, this gives a root form edhi for to be. Therefore, the verb to be is expressed in Gaulish as dhi. Divergent forms such as im mi have been dropped in favour of the use of the unconjugated, impersonal radical. Nevertheless, dhi is the sole irregular verb in Gaulish, in that its present, future and past forms do not adhere to the standard tense formation process, as shown in the table below. The distinction between a substantive verb and a copula, present in early Celtic and maintained in modern Gaelic languages, has been lost in Modern Gaulish, as it has been in modern Brythonnic languages. The verb dhi fulfills the role of the copula in a manner comparable to that of its counterparts in English, French and Welsh. It is used with both definite and indefinite subjects: Definite subject: e.g. Edhi in amev en di: the rain is coming Edhi in doned en in gamin: the people are in the street

Indefinite subject: e.g.: Edhi amev en di: there is rain coming Edhi doned en in gamin: there are people in the street

The following table offers an overview of the various forms of the copula in contemporary (Insular) Celtic languages, and of its rendition in past and future tense.

TENSE

ANCIENT GAULISH

MODERN GAULISH dhi mi

WELSH (Northern) dw i

BRETON

IRISH GAELIC

SCOTT

Present I am Future I will be

es- (esmi, i[m]mi) bie-

me eo me zo

t me/ is me beidh me

th m is mi

b mi

bydda i

me bezo (bezin)

bidh m

(< bith mi)

Past I was

bue-

b mi

bues i

me boe (boen)

bhi me

bha m

Past and future forms are derived from the root *bh-, attested in Ancient Gaulish. The above table confirms the usage of bu/bi- to indicate the past/future. Modern Gaulish has derived its copula from the Classical Gaulish form of *es- (see The Indo-European Coplua, n.d.).. Syntactic similarities as well as semantic differences with Welsh are obvious from the following: dw in mynt I am going (W) [dw (m)i yn mynt/dw (f)i yn mynt] me zo o mont id. / bydda in mynt I will go (I will be going)

/ [bydda (m)i yn mynt/bydda (f)i yn mynt] / me bezo o mont (?)- id. (Br)

dhi mi en man I am moving

/ b mi en man I will be moving (G)

dw in canu cnn I am singing a song (W) me zo o kann kannaouenn id. (Br) dhi mi en can canon id. (G)

Conjugation and tenses of verbs

TheRoot/Verbal Noun Verbs consist of a root or verbal noun, which is combined with either preverbal particles or suffixes and which is used in conjunction with prepositions in periphrastic constructions to indicate approaches to action. All verbs other than dhi are regular, with a very few very minor variations, discussed below. e.g.: to be: root/verbal noun is dhi An infinitive function is achieved by the conjunction of the verbal noun with the semantically empty preverbal particle a. Before vowels this is followed by the also semantically empty particle ch. The use of particles of this kind is supported by the existence of similar usages in Modern Breton (see Macauley 1992, Modern Breton). All verbs other than dhi receive a suffix u in the present tense. e.g.: gwlu mi a ch dhi: I want to be gwlu mi a bi: I want to fight An ongoing function is achieved by conjunction with the preceding preposition en, meaning in: e.g.: dhi mi en i: I am going (meaning literally I am in [the] going, cf. French je suis en train daller) The verbal noun can be used as a noun in its own right: e.g.: in gar: the loving b in gar rh wath: the loving was very good The verbal noun can further be substantivated by the addition of a series of suffixes, adding and deriving meaning: e.g.: in caranth: the friend in caron: the love in cril: the mate Further use of prepositions is detailed in the appropriate sections below. While the use of the preposition en in periphrastic constructions, or indeed the use of periphrastic constructions at all may appear controversial due to its lack of apparent attestation in the corpus of Gaulish material, possible confirmation of the plausibility and acceptability of the above periphrastic construction may be found in

one of the possible interpretations of the etymology of the well attested word atenoux. While often accepted as related to the O.Ir. athnugud, renewal (Thurneysen 1899, in Delamarre 2003, p. 58), an alternative explanation is proposed by Lejeune (1995, in Delamarre 2003, p.58), who suggests atenoux is to be interpreted as ate-en-oux which he translates as anew in rising/ascending/going up (a nouveau en montant, p. 58). While there may or may not be question here of a verbal use of the adverbal root ux-, high, it is nevertheless suggested that there is a real possibility that the preposition en was used in a construction very closely resembling the common Welsh periphrastic construction using the particle/preposition yn. Lejeunes suggestion of 1995 is accepted and elaborated upon by Schmidt (1999, in Delamarre 2003, p.58) and tacitly accepted as plausible by Delamarre (2003, p. 58). The existence of periphrastic constructions in Modern Gaulish may further be deemed acceptable on the grounds that such forms are by no means unusual or exceptional in modern Western European languages (see Isaac 2007) and may as such be considered a development that may reasonably be expected to have occurred: I am writing and je suis en train d crire are common constructions in both English and French.

Tense Formation Note: the verb dhi (to be) is the only irregular verb in Modern Gaulish, and forms its tenses as shown in the table above. All other verbs form their tenses in the

way

described below. The verbs v, to make, and sp, to say, are only slightly irregular; see below. 1. Present a) Simple present: for dhi: dhi mi dhi ti dhi dhi dhi ni dhi s dhi s I am you are he is she/ it is we are you are (pl) they are (m & f pl)

for all other verbs: root form (verbal noun) + suffix u + pronoun canu mi: I sing pisu ti: you see

exceptions are verbs ending on vowels, such as v, where the final is dropped before u is suffixed, and sp, where an additional i- is inserted before the suffixed u: v > vu mi: I make sp > spiu mi: I say b) Ongoing present: simple present + en + verbal noun dhi mi en i a Shidni: I am going to Sydney (I am in [the] going to Sydney) b.1.) Near present: s.p. + ar + v.n.: dhi mi ar dan ch: I am about to do it c) Perfective present: for dhi: thu for v: voth for all other verbs, formation: root + thu; this form, the past participle, is also the same form as the verbal adjective; PP is a non-compound tense: e.g.: carnthu mi t: I have built a house (lit. having-built I a house) ithu mi: I have gone ithu mi ins: I have gone there danthu mi ch: I have done it thu mi: I have been dhanthu mi: I have felt gwercholthu mi: I have behaved a very recently perfect past can be expressed by the preposition iron (after): e.g.: dhi mi iron dan : I have just done it (literally I am after doing it, i.e. I am finished with it, cf. French je viens de le faire) d) Ongoing perfective present: pp of dhi + en + root Ethu mi en i: I have been going

e) Passive present: s.p. + pronoun + past participle dhi danthu: it is done dhi i hapisthu: she is seen f) Passive perfective present: thu in d garnthu: the house has been built (thu carnthu in d) Attested forms ending on or and ir (e.g. uelor, diligentir) tentatively identified as passive forms, are discarded in favour of the above construction employing dhi. As well as being entirely arbitrary, it is also in keeping with an identical tendency in colloquial Modern Welsh (see King 2003). Things can be done by a person: dhi danthu tarim (it is done by me) or to a person: dhi danthu adhim (it is done to me) 2. Past a) Simple past: for dhi: b e.g.: b mi, ti, , , ni, s, s I was, you were, he/she/it was, we were, you were, they were (m/f) for all other verbs: preceding of verbal noun by preverbal particle r, followed by mutation of the following consonant if there is one, and h-prefixation to a vowel. e.g.: r gan mi: I sang r hi mi: I went This construction is postulated on the basis of the attestation of preverbal particle re in Gaulish past tenses (e.g. readdas, Lambert 2003, p.66, Delamarre p. 255), which has been identified as giving a perfective value or diverse modalities to

verbs (Delamarre 2003, p. 261). Furthermore, the use of re (< *ro) in the formation of past tenses is well attested in insular Celtic, not only in Old Irish (De BernardoStempel n. d., Williams 1908), but also in Late Cornish (Norris 1859, p. 49, Williams 1908) and Old to Middle Welsh (Williams 1908). While re is most often, though not always, associated with the perfective tense in the other languages, Modern Gaulish chooses to employ it to construct the preterite tense. Justification for this is found in the fact that the paradigms of tenses often differ between the various related languages, so that a future tense in Breton is found used as a present tense in Cornish, and so on (Williams 1908). b) Ongoing past: simple past of dhi + en + root e.g.: b mi en i I was going. c) Perfective past: for dhi: b + -thu: bthu mi: I had been for all other verbs: r + root + -thu: r garnthu mi t: I had built a house d) Ongoing perfective past: bthu + en +root Bthu mi en i: I had been going e) Passive past: simple past of dhi + past participle b carnthu: it was built b rodhthu: it was given b gavthu: it was taken f) Passive perfective past: bthu carnthu: it had been built 3. Future: a) Simple future for dhi: b: b mi I will be

for all other verbs: suffixation of verbal noun with su: e.g.: cansu mi: I will sing depersu mi I will eat gwercholsu mi: I will behave bathisu mi: I will hit rodhisu mi: I will give sisu mi: I will seek gavisu mi: I will take gwensu mi: I will sell apisu mi: I will see The formation of a future tense with the suffixe si(o)/se is comprhensively attested (see e.g. Delamarre 2003, p. 251; Bernard Mees, pers.comm.

2008).

b) Ongoing future: b mi en i I will be going c) Perfective future: isithu mi: I will have gone d) Ongoing perfective future: bthu mi en i: I will have been going e) Passive future: simple future of dhi + past participle e.g.: b carnth: it will be built f) Passive perfective future: bthu carnthu: the house will have been built 4. Conditional future a) Simple conditional future for all verbs r + simple future form + ICM r v mi: I would be r hisu mi: I would go r hanwisu mi: I would name b) Ongoing conditional future: r v mi en i I would be going

c) Perfective conditional future: r + future form + -thu r hisithu mi: I would have gone r vthu mi: I would have been d) Ongoing perfective conditional future r vthu mi en i: I would have been going e) Passive conditional future r v carnthu: it would be built f) Passive perfective conditional future r vthu carnthu: it would have been built 5. Imperative: root without pronoun plus imperative intonation: i! go! 6. Subjunctive: simple future form plus imperative intonation: b ni! let us be isu ni! let us go. gansu ni! - let us sing rodhisu ni! let us give gavisu ni! let us take Note: To express suggestions, formal wishes or blessings, expressed in English by may it, as opposed to commands, a construction is used in which the conjunctive particle o (that) precedes the

subjunctive

mode: e.g. o ni-b bldhon di! - may we have a good year. o b math adhith! may good be with you (well wishing). that good will be to-you This subjunctive mode is used whenever an indirect wish or command is expressed: e.g.: Gwlu mi o ch isu ti ins: I want that you will go there I want you

to go

there In the negative, the particle o follows the negating particle, but is not mutated, as it is, like the article, unmutatable. e.g.: n o ni-bi bldhon ms: may we not have a bad year

Summary of verbal paradigm

Present tense

Past tense

Future tense

Conditional tense

Verbal noun lavar

lavru mi dhi mi en lavar

r lhavar mi b mi en lavar

lavarsu mi b mi en lavar Perfective future lavarsithu mi bthu mi en lavar Passive future

r lhavarsu mi r vi mi en lavar Perfective conditional r lhavarsithu mi r vthu mi en lavar

Perfective present Perfective past

Imperati ve lavar!

lavarthu mi thu mi en lavar

r lhavarthu mi bthu mi en lavar

Passive present

Passive past

Passive conditional

Subjunct ive lavarsu ni!

dhi lavarthu Passive perfective present

b lavarthu Passive perfective past

b lavarthu Passive perfective future bthu lavarthu

r v lavarthu Passive perfective conditional

thu lavarthu

bthu lavarthu

r vthu lavarthu

Basic Word Order

The basic word order of Modern Gaulish is VSO: e.g.: Edhi mi en i am a Shidni I am going to Sydney

I in going to Sydney

The verb takes first place in a sentence except in questions, when it is preceded by question words and the question indicator particle (see Questions). While several word orders are historically attested, VSO has become established due to the workings of Wackernagels Law and Vendryes Restriction. See discussion above. Examples of (O)VS order in Classical Gaulish can be found in Lambert (2003, p. 99-100), of VSO in Lambert (2003, p. 135) and in Delamarre (2003, p. 275). It has been asserted that Gaulish was showing tendencies towards VSO word order as early as 100 BC-100 AD, when constructions with clause-initial compound verbs are evident (Isaac 2007). Perhaps the clearest, simplest and most unequivocal example of attested VSO word order in Classical Gaulish is the following phrase from the Chamalieres tablet: dessumiis (Delamarre 2003, p. 141), translated as I prepare them (Bernard Mees, pers. com. 2009) dessu mi- is V S O > dsu mi V ch s

S (ph.p.) O

Classical Gaulish >

Modern Gaulish

For dependent clauses see further below.

The verb to have

The verb to have is expressed through a special construction making use of the verb to be. Objects are expressed as being at/to the subject, in the sense of belonging to. Evidence for this is found in the inscription of Banassac, where tiedi [ulano celicnu] is translated as at you is = you have (Delamarre 2003, p. 167). This form corresponds closely to the modern Breton form where am-eus, to me is means I have. As such, Modern Gaulish uses the following paradigm to express possession: mi-dhi: I have ti-dhi: you have -dhi: he has -dhi: she/ it has ni-dhi: we have s-dhi: you (pl) have s-dhi: they (m & f) have The various tenses are constructed using the appropriate versions of to be:

mi-b: I had ti-b: you will have -thu: he has had -bthu: she will have had ni-bthu: we had had r sh-b: you would have r sh-bthu: they would have had

There is no verbal noun for this construction: to express a desire to have something, the subjunctive construction is used: e.g. I want to have a horse: gwlu mi o mi-b p (I want that there will be a horse tome) Similarly, there is no periphrastic construction for this form: I am having in the English sense does not exist. Possession can further be expressed in a prepositional sense, which is the equivalent of English mine, yours etc.. For this, Modern Gaulish uses the attested preposition/pre-verb ad (Delamarre 2003, p. 31), translated as to, towards. Parallels for this construction are found in Insular Modern Celtic (I. & Sc. Gaelic agam, W. gennyf, Br. gannin) as well as in Modern French ( moi). This prepositional construction is formed according to the regular conjugation of prepositions in Modern Gaulish and uses the preposition adh, to. e.g.: mi-dhi t: I have a house dhi in d-sin adhim: this house is mine -dhi p: she has a horse dhi in p-s adh: that horse is hers The verb to have is used in the following expressions (see section on expressions and turns of phrase for more): mi-b du crdhu: I had a difficult day a di-dhi oghron? Are you cold (i.e. have you got cold?/ est-ce que tu as froid) mi-dhi nan: I am hungry (I have hunger/ jai faim) mi-dhi en: I am thirsty (I have thirst/ jai soif)

Pronouns can be substituted for personal names: Ean-dhi p: John has a horse Fina-dhi balan: Fiona has a broom P a hEan-dhi: What does John have? A hEan-dhi p: Does John have a horse? The knowledge of a language can, among other forms, be expressed as having that language: A di-dhi lavar Galthach?

Use of the Verbal Noun

The root-form of the verb is used as infinitive, present participle, adjective and verbal noun: Gwlu in cun a bi: the dog wants to fight inf. dhi in cun en bi: the dog is fighting pres. part. dhi cun bi: he is a fighting dog adj. dhi in vi hanththu: the fighting is finished v.n., subj. Anththu in cun in vi: the dog has finished [the] fighting v.n., obj.

Article

Insular Celtic languages have a variety of articles (W y, yr/r, I/S/M an/na, C an, Br an/ar/al un, ur, ul) where they are thought to have been derived from the demonstrative *sindos (Delamarre 2003, p. 274). *Sindos is attested in Classical Gaulish (sinde, Delamarre 2003, p. 274). While there is no real attestation of the evolution of any word into an article in the available Classical Gaulish material, there is nevertheless evidence of the gradual transformation and mutation of the word sinde in a grammatical position which appears to have been favourable for the development of sinde into an article. In Larzac, there is evidence that sinde evolved into indas, as in indas mnas (Delamarre 2003, p. 274), the translation of which is generally accepted as being these women (Delamarre 2003, p. 274, David Stifter, 2009, pers. comm.). indas would be a form derived from sinde with loss of initial s- in unstressed proclitic, pretonic position, a process which is documented in Old Irish (David Stifter 2009, pers. comm.). A semantic shift from these/this to the is not unusual in Indo-European languages, is well documented, and is for instance the process that has given the

English language the demonstrative this, which evolved through doubling of the original demonstrative after it had semantically weakened to beome the definite article the (Bernard Mees 2009, pers. comm.). The process of doubling of demonstratives appears to be attested in Classical Gaulish, namely in Larzac, which has insinde se bnanom, as well as elsewhere (e.g. sosin, sosio, Delamarre 2003, p. 279). In light of the above, Modern Gaulish postulates a hypothetical evolution of the word inda(s) into a definite article. As such, the following evolution is proposed: inda(s) > *inda > *ind > in The above is a straightforward phonetic evolution, through loss of final syllable, and through the standard Modern Gaulish soundchange of nd > -n. Therefore, Modern Gaulish uses the word in as the article; it is definite and unmutatable, and not affected by gender or number. e.g.: pen a head; in pen the head; pened heads; in pened the heads t a house; in d the house; ted houses; in ded the houses p a horse; in p the horse; ped horses; in ped the horses ] -ban a mare; in h-ban the mare; -baned mares; in h-baned the

mares

dhi in cun en rithi the dog is running rithu in cun the dog runs dhi in gwir en delchi pan the man is holding a glass delghu in gwir pan the man holds a glass

Plural formation

Modern Gaulish has a single all-purpose plural forming suffix ed, derived from a combination of two attested features of Gaulish. The first one is a suffix/ infix edwhich appears to be forming the plural in an inscription of Alise Sainte-Reine (Delamarre 2003, p. 182), where the word gobedbi is translated as with the blacksmiths and is thought to be in the plural instrumental case. It is posited that the instrumental is achieved by the suffix bi and the plural by the infix ed-. As such, gobed- would be translated into modern Gaulish as goved, smiths. The second feature is the attested Classical suffix ad (Delamarre 2003, p. 47; p. 314). While ad is classically used as a suffix to indicate collectivity, a position is postulated where this has been combined with and collapsed into the affix ed identified above, which has subsequently been expanded to encompass all plural formation, with the exception of those forms detailed below. A corrollary of this position is that plurals are considered singular nouns, indicating plural number as a singular entity encapsulating several components. This has resulted in the loss of agreement in number between nouns and their adjectives, and for nouns following numbers. e.g.: p a horse; ped horses; pimp p five horses

t a house; ted houses; t chwin a white house; ted chwin white houses pether t chwin four white houses (quatre maison blanche) Words ending in a vowel are treated the same way: e.g.: b cow; bed cows (i.e. cattle, bovines, the neutre plural concept) an a name; aned - names

However, words ending in vowel e insert an i- before the suffix ed: e.g. : b cutting; bied - cuttings Exceptions to the standard plural formation on ed are the following: Natural pairs are described by the prefix d- (two), which cause internal lenition on the consonants b, c, d, g, gw and t according to the rules of standard Modern Gaulish sound changes (see p. 15): op eye; dop eyes coch leg; dchoch legs (of a human) lam hand; dlam hands (of a human) dchoch in gwir - the legs of the man dlam in van: the hands of the woman clock but: coched in p - the legs of the horse but: lamed in clch - the hands of the

Natural groups are described by the suffix li after consonants, -sli after vowels, derived from the attested word slougos (Delamarre 2003, p.276). It is attested as a second component of a compound word, and is used to provide a pluralising suffix in analogy with Brythonic: e.g.: epli: a herd of horses bsli: a herd of cattle stirli: a constellation (pimp stir: five stars; in stirli Crus Dechu: the Southern Cross constellation) Since the plural indicates a collective entity (see discussion above), it is not used after numbers: e.g.: on p one horse; pether b four cows; ddhech don twelve men An echo of this position can be found in colloquial (Australian) English, where height and distance are often expressed in the singular of the measurement.

e.g. five foot high, four mile from here to there, four year ago A further comparison can be made with the colloquial French way of expressing collectivity using the suffix aille, which performs a similar function to the English suffix age: e.g. de la flicaille/ copper-age i.e. coppers il y a de la flicaille/ there is copperage: there are policemen

Gender distinction

Gaulish has two true genders, masculine and feminine. Words with a final vowel e/, -o/, -u/ and ao are usually masculine; words with a final vowel a/ and -i/ are usually feminine. E.g.: crachonth (toad, m); bech (beak, m); cun (dog, m); coch (leg, m); cernu (horn, m) t (house, f); ban (woman, f) However, there are many exceptions, notably in those cases where gender is semantically explicit and where therefore the above rules dont apply. e.g.: map (son); gwir (man), rich (king), geneth girl, swor - sister In addition to these two genders, Modern Gaulish has retained a vestige of a neuter gender, which is only manifested in the neuter pronoun (from attested id > , Delamarre 2003, p. 93) and which is used solely to express indefinite concepts such as the time, the weather, or an unknown subject. e.g. p hr a hdhi what time is it? (what hour is it?) dhi anwath sinu it [the weather] is bad today m harwru ti if it pleases you (i.e. please) Words that can be either gender can be qualified by the words gwir (man) or ban (woman) in a hyphenated compound, where the second component receives the emphasis. E.g.: p - horse (masculine or general) p-gwir stallion (gender specific) -ban mare; for purely phonetic reasons, p-ban is contracted to -ban cun dog cun-ban bitch

caranth friend (m) caranth-ban friend (f) Thus: dhi mi en i pis caranth-ban I am going to see a (female) friend (une amie): Je suis en train daller voir une amie

Adjectives

Adjectives follow the noun and are declined for gender but not for number (see discussion under Plural Formation). The female gender is indicated by mutation of the initial consonant. E.g.: the black horse in p duv (m sing) the black horses in ped duv (m pl) caranth di a good friend (m sing) caranthed di good friends (m pl) caranth-ban dhi a good friend (f sing) caranth-bane dhi good friends (f pl) (elision of d before dh-) t chwin a white house (f sing) ted chwin white houses (f pl)

Adjective formation

There are two kinds of adjectives: 1. natural adjectives: di, mr, math, bach, tdhu, galv (good, big, fine, small, warm, fat) 2. derived adjectives 2.1. Derived adjectives can be formed by the adding of the attested suffixes ach, ich, -in, -dhu or ur (Delamarre 2003, p. 107; 317, 78, 80, 188) to the root of the word: a) If adjectives are derived from a noun or a noun root, they can receive all of the above suffixes:

e.g.: caranth friend; caranthach - friendly nerth strength; nerthach strong tam level; gwerthamich excellent (over-level-like, i.e. high quality)

(with

word-internal lenition of t-) bld wolf; bldhin wolvish b cow; bdhu bovine em twin; mur twin (adj.)/ twin-like

This form doesnt change according to adjectival use or sentence position: e.g.: dhi caranthach he is friendly dhi p caranthach he is a friendly horse However, because in the last phrase is followed by p, causing a succession of two long vowels [e:], which is awkward to pronounce and unclear in meaning, the word order is altered to put the pronoun last in the sentence: e.g.: dhi p caranthach is a friendly horse he. This is directly comparable to the French form cest un gentil cheval celui-la. b) Languages or nationalities are expressed through the suffix ach only: e.g.: Galatha Galthach; Eir - Eirach; Cimri - Cimrach; Francha - Franchach (Gaul Gaulish; Ireland Irish; Wales - Welsh; France French) 2.2. Derived adjectives can also be formed by the adding of qualifying prefixes to a noun or verbal noun: e.g.: ied face; dwied (> duaged) ugly (du- - bad, i.e. bad face[d]) swied (> suaged) beautiful (su- - good, i.e. good face[d]) Edhi s dwied they are ugly (m pl)/ dhi s dhwied they (f pl) are ugly. Edhi in ped swied the horses are beautiful (good looking) 2.3. Adjectives derived from verbs

a) the verbal noun can be used as an adjective : e.g.: dhi sin cn bi this is a fighting dog b) the past participle can be used as an adjective, giving the verbal adjective: e.g.: in chwpal lhavarthu - the spoken word Adjectives are marked for gender with Initial Consonant Mutations, see that section.

Spatial paradigm

There are a number of pairs of opposing terms which between them define the elevation aspects of the spatial paradigm: gwer: over uch: up uchel: above ardhu: high / gw: under / aner: down / anel: below / th: low

These concepts are used to describe geophysical features: uchun: waterfall, i.e. water from above anun: source, spring, i.e. water from below They are also applied to define metaphysical concepts: uched: superior, better aned: inferior, worse In combination with the term tam, level, they are used to construct a scale of appreciation of worth or value: anthamich: worst, bad, poor (quality) methamich: mediocre, ordinary, average (quality) (< mdhi tamich; mdhi = middle) gwerthamich: best, good, excellent (quality) This allows for the construction of two parallel comparitive systems:

a) The grammatical system, using gwer and the suffix am: (see also further below)

di gwer dhi diam good better best

ms gwer ws msam bad worse worst

b) The metaphysical system, as defined above: di uched - gwerthamich good superior excellent ms aned bad anthamich

inferior poor

Both systems can be used freely as preferred. The existence of more than one option to express a concept only adds to the richness of language, and is essential to avoid staleness and restriction of expression.

Temporal paradigm

The temporal paradigm, used to measure the passing of the time, is as follows: r - hour sinu today (> sindiu, attested, Delamrre 2003, p. 274) diumethin - tomorrow diuchinth - yesterday sinith - tonight methinoch dawn methin - morning medhu - midday irmedhu afternoon (> iron mdhu) nithen evening (> noth cen early night) nith - night

mnith - midnight methen diuchinth yesterday morning methen diumethen tomorrow morning nith diuchinth last night nith diumethen tomorrow night sithnith week pensithnith - weekend mdhu - month bldhon year gws - spring sam - summer losam - autumn gam - winter

Adverbial expression

Natural adverbs ither - but ach - and soth - yet galdhi - maybe ath - again lu - a lot, many gwer hlu - more gw hlu - less (gwu > gu: redundancy of w before u) ceth - also

duch therefore: dhi mi en men, duch dhi mi en dhi I think, therefore I am p - until cinth shr - soon (i.e. before long- cf. W. cyn bo hir: soon)

Adjectival adverbs There are no adjectival adverbs in Modern Gaulish. Adverbial quality is expressed by the use of the adverbial preposition inth + adjective marked with ICM: e.g. inth nherthach = strongly inth wr = greatly, largely inth chwer hlu = as well (morely) r lhavar inth nherthach she spoke strongly (in strong) r gan inth dech she sang beautifully (in beautiful) r gan inth dech inth chwr she sang truly beautifully (in beautiful in

true)

The construction of an adverbial expression with the help of an adverbial preposition/particle is attested in Classical Gaulish, at Lezoux: inte nouiio (Delamarre 2003, p. 191).

Indication of possession

Possession is indicated: 1. by possessive pronouns; 2. by marking for genitive with ICM; 3. by imbedding of the article. 1. possessive pronouns Possessive pronouns trigger ICM in all cases except the third person singular feminin, where the absence of ICM is what distinguishes it from the third person singular masculin. m ghnth my child possessive pronouns are not marked for number or gender. m ghnthed my children; m dhthir my daughter

e.g.: m ghnth my child t ghnth your child ghnth his child gnth her child absence of ICM n ghnth our child s ghnth your child (pl) s ghnth - their child (m & f pl) 2. marked for genitive with ICM The owning subject gets placed behind the owned object, and receives a mutation. e.g.: t Pina Fionas house p Shtv Steves horse cun Rhan Ryans dog The genitive is not declined for number or gender. e.g.: ted Pina Fionas houses/the houses of Fiona ped Shtv Steves horses/the horses of Steve (Stv) 3. imbedding of the article When the owning subject is used in a definite sense, i.e with the article, the article remains in front of the noun. As the article is unmutatable, there is no ICM marking for genetive in this case. The article blocks the mutation, so the owning subject is prevented from being marked. If the owned subject is definite, its article is oppressed. e.g.: dor in d the houses door (the door of the house) (ICM on d marks gender, not genitive) pen in p the horses head (the head of the horse) dored in d the houses doors (the doors of the house) dored in ded the houses doors (the doors of the houses) lamed in gnathed the childrens hands (the hands of the children) However, if a noun is used in a non-definite way, that is without the article, it is marked for genitive with ICM, as in rule 2. e.g.: dor d a houses door (a door of a house)

pen hp a horses head (a head of a horse) lam ghnath a childs hand (a hand of a child) Note: a houses door dor d a housedoor dor-t (compound word, see p. 54) A non specific owned object is expressed as follows: on in dred in d - one of the doors of the house (a door of the house) on in dored d one of the doors of a house (the door of a house) Possession can be double or triple: e.g.: Bar in dor in d the top of the door of the house Bar in dor in d in duron the top of the door of the house of the town Bar in dor in d Pina the top of the door of Fionas house The owning subject can be freely qualified by adjectives: e.g.: dor in d in don dv the door of the house of the black person dor in d in vaned dhuv the door of the house of the black women dred in d chwin the doors of the white house

questions, answers, negations, questionwords

a) A question is indicated by the question indicator particle a which preceeds the verb and triggers initial consonant mutation. e.g.: a hdhi ti en i a Shidni? are you going to Sydney? In the negative form, this is preceded by n: e.g.: N a hdhi ti en i a Shidni? Arent you going to Sydney b) Answers are constructed by repeating the verb in either the affirmative or the negative: e.g.: Edhi mi I am (i.e. yes); N hdhi mi I am not (i.e. no). c) The negation is expressed by n, which triggers ICM and preceeds the verb: e.g.: N hdhi mi en i a Shidni. d) Questionwords preceed the verb and are followed by the question particle a;

questionwords are: p what/ which P a hdhi sin?- What is this? P a hdhi t gn? Which is your dog? pon how pan when Pon a hdhi ti? how are you? Pan a hisu ti a Shidni? When will you go to Sydney pluch where (< p luch: which place) pchon why (< p cnu: which reason) Pchon a hdhi ti en i? Why are you going? A.: using richon, because: richon rinchu mi Pluch a hdhi in cun? Where is the dog?

ch

because I have to/need to) pthi how much/how many Pthi a hdhi ? How much is it? Pthi vledhon a v ? how many years will it be? p who P a hdhi ? Who is she?

Note: a) P hr a hdhi ? - What time is it? (lit. which hour is it?), in which is the unspecified neuter . b) Words directly following a question word are marked with an ICM: e.g.: pthi vledhon, p hr, p gun c) The noun following pthi above (bledhon) is in the singular: a number of something is being enquired about, so as when following a number, the plural is not used. d) Even if the questionword is the subject of the sentence, it still comes first in the sentence, sometimes effectively constructing a SVO form (example 2 below)

e.g. 1: P a hdhi ti en rinchi?: what do you (pl) need? 2: Pthi hp a hdhi insin?: how many horses are here? This means that one question can be asked in different ways: P gun a hdhi adhith?: which dog is yours P a hdhi t gun?: which is you dog e) ri b (for what) can be used as an alternative to pchon (why) e.g.: ri b a hdhi ti en i a Shidni?

Compound sentences and conjunctions

a) Two sentences or phrases can be linked by a question word: When questionwords are used mid-sentence for linking two phrases, they retain the question particle a and attendant ICM. e.g.: N ghlu mi a ch pis pluch a hdhi in cun I cant see where the dog is N ghlu mi a ch pis p a chwlu ti I cant see what you want N ghlu mi a ch pis pon a dhansu ti ch I cant see how you will do it (neuter object, unspecified) N ghlu mi a ch pis ri b a hdhi di I cant see what it is good for b) Two sentences or phrases can be linked using the periphrastically used verbal noun to indicate agency: e.g.: dhi in Gien lit: is avon en i ech in vred a n mor

the Goyen a river in going from the hills to the sea

That is, instead of The Goyen is a river which goes from the hills to the sea., it uses: The Goyen is a river going from the hills to the sea. By using the periphrastically used verbal noun for the linking of subordinate clauses, agency is expressed without the use of a direct subject. The whole secondary phrase en i ech in vred adh in mor becomes an adjectival qualifier to avon.

c) Linking of two sentences using non referential relative and subordonating particle o (that) A relativising clitic particle -io is well attested in Classical/ Late Gaulish, e.g. dugiionti-io, oipom mi-o, scrisumi-io, toncsiiont-io (Delamarre 2003, p. 153-54, 240, 268, 298; Lambert 2003, p. 70).). In Modern Gaulish this is rendered as a free standing particle o. It is followed by the semantically empty phonetic particle ch if the next word starts with a vowel, for ease of pronunciation, as is the case in Modern Breton (see also section on verbs, periphrastic constructions). The use of nonreferential relative and subordinating particles is uniform across the modern Celtic languages (Isaac 2007). Subordinate clauses: e.g.: Glu mi a ch pis o ch dhi di. I can see that it is good. Epu mi ti o n hdhi nveth - I am telling you that there is nothing. (Lit.: Tell I you that not is no-thing). (n + peth > nbeth > nveth) Relative clauses: e.g.: dhi n van o r gan dithir inth dech: she is the woman whose daughter sang beautifully lit: is she the woman PART sang her daughter in beautiful dhi in gwir o r hian gwer wor: he is the man who travelled overseas dhi s in canon o ch dhi canthu aman hol: that is the song which/that is sung all the time The example used in b) can be phrased using the relativising particle: dhi in Gien avon o ch i ech in vred a n mor. the Goyen is a river which runs from the hills to the sea Unlike in standard English and French, but occurring in colloquial Australian English, after the relativising particle the subject can be restated, for emphasis or greater clarity, depending on preference:

dhi s in canon o ch dhi canthu aman hol. d) use of several verbs in one sentence: In a construction with a string of verbs indicating consecutive or parallel action, only the preposition associated with the periphrastic construction is used. e.g.: run literally: want I to go see run the horses gwlu mi a ch i pis rithi in ped: I want to go and see the horses

Demonstratives

The demonstratives this and that are used to form the words for here and there in clitic conjunction with the article. In demonstrative function they are cliticised (by means of a hyphen) onto the noun, which is preceded by the article, and they are not marked for gender or number. The occurrence of bifurcated demonstratives is uniform across all the modern Celtic languages (e.g. Ir. an duine seo, W. y dynma, B. ar den-ma) and is also in common usage in modern French (cet hommeci); in Modern Gaulish this example is rendered as in don-sin. The construction of locatives (here and there) using combinations of the article with the demonstratives is also shared across all modern Celtic languages (e.g. Ir. ansinn, anseo, W. yma, yna, Br. ama, aze), as well as by, arguably, French (ceci, cela > ici, la[bas]; e.g. ce chien-ci: this dog (here); ceci: this; ici: here). this sin (< sinde, attested, Delamarre 2003, p. 274) that s (id. p. 269) that there (further away) - chu (id. p. 74, 116); chu is permanently mutated insin here ins - there inchu overthere in d-sin this house in bech-s that beak in p-chu that horse (over)there Plural is expressed only in the noun: e.g.: in ded-sin these houses in beched-s those beaks

in ped-chu those horses overthere dor in d-sin the door of this house pened in beched-s the ends of those beaks Qualifying adjectives follow the noun and come before the demonstrative, in which case the hyphen is dropped: dor in d dhuv sin the door of this black house The construction of the spatial demonstratives here/there on the basis of a conjunction of the article with the demonstratives is potentially controversial. Their postulated hypothetical evolution is based on the attested form in sinde (Larzac), translated by Delamarre as in this (2003, p.274), from which is derived the Modern Gaulish construction insin (here) for the proximal spatial demonstrative; the distal variations are arrived at by analogy. However, regardless of the interpretation of in sinde, the uniformity of the phenomenon across the language family as well as its occurrence in French justifies the adoption of this construction.

Prepositions

en in ech out of, from a/ adh to, at, towards, of an - before the article: an mor to the sea a/ adh - before the possesive pronoun: a m shwor to my sister adh wthir to his mother adh + conjugations for pers. pronouns: rodhu mi in cun adh I give the dog to her ri for ganth with (< canti, attested Delamarre 2003, p. 103). chanth without (> *ex canti > *ech canth) ithra outside, beyond ar by, on r before (physically, spatially), in front of r behind (spatially) sin this, used in tonight (sinoth, this night), today (sidhu < sindiu)

s that chu that (over)there nedh near pel - far ao without; away from, separation from gw - under; dhi gwerchon gwem Ive got work to do: work is under me. gwer - over m - if (n ghnu mi m hisu mi a Shidni I dont know if I will go to Sydney) na - than (dhi in gwir-sin gwer nherthach na in gwir-s this man is stronger than that man) gw - or tr - across tar - through (as well as by) iron - after (time) cinth - before (time) gwirth - against en means in, in all meanings of the English word: e.g.: dhi mi en i a Shidni I am in the going to Sydney. dhi mi en Shidni I am in Sydney For more prepositions, see vocabulary. Initial consonant mutation

There is to date no evidence in the attested Gaulish material for a systematic modification of the initial consonants of words, either in response to phonetic triggers or to convey grammatical meaning, as is the case in all modern Celtic languages. The incorporation of this feature into modern Gaulish is based on its shared presence across the board in all the modern Celtic languages. As such, it is considered to be an integral part of what can be called the modern Celtic linguistic paradigm, which also includes the previously discussed conjugated prepositions, among other features. Nevertheless, a case can be made for the occurrence of what could be called initial consonant fluidity in attested Gaulish. Several instances exist of an alternation

between c and g in word initial position within the same document; examples are cutio/ gutio, cantlos/ gantlos (Delamarre 2003, p. 133). In addition, the Chateaublau tile shows an alternation of u and f in ulatucia/ flatucia (Delamarre 2003, p. 323), which is also found in Whatmough (in Delamarre 2003, p. 329) in uritus/ fritus. Lastly, the co-existence of the words penno-, head, extremity and benno-, point, summit might with caution and imagination be interpreted as two variations on a single theme, denoting the top, end or peak of something (see Delamarre 2003, p. 196, landa). This is all the more plausible if we bear in mind the fact that it is common for Celtic languages to use names of human body parts to describe geographic features. Examples of this practice include brunnio- for hill as well as breast (Delamarre 2003, p. 92), and clutso- for ear as well as cave, hole or depression (Delamarre 2003, p. 119, p. 196). With the above admittedly very meagre and speculative information in mind, a system of initial consonant mutation has been devised for modern Gaulish. Following the above attested examples of c > g and p > b, the system includes among other features a voicing of unvoiced consonants, and a leniting of voiced consonants, making it thus phonetically akin to the systems in place in the Brythonnic languages. It is postulated that the loss of word endings and therefore declensions and grammatical meaning through phonetic erosion, attested in Late Gaulish (Lambert 2003, Delamarre 2003) has led to the establishment of a system where grammatical meaning is conveyed through modification of the start of words as opposed to the end of words. This hypothetical position is supported by Isaac (2007) who argues that VSO languages have a greater innate tendency to modify words word initially than word finally. As such, the modern Gaulish system of initial consonant mutations replaces the genitive, dative, ablative and locative cases, and serves to mark gender as well as the interrogative and negative modes. A more detailed discussion of its uses and occurrence follows below. The following table lists the various sound changes.

Mutation sound changes

radical p t c b d g m n r l s gw vowel (V-)

Mutation b d g v dh gh w nh rh lh sh chw h- (hV-)

Of the above mutations, the following phonemes need elaboration: dh is [], as in English the gh is [] as in Greek (I); a voiced velar fricative lh is [xl] nh is [xn] rh is [xr] sh is [] as in English ship chw is [w] Of these, lh, nh, rh and sh only occur in word initial position, under ICM conditions. Vowel initial words requiring mutation are prefixed by h- (h prothesis): e.g.: an: a name - m han: my name p: a horse (m) m hp: my horse Unmutated h does not naturally occur in word initial position in Modern gaulish. When encountered in non- Gaulish loan words or names, it is unaffected. As the system of mutations employs a variety of phonetic processes, such as voicing, lenition, aspiration, h prothesis and palatalisation, the system is best refered to as a mixed mutation. There is only one mutation for each sound.

Contexts for mutation Initial consonant mutation is used for the following: 1. to mark for gender 2. to indicate possession (genitive) 3. to indicate prepositional constructions, i.e. to mark what used to be dative, ablative, locative and instrumental cases, the roles of which have been taken over by prepositions; included in this are also adverbial constructions using prepositions 4. to mark the negative and interrogative modes 5. to assist with the marking of verbal aspects

These are explained in further detail below. 1. To mark for gender The gender is distinguished by ICM after the article: e.g.: cun - a dog (m); in cun - the dog (m) cun-ban - a bitch (f); in gun-ban - the bitch Adjectives, which always follow the noun in Modern Gaulish, are similarly marked for gender according to their head noun: e.g.: in cun gwin - the white dog (m) in gun-ban chwin - the white bitch (f) When there is more than one adjective marking a head noun, they all are marked for gender: e.g.: in gun-ban wr ach chwin - the big white bitch

2. To indicate possession

ICM is used to mark genetive constructions: e.g.: in cun - the dog; m gun - my dog dhi sin t - this is a house; dhi sin t Shtv - this is Steves house However, when a genitive is constructed with an embedded article, the article blocks the mutation, as it is unmutatable: e.g. dhi sin cun in gwir - this is the dog of the man; no ICM on gwir pre-noun qualifiers following the possessive pronoun are marked as well, but not postnoun- qualifiers: e.g. pether cun mr - four big dogs; m bether gun mr - my four big dogs 3. To indicate prepositional constructions As prepositions have taken over the function of erstwhile cases like dative, ablative,

locative and instrumental, ICM is used to mark all the objects of prepositions. As such, marking happens on nouns, adjectives, colours, numbers and names following after a preposition (en, adh/a, ech, ar, ri, ganth, ao, gwer, gw, tr, r, r, aner, ). Possessive pronouns (m), preverbal particles (n, ma, a, re) or the article (in) are not mutatated; they are unmutatable. e.g.: dhi in naos ar wor - the boat is at sea bthu mi ganth nherth - I hit with strength carech - a rock; di garech - off a rock toch tdhu - a warm home; ao doch tdhu- (away) from a warm home Preverbal particles such as a and en are not considered to be prepositions and as such do not cause ICM: gwlu mi a can - I want to sing, no ICM dhi mi en can - I am singing, no ICM dhi mi en i a Shidni - I am going to Sydney: ICM dhi mi en Shidni - I am in Sydney: ICM Again, the unmutable article blocks the mutation: dhi sin in gamin ech Shidni - this is the road out of Sydney: ICM dhi sin in gamin ech in ceth - this is the road out of the forest: no ICM ICM affects multiple objects of prepositions: e.g.: dhi in d nedh gethed ach gareched - the house is close to bushes and rocks Prepositions are also used in the construction of adverbial expression, where ICM also follows: inth nherthach -: strongly r dhi - very good r chen - too early

Note: while the preverbal particle r is unmutatable, the adverbial particles r and r are not, and as such mutate readily when required: e.g.: dhi rh dech she is very beautiful 4. To mark the negative, interrogative and qualifying modes of verbal phrases The negative and interrogative modes of verbal phrases are indicated by preverbal particles or by question words. As such, ICM marks verbal forms following the particles ma (if), n (not), a (interrogative particle): e.g.: m chwlu mi - if I want n wi-dhi oghru - I am not cold n a hdhi pether r? - isnt it four oclock? a hdhi ti en i a Shidni? - are you going to Sydney? The preterite mode of a verbal phrase is also indicated by a preverbal particle, re, and is therefore also marked by ICM. e.g.: r hi mi: I went By extension, words following the question words, which indicate a mode of uncertainty or a state which requires qualifying, are also marked with ICM: e.g.: p gun a hdhi sin: which dog is this? p hr a hdhi : what time is it? pthi dhu a hdhi en in bledhon: how many days are there in the year? As a brief summary, it can be said that ICM is used: with the article (in) before feminine nouns, with adjectives qualifying feminine nouns, with possessive constructions, with prepositions (ar, en, ech, ganth etc.) and adverbial prepositions (r, r, inth), with preverbal particles (ma, n, a, r) and question words (p, pan etc.).

Numerals

Counting in Modern Gaulish is vigesimal: the basic unit is twenty, and multiples thereof are accumulated.

Cardinals:

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

on d tr pether pimp swech sith ith nao

11 onech 12 ddhech 13 trdhech 14 petherdech 15 pimpdech 16 swechdech 17 sithdech 18 ithdech 19 naodhech 20 gwochon

21 gwochon-on 22 gwochon-d 23 gwochon-tr 24 gwochon-pether 25 gwochon-pimp 26 gwochon-swech 27 gwchon-sith 28 gwochon-ith 29 gwochon-nao 30 gwochon-dech

10 dech

31 gwochon-onech 32 gwochon-ddhech 39 gwochon-naodhech 40 dchwochon 41 dchwochon-on 42 dchwochon-d 49 dchwochon-nao 50 dchwochon-dech

51 dchwochononech 52 dchwochon-ddhech 59 dchwochonnaodhech 60 trichwochon 70 trichwochon-dech 80 pether-gwochon 90 pether-gwochon-dech 100 canth

101 canth-on 102 canth-d 103 canth-tr 104 canth-pether 105 canth-pimp 106 canth-swech 107 canth-sith 108 canth-ith 109 canth-nao 110 canth-dech

200 d canth 300 tr canth 400 pether canth 1000 mil

ordinals:

first

cinth

sixth

swechweth

second alu third fourth fifth trthu pethereth pimpeth

seventh sithweth eight nineth tenth ithweth naometh dechweth

All other ordinals are formed by adding weth to the end of roots ending in consonants, and meth to the end of roots ending in vowels (derived from attested ordinal suffix metos, DLG p. 430, -metos > - met > -meth after vowel, -weth after consonant). e.g.: dechweth, gwochonweth, trichwochonweth, canthweth etc. cardinal numbers precede the noun: dhi gwochon-on iu-canth ordinal numbers follow the noun: dhi sin in iu-canth gwochon-cinth Expression of an amount of something uses a genitive with ICM: Delghu in tun-sin canth lither chwon: this barrel holds 100 liters of wine Ivthu mi dech pan guru: I have drunken ten glasses of beer

Compound words

Compound words are abundantly attested in Classical Gaulish. In Modern Gaulish they are equally productive, but whereas in Classical Gaulish the qualifier most

often preceded the head noun (e.g. corolamos avaricious person), in Modern Gaulish the qual