The Modern Gaulish Language

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Galáthach hAthevíu
Modern (Revived) Gaulish
Tengu in Galáthé
esi galataca atebia tengua sena indias brogias galatacias auuot inte nouion ris bitou
nouiou indos cantaios uoconti cintos
Esi Galáthach hAthevíu tengu sen in brói Galáthach, ávóthu in nhói ri vithu nói in
aiu’chan gwochon cin.
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“Modern Gaulish is the old language of the Gaulish country, made anew for the new
world of the twentyfirst century”.
Contents
Section Page #
Title page 1
Contents 2
Galáthach hAthevíu – Modern Gaulish 6
Ar In Cingen Galáthach 6
On Methin 6
I. Introduction 9
The Gaulish Language 9

Reconstruction 9
Historical Survival of Minority Languages 10
Survival of Gaulish 10
Evolution of Gaulish 10
Designation of the Gauls: Keltoi 11
Galatae 11
Keltoi Versus Galatae 12
Designation of the Gaulish Language 13
“Language” 13
The Language Speaks 13
II. Grammar 15
1. Orthography 15
2. Phonology 16
Vowels 16
Consonants 17
3. Sound Changes 18
Historical changes 18
Changes in Gaulish 19
Diphthongs 21
Consonant clusters 22
Tau Gallicum 22
The group -ct- 22
The group –sc 23
Word initial u- before vowel 23
The treatment of “s” 24
The treatment of -nt 24
The treatment of -nd 24
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The treatment of geminate consonants 25

The treatment of semi-vowel –i- 25
The treatment of semi-vowel –w- 25
The treatment of wordfinal open vowel -o 26
Apocope 26
Graphic representation of sound changes 27
Emphasis 29
Applied example 30
Mutated consonants in word-initial position 30
Schwa 31
Summary of sound changes 31
4. Personal Pronouns 32
Personal pronoun morphology 32
Personal pronouns as subject or object of a verb 33
Personal pronouns and prepositions 35
Prepositions 38
5. The verbal paradigm 39
Verb classes 39
Present tense 39
Past tense 41
Future tense 42
Conditional tense 42
Present perfect 42
Past perfect 44
Future perfect 44
Conditional perfect 44
Imperative 45
Verbal noun 45
Direct object of a verbal noun 46
Summary of verbal paradigm 47
The verb “to be” 47
Summary of the “to be” paradigm 49
The verb “to have” 49
Passive or impersonal forms 50
Ablative absolute 51
Progressive form 52
6. Adjectives 53
Order 53
Natural adjectives 54
Derived adjectives 54
7. Adverbs 57
Natural adverbs 57
Adjectival adverbs 58
8. Gender 58
9. Article 60
10. Plural formation 61
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Standard plural formation 61

Plural after numbers 62
Dual plural 63
Collective plural 64
11. Indication of Possesion 64
Genitive of apposition 64
Possessive pronouns 66
Genitive particle i- 67
Particle of quantity u- 68
12. Questions 69
Question words 69
Question word compounds 70
Question formulation 71
13. Negation 72
Declarative negation 72
Interrogative negation 72
Replies to questions 72
14. Initial Consonant Mutation 72
Mutation of initial consonants in Celtic languages 72
Mutation in ancient Gaulish 73
Mutation changes 75
Context for mutations 76
Contact mutations 76
Grammatical mutation 78
Unmutable words 80
Summary of mutation contexts 80
15. Word order 80
16. Demonstratives 83
17. Locatives 85
18. Syntax 86
Verbal noun clauses 86
Adjectival clauses 88
Subordinate clauses 90
Conjunction clauses 92
Question word clauses 93
19. Spatial Paradigm 93
20. Temporal Paradigm 95
21. Comparative Paradigm 95
First degree superlative 95
Equative degree 96
Second degree superlative 96
Similarity 97
Sameness 98
Quantity paradigm 98
Diminutive form 100
22. Word formation 100
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Historical compound nouns 101

Noun-noun compounds 102
Compound adjectives 104
Prefixes 105
Substantivising suffix for adjectives 107
Prepositions as prefixes 108
Calques 109
Verbal word derivation 110
Abstract noun suffixes: -tlo, -lo, -anto, -eno, -man, -naman, -on 110
Agentive noun suffixes: -iatis, -eto, -ilo 111
Verbal noun formation 111
Agentive form formation 113
Abstract noun formation 114
Verbal adjectives 116
Secondary abstract noun derivation 116
Summary of verbal word formation paradigm 117
Derivation of verbs from nouns and adjectives 118
23. Numerals 118
24. Expressions and turns of phrase 122
Liking and loving 122
Wanting and needing 123
Expression of wish 124
Uses of “to have” 124
The verb “to have” with a specific subject 125
Expression of obligation 126
Expression of occurrence and presence 127
Reflexivity 127
Basic phrases of courtesy 128
25. Cultural Background 129
Gaulish calendar 129
Translation of the names of the months 130
Astronomical analysis 135
Pantheon of gods and goddesses 137
26. Conclusion 140
III. References/ Bibliography 141
Gaulish 141
Welsh 143
Breton 144
Cornish 145
Irish 146
Scottish Gaelic 147
General 147
Appendix I: Galataca Sena 150

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Appendix II: The Coligny Calendar by Helen McKay 153

Appendix III: Alternative Gaulish History 170
Galáthach hAthévíu - Modern Gaulish
Gwer in Cingen Galáthach
Esi Galathía hol rhaníthu en dri ran, pélóch athréva in Belghé en hon, athréva in
Achithané en hal, ach pélóch athréva en in tríthu in tóth anwíthu Celthé gwé Galáthé en
só dengu ích, ach “Galli” en in tengu Rómach. Esi ansamalasé tengu, bésé ach réithúé
entherís ol. Esi in avon Garun enther in Galáthé ach in Achithané, ach in avóné Mathron
ach Séchúan enther in Galáthé ach in Belghé. Esi in Belghé drutham in tóthé-sin ol. Esi sí
pelam au vélói ach au haiedhúé anchwíru in Bróvins Rhómach, ach esi sí amapisú méiam
tar chwenethé en hácha pethé anauch en hávó blath in tóth. Cóeth, esi sí nesam in
Gerwáné tré in avon Rin, ach esi cingen entherís aman hol.
Esi Galatia olla randatua en tri randa, pelouca atrebant indi Belgi en oina, atrebant indi
Aquitani en alla, ac pelouca atrebant en inda trita inda touta anuantua Celti ue Galates en
eian tengua ix, ac “Galli” en inda tengua Romaca. Esent ansamalassi tengua, bessu ac
rectoues enteris olli. Esi inda abona Garunna enter indes Galates ac indi Aquitani, ac
indas abonas Matrona ac Sequana enter indes Galates ac indi Belgi. Esent indi Belgi
drutami indas toutas sinde ollas. Esent sies pelames au beslougi ac au agedoues
anueroues inda Provincia Romaca, ac esent sies ambapistues meiames taro ueneti agiou
pettias anauacas auuiou blata inda touta. Coettic, esent sies neđđames indi Germani tre
inda abona Rina, ac esi cingeno enteris aman olla.
“All Gaul is divided into three parts, of which the Belgae inhabit one, the Aquitani
another, and 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 Galates 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
Ponch ré hái mi on methin, báréi nói nesíWhen I went one morning, new dawn close to-it
ré hápis mi lóernis, í-vú gnath ení I saw a vixen, she had a baby in her
ré rhódhi mi chí bálal, en ó pen ichí I gave her a bullet in her head
fí fá fú fá fí fee fa foo fa fed
Ponch ré hái mi on methin, en havónal anel bren w. I wo m, in a creek, below a

tree
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ré hápis mi ton crachan, bú é már ach sen I saw a toad then, he was big and
old
ré vathi mi ché in nherthach, math ar ó ben I hit him strongly, well on his head
fí fá fú fá fen fee fa foo fa
fed
Ach esi on riem, on rieth and there is one for me, one for
you
gáva ni in canéchu, ach rána ni ché we take the treasure and we split
it
on riem ach on rieth one for me and one for you
fí fá fú fá fí-eth fee fa foo fa
foo’wha
Ponch ré hái mi on methin, a ghní in duvr-alvíé wIwom, for the knowing of the
rains
ré hápis mi ton molthé, en dhepri brach arínché I saw then sheep eating malt of wheats
ré rhithi mi chís di halis, a vrís só gervíé I ran them off a cliff, to break their brains
fí fá fú fá fíé fee fa foo fa fain
Ponch ré hái mi on methin, en lhóchu gwevrúach wIwom, in amber

light
ré hápis mi cath’wir, galv, dwáiedh, gwérúach I saw a tomcat, fat, ugly, feral
ré háli mi mó gun ó grídh, goch en ó voch cróach I fed my dog his heart, red in
his bloody mouth
fí fá fú fá fóach fee fa foo fa fouth
you
it
foo’wha
Ponch ré hái mi on methin, a gáma gwer vrói mái w.I.w.o.m., t. walk on flat land
ré hápis mi insé clus pélóch rhé shédhi cenen brái I saw a hole where a foul rabbit sat
ré ghavi mi ó gróchin, ré hávo mi cuchul dái I took his skin,I made a good hat
fi fá fú fá fái fee fa foo fa fat
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Ponch ré hái mi on methin, a shá ardhú gwer vrí wIwom, to stand high on a
hill
ré hápis mi insé bóé, en dír warús en lhí I saw there cows, lying in dead land
ré vé mi só rháimáné, can mó dhalam imí I cut their throats, with my own hands
fí fá fú fá fích fee fa foo fa fand
Ach esi on riem, on rieth and there is one for me, one for you
gáva ni in canéchu, ach rána ni ché we take the treasure and we split it
foo’wha
Ponch ré hái mi on methin, in genas en in hódhan wIwom, the earlyness in the smell
ré hápis mi insé cench en hávó clusé en in lhan I s. a plough making holes in a field
ré ghavi mi ché a’n téi, ré chwen mi in hisaran I took it home, I sold the steel
fí fá fú fá fan fee fa foo fa
feel
Ponch ré hái mi on methin, ré lhí in dhí am hér wIwom, the day it lay around
about
ré hápis mi insé carch, pélóch ré gáma mi gwer nhatherIs rock where I stepped on a
snake
ré gnái é ton mó góch, marú adhim en ver he then bit my leg, carrying death to
me
fí fá fú fá fer fee fa fu fa fee
you
it
foo’wha
The two first documents ever produced in Modern Gaulish: the opening paragraph of De
Bello Gallico – Ar In Cingen Galáthach, and On Methin, a song about applied Australian
ecology.
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I. Introduction
The Gaulish language
This document presents the revival of the Gaulish language. Gaulish is a Celtic language
which was spoken widely throughout Western Europe from at least the seventh century
BCE, when it was first attested, until the sixth century CE, when it was last attested. Its
range covered the areas west and south of the Rhine, east of the Atlantic, north of the
Pyrenees, throughout the Alps from west to east, south of the Alps into the Po valley, and
eastwards into the Balkans and the Hungarian Plain. Through immigration it was carried
into Asia Minor in the fourth century BCE and survived there at least until the fourth
century CE. In the first century CE it was recorded by Tacitus as being virtually identical
to and mutually intelligible with the language of the British Isles (referred to as
Brittonic), which would later develop into the Welsh, Cornish and Breton languages. In
the framework of the Celtic language family, Gaulish is also, but more distantly, related
to Irish, and its daughter languages Scottish Gaelic and Manx. The area in which Gaulish
was spoken was conquered by the Romans between approximately 150 BCE and 52
BCE, and incorporated into the Roman Empire. The language was put under pressure by
Latin, first as used by the administration and military of the Empire, then as used by the
state enforced christian religion, and finally by the early medieval christian church.
Eventually the language gave way to a variety of Romance and Germanic languages, and
ceased to be spoken.
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Reconstruction
The Gaulish language is reasonably well attested, if imperfectly. There is a certain

amount of recorded material available, and new material continues to be unearthed at a
steady pace (e.g. the Chartres find, discovered early 2012). Drawing on the existent
available material, and making use of the surviving Brittonic languages, as well as the
Gaelic languages, for support and comparitive studies of such things as vocabulary,
semantics and grammatic structure, a modernised version of the Gaulish language is here
presented. Departing from the state in which Gaulish was last attested, that is Late
Gaulish, the language of circa the fifth century CE, a series of soundchanges, phonetic
evolutionary processes and grammatic innovations are postulated. As such, a hypothetical
evolution of the language is constructed, the proposed outcome of which is a practically
useable modern Celtic language, to be situated in the framework of the modern Celtic
languages.
While the process of reconstructing or reassembling a language is challenging, it has been

done as conscientiously as possible, starting from the original material and attempting to
stay as faithful as possible to it, while applying a set of changes which could have been
reasonably expected to have happened to the language had it not ceased to be spoken.
These changes are based on evolutionary processes which can be observed in the
available authentic material, as well as on related processes which have occurred in the
related surviving languages. As much as possible, justification for changes and adaptation
is provided by drawing from the original material. Creative imagination, or, to put it
differently, making up random stuff , has been kept to a minimum. These various
changes, adaptations and processes will be discussed in detail in the various sections
dealing with them in the body of this document.
Historical Survival of Minority Languages
The Gaulish 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 700’s. 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 the previously mentioned 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).
Survival of Gaulish
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Charlemagne gathered a collection of ancient folktales, beliefs and legends from among
the people of the countryside. There is speculation that 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. The time of Charlemagne has been suggested as the period of
widespread decline of the language (Piqueron 2006), because of state-enforced
Christianity, and there are claims that the last survivals lasted into the 12th century in
remote mountainous areas. Suggestions to this effect are found mainly in the work of
Hubschmied (1938). Although this has in more recent years been severely criticised by
linguists and experts in the field, there is also qualified and informed support for the
concept (e.g. Bhrghros, 2010, 2012). Therefore, estimations for the time of extinction of
the language range from the most optimistic, 800 years ago, through the cautiously
speculative, 1200 years ago, to the conservative, 1500 years ago.
Evolution of Gaulish
The construction of the modern Gaulish language 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 subscribes to the notion forwarded 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 Afro-Asiatic substrate language, as
suggested and defended most recently by Venneman (2003), building on the earlier work
of Morris-Jones, Pokorny and Gensler (in Venneman 2003).
Broadly speaking, the hypothetical proposed evolution of Gaulish is characterised by two

main processes, both of which are attested in the Gaulish material, and abundantly
recorded in the early historical stages of the surviving Celtic languages. These processes,
which are best thought of as “phonetic erosion”, are apocope, or the loss of wordfinal
endings and syllables, and lenition of word-internal consonants. The resulting loss of case
markings led to profound changes in the grammatical structure of the language. These
processes and their outcomes will be discussed in detail in the body of this document.
Designation of the Gauls: Keltoi
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 Caesar’s
statement that the Celts considered themselves to be descended from their god of the
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underworld (Caesar’s “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.
Galatae
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).
Keltoi versus Galatae
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 altogether 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.
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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. Gallic, Fr. (formerly) Gallique, Ger. Gallisch; Eng.
Gaulish and Fr. Gaulois are derived from Germanic *walha-, a term designating a non-
Germanic speaking person found living in erstwhile Roman provinces; this term was
applied to Romance and Celtic speakers indiscriminately, and is at the origin of the
designations Wales, Welsh, Wallonia, Walloon and Wallachia, among others). As such, it
seems that the root “gal-“ is linked inextricably with the ethnographic designation of the
first recorded 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, while points a) and b) made in reference to Caesar above are
certainly valid, it is also worthwhile being aware of the fact that Siculus at various times
has been referred to as “the greatest liar in history”.
Designation of the Gaulish language
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 the sake of
clarity as well as historical accuracy and continuity, the name of the modern Gaulish
language will be derived from the attested term “galatia” (designating Gaul), an
adjectival derivative of which would take the form *galataca. This word, through the
application of the regular modern Gaulish sound changes, becomes “Galáthach” in
modern Gaulish. In keeping with historical records, the term of “galatia” itself, rendered
as “Galathía”, will be proposed as the indigenous name of Gaul and will be used as such.
The word “athevíu” 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
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“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
sound changes to the word “atebio” gives “athevíu”. It is reasoned that while “Galáthach
hAthevíu” accurately conveys the essential idea of the revived language, the term
“modern Gaulish” is a more straightforward practical working term for discussion of the
language in the English language. Therefore, Galáthach hAthevíu is the modern Gaulish
language.
“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 syllable [–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, Galáthach hAthevíu is “Tengu in Galáthé”, i.e.
“the language of the Gauls”.
The language speaks
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 Classical Gaulish version (marked for case) could run like this:
esi galataca atebia tengua sena indias brogias galatacias auuot inte nouion ris bitou
nouiou indos cantaios uoconti cintos
In modern Gaulish this is rendered as follows:
esi Galáthach hAthevíu tengu sen in brói Galáthach, avóthu in nhói ri vithu nói
in aiu’chan gwochon cin.
Finally, it is possible to produce a representation of the famous last words of Dumnorix,

chief of the Aedui, when murdered on Caesar’s orders in 54 BCE, given here first in the
tentatively reconstructed original Classical Gaulish, and followed by its rendition in
Modern Gaulish:
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emmi uiros rios ex toutia ria
esi mi gwir ríu e dóth ríu
I am a free man from a free nation
II. Grammar
1. Orthography
The Gaulish language has historically been recorded in a number of different scripts,
Lepontic, Greek and Latin, with the Lepontic representing the earliest attested
inscriptions, the Greek being used in the middle period of attestation, and the Latin being
used for the latest records. These latest records are however also the most prolific ones,
and the ones providing the most information about the language and the various changes
at work in it. Furthermore, all of the important long running texts in the Gaulish language
known today are written in the Latin script. Therefore, it seems reasonable to adopt the
Latin script used in those texts, with a few adjustments to the orthography to reflect the
demands of the modern language.
By way of graphic example, a line from the important Chateaubleau text (one of the
longest, continuous running, well preserved inscriptions, discovered in 1997) looks like
this in the original Gaulish:
neí anmanbe gniíou ape niteme ueííe

16
[“not by the names which are knowing about ownership may you desire it”]
The modern Gaulish language is written entirely phonetically, and to represent the sounds
of the language it uses a version of the Latin alphabet which contains the following 20
basic characters:
a, b, c, d, e, f, g, h, i, l, m, n, o, p, r, s, t, u, v, w.
These are augmented by the following consonants:
ch, dh, gh, lh, nh, rh, th, gw, chw
The vowel inventory is also extended to include the following long vowels:
á, é, í, ó, ú
and the following diphthongs:
au, ái, éi, ói, úi
The various sounds represented by the above are discussed below.
2. Phonology
The characters discussed above are used to represent the sounds of the language
phonetically, in such a way that a given letter almost always represents a given sound.
There are a few exceptions, which will be discussed further below.
Vowels
The vowels of the modern Gaulish language can be either long or short. These vowels are
clear, as is the case in e.g. Welsh and Spanish.
The short vowels are: a e o u i
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
The long vowels are: á é ó ú í.

17
á = [a:] as in father
é = [e:] as in lay, but without the yod sound
ó = [o:] as in tote
ú = [u:] as in shoe
í = [i:] as in see
The diphthongs are: au, ái, éi, ói, úi
áu = [au] as in how
ái = [a:j] as in good bye
éi = [e:j] as in day
ói = [o:j] as in toy
úi = [u:j] as in French brouillard
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:
gwerúach = [gweru:ax] (feral)

bóé = [bo:e:] (cows)
Consonants
The basic consonants of the Gaulish language are:
p, t, c, b, d, g, f, v, n, r, l, m, s
Of these:
c is always [k]
g is always [g]
r is the rolling r of Scottish “borrow”.
s is [s] in word initial and word medial position, and [z] in word final position
As mentioned above, in addition to these regular consonants Gaulish also has:
ch, dh, gh, lh, nh, rh, sh, th, gw, chw
ch = [x] as in Scottish loch

dh = [δ] as in English there
gh = [γ] as in Greek εγω
18
lh = [xl] an /l/ preceded by [x]

nh = [xn] as for l
rh = [xr] as for l
sh = [∫] as in English shine
th = [θ] as in English thin
gw = [gw]
chw= [xw]
Lastly, Gaulish has the semi-vowels: w, i
w = [w] as in English will

i = [j] as in English you
Of these, w never occurs freestanding: it is always adjacent to other consonants, and

never occurs intervocalically.
Conversely, the character i indicates the regular vowel [i] when directly following a
consonant, or when preceding a consonant by itself:
mi = [mi], “me”
imi = [imi], “of-me”
However, i indicates the semi-vowel [j] when following another vowel, when preceding
another vowel in word initial position, or when between two vowels:
ái = [a:j], “to go”

iár = [ja:r], “chicken”
áiedh = [a:jeδ], “face”
Many of the various sounds discussed above are the result of a process of sound changes,
the beginnings of which can be discerned in the attested Gaulish material. These sound
changes are discussed in detail below.
3. Sound Changes
Historical changes
The process of the changing of the sounds of the Gaulish languages is one of the two
main processes which transform it from an ancient language to a modern language, the
other one being apocope, or the loss of final syllables, of which more later. The changing
of the sounds of a language is best thought of as a process of phonetic erosion: over a
certain period of time, by virtue of living in the mouths of people, the sounds of
languages change. In a Western Indo European context, sound changes have been
historically observed, recorded and extrapolated in the Romance, Germanic and Celtic
language families.
19
Very broadly speaking, in the Celtic language families there are two sets of sound
changes that have affected the two separate surviving Celtic language families: the
Brittonic (Welsh, Cornish, Breton) and the Goidelic (Irish, Scottish Gaelic, Manx). In the
Brittonic language family, an important change that occurred was the voicing of
intervocalic voiceless stops (* -ata- > * -ada-), and the spirantisation of voiced
intervocalic stops (*-aba- > * -ava-). In a nutshell, pre-sound change intervocalic [p, t, c]
became post-sound change intervocalic [b, d, g]; at the same time, pre-sound change
intervocalic [b, d, g] became [v, δ, γ], the latter of which eventually disappeared;
intervocalic [m] also became [v]. A number of changes also affected the Brittonic vowel
system, but these are not relevant here.
In the Goidelic branch of the Celtic language family, intervocalic voiceless stops were
spirantised: [t, c] became [θ, x] (Goidelic did not have the sound [p]). At the same time,
intervocalic voiced stops became spirantised as well: [b, d, g] became [v, δ, γ], as in
Brittonic. Goidelic also experienced a shift of emphasis towards the first syllable of a
word, which, in words of more than two syllables, typically resulted in the loss of the
second syllable, a process referred to as syncope.
The two sound changes outlined above are clearly illustrated in the respective treatment
by the two language families of the word “Caratacos”, “beloved-like/ loveable”, which is
attested in Classical Gaulish as well as in Welsh and Irish.
Classical “Caratacos” > Welsh “Caradog” (voicing of voiceless stops)

> Irish “Carthach” (aspiration of voiceless stops)
For a detailed discussion of these sound changes, including this example, see Lambert
2003 (p. 28, 47).
Changes in Gaulish
The sound changes described above occurred in the respective language families around
the 5th-6th centuries CE, again broadly speaking, in a period of considerable political and
social upheaval in Western Europe, which appears to have triggered a period of linguistic
innovation and change.
It can be reasonably expected that the Gaulish language, at that time, was subject to the
same pressures that caused sound changes in its neighbouring and related languages, and
therefore also experienced a process of sound change. In order to construct Gaulish as a
modern language, it is important and essential to discern and to apply this sound change.
Therefore, the available Gaulish material has been investigated for clues as to what this
change might have been like. Below are presented epigraphic instances of genuine,
attested Gaulish material that testify to changes at work in the phonology of the language.
Most of these, if not all, can be found in Delamarre 2003, as per individual reference,
unless otherwise specified; when available, their primary source is included and follows
the page number in Delamarre 2003.
20
aballos > avallo; i.e. [b] > [v] (p. 29; Endlicher’s Glossary)
anman > anuan; i.e. [-nm-] > [-nw-] (p. 50; Larzac, Chateaubleau)
iouincos > ioinchus; i.e. [c] > [x] (p. 191, anthroponomy)
arganto- > arxanti; i.e. [g] > [γ] (Lambert 2003, p. 48; Suessons coin)
> arganthoneia; i.e. [t] > [θ] (p. 53; Galatian source)
(g)nata > gnatha, i.e. [t] > [θ] (p. 181; spindle whorl of Saint-Révérien)
litan- > lithan-, i.e. [t] > [θ] (p. 204; anthroponomy)
ate- > atha-, i.e. [t] > [θ] (p. 57, p. 214; anthroponomy)
*sisagsiou > siaxsiou, i.e. [g] > [γ] (p. 273; Chateaubleau)
*agat > axat, i.e. [g] > [γ] (p. 63; Marcellus of Bordeaux)
luge > luxe, i.e. [g] > [γ] (p. 210; Chamalieres)
ambio > ape, i.e. [amb] > [ãb] (Bernard Mees 2010, Bhrghros 2013, pers. com.;
Chateaubleau and Rom)
briuo > brio, i.e. [-w-] > [-ø-] (p. 89; Endlicher’s Glossary)
iouinc- > ioinc-, i.e. [-w-] > [-ø-] (p. 191, anthroponomy)
magiorix > maiorix, i.e. [-g-] > [-ø-] (Lambert 2003, p. 46; anthroponomy)
catugenus > catuenus, i.e. [-g-] > [-ø-] (Lambert 2003, p. 46; anthroponomy)
traget- > treide, i.e. [-g-] > [-i-] (p. 300; Endlicher’s Glossary)
[-t-] > [-d-], (p. 300; Endlicher’s Glossary)
*brogilos > breialo, i.e. [-g-] > [-i-] (p. 91; Endlicher’s Glossary)
badio > * baδio > baio, i.e. [-d-] > [δ] > [-ø-] (p. 63, anthroponomy)
Stirona > Ðirona > Sirona, i.e. [st-] > [ts-] > [s-] (p. 282, theonomy)
The above instances can be summarised as follows:
b > u (v)
c > ch (x)
d>δ
g > x (γ)
g>i
g>ø
m > u (w)
t > th (θ)
t>d
amb > ãb, assimilation of nasal to vowel
st > ts > s
In the above, the grapheme “x” is considered to represent the spirantisation of

intervocalic “g” > [γ] (Delamarre 2003, p. 63, p. 210; Lambert 2003, p. 46, p. 48)
An analysis of the above data indicates that the intervocalic consonants of Gaulish were
subject to a process of spirantisation or fricativisation, which can be represented as
follows:
21
p>p
t > th [θ]
c > ch [x]
b > u [v]
*d>δ?
g > x [γ], i [j] or ø
m > u [w]
đ > ss [s]
[mb > nasal-b]
The only exception to this appears to be the rendition of –t- as –d- in “treide”, which
appears to indicate a voicing of an intervocalic consonant. Lambert (2003, p. 207)
considers “treide” as having been treated as a word of Vulgar Latin and as such as having
undergone Romance lenition, where intervocalic voiceless stops become voiced (Western
Romance). In support, it is the opinion currently held by scholars in the field of
Continental Celtic linguistics that the possibility that “treide” can be considered as
indicative and representative of a genuine Gaulish sound change is negligeable
(Bhrghros, Mees, Stifter, Gwinn pers. com. 2009).
The remainder of the data appears to uniformly point towards a process of spirantisation
of intervocalic consonants. The existence of lenition, the process of weakening of
pronunciation of consonants, in this case through spirantisation or fricativisation, 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). Nevertheless, as Eska (2008) emphatically suggests,
proposes and defends, the data appear to point in this direction.
In addition to the above, there is widespread academic agreement on the disappearance of

intervocalic –u- and –g- (Delamarre 2003; Lambert 2003). In regards to –g-, a position is
here adopted where –g- becomes spirantised when occurring in consonant clusters, and
becomes –i- in intervocalic position and word finally when preceded by a vowel:
-Cg- > -Cγ- (e.g. argant- > arxant-)

-gC- > -γC-
-VgV- > -ViV- (e.g. brogil- > breial-)

-Vg > -Vi
Diphthongs
The sound change discussed above gives rise to a number of modern diphthongs which
are not derived from inherited Indo European or Proto Celtic diphthongs:
Classical Gaulish > Modern Gaulish

22
dago > dái (good)

aneg- > anéi (protect)
brogi > brói (country)
lugus > lúi (a god)
This therefore produces the diphthongs:
ái, éi, ói, úi
in addition to the vowel inventory discussed previously.
The Classical Gaulish diphthong –ou-, which itself was the result of an older –eu-, is also
attested as undergoing an evolution:
touta > tota, i.e. [ou] > [o:] (people, tribe, nation)
crouco > crocu, i.e. [ou] > [o:] (hillock, hill, heap, pile)
This indicates that:
ou > o [o:]
Consonant clusters
Several examples of the data analysed above provide information on what happens to
stops as part of consonant clusters:
argant- > arganthoneia: -nt- > -nth-

argant- > arxant-: -rg- > -rx-
iouinc- > ioinch-: -nc- > -nch-
This indicates clearly that the process of spirantisation was productive across consonant
clusters.
Tau Gallicum
The Tau Gallicum in Gaulish, represented by a wide variety of graphemes including đ,

đđ, θ, θθ, ds, dd, tth, th, ts, ss and ss with a horizontal bar through it, is a matter of some
controversy: some disagreement exists about its actual phonetic value. However, most
scholars in the field of Continental Celtic linguistics agree that the Tau Gallicum
represented a dental affricate [ts] (Delamarre 2003; Lambert 2003; Mees 2008, 2010;
Eska 2008). Regardless of its original phonetic value, there is universal agreement that
over the course of its attestation the sound of the Tau Gallicum evolved to become [s],
23
which may become apparent from comparison with modern related languages, as well as
with late Gaulish material.
e.g.: neđđamon > nesaf (“next” - Welsh)

miđ > mis (“month” – Welsh)
Meθθilus > Medsilus > Messilus (Lambert 2003, p. 46)
Caraθθounios > Carassounios (Lambert 2003, p. 46)
adsedo- > ađđedo- > assedo- (“reside, establish”, Delamarre 2003, p. 33)
stir- > đir- > sir- (“star”, Delamarre 2003, p. 282)
Therefore, the change postulated for the Tau Galicum is:
st, ts, đ > s
The group –ct-
There is no direct evidence of the evolution of –ct- in Gaulish. However, the similarity of
its evolution in French (due to the Gaulish substrate) and in Brittonic is considered strong
enough by Lambert (2003, p. 49) to conclude that its treatment was:
-ct- > -xt- > -it-, with i = [j], second element of diphthong.
e.g.: lact- > lait (“milk”, French)

> llaeth (“milk”, Welsh)
where -act- > -ait- [a:jt]. This then undergoes spirantisation of the word final stop and
becomes –aith [a:jθ].
The group -sc
There is in the attested material no indication of an evolution of the group –sc in Late
Gaulish. Therefore, no soundchange is postulated for this group, which is maintained as it
is.
e.g. mesco- > mesc (“drunk”)
Word initial u- before vowel
There is no direct indication of the evolution of word initial u- before vowel, thought to
have been [w] in Classical Gaulish (Delamarre 2003, p. 309; Lambert 2003, p. 46; Mees,
Stifter pers. comm. 2009). In the surviving related languages, u- before vowel becomes f-
in Goidelic, and gwin Brittonic.
A comparison with the treatment of word initial u- before vowel in French, however,
gives us some indication of what may be acceptably proposed as a plausible evolution of
this phoneme. The French language has known a change of word initial [w] to [gw], often
24
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.
While this may appear controversial because of its lack of actual attestation, it is worth
bearing in mind 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 didn’t 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.
Furthermore, it is reasonable to posit that the loss of word final consonants (loss of –s, -n,
-m attested) would have resulted in a situation where word initial u- ended up in an
intervocalic environment, which would have led to its disappearance. It can therefore be
postulated that a strengthened gw- developed to prevent the loss of word initial u-.
Therefore, in keeping with the arguments outlined above, a sound change of word initial
u- before vowel to gw- is proposed for Modern Gaulish.
The treatment of “s”
Although there has been controversy around this, it is now widely agreed that “s” is
maintained in Gaulish (D. Stifter, B. Mees, C. Gwinn, Bhrghros pers. com. 2009). There
is no indication of it becoming [h] word initially, as in Brittonic. While there have been
instances where “s” is thought to have disappeared intervocalically, it has been argued
strongly and persuasively that these were exceptions (Stifter 2009). Therefore, the
position is taken here that “s” is maintained unchanged.
However, there is evidence that adjacent to –l- “s” became absorbed into –ll- (coslo- >
collo-, Delamarre 2003, p. 127). Therefore, in modern Gaulish, “s” does not occur in
clusters with –l-. It is proposed here that in its word initial and word medial position “s”
is [s], while word finally it is [z].
Finally, in a mutation context, when “s-“ is followed by a consonant, “s-“ is dropped, and
the following consonant remains unmutated. This elision of “s-“ is marked with an
apostrophe: e.g. scrívi > ‘crívi (to write).
The treatment of –nt-

25
In word medial position, it is clear that “–nt-“ becomes “–nth-“, as is indicated by

arganto- > arganthoneia (Delamarre 2003, p. 53. For its word final treatment, it is
postulated here that an intermediate “–nth” evolved to “-n” through phonetic erosion and
for reasons of ease of pronunciation.
The treatment of –nd-
The treatment of –nd- is not clearly attested in the available material. However, two
instances are known that appear to bear witness to some evolution of –nd-, from which
tentative clues may be extrapolated.
1. the word “andecinga” (agricultural measurement, similar to an acre) was absorbed into
medieval Latin and hence passed into Old French as “ansenge, ensenge”. As such, it
appears to show an evolution of ande > an, that is an elision of –d-. However, this is a
highly dubious example, as it testifies to an evolution in Vulgar Latin / Old French, and
not in Gaulish.
2. the word “andounna” (“low water, spring, source”, Collias inscription, Delamarre
2003, p. 48) has been persuasively analysed by Lambert (1990, followed by Eska, 1992,
in Delamarre 2003, p. 48) as “ande-udna > ande-unna > andeunna > andounna. In this
proposed evolution, the word “udna” (“water”, “wave”, “tide”) has evolved to “unna” by
assimilation of nasality, of [d] assimilating to [n]. A position is therefore postulated by
modern Gaulish that all instances of –nd-, word medial and word final, assimilate to
–n(-).
.....The treatment of geminate consonants
No pertinent information is available about the evolution of geminate consonants. A

position is adopted here that all geminate consonants are treated as single consonants, and
as such are subject to spirantisation in word medial and word final position, if they are
stops.
The treatment of semi-vowel -i-
In the attested material, a Latin “i longa” (“long i”) is often used to indicate a semi-vowel
[j]. It is proposed here that the semi-vowel [j] is represented by the grapheme “i”, in
keeping with its occurrence in e.g. “breialo” (Delamarre 2003, p. 91).
Intervocalic –g- will almost always become –i-, pronounced [j]
e.g.: trageto > tráieth [tra:jeθ] (foot)
Words starting with g- will, in combination with prefixes, weaken this –g- to a –i-:
26
e.g.: gar: to call

sú + gar: good + call = to laugh > *súgar > súiar [su:jar]
Word initial i- before a vowel will be pronounced as [j]:
e.g.: iár: chicken [ja:r]

iach: sane, healthy, well [jax]
ianthu: wish [janθu]
However, word medial –i- preceded by a consonant and followed by a vowel, is

pronounced [i]:
e.g.: adhianthu: ambition [aδianθu]
The treatment of semi-vowel –w-
It is proposed here that in words where “u” is followed by another vowel and receives
emphasis, this “u” is interpreted as the long vowel [u:]:
e.g. arúer: to please
However, in instances where the emphasis shifts away from “u”, it becomes the semi-
vowel “w”:
e.g.: arwéra mi: I please
The treatment of word final open vowel -o
In the Late Gaulish material available, it is evident that word final open vowel –o [o:]
evolves to –u [u:] (Delamarre 2003, p. 342; Lambert 2003, p. 62). Although apocope
removes most Classical and Late word endings, there are instances where word final open
vowel –o is retained, most usually for reasons of necessity of distinction between near
homonyms. In these cases, this end open vowel changes to –u, and is usually short [u].
e.g.: panto > panthu (suffering)
Apocope
Apocope is the complete loss of word final syllables or word endings, including endings
defining case. It is the second major change that has influenced the evolution of both
Brittonic and Goidelic and contributed to their becoming uninflected modern languages.
In the case of Goidelic, cases were redefined as revolving around the pronunciation of
word-final consonants, and as such are retained to this day – nominative, genitive and
dative, as well as a vocative which does not however involve the pronunciation of the
final consonant of a word. However, Goidelic also did lose all case endings, as did
Brittonic. In the case of Brittonic, the loss of case endings resulted in the complete loss of
27
all cases, in a parallel with Romance and most of Germanic (excepting German, Icelandic
and Faroese).
The available Late Gaulish material shows clearly that a process of erosion of word
endings was underway by the 4th century CE (see e.g Stifter 2009, 2012). This is
mentioned by Delamarre, who indicates the erosion of the case endings (p. 342-43):
nominative sing. –os > -o (loss of –s)

accusative sing. –on > -o (loss of –n)
-an > -in/ -im > -i (loss of –n)
Examples from the attested material include:
coro bouido < * coros bouidos (Mees 2010, Chateaubleau)

andoedo < * andoedon (Delamarre 2003, La Graufesenque)
beni < * benin/ *benim (Mees 2010, Delamarre 2003, Chateaubleau)
These are indications that the case system was being eroded. Inevitably, such erosion
leads to loss of meaning and the collapse of the case system. It is reasonable to postulate
that had Gaulish continued to evolve as a living language, the case system would have
disappeared entirely through the phenomenon of apocope, the first stages of which can be
observed in the examples cited above. As a result, the Gaulish language would have,
quite likely, ceased to be an inflected language with cases, and would have, quite likely,
evolved as an analytic language with prepositions. This is exactly what happened to the
Brittonic languages.
Graphic representation of sound changes
The sound changes discussed above need to be able to be represented graphically in the
written language. To recap, the graphemes used in the attested material, and their
probable pronunciation values, are as follows:
p>p
t > th [θ]
c > ch [x]
b > u [v]
*d>δ?
g > x [γ], i [j] or ø
m > u [w]
mb >p = nasal vowel +b
đ > ss [s]
In Latin, the orthographic conventions of which were applied to the Gaulish texts in
which these graphemes are found, the grapheme “u” was used to indicate both [u], [v]
and [w]. It is commonly held that “u” for lenited “b” indicates [v] (Delamarre 2003, p.
28
29, and that “u” for lenited “m” indicates [w] (Lambert 2003, p. 46). It is therefore
possible to posit:
b > v [v]
m > w [w]
Similarly, the digraphs “th” and “ch” used in the Gaulish texts are drawn from the Latin
orthographic inventory. They were incorporated into Latin originally to represent sounds
of Greek words which were unknown to Latin; as such “th” and “ch” represented
aspirated “t” (theta, θ) and “c” (chi, χ). While in early antiquity it is thought that these
sounds represented aspirated stops, i.e. a [t] and [c] followed by a puff of air (“t-huh”, “c-
huh”), by Late Antiquity the respective pronunciation of these digraphs had evolved to
the fricatives [θ] and [x]. Therefore, it is reasonable to assume that the digraphs “th” and
“ch” as used in the Gaulish texts are likely intended to represent a fricativised or
spirantised sound. It is postulated here that the sounds represented by the digraphs were
the fricatives mentioned above. This therefore gives:
c > ch [x]
t > th [θ]
The changes represented by p > p, and đ > ss do not represent a problem: they can be
taken at face value and be represented by “p”, and “s” respectively:
p > p [p]
đ > s [s]
The change represented by mb > p is interpreted as mb > nas-b, with the grapheme /p/
being used to indicate [b] at a period where /b/ was used to indicate [v] (Bhrghros 2013).
It is postulated here that this led to mb > nas-b > nas > /m/, i.e. mb > m, in analogy with
the treatment of –nd-.
This leaves the challenge of how to represent the lenited sounds of “g” and “d”. In the
case of “g”, it is agreed (Delamarre 2003, p. 63, p. 210; Lambert 2003, p. 46, p. 48) that
the lenited form of “g”, written as “x”, is intended to represent the sound [γ]. In analogy
with the lenited forms of “c” and “t”, i.e. “ch” and “th”, used in the attested Gaulish
material, it is proposed here that the sound [γ] of lenited “g” be written as “gh”,
indicating a spirantised pronunciation of “g”. This is further supported by the use of the
digraph “gh” to represent an originally similar sound in Irish, Scottish Gaelic and
English. The representation of intervocalic “g” as “i”, as found in the original material,
does not present a problem and can be maintained as such.
g > gh [γ]
g > i [j]
Finally, the spirantisation of “d” is not attested anywhere, and only hypothesised by
Delamarre (2003, p. 63). For the sake of analogy and conformity, a position is here
29
adopted that “d” underwent spirantisation to [δ] as well in intervocalic, word final and
consonant cluster position, like all other stops, and that this will be represented by the
digraph “dh”. This latter is used in Cornish to represent the same sound, and as such is
deemed acceptable in the framework of Celtic phonological graphic representation. This
therefore gives:
d > dh [δ]
The graphic representation of post-sound change consonants can now be summarised as

follows:
p > p [p]
t > th [θ]
c > ch [x]
b > v [v]
d > dh [δ]
g > gh [γ], i [j]
m > w [w]
mb > m [m]
Emphasis
The emphasis in Gaulish is thought to have been predominantly on the penultimate

syllable (see Lambert 2003 for a discussion; also Eska 2008). This is therefore the default
emphasis position adopted by modern Gaulish:
caran = friend
If words receive suffixes, the emphasis is shifted to accomodate for the extended word, so
that the emphasis remains on the penultimate syllable:
caranach = friendly
Exceptions to the penultimate emphasis rule are fusions of prepositions with personal
pronouns, where the emphasis falls on the last syllable in order to emphasise the person
referred to:
canith = with you, emphasis on –ith

30
The fact of receiving emphasis can make a vowel change from short to long. This
happens in two cases:
1. if the vowel in question is followed by a word final open vowel, regardless of syllable
position:
e.g.: gwel: to want (verbal noun) > gwéla mi: I want

gar: to call (v.n.) > gára mi: I call
2. if the vowel in question is in the second or subsequent syllable, and is followed by

either an open vowel or a spirantised stop followed by a vowel, opened or closed:
e.g.: lavar: to speak (v.n.)

> lavára mi: I speak – 2nd syllable, followed by open vowel
car: to love (v.n.)
> caráthu: loved – 2nd syllable, followed by spirantised stop and open vowel
> caráthach: loveable – 2nd syllable, followed by spirantised stop and closed vowel
> caran: friend – 1st syllable, not followed by spirantised stop or open vowel
> caranach: friendly – 2nd syllable, not followed by a spirantised stop or open vowel
However, there are words where vowel length may be etymologically defined. These will
not be subject to these rules:
e.g.: gwir: man [gwir]

gwír: true [gwi:r]
In the above example meaning is solely conveyed by vowel length.
Applied example
The graphic and emphatic conventions outlined above can now be put into practice and
be applied to the example used previously to illustrate the ways in which the two
surviving branches of the Celtic languages were affected by their respective sound
changes. Thus, Classical Caratacos can be put through the two changes outlined above as
affecting Gaulish, i.e. first apocope, loss of the final syllable:
caratacos > caratac
followed by spirantisation of unvoiced intervocalic stops:
caratac > carathach
Lastly, the emphasis is placed on the penultimate syllable, which is followed by an

aspirated stop and therefore becomes long, indicated by a diacritic:
31
carathach > caráthach
This can be compared to the permutations of the same word in Brittonic and Goidelic:
Gaulish: Caráthach (spirantisation of voiceless stops, apocope)

Welsh “Caradog” (voicing of voiceless stops, apocope)
Irish “Carthach” (spirantisation of voiceless stops, apocope and syncope)
Mutated consonants in word initial position
An important part of the way the modern Gaulish language works is the mutation of word
initial consonants, a phenomenon shared among all the Celtic languages. While this will
be discussed in great detail in a separate section, it is important, from a phonological
point of view and for the sake of clarity, to list here the various sounds that various
consonants mutate into, as some of these do not occur elsewhere.
Very briefly, the system of changes runs as follows:
p t c > b d g > v dh gh
m>w
f > fh [φ] (bilabial)
In addition, the following are included:
l > lh [xl]
n > nh [xn]
r > rh [xr]
s > sh [ʃ ]
gw > chw [xw]
These are essentially spirantised sounds which, with the exception of “chw”, only occur
word initially, and only in mutation conditions.
Schwa
It is proposed here that the modern Gaulish features the sound schwa in certain cases,
where a word ends on a consonant followed by n, r or l. These are usually the result of
apocope. In these cases, a schwa is pronounced between the two final consonants.
However, as there is no graphic representation known for schwa in Gaulish, this schwa is
never written, and is deduced from the word final consonant configuration:
e.g.: attested word “sedlo” (seat) > modern Gaulish “sedhl”

a schwa is pronounced between –dh- and –l: sedhl = [seδəl]
petru (four) > pethr = [peθər]

anectlo (protection) > anéithl = [ane:jθəl]
louernos (fox) > lóern = [lo:erən]
32
In conjunction with the pluralising suffix-é this schwa sound disappears:
anéithlé: protections [[ane:jθle:]

lóerné: foxes [lo:erne:]
As scha only ever occurs as the ultimate vowel, emphasis is always on the vowel before
schwa.
Summary of sound changes
Having explored in detail the sound changes which can be discerned as having been at
work in Late Gaulish, and those which may reasonably have been expected to occur had
Gaulish continued to this day as a living language, it is now possible to summarise these
in table form. This provides the necessary background information for the exposition of
modern Gaulish grammar which makes up the remainder of this document.
attested modern initial word word word final

Gaulish Gaulish: consonant medial, inter medial, in
word initial mutation vocalically cons. cluster
p p b p p p
t t d th th th
c c g ch ch ch
b b v v v v
d d dh dh dh dh
g g gh i [j] gh i [j]
gh (rare)
m m w m 1st pos.: m m
2nd pos.: w
n n nh n n n
l l lh l l l
r r rh r r r
s s sh s s [s] s [z]
sC sC ‘C sC sC sC
(Consonant)
u [w] gw chw chw u [u] if emph u [u]
w if n. emph
x ch (anywhere)
33
xt -ith (anywhere)
nd n (anywhere)
nt n (anywhere)
Tau s (anywhere)
Gallicum
mb m (anywhere)
4. Personal pronouns
Personal pronoun morphology
The personal pronouns of Gaulish are reasonably well attested in the historical material,
and are as follows:
English Classical Modern attestation

Gaulish Gaulish
I mi mi Lambert 2003, p. 69
you ti ti Lambert 2003, p. 69
he es é < “lopit-es”, D. Stifter and B. Mees, pers. com.
2009, after Orecilla 1997; “avot-e “, B. Mees pers.
com. 2009
she i í < “avot-i”, B. Mees pers. com. 2009
it id í < “buet-id”, affixed 3rd sg neutral pronoun,
Delamarre 2003, p. 93
we ni ni < “avot-ni”, B. Mees pers. com. 2009
you pl. suis sú Lambert 2003, p. 160
they sies sí Lambert 2003, p. 69; 3rd p. pl. f., extended to
include masculine and feminine, as is the norm in
modern Insular Celtic
For a discussion of attested forms, see Lambert (2003, p. 69, 160) 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, í is used to indicate feminine subjects as well as neutre subjects, i.e.
undefined, generalistic subjects such as the weather, or subjects which have not or nor yet
been specified.
e.g.: cána í – she sings

esi í math – it [the weather] is fine
34
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, pers.com. 2009).
This position is further reinforced by the Banassac word “tieđi”, 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
pers.com. 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).
35
Bearing the above in mind, the modern Gaulish personal pronouns when used as object
present as follows:
mi – me ni - us
ti – you sú – you(s)
é/ché – him ís/chís - them
í/chí - 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 > désa mi chís – I prepare them
Further examples are provided below:
apísa mi chí – I see her

apísa í mi – she sees me
batha mi ché – I hit him
batha é mi – he hits me
The need for the particle “ch- “ as a phonetic bridge is demonstrated below:
apísa í chí – she sees her

apísa é ché – he sees him
apísa í chís – she sees them
instead of apísa í í, apísa é é and apísa í ís, 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:
apísa in gwir í – the man sees 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.
e.g.: apísa mi ti – I see you

apísa ti mi – you see me
Personal pronouns and prepositions
An unusual feature of modern Celtic languages is the fusion of personal pronouns with
prepositions, sometimes referre to as conjugated prepositions. It is a feature not
frequently found among modern languages, although it was present in Latin. In the well
36
known Classical Latin expression “vade mecum”, meaning “come with me”, the word
“mecum” is a fusion of “me-“ (me) and “-cum” (with) (W. De Reuse, pers. com. 2011).
Forms such as this are no longer found in modern Romance languages; they are,
however, common, even ubiquituous, in modern Celtic languages. It seems reasonable to
assume that such features are archaic grammatical forms no longer used in many modern
languages.
In the attested Gaulish material, there is precisely one instance which can be identified as
a conjugated/fused preposition. The lead tablet of Chamalieres (Delamarre 2003, p. 337),
which is one of the most important continuous texts in Gaulish found to date, features at
line 9-10:
exsops pissíiumí i tsocanti rissuis onson
A reasonable translation of this would be:
no-eye will–see-I-it/her with-this for-you (pl.) our ...
.....i.e.: blind I will see it with this for you our ...
In this line, the word “rissuis” appears to be quite certainly made up of the preposition
“ris” (for, before) and the 2nd pers. pl. pronoun “suis”; as such, “rissuis” is to be taken to
mean “for-you (pl)”.
This appears to be formed on exactly the same lines as comparative modern Insular Celtic
fused prepositions, e.g. Welsh gennyf < *cantimi.
From this admittedly modest and humble example of a fused preposition, a system of
fused prepositions is devised that is analoguous with those found in the modern Celtic
languages. The preposition “ris” would, under the influence of phonetic erosion of the
end of words (apocope), be shortened to “ri”. To this would be attached the various
modernised forms of the prepositions discussed above. For the 2nd pers. pl. of the attested
example, this would give:
ris + suis > ri + sú = risú “for-you (pl)”
The forms for the other pronouns would look like this:
ris + mi > ri + mi = rimi

+ ti > ri + ti = riti
+ es > ri + é = rié
+ i > ri + í = rií
+ ni > ri + ni = rini
+ is > ri + is > riis
37
Applying the insertion of the sematically empty phonetic particle “ch-“ as discussed
above to the 3rd persons singular and plural would give:
ri-é > riché

ri-í > richí
ri-ís > richís
A position is here adopted that holds that for the sake of clarity and unambiguousness, a
process of metathesis and vowel differentiation applies to the remainder:
rimi > ri-im > riem

ri-ti > ri-it > riet > rieth
ri-ni > ri-in > rien
The fusion of the preposition “ri” (for) with the personal pronouns would therefore be:
riem: for me
rieth: for you
riché: for him
richí: for her / it
rien: for us
risú: for you (pl.)
richís: for them
In the above cases the two vowels “i” and “e” are pronounced separately, with emphasis
on the latter, the word final syllable which receives the emphasis for all the fused
prepositions:
ri’em
Extending the above principles to the other preposition encountered at Line 10 of

Chamalieres, “canti” (with), would give:
canti + mi > cantimi > canthim
However, a position is adopted here that holds that the preposition *canti > *canth (with),
when used independently from pronouns, was subject to apocope and phonetic erosion,
and in analogy with other words on word final –nth dropped the final –th (see above
under “treatment of –nt-“) for reasons of ease of pronunciation. This would reduce the
preposition to “can”. It is postulated that in analogy with the shortening of “canth” to
“can”, all fused forms of “canth” also dropped their (in those cases word medial) –th-.
The result would be the following:
canim: with me
canith: with you
38
cané: with him

caní: with her
canin: with us
cansú: with you (pl.)
canís: with them
In analogy with the two examples illustrated above, it is postulated that modern Gaulish
applies two models of fusing prepositions with pronouns:
1. prepositions on –i follow the first model: -em, -eth etc.
e.g. di (off) (Delamarre 2003, p. 143): diem, dieth, diché, dichí, dien, disú, dichís
2. prepositions on all other endings follow the second model:
e.g. gwó (under) (Delamarre 2003, p. 324): gwóim, gwóith, gwóé, gwóí, gwóin, gwósú,
gwoís.
There a small number of prepositions which ended on stops in Classical Gaulish. Due to
phonetic erosion, apocope and a desire for ease of pronunciation, these have lost their
word final stops in independent usage. However, in their fusion with pronouns these are
retained.
e.g. ad (to, towards) (Delamarre 2003, p. 31)

> a in independent usage
> adhin fusion: adhim, adhith, adhé, adhí, adhin, adhú, adhís
e.g. ex (from, out of, Delamarre 2003, p. 169)

> e in independent usage
> echin fusion: echim, echith, eché, echí, echin, echú, echís
Prepositions
The following prepositions are attested or can be extrapolated from the Classical Gaulish
material. While some are clearly used in a prepositional way, others are only attested as
preverbal particles or prefixes. However, it is posited here that as Gaulish would have
become increasingly analytic in its grammatical construction, such prepositional
preverbal particles as are attested would have evolved to fully fledged independent
prepositions. Their counter parts are found in both the modern Celtic and Romance
language families. The following table provides an overview of such prepositions and
their derivations. All are found in Delamarre 2003, unless otherwise indicated.
modern Gaulish classical Gaulish English attestation

ri ris for Delamarre 2003, p.259
can canti with p. 103
ar are in front of p. 52
39
ern erno behind p. 434

ur *urito- against < Proto-Celtic *urito-
cin cintus before, first p. 117
ós ossi- after, last p. 244-45
gwer uer- on p. 314
gwó uo- under p. 324
au au away from p. 60
di di- off p. 143
e ex- out of, from p. 169
a ad- to, toward, at p. 31
i i- of (poss.) p. 189-90
u uc- of (quantity) p. 308, p. 74-75
en eni in p. 163
tre tre- across p. 300
tar taro- through, by p. 430, 438
am ambi around, about p. 41
ér eri around, p. 166
surrounding
co co-, com- than, as p. 121-22
échan *ex-canti without p. 169 + p. 103
éithra extra beyond, p. 275 (“sioxti”)
outside
enther enter between p. 163
uchel uxello- above, over p. 330
anel *anello below by analogy with “uxello-“
5. The Verbal Paradigm
The verbal paradigm is an area of greyness and uncertainty in the study of Gaulish. While
a considerable number of verbal forms are known and understood, no full conjugations
are available in any tense, mood or aspect. Therefore, modern Gaulish proposes a verbal
paradigm in which verbs are not conjugated, but are instead marked for number and
person by way of personal pronouns. This is not unusual in the context of Celtic
languages and in the broader framework of western and northern European languages.
For instance, the Gaelic languages conjugate only two out of seven persons and number
for regular verbs, their copula is uniform across all seven persons and numbers, all
Brittonic languages have verbal constructions where al persons use the third person
singular form, in the French language the conjugations of all but the first and second
plural number are phonetically indistinguishable, western Germanic verbs often only
have two or three forms, and continental Scandinavian languages only have one.
Verb classes
40
Gaulish shows indications of having had several classes of verbs. Among these, thematic
as well as athematic forms can be distinguished. Examples of some of these are:
Thematic: uediiu-mi, liiu-mi, iegu-mi

Athematic: peta-me, senant, dama, axat
Tentative, approximative historical paradigms for the present tense of the above could be
drawn up as such for the verbs “uedi-“ (to pray) and “peta” (to ask):
Thematic Athematic
uediiu mi peta mi
uedies ti petas ti
uediet e/i/id petat e/i/id
uediemu ni petama ni
uediete suis petata suis
uedient sies petant sies
It would seem that personal pronouns were used as clitics in combination with
conjugation endings. It is posited here that with the evolution of apocope and phonetic
erosion, these conjugation endings were eroded and lost, leaving a bare stem or verbal
root, followed by personal pronouns to convey information regarding person, number and
gender. In modern Gaulish, ten tenses are constructed using this verbal root and a number
of pre-verbal particles and suffixes that are attested in the Gaulish material.
Present tense
It is proposed here that through apocope and phonetic erosion verbal stems are left with a
vestigial conjugation vowel, accompanied by a personal pronoun (itself reduced and
eroded) to accord information about person and number. For reasons of practicality,
unambiguousness and ease of pronunciation, it is suggested here that all verbal stems take
the vowel –a of the erstwhile athematic ending in combination with the appropriate
personal pronoun. Verbal stems ending on a vowel (i or é) therefore drop that vowel and
add –a:
For instance, the verbal stem uedi- goes through the following evolution:
uediiu > uedii- > guedi > gwédhi
The form “gwédhi” has thus become the new verbal stem for the verb “to pray”. This
verbal stem is a verbal noun with specific and special properties, which will be discussed
in detail below.
To mark the new verbal stem “gwédhi” for person and number in the present tense, the
word final vowel –i is dropped, and replaced with –a:
gwédhi > gwédha

41
This present tense form of the verb “gwédhi” is then endowed with the appropriate
personal pronoun to convey information about person and number:
gwédha mi: I pray

gwédha ti: you pray
gwédha é/í: he/she prays
gwédha ni: we pray
gwédha sú: you (pl.) pray
gwédha sí: they pray
Exceptions to this model are mono syllabic verbs on a vowel, -í or other. Unlike all other
verbal stems, these forms do not lose their word final vowel, but instead add the present
tense marking word final vowel –a on after the vowel:
e.g.: bé: to cut

> béa mi: I cut
gní: to know
> gnía mi: I know
Verbal stems ending in consonants simply add the vowel –a to the end of the word:
e.g.: gwel: to want

gwéla mi: I want
e.g.: ápis: to see

apísa mi: I see
The verb “ávó”, the only modern Gaulish verbal stem to end in –o, drops its word final –
ó and replaces it with the present tense marker –a:
e.g.: ávó: to do, to make

áva mi: I do, I make
There are some verbal stems that end in –a. These retain their final –a and remain
unchanged throughout the present tense:
e.g.: cara: to love

cara mi: I love
Past tense
The past tense in modern Gaulish is constructed by way of the preverbal particle “ré”
placed before the verbal stem. This particle is identified in “readdas”, “(has)placed”
(Delamarre 2003, p. 255), and is asserted as having been used to construct the past tense
42
by Eska (2008, p. 869). Similar use of this particle is known in the Insular Celtic
languages (e.g. Old Irish, Cornish). There is no change to the end of the verbal stem:
stems in i or é retain these. However, the initial consonant of the verbal stem changes in
accordance to the systematic modification of word initial consonants known as Initial
Consonant Mutation (ICM). This will be discussed in great detail further below.
e.g.: gwel: to want

ré chwel mi: I wanted
e.g.: ápis mi: to see

ré hápis mi: I saw
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 Bernardo-Stempel 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, it has been identified by Eska (2008, see above)
as being used in Gaulish to construct the past tense. Therefore, modern Gaulish employs
it as such.
An important corrollary of this past tense formation is that it illustrates quite clearly that
ancient Gaulish used the process of re-analysis of a preposition as an aspect marker. The
pre-verbal, past tense-marking particle “re” is derived from an inherited Indo European
preposition *pre-, meaning “before” (Indo European *pre- > Proto Celtic *φre- > Celtic
re-), well attested in other languages (e.g. Latin). As such the phrase “ré hápis mi”, “I
saw”, is semantically derived from a prepositional phrase “before I see” > “I saw”. This
fact is very important in the discussion about the formation of the progressive form,
which will be discussed in detail in the appropriate section below.
Future tense
The future is constructed by way of the suffix –sí, from attested *-si(o), which is
identified as a marker for the future (Delamarre 2003, p. 251; Lambert 2003, p. 65). The
emphasis is put on this marker: apisí mi.
e.g.: gwelsí mi: I will want

ápisí mi: I will see
Verbal stems ending on vowels add the suffix –sí to the end vowel:
e.g.: rethi: to run

rethisí mi: I will run
43
ávó: to do / make
ávósí mi: I will do / make
Conditional tense
A conditional tense is formed by the combination of the two affixes discussed above: the
preverbal particle “ré” and the suffix “-sí”:
e.g.: ré chwelsí mi: I would want

ré hapisí mi: I would see
ré rhethisí mi: I would run
ré hávósí mi: I would do / make
Present perfect
The present perfect formation of ancient Gaulish is reliably attested in a number of

instances. The first of these involve the well known and discussed form “carnitu”, found
in the funerary inscriptions of Todi:
carnitu artuas Coisis Druticnos = has-built tomb Coisis Druticnos

> C. D. has built the tomb
> carnitu- = has built
(Delamarre 2003, p. 106; Lambert 2003, p. 75-77)
The form “carnitu” is universally accepted as being the present perfect form of a verb
“carni-“, “to pile up stones” (Delamarre 2003, p. 106).
A further attestation of a present perfect form is found at Chateaubleau:
iexstumisendi = iexstu-mi-sendi = have-cursed-I-this

> I have cursed this
(Mees 2010, p. 105)
From the above examples it is possible to deduce that the present perfect verbal form in
ancient Gaulish was constructed with the suffix “-tu”, followed by the subject of the
phrase:
carnitu C. D. = has built C. D.

iexstu mi = have cursed I
A similar construction is found in the Irish verbal adjective on –te, -ta, –the, -tha, which
is also attested in ancient Gaulish, e.g. “nantosuelta”. This is translated as “vallee
ensoleilé”, “sunned valley” (Hansen 2012, Bhghros 2012 pers. com.), with the second
component “suelta” literally meaning “ensoleillé”, i.e. .”sunned”, or, in English, “sunny”.
See also “lubitias” and “caratos” (Delamarre 2003, p. 209, 107). Therefore, it is posited
44
here that the present perfect form in modern Gaulish will be constructed with the verbal
suffix “–thu”, followed by the subject of the phrase.
e.g.: carni: to build

carníthu mi: I have built
gar: to call:
garthu mi: I have called
gwelthu mi: I have wanted
gní: to know
gníthu mi: I have known
However, for verbal stems ending on –thi, -dhi or –s, this suffix is reduced to
-ú. Stems on –thi and –dhi drop their final vowels –i and instead affix –ú. Stems on –s
affix –ú after the –s. In both cases, this perfective marker –ú receives the emphasis.
The reason for the use of emphasised –ú rather than regular –thu for stems on –thi and –
dhi is that the addition of –thu would result in a word that is altogether too fricative for
ease of pronunciation: rethíthu would be awkward to pronounce. Therefore a position is
adopted here that holds that the two successive fricatives have assimilated to form just
one: *rethíthu > *rethú; *gwedhíthu > *gwedhú.
In the case of verbal stem on –s, a perfect form with ending –sú would be the normal
phonetic end-result of the suffixation of –s with (pre-sound change) –tu, giving *-stu,
which, through regular Gaulish sound changes, would assimilate to –sú (-stu > -tsu > -ssu
> -su). Therefore, stems on –s take the perfective marker –ú. The use of a perfective
marker –u is attested in the forms “ieuru, iouru”, “has offered/ has dedicated” (Delamarre
2003, p. 188-89) and “tioinuoru”, “has produced” (Delamarre 2003, p. 297).
e.g.:rethi: to run
rethú mi: I have run
gwédhi: to pray
gwedhú mi: I have prayed
ápis: to see
apisú mi: I have seen
brís: to break
brisú mi: I have broken
Past perfect
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The past perfect is constructed with the preverbal particle “ré” before the present perfect
form:
e.g.: ré garníthu: I had built

ré chwelthu: I had wanted
ré rhethú mi: I had run
re hapisú mi: I had seen
As with the past tense, the first consonant of the verbal stem undergoes mutation.
Future perfect
For the future perfect the future marking suffix –sí is inserted between the verbal stem
and the perfective marker –thu, which is the only one used, since the insertion of the
future marker –si between the verbal stem and the perfect marker removes the phonetic
issues that give rise to the use of –ú only in the present and past perfect:
e.g.: carnisíthu mi: I will have built

gwelsíthu mi: I will have wanted
rethisíthu mi: I will have run
apisíthu mi: I will have seen
Conditional perfect
For the conditional perfect, the preverbal preterising particle “ré” is placed before the
future perfect form:
e.g.: ré garnisíthu mi: I would have built

ré chwelsíthu mi: I would have wanted
ré rhethisíthu mi: I would have run
ré hapisíthu mi: I would have seen
Imperative
The imperative form is well attested in ancient Gaulish (Delamarre 2003, p. 173, 209),
and consists of the bare verbal stem, with imperative intonation:
e.g.: carni!: build!

gar!: call!
réthi!: run!
ápis!: see!
Verbal noun
In addition to not having any conjugations, Gaulish does not have an infinitive either.
Instead it uses the bare stem of the verb, referred to as a “verbal noun”. The verbal noun
46
in the Celtic languages is a word that can at the same time function as a verb and as a
noun, and is an important component of the verbal paradigm. As a verb, it carries an
infinitival meaning: “gar” means “to call”. However, as a noun “gar” also has the
meaning of “the calling”.
e.g.: gar: to call / the calling

ápis: to see / the seeing
réthi: to run / the running
The verbal noun follows modal verbs directly:
e.g.: gwéla mi ápis: I want to see / I want seeing

gwéla mi réthi: I want to run / I want running
Direct object of a verbal noun
An important aspect of the fact that the verbal noun is a noun is the treatment of the direct
object of a verbal noun:
e.g.: gwéla mi ápis ép: I want to see a horse (ép < epos “horse”, Delamarre 2003, p. 163-
64)
This is actually a genitival construction, of which more further below. Because genitive
in modern Gaulish is expressed by apposition, the phrase “ápis ép” really means “the
seeing of a horse”. Because the genitive in Gaulish is not marked in any way on a noun,
this looks and translates exactly the same as “to see a horse”. However, when personal
pronouns are the direct object of a verbal noun, this genitive is expressed explicitly. For
this the genitive particle i- is used, derived from the attested forms “imon” and “imi”,
both meaning “mine” (masculine and feminine respectively) (Delamarre 2003, p. 189-
90). This particle is followed by fused forms of the personal pronouns:
e.g.: gwéla mi ápis ithí: I want the seeing of you = I want to see you
Without the use of the particle i-, the above phrase would be:
gwéla mi ápis ti = I want the seeing you
This is not possible.
The particle i- is not otherwise used in many other contexts: it only occurs as the genitival
marker for the personal pronouns as used as direct object of a verbal noun, and to indicate
ownership of objects in conjunction with personal pronouns only. As such, it behaves like
a preposition in the way it fuses with the pronouns:
imí: of-me
ithí: of-you
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iché: of-him
ichí: of her
iní: of-us
isú: of-you (pl.)
ichís: of them
The third person singular and plural forms are formed with the semantically empty
particle –ch- for phonetic reasons, as in the fusion of prepositions with pronouns. See
above.
Summary of verbal paradigm
The following table provides an overview of the verbal paradigm in modern Gaulish.
Examples are given for verbal stems on a consonant, on –thi and on –s. All verbal forms
are marked for person and number by personal pronouns only; only the first person
singular is given.
verbal present past future conditional imperative

noun
gar gara mi ré ghar mi garsí mi ré gharsí mi gar!
réthi rétha mi ré rhéthi mi rethisí mi ré rhethisí mi réthi!
ápis apísa mi ré hápis mi apisí mi ré hapisí mi ápis!

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present past perfect future conditional

perfect perfect perfect
garthu mi ré gharthu mi garsíthu mi ré gharsíthu mi
rethú mi ré rhethú mi rethisíthu mi ré rhethisíthu mi
apisú mi ré hapisú mi apisíthu mi ré hapisíthu mi
The verb “to be”
The verb “to be”is the only irregular verb in the modern Gaulish language. Its formation
is different from that of all other verbs.
The verbal noun may be derived from the attested Gaulish word “bissiet” (Delamarre
2003, p. 76). This can be analysed as containing the future marker –si, suffixed to what
appears to be the verbal root “bis-”: bis+si (future marker)+ -et (3rd p.s. ending) (analysis
by Lambert, discussed in Delamarre 2003, p. 76). The attested form has a double –ss-
which does not appear to indicate a Tau Gallicum. A similar double –ss- is found in the
attested form “pissiiumi” (Demarre 2003, p. 251). Since in the latter case the word
“pissiiumi” is analysed as consisting of a future marker –si- suffixed to a verbal stem
“pis-”, it is reasonable to extend this to “bissiet” and by analogy to deduce that “bis-“
represents the verbal stem or verbal noun.
The present tense is thought to be attested in the form “esi” (Delamarre 2003, p. 167).
While “esi” is thought to be either a 2nd or a 3rd person singular, a position is proposed
here where “esi” is the verbal stem that is used across the present tense, augmented with
personal pronouns to mark for person and number, as is the case with all other verbs in
modern Gaulish.
The past may be derived from the form “buetid”, (Delamarre 2003, p. 93-94).
Comparisons with Welsh (Modern Welsh “bues i” = “I was”; Middle Welsh “bu” 3rd p. s.,
“was”) suggests that it is reasonable to accord a past value to this form. As such, the
verbal stem to be used across the past tense will be “bú”.
The future form may be found in the attested forms “bissiet, bisiete” (Delamarre 2003, p.
76), as well as, possibly, in the form “biiete” (Delamarre 2003, p. 74-75). Again,
comparison with Welsh (Modern Welsh “bydda i”: “I will be”; Middle Welsh “byd” 3rd p.
s., “will be”) permits to posit that this form holds a future indicating connotation. As
such, the verbal stem to be used across the future tense will be “bí”.
A conditional form is not attested, but may be constructed by analogy with the paradigm
of all other Gaulish verbs. As such, the preceding of the future form “bí” by the preverbal
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particle “ré” will denote the conditional form: “ré ví”, with mutation of the first letter of
the verbal form, as discussed previously.
An imperative is attested in Chamalieres as “sete”, from which a modern form “séthé”,

“be!” can be derived (Mees 2010).
Finally, a perfect present may be attested in the form “biietutu” (Delamarre 2003, p. 75).
While this is unsupported academically, a position is proposed here where the component
“-etu-“ represents the perfect present form of to be: éthu mi = I have been.
The above form can further be analysed as a fusion of future stem “bi” + “etu”, which
would, in analogy with the perfective tense formation of the other Gaulish verbs,
therefore amount to the construction of the perfect future: “bietu-“, becoming “biéthu
mi”, “I will have been”. Again, this is unsupported academically, but is plausible and can
reasonably be argued in favour of.
An analogy with the above would then permit the construction of a perfect past with the
past verbal stem “bu-“, fused with the perfective “etu-“. This would give “buéthu mi”, “I
had been”. Once again, there is no academic support for this position, but it is plausible
and can reasonably be argued in favour of.
Lastly, a perfect conditional would then, by analogy with the construction of other verbs
in modern Gaulish, be able to be constructed by means of the preverbal particle “ré”,
preceding the perfect future form. This would give “ré viéthu mi”, “I would have been”.
Summary of “to be” paradigm
The paradigm of the verb “to be” can be summarised in the following table. All verbal
stems are marked for person and number by personal pronouns, as with all other verbs.
Only the first person is given here.
tense verbal stem attested form

verbal noun bis bissiet
present esi mi esi
past bú mi buetid
future bí mi biiete, bissiete
conditional ré ví mi particle “re” attested
perfect present éthu mi bi-etu-tu
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perfect past buéthu mi -

perfect future biéthu mi bietu-tu
perfect conditional ré viéthu mi -
imperative séthé sete
The verb “to have”
Modern Gaulish, like all other modern Celtic languages, does not have a separate verb “to
have”. Instead, as is the case in its related languages, it uses a construction with the verb
“to be”. This construction is attested in the inscription of Banassac (Delamarre 2003, p.
167; Lambert 2003, p. 142): “tieđi ulano celicnu”, translated as “at-you-is the satisfaction
of the banquet”, where “at-you-is” translates as “you have”.
The formation therefore of the expression “to have” in modern Gaulish consists of the
appropriate personal pronoun, suffixed by the appropriate verbal stem of the verb “to be”
(bis). The pronoun and the stem will be separated by a hyphen, and internal spirantisation
will apply to the first consonant of the stem of “bis”.
e.g.: mi-esi: I have

ti-esi: you have
é-esi: he has
í-esi: she has
ni-esi: we have
sú-esi: you have (pl.)
sí-esi: they have
The various tenses are constructed by analogy:
mi-vú: I had
ti-ví: you will have
é-rhé-ví: he would have
í-éthu: she has had
ni-vuéthu: we had had
su-viéthu: we will have had
si-rhé-viéthu: they would have had
Alone among the verbs of modern Gaulish, this verbal construction has neither a verbal
noun, nor an imperative form. Intentional and imperative phrases can be constructed as a
subordinate clause, using the relative pronoun “o”, seemingly attested in Chateaubleau
(Mees 2010) and in Marcellus of Bordeaux (Delamarre 2003, p. 268):
gwéla mi o mi-esi: I want that I have = I want to have

gwéla mi o ti-esi = I want that you have =I want you to have
Passive or impersonal forms

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Ancient Gaulish had passive (or impersonal) verbal forms on –r, analoguous with
Brittonic and Goidelic. Attested are “uelor” (one wants, is wanted; Delamarre 2003, p.
312), nitixsintor (p. 236) and diligentir (p. 144-45). It is widely agreed upon that the
suffix –or marks the verbal form for the passive construction. Therefore, this suffix is
adopted for that purpose. It occurs in concurrence with all other regular verbal particles
and suffixes. However, while the perfective suffix –thu is added after the passive marker
-or, the future marker –sí- is added after the verbal stem itself, and therefore before the
passive marker. This is attested in the form “nitixsintor sies” (ni-tix-si-ntor + pers. pron.
3rd p.pl.fem., Delamarre 2003, p. 236). The order of suffixes and particles is thus as
follows:
ré [verbal stem]+sí+or+thu + personal pronoun
An overview, using the verb “ápis”, “so see”, is provided below:
apísor mi: I am seen (“one sees me”)

ré hapísor mi: I was seen
apisíor mi: I will be seen
ré hapisíor mi: I would be seen
apisorthu mi: I have been seen
ré hapisorthu mi: I had been seen
apisíorthu mi: I will have been seen
ré hapisíorthu mi: I would have been seen
apísor!: be seen!
An intentional passive phrase can be expressed by means of a subordinate clause:
gwéla mi och apísor mi: I want that I am seen/ that one sees me > I want to be seen
In the above phrase, the particle “o” is the subordinating pronoun. It receives the
semantically empty particle “-ch-“ before a vowel, as is the case with prepositions (see
that section).
Parallel with the attested passive system on –or, it is also possible to achieve a passive
construction by using the appropriate form of “bis” (to be) combined with the perfect
present participle, exactly as in other Western European languages:
esi mi apisú: I am seen

bú mi apsiú: I was seen
bí mi apisú: I will be seen
ré ví mi apisú: I would be seen
éthu mi apisú: I have been seen
buéthu mi apisú: I had been seen
biéthu mi apisú: I will have been seen
ré viéthu mi apisú: I would have been seen
séthé apisú!: be seen!
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Both forms can be used at will. There are no semantic differences between them.
Ablative absolute
In the important long running text of Late Gaulish known as the tablet of Chateaubleau
the following verbal form is attested:
anmanbe gniiou: the names which know

sini siaxsiou: these which seek
sue cluiou: you (pl.) who hear
(Mees 2010)
It appears that the verbal form with suffix –iou, used in the above context, refers back to
a predicate subject in a way which has been interpreted by Mees (2010) as resembling a
relativising or subordinate construction. The form appears to fulfill a function that is very
similar to that fulfilled by a Latin ablative absolute (Bellovesos 2012, pers. com.).
Furthermore, it bears a close resemblance to the suffixed relative pronoun –io well
attested in Gaulish: the suffixed particle –iou appears to act in the same way as the
attested particle –io.
A position is adopted by modern Gaulish where, due to regular evolution of the

diphthong –ou [o:w] to –o [o:], the ablative absolute suffix –iou and the relativising
pronoun –io have amalgamated in the modern suffixed particle –íó. As such, -íó functions
as a verbal suffix to refer back to a predicate subject immediately preceding it, and can be
used to construct subordinate clauses:
apísa mi ép rethíó: I see a horse that/which runs
This will be further explored in the section on subordinate clauses, further below.
Progressive form
A progressive verbal form expresses an action that is ongoing, happening right at the
moment of discussion. Within the attested Gaulish material, there are two indications of
how such a form might be constructed. While the interpretation of these attestations is not
uniformly agreed upon, there is nevertheless a degree of consensus regarding their
plausibility and historical acceptability (Bhrghros 2012, pers. com.) and their practicality
of use in terms of clarity of expression (Bellovesos 2012, pers. com.) for the modern
language.
One potential attestation of a progressive form in the attested ancient Gaulish material is
the word “atenoux”, found on the Coligny calendar (see Lambert 2003, p. 111-18). While
there is contention over the interpretation of this word, as there is over everything
53
remotely connected with the Coligny calendar, Lejeune (1995, In Delamarre 2003, p. 58)
proposes the following etymology:
atenoux = ate-en-oux, “again-in-rising”
This was supported by Schmidt (1999, in Delamarre 2003, p. 58) and is considered
plausible by Delamarre (2003, p. 58) and Bhrghros (2012, pers. com.).
A second potential attestation of a progressive form may be found in the etymology of

the Gaulish names Enistalus (Delamarre 2003, p. 163) and Enissa (Gwinn 2012, pers.
com.). These words have been linked to the widely accepted etymology for the insular
Celtic word “inis”, meaning “island” (Finsen 2012, pers. com.; Wiktionary, etymology of
“inis”):
inis = *enisti (standing in [the water]/ in-standing), from eni- (in)+ *steh2
The above can be interpreted as “eni-sti” = “in-standing” (Strachan, in MacBain 1982,

“innis”). This would provide a construction identical to “at-en-oux”. The preposition
“eni-“, “in”, is attested in ancient Gaulish (Delamarre 2003, p. 163).
Based on these admittedly scant and contentious indications, a position is proposed here
where modern Gaulish uses the preposition “en” to construct a progressive verbal form in
conjunction with the verb “bis”, “to be”. Direct parallels are found in all Celtic
languages, and in western Germanic. Because “en” is a preposition, it causes mutation on
the first letter of the verbal noun following it. This will be discussed in greater detail in
the section dealing with initial consonant mutation.
e.g.: esi mi en garni: I am building

esi mi en ghar: I am calling
esi mi en rhéthi: I am running
While the periphrastic construction thus achieved is not attested in the ancient Gaulish
material, its inclusion in modern Gaulish may be deemed acceptable for two reasons.
First, 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.
Second, and more importantly, the use of a preposition to form a verbal form requires a
process of re-analysis of a preposition as a verbal aspect marker (Borsley, Tallerman &
Willis, 2007). This process is attested precisely as such in ancient Gaulish, with the re-
analysis of the ancient IE preposition *pre-, “before”, via Proto-Celtic *φre- to Gaulish
re-, used as a pre-verbal particle to mark the past or preterite aspect of a verbal form. This
shows that the process of re-analysis of a preposition as a verbal aspect marker was
internal to the Gaulish language, as it manifestly is to its related languages, all of which
have used the same process. As such it is perfectly reasonable to posit this process
happening to construct a progressive verbal form in modern Gaulish.
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6. Adjectives
Order
Adjectives are clearly and abundantly attested in ancient Gaulish. While the oldest
material shows adjectives preceding their head nouns, the later material indicates a shift
towards head nouns preceding adjectives. Attestations of both include:
Ueru-lamium – Lama-uerus: “wide-hand” > generous (Delamarre 2003, p. 317)
Attestations of adjectives following head nouns are:
agedo-uiros: face-man: face like a man

Amarco-litanos: view/sight-wide: view/sight that is wide/broad/vast
(Delamarre 2003, p. 317)
Perhaps the most incontestable attestation of an adjective following its head noun is
found on the spindle whorl of Autun (Lambert 2003, p. 125; Delamarre 2003, p. 331),
which reads:
nata uimpi curmi da = girl beautiful beer give
Continuing the trend observable in late ancient Gaulish, modern Gaulish proposes a
situation where adjectives follow their head nouns:
e.g.: ép: horse

caráthach: friendly
> ép caráthach: a friendly horse
téi: house (< tegia, Dlamarre 2003, p. 294)

gwin: white
> téi gwin: white house
Adjectives qualifying plural nouns are not marked for plural. However, adjectives that
follow feminine nouns, undergo a mutation to their first letter:
e.g.: aman: time

sír: long
> aman shír: (a) long time
bláth: flower
coch: red
> blath goch: (a) red flower
These mutations will be discussed in more detail later.

55
There are two broad categories of adjectives: natural ones and derived ones. These are
discussed below.
Natural adjectives
Natural adjectives are words that are inherently adjectival. A representative selection is
given below:
e.g.: már: big

méi: small
sír: long
bir: short
dái: good
druch: bad
math: fine, favourable
anwath: unfavourable
In addition to these, there are also adjectives derived from other sources.
Derived adjectives
1) adjectives constructed with suffixes
In the attested Gaulish material it is possible to identify five different suffixes that were
used to produce adjectives. These are used in modern Gaulish and are listed below, with
examples:
a) the suffix –ach, derived from attested –aco (Lambert 2003, p. 34, p. 39). Attested
examples are:
Anualonacu = Anualo’s sanctuary (Lambert 2003, p. 39)

Parisiaci = [people] of the Parisi (a tribe) (id.)
Caratacos = beloved-like (< *carato- “loved” + -aco) (Delmarre 2003, p. 107)
This is the most productive and most readily used adjective marker in modern Gaulish. It
is used to derive adjectives from any type of noun:
e.g.: nerth: strength

nerthach: strong
panthu: pain
panthúach: painful
caran: friend
caranach: friendly
achaun: stone
achaunach: stony
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duvr: water
duvrach: watery
b) the suffix –ich, derived from attested –ico (Lambert 2003, p. 34). It is attested as
follows:
uertamicos = excellent, superior quality (Delamarre 2003, p. 317)
The above is a compound *uer-tam-icos, derived from “uer” = over, “tam” = quality,
“ico-“ = adjectival suffix.
Modern terms using this suffix are:
gwerthamich: superior quality, excellent

donich: human, adj. (attested, Delamarre 2003, p.
This suffix, which is similar to the –ach discussed above, is used as a general
adjectivising suffix only for words ending in –a, for which it is impractical to use –ach,
and for words ending on a diphthong in -i:
grá: sand (Delamarre 2003, p. 183-84)

gráich: sandy
téi: house (Delamarre 2003, p. 294)
téich: domestic, pertaining to the house or house related matters
c) the suffix –in
The suffix –in is attested in one instance only, in the word “bledinos” (Delamarre 2003,
p. 78-79). It appears to lend to the word “bled-”, “wolf”, the meaning “wolfish”. As such,
it may be proposed that this suffix be used to describe the physical and metaphysical
characteristics and attributes of animals only, in a direct parallel with the English –ine
(derived from the Latin suffix –inus/a, only used with Latin derived words):
e.g.: blédh: wolf

blédhin: wolfish, wolf-like (“lupine”)
cun: dog (Delamarre 2003, p. 132)
cunin: dog-ish, dog-like (“canine”)
ép: horse
épin: horsey, horse-ish, horse-like (“equine”)
ernu: eagle (Delamarre 2003, p. 166)
ernúin: eagle-ish, eagle-like (“aquiline”)
d) the suffix -ídhu
The suffix –ídhu is derived from the attested suffix –(i)do, attested in Chateaubleau,
Larzac and La Graufesenque (Mees 2010). In the context, it appears to pertain to cows:
57
coro bouido = cow contract
In this instance “bouido” appears to translate as “bovine”, or as “of the cows”. It is

proposed here that this suffix, of which little is known, be used in modern Gaulish as a
general adjectivising suffix –ídhu that is to be used with words ending on –ch, for which
–ach would be phonetically impractical:
e.g.: bruch: heather (Delamarre 2003, p. 92)

bruchídhu: heathery, heather-like
coch: leg (Delamarre 2003, p. 128)
cochídhu: leggy, pertaining to legs
2) adjectives constructed with prefixes
Adjectives can be made from nouns and verbal nouns by means of the prefixes “su-“,
“good”, and “du-“, “bad”.
e.g.: car-: verbal root pertaining to “love” (Delamarre 2003, p. 107)

suchar: popular, i.e. “well-loved”
duchar: unpopular, disliked
If the prefixes su- and du- precede a vowel and do not receive emphasis, they become sw-
and dw-:
e.g.: áiedh: face, appearance (Delamarre 2003, p. 34)

swáiedh: beautiful, good looking, handsome = “good-face/appearance”
dwáiedh: ugly = “bad-face/appearance”
3) verbal adjectives
Verbal adjectives consist of the verbal form of the present perfect, applied as an
adjective:
e.g.: rani: to divide (Delamarre 2003, p. 164-65)

brói: land (Demamarre 2003, p. 91)
brói raníthu: a divided land
cara: to love
don: a person (Delamarre 2003, p. 176)
don caráthu: a beloved person (cf. caratos, Delamarre 2003, p. 107)
4) verbal nouns as adjectives
Verbal nouns can be used as adjectives. They follow their head noun and undergo
mutation of their first consonant if the head noun is feminine.
58
e.g.: cun: dog

bái: to fight/ fighting (Delamarre 2003, p. 63-64)
cun bái: fighting dog
gés: spear (Delamarre 2003, p,. 174)
aghri: to hunt/ hunting (Delamarre 2003, p. 35)
gés aghri: hunting spear
ben: woman
cára: to love
ben gára: loving woman
If verbal nouns end in a vowel this is dropped when used in conjunction with prefixes:
e.g.: gwidhi: to understand

> verbal root gwidh-
> suchwidh: intelligent (“good understanding”)
> duchwidh: stupid (“bad understanding”)
7. Adverbs
Natural adverbs
Natural adverbs are words that are by definition adverbial (although some also can be
used in adjectival function), i.e. they complement adjectives, nouns, verbs or other
adverbs. A considerable number are attested in the ancient Gaulish material. Examples
are:
ach: and
athé: again
élu: a lot, many
éth: more
cóéth: also
duch: therefore
Adjectival adverbs
The way to construct adjectival adverbs is clearly attested in ancient Gaulish, in the
running text of Lezoux:
inte nouiio = newly (Delamarre 2003, p. 191)
The construction of an adverb from an adjective by means of the particle “inte” has
perfect parallels in all surviving Celtic languages. In modern Gaulish, “inte” becomes
“in” and causes mutation of the first consonant of the following word:
59
e.g.: nerthach: strong

in nherthach: strongly
már: big, great
in wár: greatly
tech: beautiful
in dech: beautifully
8. Gender
Three genders are attested in ancient Gaulish: masculine, feminine and neutre (Delamarre
2003, 342-46). A position is adopted by modern Gaulish where the neutre has
amalgamated with the masculine, leaving only two genders. This is analoguous with the
situation in the surviving Celtic languages, and with neighbouring languages (e.g.
Romance). As such, modern Gaulish has masculine and feminine gender. Words with a
final vowel –e/é, -o/ó, -u/ú and –au are usually (but not always) masculine; words with a
final vowel –a/á and -i/í are usually (but not always) feminine. The following table
provides examples:
masculine feminine
bech: beak aval: apple

coch: leg cái: hedge
cun: dog lam: hand
achaun: stone brí: hill
cernu: horn cich: flesh, meat
However, in cases where gender is semantically explicit the above rules don’t apply, and
gender is as implied semantically:
e.g.: map: son

gwir: man,
rich: king
geneth: girl
swíor: sister
ben: woman
In addition to these two genders, modern Gaulish has retained a vestige of a neuter
gender, which is only manifested in the neuter pronoun “í” (from attested id > í,
Delamarre 2003, p. 93) and which is used solely to express indefinite concepts such as
the time, the weather, or an unknown and unspecified subject.
e.g. esi í dái: it (i.e. the weather) is good
Masculine words that have a feminine counterpart can construct this by the addition of
the suffix –is. This suffix is attested in ancient Gaulish:
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cunissa: “female dog” < cun- “dog” (Delamarre 2003, p. 132)
It is proposed that modern Gaulish uses this suffix to construct the feminine counter part
of a masculine word, for animated subjects only (e.g. people, animals):
cun: dog
cunis: bitch
ép: horse
épis: mare
lóern: fox
lóernis: vixen
drúidh: scholar, teacher
drúidhis: female scholar, teacher
caran: friend
caranis: female friend
In addition, words that can be either gender can be qualified by the words “gwir” (man)
or “ben” (woman) as the second component of a compound, where the second component
receives the emphasis. The second component effectively acts as an attributive adjective,
and constructs a meaning of “male/female”. In these cases, the gender is as indicated by
the suffix. However, for compelling reasons of ease of pronunciation it is proposed here
that these words take on the reduced forms of, respectively, “-wir”, postulating a
maintenance of pre-fortition [w], and “-wen”, being an otherwise unparalleled evolution
of [b] > [v] > [w].
E.g.: ép: horse (masculine, general term)

ép+ wir > ép’wir: stallion, male horse (m)
ép+wen > ép’wen: mare, female horse (f)
cun: dog (m)

cun’wir: male dog (m)
cun’wen: female dog, bitch (f)
caran – friend (m)

caran’wir: male friend, boyfriend (m)
caran’wen: female friend, girlfriend (f)
Support for these constructions is found in the attested word “banolucci” (Delamarre
2003, p. 72), which translates as “woman-wolf”, i.e. “she-wolf” or female wolf. While an
alternative translation could be “woman for wolves”, the former interpretation is adopted
here for practicality, in analogy with such usage in the Goidelic languages.
9. Article
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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 ancient Gaulish (sinde,
Delamarre 2003, p. 274). While there is no real attestation of the evolution of any word
into an article in the available ancient 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 ancient
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.
In analogy with most modern Celtic languages (except Breton), modern Gaulish does not
use an indefinite article.
e.g.: pen: a head

in pen: the head
cun: a dog
in cun: the dog
When feminine nouns, singular or plural, are preceded by the article “in” they undergo a
mutation of their initial consonant:
e.g.: geneth: a girl

in gheneth: the girl
brí: a mountain
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in vrí: the mountain
10. Plural formation
Standard plural formation
In ancient Gaulish, most word stems ended on vowels, and word function and meaning,
including the plural, was conveyed through a variety of case endings. These case endings
varied according to the final vowel of stems and according to the case the word was in.
There is clear indication in the attested material that word endings were eroding (see
discussion under “apocope” section), which would inevitably result in the loss of
meaning of case and therefore, eventually, in the loss of case. As a direct result of the loss
of word endings, a majority of words would have come to end in consonants instead of
vowels.
Under the old case system, word stems ending in consonants in the nominative case took
the ending “–es”:
e.g.: eurises = dedicators, donators (Nautes Parisiaques Pillar, Delamarre 2003, p. 169))
sies = they 3rd p. pl. fem. (Larzac, 3x, Delamarre 2003, p. 338-39)
tidres = three pl. fem. (La Graufesenque, Delamarre 2003, p. 302)
(for discussion see Delamarre 2003, p. 345; Lambert 2003, p. 63).
It is posited here that with the loss of case endings, the nomimative consonantal plural
ending “–es” was retained and spread out across the word paradigm to form a single all-
purpose pluralising ending. This plural ending “-es” would then be further phonetically
eroded to –e, which, it is posited here, was then lengthened to “-é”. As such, modern
Gaulish adopts the single, all-purpose pluralising suffix “-é”:
ép: horse
épé: horses
cun: dog
cuné: dogs
This suffix –é is also applied to nouns ending on vowels:
bó: cow
bóé: cows
táru: bull
tarúé: bulls
cuna: bitch
cunáé: bitches
The only exception to the standard plural formation is the plural of “ben”, “woman” (<
ancient Gaulish “bena”), which is attested under the forms “bnanom, mnanom (2x),
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mnas (2x)” at Larzac (Delamarre 2003, p. 338). With regular loss of case endings –nom
and –s that gives a form “mna-“, which with regular lengthening of emphasised vowel in
modern Gaulish becomes “mná”. This form will be the regular standard plural of the
word “ben”, “woman”.
ben: woman
mná: women
Plural after numbers
There are a number of instances attested in the ancient Gaulish material where a noun is
preceded by a number: trimarcisia, trinoxtion, petruroton, petrumantalon, pempedula,
decamnoctiacis. These can be analysed as follows:
trimarcisia = tri+marcos+ia
three+horse+substantivising ending, instr. singular
trinoxtion = tri+noxt+ion
three+night+subst. end., nom. neut. singular
petruroton = petru+roto+n
four+wheel+subst. end., nom. neut. singular
petrumantalon = petru+mantalo+n
four+road+subst. end., nom. neut. singular
pempedula = pempe+dula
five+leaf, nom. singular
decamnoctiaca = decam+noct++io+iac+a
ten+night+rel. pron.+adj.mark.+subst. end., dat-abl. neut. plural
LATIN
(from Demamarre 2003, p. 302, 302-3, 250, 250/216, 248, 137)
In five of the six examples listed above, the compound consists of a number, followed by
a noun in the singular, followed by a substantivising ending. Translations are,
respectively:
trimarcisia: three horse (three horse riders)

trinoxtion: three night (three nights of celebration
petruroton: four wheel (wagon with four wheels)
petrumantalon: four road (crossroads of four roads)
pempedula: five leaf (flower with five leaves)
decamnoctiaca: ten night-like-s (ten nights of celebration)
For five out of these six cases, the cardinal number is followed by a noun in the singular.
The ending of the sixth is thought to be adapted to the Latin case system (Delamarre
2003, p. 137). While it is possible that the singular was employed because the compound
word in question was considered a word in the singular, the fact remains nevertheless that
these numbers are followed by nouns in the singular. Also, there are no attestations of
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numbers being followed by nouns in the plural in the ancient Gaulish material. Therefore,
it is posited here that modern Gaulish does not use the plural of nouns after cardinal
numbers. This is furthermore in parallel with the situation in the Brittonic languages,
where numbers are followed by nouns in the singular.
e.g.: tri march: three (riding) horses

pethr roth: four wheels
pethr manthal: four roads
pimp dul: five leaves
dech nóith: ten nights
Dual plural
It is unclear at this stage whether ancient Gaulish had a dual number, due to the
incomplete nature of the attestation of the language (Lambert 2003, p. 51). Nevertheless,
it is known that Old Irish has a dual number, pertaining to things that appear in the world
in natural pairs (Lambert 2003, p. 51). Furthermore, the very close relationship between
ancient Gaulish and Old Irish is becoming increasingly evident (Mees & Stifter 2012,
pers. com.). Therefore, an analogy is made with the situation in Old Irish, and a dual-
plural is proposed for modern Gaulish here. As such, things that occur naturally in the
world in pairs form their plural with the prefix “dá-“, meaning “two”.
e.g.: lam: hand

dálam: hands
coch: leg
dáchoch: legs
óp: eye
dáóp: eyes
However, these plural formations only pertain to situations where these subjects naturally
occur in pairs. Therefore, “dáchoch” applies to the legs of a human, because they come in
a pair of two, but not to the legs of a horse, because there are four of them:
dáchoch: legs (of a human or other bipedal animal, e.g. a bird)

coché: legs of a horse, or other animal with more than two legs
dálam: hands of a human (a pair of two)
lamé: hands of a clock (three hands: hours, minutes and seconds)
Collective plural
In the ancient Gaulish material a word “slougo-“ is attested. This word, meaning “group,
troop, gathering, crowd, assembly” (Delamarre 2003, p. 276) is used in the Brittonic
languages to form a collective noun. Although it is not attested as such in ancient
Gaulish, it is proposed here that this same word fulfills the same function in modern
Gaulish. Regular modern Gaulish sound changes render “slougo-“ as “slói”. Furthermore,
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in suffix position the initial s- of slougo- is absorbed into the –l-, giving a hypothetical
ancient Gaulish –ll-, reduced to –l- in modern Gaulish.
slougo > -lói
This can now be applied as a suffix to such entities as display collectivity:
e.g.: sir: star (< stir-, Delamarre 2003, p. 282)

sirlói: constellation (group of stars)
brí: mountain (< briga, Delamarre 2003, p. 87)
brílói: mountain range
11. Indication of possession
Genetive of apposition
In ancient Gaulish, genetive was indicated by word endings. Exceptionally clear and
unambiguous examples of this are found in the long running text of Larzac (Delamarre
2003, p. 338-39; p. 344):
Adiega matir Aiias = Adiega mother of Aia

Aia duxtir Adiegias = Aia daughter of Adiega
In the above example, the genetive relationship is expressed by the word ending –ias. If
we apply the postulated loss of case endings, which is a well attested, well agreed upon
and important factor in the formation of the modern Gaulish language, to these two
phrases, we are left with the following:
Adiega matir Aia

Aia duxtir Adiega
These translate as follows:
Adiega mother Aia

Aia daughter Adiega
It is posited here that the main genetive formation of modern Gaulish is derived from
these constructions: the left-overs after case endings disappeared. With the loss of the
case endings, the only thing that is left to define the genetival relationship formerly
specified by word endings is the word order. Therefore “A mother B” means “A mother
of B”. This is known as genetive of apposition: two nouns are put next to each other, and
the first belongs to the second. This principle is applied throughout the modern Gaulish
language to indicate possession of one thing by another:
ép Belo: horse of Belo > Belo’s horse

téi Gwina: house of Gwina > Gwina’s house
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cun Garghan: dog of Garghan > Garghan’s dog
In the example above, a noun is followed by a name, which therefore owns that noun.
The same principle can be applied to two nouns:
coch ép: leg of a horse

pen gwir: head of a man
brun ben: breast of a woman
The principle of genetive of apposition means that when a noun is followed by another
noun, the first noun is owned by or belongs to the second noun.
This principle can be extended to include the article “in”. Instead of using a non-specific
entity (a horse), we can use a specified entity: the horse.
coch: leg
in ép: the horse
coch in ép: leg of the horse
The above phrase means “the leg of the horse”. To express the notion “a leg of the
horse”, the indefinite can be described as being “one leg”:
on coch in ép: a/one leg of the horse
If the possessor is indefinite, this becomes:
on coch ép: a/one leg of a horse
or simply:
coch ép: a leg of a horse
For strings of more than one item that is possessed, only the article of the possessor is
used, all other ones are omitted:
e.g.: líu: colour

in líu: the colour
bar: top
in var: the top
coch: leg
in coch: the leg
ép: horse
in ép: the horse
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To translate the phrase “the colour of the top of the leg of the horse” all the articles
except the last one are dropped:
líu bar coch in ép: the colour of the top of the leg of the horse
“the horse’s leg top colour”
Possessive pronouns
Possession can be expressed directly by use of possessive pronouns. Of these, a number

can be identified in the attested material:
1st pers. sing.: in mon derco = in my eye

(Marcellus of Bordeaux, in Delamarre 2003, p. 139)
moni gnatha, gabi buddutton imon = my girl, take my cock
(spindle whorl Saint-Révérien, Delamarre 2003, p. 228-29)
mon gnat ixs = my son my-own
(Chateaubleau L-90, Delamarre 2003, p. 181
2nd pers. sing.: mentobeto to diuo = remember your god
(Life of Saint Symforien, in Delamarre 2003, p. 181)
cara uimpi, to caranto = dear beautiful, your friend
(spindle whorl Amiens, in Stifter 2009)
st
1 pers. pl.: onson = our
(Chamalieres, Lambert 2003, p. 160)
This can be summarised as follows:
mon, moni = my, mine

to = your
onson = our
The other forms are not attested. The form “onson” is debated and doubtful, and its
translation as the 1st pers. pl. possessive is unsure. This therefore leaves “mon/moni” and
“to”. It is posited here that these forms have been taken as the example for the entire
paradigm of possessive pronouns in modern Gaulish. By analogy with “to” and
conforming to the general loss of word final letters all forms end in “o”. All of the
possessive pronouns cause mutation on the first letter of the following word, except the
3rd pers. sing. fem., where the lack of following mutation is the feature that distinguishes
the form from the 3rd. pers. sing. masc., which is otherwise identical, and the 2nd pers. pl.
which is distinguished from the 3rd pers. pl. in the same way:
mó: my
tó: your
ó: his, with mutation
ó: her, without mutation
nó: our
só: your (pl.), without mutation
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só: their, with mutation
e.g.: cun: a dog

mó gun: my dog
ó gun: his dog
ó cun: her dog
nó gun: our dog
só cun: your (pl) dog
só gun: their dog
Genetive particle i-
A genetive particle i- can be observed in the Saint-Révérien spindle whorl inscription

mentioned above:
moni gnatha, gabi buddutton imon
This can be translated, litterally, as “my girl, take cock mine/of-me”
This same particle is also in evidence in the spindle whorl inscription of Sens (Lambert
2003, p. 126; Delamarre 2003, p. 189-90):
geneta imi daga uimpi = girl mine/of-me good beautiful
and possibly in the inscription of Rom (Delamarre 2003, p. 189, 341)
derti imon = my skin, i.e. my girl
It seems that “imon” refers to a male object (“buddutton”, “penis”), and “imi” to a female
object (“geneta”, “girl”). It is therefore possible to tentatively identify an element i-
which appears to have been employed in ancient Gaulish to construct a post-posed
genetive pronoun. It is posited here that possessive pronouns are no longer post-posed,
but instead that the possessive particle i- is used in fusion with pronouns. These are used
to indicate the object of a verbal noun, as well as to indicate ownership of objects in
conjunction with personal pronouns only:
imí: of-me
ithí: of-you
iché: of-him - etc.
See section on “Direct object of verbal noun”, p. 43, for full list.
esi mi en hápis ithí: I am seeing you (“I am in the seeing of-you”)

esi mi en ghar isú: I am calling you (pl) (“I am in the calling of-you (pl.)”)
esi sin cun: this is a dog

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esi é imí: he/it is mine (i.e. the dog)
Particle of quantity u-
A particle indicating the dealing with a quantity of something is attested in the inscription
of Limé (Delamarre 2003, p. 187):
ibetis/ uciu/ andecari/ biiete = drink (2nd. pl.)/ of-this/ very-loveable/ you-will-be
In this phrase it is possible to identify the particle (or preposition) “u-“, “of”, in
conjunction with what may be the adverb “this” in dative or instrumental case (-ciu, cf.
ci- in ciallos, Delamarre 2003, p. 116).
u+ci+u= of+this+dative/instrum. ending
The modern version of the above form would be “uchí”, “of-this”.
It is proposed here that, considering the context of this inscription, the particle u- is used
only in association with a quantity of something, not in association with possession or
ownership. It causes mutation of the first letter of the following word:
pan: glass
gwín: wine
pan u chwín: a glass of wine
lithr: litre
curu: beer
lithr u guru: a litre of beer
12. Questions
Question words
Question words are not well attested in Gaulish. However, from what is attested it is
possible to deduce clues which can be used to construct a question word paradigm. The
least controversial is:
ponc = when (Delamarre 2003, p. 252)
This is straightforward, and regularly becomes “ponch” in modern Gaulish.
Further indications may be derived from the following :
peti VX riuri = ? (Coligny, Delamarre 2003, p. 249)

peti sagitiontias = save those who seek? how much they seek? (Larzac, id.)
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petidsiont sies = they will save ? (Larzac, id.)
While interpretations vary and there is no agreement on the exact meaning of these
phrases, Delamarre (2003, p. 249) nevertheless identifies the component “peti-“as
meaning “how much”. This is an important assertion, especially in combination with the
following analysis:
eti = the adverb “more” (Delamarre 2003, p. 167-68)
Therefore:
peti = how much

eti = more
In light of the analysis of “eti” as more, it is possible to analyse “peti” as being a

combination of the adverb “eti” with a hypothetical question word starting with “p-“,
which is the regular Gaulish reflex of inherited Indo European “kw-“, ubiquitous in the
formation of qustion words throughout the spectrum of the Indo European languages
(Latin “quot, quom” etc, ”Spanish/French “que” etc., Irish “cé”, Welsh “pa”):
peti > *p-+eti
If word internal assimilation of vowels is assumed, it is possible to postulate a form:
peti < *pe+eti = “what-more”, i.e. “how much”
The above hypothetical analysis would indicate that the Gaulish word for “what” may
have been “pe”. Comparison with the other Celtic languages offers support for this
theory:
Welsh: pa
Irish: cé
Using this question word “pe”, “what”, rendered in modern Gaulish as “pé”, it is possible
to construct the following forms:
lóch: place (< leucutio-, Delamarre 2003., p. 200)

pé+lóch > pélóch: where (what place)
ri: for
pé+ri > péri: why (what for)
The word for “who” may be arrived at by analogy, by comparison with neighbouring
related and IE languages:
Welsh: pwy, Cornish pyu/piu, Breton piv, French qui, Latin quis, proto Celtic
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kwei-jo
From the above forms it may be concluded that a form containing the vocalism [i] may be
deemed appropriate; as such, it is posited here that:
pi: who
Lastly, a suitable word for “how” may be derived from the Proto Celtic root *pod- (< IE
kwod-, Bhrgros 2012 pers. com.):
*pod- > podh: how
The above attestations, constructions and derivations provide a full question word
paradigm, which may be summarised as follows:
pé: what
péri: why
péthi: how much
pélóch: where
ponch: when
podh: how
pi: who
Question word compounds
The above question words can be used in conjunction with other words to ask specific
questions. If this is the case, the words directly following question words undergo a
mutation of their first letter.
e.g.: cun: dog

pé: what/which
pé gun a hesi é: what dog is it?
ór: hour
pé: what/which
pé hór a hesi í: what time is it
The question word “péthi”, “how many”, inquires about a number of something.
Therefore, as with numbers, nouns following “péthi” are in the singular form:
e.g.: bledhn: year

bledhné: years
pethi vledhn: how many years
Question formulation
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All the surviving Celtic languages currently use or have at a previous stage of their
development and evolution used interrogative particles to introduce and mark questions.
While there is no attestation of any such particles in the ancient Gaulish material, it is
nevertheless posited here that they be included in modern Gaulish, on the basis that it is
useful and practical to have unambiguous indication of the interrogative mode. Such
indication by particles of phrases is not uncommon cross-linguistically, to wit the French
phrase “est-ce que ...”.
A certain variety of particles and phrases is attested in the surviving languages (W. a, ai,
oni, onid, Corn. a, Br. ha(g), daoust ha(g), Ir. an, Sc. Gael. am). It is proposed here that a
single particle “a” be used in the modern Gaulish language. This particle causes a
mutation of the first letter of the word following it. The particle introduces questions
without question words, and immediately follows question words when these are used:
e.g.: gwéla mi ái: I want to go

a chwéla ti ái: do you want to go?
gwéla mi ávo peth nep: I want to do something

pé a chwéla ti ávó: what do you want to do?
This particle is also used in indirect, embedded questions:
e.g.: gní: to know

a ghnía ti pé a chwéla ti ávó: do you know what you want to do?
13. Negation
Declarative negation
Negation is abundantly attested in the ancient Gaulish material; examples can be found in
Lezoux (ne regu; ne dama; ne curri; ne papu; ne tetu), Larzac (ni tixsintor; ne lissatim; ne
liciatim; ne rodatim) and Thiaucourt (ni exuertinin) (in Delamarre 2003, p. 233). It
appears to be clear that negation in ancient Gaulish was formed by placing the negating
particle “ne” immediately before a verb (ne dama = don’t suffer/yield, Delamarre 2003,
p. 135).
Following the attested pattern discussed above, modern Gaulish constructs its negation by
placing a negating particle “né” immediately before a verb, causing mutation of its first
letter:
e.g.: gwéla mi ái: I want to go

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né chwéla mi ái: I don’t want to go
apísa mi: I see

né hapísa mi: I don’t see
Interrogative negation
In interrogative negation the negating particle “né” takes first position in the sentence,
preceding the interrogative particle, which does not get mutated itself but which does
cause mutation on the word it is followed by:
e.g.: né chwéla mi ái: I don’t want to go

né a chwéla ti ái: don’t you want to go?
né hapísa mi: I don’t see

né a hapísa ti: don’t you see?
Replies to questions
In analogy with common practice in modern Celtic languages, questions are answered by
repeating the main statement either affirmatively or negatively, as the case may be. There
is no indication of words for “yes” or “no” being used in ancient Gaulish, so therefore
modern Gaulish follows modern Celtic practice as described above, and does not have
words for “yes” or “no”:
Q.: a chwéla ti ái: do you want to go?

A.: gwéla mi: “I want”
Q.: né a hapísa ti ép: don’t you see a horse?

A.: né hapísa mi: I don’t see
14. Initial Consonant Mutation
Mutation of initial consonants in Celtic languages
Initial consonant mutations have been referred to several times in the preceding sections.
It is a phenomenon that is particular to the modern Celtic languages: the first letter of a
word systematically changes its sound in certain contexts. These sound changes
sometimes, though not always, carry grammatical and semantic meaning.
In the context of the modern Celtic languages, it is thought that the systematic mutation
of the first consonant of a word (when followed by a vowel) happened when it was
preceded by a word ending in a vowel, thus creating an intervocalic environment, when
considered across word boundaries. This phenomenon, which is not unusual cross-
linguistically, is known as “sandhi” (sometimes referred to as “trivial”), and is perhaps
best thought of as “advanced slurring” of one word into another. It is closely akin to the
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liaisons of the French language, and is widespread in western Germanic languages. In

this context, it is worth bearing in mind that it is precisely those languages that replaced
the Gaulish language through most of its erstwhile range, and that therefore may have
absorbed a certain amount of substratal influence from the Gaulish language, of which
the tendency to engage in “advanced slurring” may have been one aspect.
The process is aptly illustrated by an example from the Welsh language:
Brittonic *sindos tatos = the father

Brittonic *sinda mama = the mother
In the first example, the initial t- of *tatos does not find itself in an intervocalic
environment, since the article *sindos ends in –s. Therefore, no sandhi effect took place
on the word *tatos. In the second example however, the initial m- of *mama finds itself
in an intervocalic environment, because the article *sinda ends in a vowel. As a result, the
initial m- of *mama was weakened, and became [v]. This gives, in modern Welsh:
tad: father
y tad: the father
mam: mother
y fam: the mother [vam]
The occurence of these mutations, once established, was later endowed with grammatical
meaning and became systematical.
Mutation in ancient Gaulish
It is commonly accepted wisdom that the ancient Gaulish material shows no evidence of
the systematic mutation of the first letter of a word depending on context. This is often
considered to be an indication that the phenomenon only occurred in the Insular Celtic
language group (see e.g. Isaac 2007 for a discussion). However, this is overlooking two
important factors:
1. It is thought that the process of development of the system of initial consonant

mutations did only fully develop in the 5th-6th centuries CE. The latest Gaulish attestation
dates to the late 4th or early 5th century; therefore, a development that might still have
been in process might not have shown up in the written ancient Gaulish record.
2. More importantly, mutations were not graphically recorded or represented in the

insular languages until many hundreds of years after they first developed as a phonetic
and grammatical phenomenon: Old Irish (500-900 CE) and Old Welsh (800-1100 CE)
show no mutations, even though the modern languages manifestly feature them, and even
though their incorporation into the languages evidently goes back to a period predating
the first written records. Mutations only first started to be included in the written record,
and imperfectly at that, in the Middle period of both languages. The Breton language did
not start to record its mutations until the 17th century.
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In view of the above, it is clear that if Gaulish was developing a system of mutations,
which are a phenomenon of the spoken language, there is a high likelihood that this
would not have been reflected in the written record of the time. Nevertheless, it is worth
analysing the attested Gaulish material for possible indications of mutation-like
processes. It is also important to bear in mind that some leading scholars in the field
believe that the attested Gaulish material does indeed show indications of a process of
mutation (e.g. Schrijver on Chateaubleau, from David Stifter 2012, pers. com.).
There are a number of instances which appear to indicate a variation in the initial
consonant of a word within one and the same document. These are:
1) cutio > gutio (Coligny, Delamarre 2003, p. 133)

cutio > qutio (id.)
cantlos > gantlos (id.)
2) flatucia > ulatucia (Larzac, Delamarre 2003, p. 338-39)

bnanom > mnanom (id.)
3) prinas > brina[ (La Graufesenque, Delamarre 2003, p. 253; Lambert 2003. p. 135)
4) apeni < *ac beni (Chateaubleau, Schrijver in Stifter 2012, pers. com.)
The context of the first document, in which the first three examples are found, can not
reveal anything about the phonetic environment in which these words were found, as the
document is a calendar and does not feature continuous writing.
The second document however, the inscription of Larzac, is the longest extant running
text in the ancient Gaulish language. An examination of the contexts in which the
examples quoted above are found yields the following:
banona flatucias
potiti ulatucia
In the above cases, both words are preceded by words ending in a vowel; however, the
case apparently differs.
insinde se bnanom
biontutu se mnanom
biontutu indas mnas
bietutu se mnas
biontutu se mnanom
In the above case, it would be possible to isolate the following:
se bnanom
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> preceding word ending on vowel > intervocalic environment > initial “b-“
indas mnas
preceding word ending on consonant > non-intervocalic environment > initial “m”
However, the word “mnas” also occurs three times preceded by “se”, the same word
which precedes “bnanom”, which has not apparently brought on a mutation of the initial
consonant. Furthermore, the consonant of the radical “bena”, “woman”, is “b-“, not “m-“,
so it would be expected that the situation would be the other way around. It is therefore
not possible to state that these examples indicate a systematic mutation of initial
consonants analoguous with the model operative in Brittonic.
The third document, the potters’ accounts of La Graufesenque, shows an alteration of

“prinas” to “brina[“. The alteration of /p/ > /b/ appears on the surface to be analogous to
the instances found on Coligny, where /c/ > /g/. However, no information is available on
the context wherein this alteration takes place.
The fourth document, Chateaubleau, the most important late Gaulish text extant because
of its length, the high quality of its preservation and its late date (late 4th-early 5th cent.),
features the sequence “apeni”. This has been interpreted as a contraction of “ac beni” by
Schrijver (from Stifter 2012, pers. com.). “ac beni” would then mean “and [a] woman”. If
that is the case it would show a clear and unequivocal instance where the initial
consonant of a word is affected by the last letter of a preceding word, the result being, in
this case, a loss of the final consonant of the first word and a devoicing of the first
consonant of the second word. Or, in other words, a sandhi effect. This is precisely the
sort of context that gave rise to the mutations in the modern Celtic languages. However,
the parsing and interpretation of the phrase is contested, with an alternative reading being
“ape niteme” (Mees 2010), where “ape” is held to be an eroded form of the preposition
“ambi”.
In view of the examples analysed above it is possible to suggest that there were situations
in ancient Gaulish where the exact phonetic value of initial consonants was considered
either ambiguous or unsure, and was subject to change under some circumstances. This
situation appears comparable with the situation prevailing in the Brittonic and Goidelic
languages in the 4th-5th centuries CE, which brought forth the systematic mutation of
initial consonants. Therefore, it is posited here that Gaulish would have evolved a system
of initial consonant mutation similar to those found in Brittonic and Goidelic.
Mutation changes
Based on the apparent voicing of “c-“ to “g-“ in Coligny, of “f-“ to, possibly, ”v-“ at
Larzac, and of “p” to “b” at La Graufesenque, it is proposed here that the following
changes take place in mutation contexts:
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radical mutation phonetic process involved

p b voicing
t d voicing
c g voicing
b v spirantisation
d dh spirantisation
g gh spirantisation
m w spirantisation
n nh ch-prothesis, fortition + spirantisation
r rh ch-prothesis, fortition + spirantisation
l lh ch-prothesis, fortition + spirantisation
s < vowel (sV-) sh (shV-) palatalisation
s < consonant (sC-) ø (‘C-) elision
gw chw spirantisation and devoicing
vowel (V-) h- (hV-) h-prothesis, aspiration
semi-vowel i- ch’-(ch’i- = [xj]) ch-prothesis, fortition + spirantisation
The phonetic values of the above graphemes has been discussed under the section “sound
changes”.
As regards to “s-“ before a consonant, it is dropped, and marked in writing with an

apostrophe. In the spoken language, the appearance of a radical in a mutational context
indicates the elision of “s-”, therefore indicating the mutation of “s-“.
The various mutations of the modern Celtic languages are categorised according to the
phonetic processes which occur, e.g. softening, hardening, nasalisation etc. All of the
modern Celtic languages have different kinds and combinations of mutations, although
there are deep fundamental resemblances among all of them. The mutations proposed for
the modern Gaulish language consist of a combination of phonetic processes, mostly
voicing and spriantisation (see above). Therefore, it is easiest to describe this mutation as
a “mixed mutation”. However, its description is irrelevant, as there is only one change for
each sound.
Contexts for mutation
The contexts for mutation have become apparent throughout this document. It is posited
that mutation has become established as a system for assisting with the conveying of
grammatical meaning in the wake of the loss of case endings and therefore meaning, as
discussed previously. As such, they represent a simple switch from marking the end of
words for meaning to marking the start of words for meaning. This position is supported
by Isaac (2007) who argues that VSO languages have a greater innate tendency to modify
words word initially than word finally.
There are two kinds of contexts for mutation: contact mutation and grammatical
mutation. The contact mutation category is the largest one. In contact mutation, a
mutation is triggered by a lexeme immediately preceding the word affected. In
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grammatical mutation, a mutation is bestowed because of a grammatical condition or

requirement, which may or may not be caused by a lexeme immediately preceding the
word affected.
Contact mutations do not necessarily convey grammatical meaning in themselves; instead

they usually assist in the marking of such meaning. However, such meaning would not be
apparent in the absence of the lexemes triggering the mutation. As such, it can be said
that a large part of the mutations featured in modern Gaulish are phonetic mutations
rather than grammatical mutations. This situation is similar to the one prevailing in
modern Breton, Welsh and Cornish, where some mutations occur for no apparent reason
and carry no apparent grammatical meaning.
Contact mutations
1) after preverbal particles
The following preverbal particles cause mutation: ré, en, a, né, a
ré: past tense marker: cana mi: I sing

ré gan mi: I sang
en: ongoing tense marker: delgha mi: I hold

esi mi en dhelghe: I am holding
a: intentional form marker: depri: to eat

gwéla mi ái a dhepri: I want to go to eat
né: negation marker: gara mi: I call

né ghara mi: I don’t call
a: interrogative marker: gara ti: you call

a ghara ti: do you call?
2) after adverbial particles
The following adverbial particles cause mutation: in, ré, ró, ma
in: adverbial adjective marker: tech: beautiful

ré: intensive marker: már: big

ré wár: very big
ró: excessive marker: ró wár: too big
ma: conditional marker: gwéla mi: I want

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ma chwéla mi: if I want
3) after question words
Normally question words are followed by the interrogative particle “a”, which causes
mutation on the following word, and is not in itself susceptible to mutation. However, in
some cases a question word may be directly followed by a different word, which will
then undergo mutation; this only happens if the phrase is used as a question:
pé: what, which

cun: dog
pé gun: which dog?
caman: road, way

pé gaman: which road, which way?
ponch ré hái mi a gáma: when I went to walk > here “ponch” is not used as a
question word, so it does not cause mutation
4) after prepositions
All prepositions cause mutation:
gwer: on, at
mór: sea
gwer wór: at sea (“on [the] sea”)
gwó: under
pren: tree
gwó bren: under a tree
can: with
caran: friend
can garan: with a friend
Grammatical mutations
1) feminine nouns after the article
Feminine nouns both singular and plural mutate when preceded by the article “in”. Thus
the gender of nouns is effectively marked by the initial consonant mutation. This is not a
contact mutation, becaue the article does not trigger mutation in masculine nouns.
e.g.: ben: woman

in: the
in ven: the woman
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mná: women
in wná: the women
brí: hill
in vrí: the hill
in vríé: the hills
grá: sand
in ghrá: the sand
in ghráé: the sands
2. adjectives qualifying feminine nouns
Adjectives qualifying feminine nouns, whether it be one or several, are marked by

mutations:
ben: a woman
tech: beautiful
ben dech: a beautiful woman
brí: a hill
ardhu: high
brí hardhu: a high hill
grá: sand
gwin: white
grá chwin: white sand
grá chwin dech: beautiful white sand
3. after possessive pronouns
Words following possessive pronouns regularly undergo mutation. As this mutation is

triggered by the presence of the possessive pronouns, it could be said that this is
straightforward contact mutation. However, these mutations differ from contact
mutations in two ways:
a) the mutations serve to mark the distinction between the 3rd pers. s. masculine and
feminine, and between the 2nd and the 3rd person plural:
e.g.: cun: dog
mó gun: my dog nó gun: our dog

tó gun: your dog só cun: your (pl.) dog – no ICM
ó gun: his dog – ICM só gun: their dog – ICM
ó cun: her dog – no CM
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b) the mutations are transferred to any words preceding the noun that is
possessed, but also across them to the possessed noun, even though it is no longer in
contact with the mutation trigger:
e.g.: cun: dog

pethr: four
mó bethr gun: my four dogs
Unmutatable words
Some words can not be mutated, and also block mutation from taking place. These are:
1. the article “in”
The article blocks a contact mutation, and does not mutate itself:
e.g.: pen: head

gwer: on
gwer ben: on a head
gwer in pen: on the head
2. the possessive pronouns
While the possessive pronouns cause mutations (see above), they are not mutatable
themselves:
e.g.: pen: head

mó: my
gwer: on
gwer mó ben: on my head
Additional words that do not mutate are the adverbs “né” (not) and “ma” (if). However,
contexts that could potentially lead to their mutation are rare.
Summary of mutation contexts
In summary, mutation is caused by:
1. pre-verbal particles
2. adverbial particles
3. question words if used as such
4. prepositions
5. possessive pronouns
6. the article before feminine nouns
7. adjectives qualifying feminine nouns
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15. Word Order
A variety of word orders is attested in ancient Gaulish, due, it is commonly thought, to

the flexibility afforded to sentence structure by the grammatical case endings lending
meaning to words regardless of sentence position (Lambert 2003, p. 70-72):
e.g.: 1). Licnos Contextos ieuru Anualonnacu caneco sedlon

L. C. has dedicated to A. the golden seat
Subject Verb Object
2). billicotas rebellias tioinuoru Siluanos

billicotas very beautiful has produced S.
Object Verb Subject
3). sioxti Albanos panna extra tuss ccc

added A. vessels beyond batch 300
Verb Subject Object
4). ratin Briuatiom Frontu Tarbetisconios ieuru

the fort of the Briuates F. T. has dedicated
Object Subject Verb
5). Bratronos Nantonticnos Epađatextorici leucutio suiroebe logitoi

B. N. for E. the place with the sisters has established
Subject Object Verb
(examples from Delamarre 2003, p. 331-34)
The above examples illustrate the wide variety of word orders that is attested in the
ancient Gaulish epigraphy: SVO, OVS, VSO, OSV, SOV. However, most of these
examples draw on short inscriptions, mostly of a dedicatory nature. Turning to the long
continuous texts, it is possible to discern the following:
andedion, uediíu-mi diíiuion

Nether-ones, pray-I of-the-gods ... (Chamalieres, Delamarre 2003, p. 337))
[address] V. S. O
buetid ollon reguccambion

may-be everything bone-deformation (id.) (? uncertain)
V S O
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exops pissíiu-mi soccanti

blind will-see-I this-with-it (id.)
V S O
bissíet luge
it/you-(pl)-will-be by-the-oath (id.)
V O
dessu-mi-íis luge
prepare-I-them by-the-oath (id.)
V S O
Nemna líu-mi beni

[address] denounce-I a-woman (Chateaubleau, Mees 2010)
V S O
iegu-mi sini
curse-I her (it/this) (id.)
V S O
iexstu-mi sendi (id.)

have-cursed-I this
V S O
nitixsintor sies duscelinatia (Larzac)

not-will-be-bewitched they by-bad-omen
V S O
biontutu se mnanom (Larzac, Delamarre 2003, p. 338-39)

may-hit these women
V S
biontutu indas mnas (id.)

may-hit these women
V S
petidsiont sies peti sagitiontias (id.)

will save they how much the-seeking-ones
V S O? (S?)
se rinoti Secundo dinarilu XXXV (Rèze, Stifter 2012)

this sells S. for-dinars 35
O V S
se tigi prino Ascanius are boletu XV (id.)

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this contract buys A. for ? 15

O V S
These extracts from the most important continuous texts from the ancient Gaulish corpus
show clearly that the Gaulish language frequently used constructions where the verb was
followed by the subject, often in turn followed by the object (VSO word order). While
there is variation on the theme, and while various translations continue to be fought over
bitterly without consensus, there is no doubt that a word order placing the subject after
the verb was in common usage. Furthermore, the Chateaubleau text, which is the most
evolved Late Gaulish text available to date, is virtually exclusively VSO (see Mees 2010
for the parsing and translation).
The above observation is supported by Isaac (2007), who asserted that Gaulish had
developed a tendency towards VSO word order by the 1st cent. BCE (Isaac 2007). The
examples clearly show that verbal forms are followed either by a cliticised subject
pronoun, apparently in accordance with Wackernagel’s Law and Vendryes’s Restriction,
or, when pronouns are not used, by what is clearly recognisable as a subject (e.g. Rèze,
Larzac).
In light of the observations made above, it is deemed reasonable to posit VSO word order
as the predominant and default word order for the modern Gaulish language. This is
furthermore in analogy with the situation in the modern Celtic languages, where VSO is
the standard word order (notwithstanding apparent variations in e.g. Breton, Cornish and
Middle Welsh; whilst presenting as SVO, these are historically derived from VSO forms;
see e.g. Press 1986).
e.g.: apísa mi téi: see I house

> I see a house
V S O
prina mi ép: buy I horse >

I buy a horse
V S O
gára mi mó gun: call I my dog >

I call my dog
V S O
16. Demonstratives
Demonstratives are well attested in ancient Gaulish under a variety of forms:
se, sinde, inda, sini, sendi, sondios, so, sosin, sosio
se: se mnanom, se bnanom (4 x at Larzac, Delamarre 2003, p. 338-39)

se rinoti (Reze, Stifter 2012)
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se tigi prino (Reze, Stifter 2012)

se tingi (Chateaubleau, Mees 2010)
se dagisamo cele (Chateaubleau, Mees 2010)
so: so adsagsona (Larzac, Delamarre 2003, p. 338-39)
so adgarie (2 x Chartres, Stifter 2012)
so cantigarie (Chartres, Stifter 2012)
sinde: insinde (Larzac, Delamarre 2003, p. 338)
sindiu (“today”, Coligny, Delamarre 2003, p. 274)
> indas mnas (Larzac, Delamarre 2003, p. 338)
iegumi sini (2 x Chateaubleau, Mees 2010)
sendi: iexstumi sendi (2 x Chateaubleau, Mees 2010)
sondios: sondios adgario (Chartres, Stifter 2012)
sosin: sosin celicnon (Vaison, Delamarre 2003, p. 279)
sosin celicnon (Alise-Sainte-Reine, Delamarre 2003, p. 279)
sosio: sosio legasit (Seraucourt, Delamarre 2003, p. 279)
Of these, it is likely that “sinde, sendi, sondi” are variations on the same theme “sinde”.
Likewise, “sosin” seems to be a combination of “so” with a variant of “sinde”, and
“sosio” a variation of “so”. The form “so” is also associated with the 3rd pers. pl. (see
Delamarre 2003, p. 279), and in modern Gaulish is reanalysed as the possessive pronoun
for the 2nd and 3rd pers. plural. This makes its use as a demonstrative impractical. That
leaves the forms “se” and “sinde” to be used as demonstratives.
It is posited here that the form “sinde” regularly becomes the form “sin” in modern
Gaulish, after regular loss of final “–de”. That leaves the forms “se” and “sin” to be used
as demonstratives.
The attested form “sindiu” from Coligny (Lambert 2003, p. 112; Delamarre 2003, 274) is
widely agreed upon as meaning “this-day” < sinde-diu (Delamarre 2003, p. 274). This
permits the deduction that the form “sinde” means “this”. Therefore it is proposed here
that the remaining form “se” be interpreted as “that”, permitting the construction of a
demonstrative paradigm for modern Gaulish.
In the attested material, the demonstrative is placed before the noun:
e.g.: se mnanom = those women-GEN

se tigi prino Ascanius = A. bought that contract
se dagisamo cele = that best companion
All modern Celtic languages have evolved to move the demonstrative after the noun, in
combination with the definite article before the noun. Bearing in mind that word order of
those languages is default VSO (Verb-Subject-Object) and that this word order is
instrumental in conveying grammatical meaning to phrase components, it is easy to see
why this happened. It is not only an expression of the tendency of the Celtic languages to
have heads precede qualifiers, and to be strongly right –branching, but it is also necessary
to be able to convey precise semantic meaning. It has been established that ancient
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Gaulish was evolving a VSO word order, and that modern Gaulish adopts VSO as its
default word order (see section on word order). This means that, if the demonstratives
were pre-posed, as in ancient Gaulish, the following phrases would be ambiguous:
esi sin téi gwin: is this a house white > this is a white house
esi sin téi gwin: is this house white > this house is white
If the demonstrative precedes the noun it refers to, it is not possible to discern whether
the exact meaning of this phrase is “this house is white” or “this is a white house”.
However, if the demonstrative is post-posed and combined with a pre-posed article, the
meaning becomes unambiguous and clear:
esi in téi-sin gwin: is the-house-this white > this house is white

esi sin téi gwin: is this a-house white > this is a white house
Therefore, it is posited here that in modern Gaulish the demonstratives “sin” and “sé”,
meaning “this” and “that”, follow the noun they refer to, in combination with the article
preceding the noun; they are further cliticised onto the noun by means of a hyphen. This
construction is refered to as “bifurcated demonstratives”, and it is a feature that is
characteristic of the Celtic language family. These demonstratives are not marked for
gender or number.
in téi-sin: this house (m)

in ép-sé: that horse (m)
in lham-sin: this hand (f)
in ghrá-sé: that sand (f)
Any adjectives refering to the noun being specified will follow the noun and will precede
the demonstrative; in this case, the hyphen is dropped:
gwin: white
tech: beautiful
in ép gwin tech sé: that beautiful white horse
17. Locatives
It is posited here that the demonstratives discussed above also serve to construct the
locatives, in conjunction with the article. All the surviving Celtic languages construct
locatives in this fashion:
Ir.: an: the

sinn: that
seo: this
ansinn = an + sinn: there
anseo = an + seo: here
W.: y: the
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ma: this
na: that
yma = y + ma: here
yna = y + na: there
Br.: an, ar: the
ma: this
se: that
ama = *an + ma: here
aze = *an + se: there
While a locative is not clearly attested in the ancient Gaulish material, the inscription of
Larzac features the form “insinde”, the very opening word. The form “insinde” apears to
be constructed in exactly the way the surviving Celtic languages construct the locatives:
insinde = *inda-sinde
The word “insinde” is most usually translated as “in-this” (Delamarre 2003, p. 274).
However, it is posited here that the modern Gaulish language has reinterpreted this word
as meaning “the-this” and hence “here”, in an exact parallel with the surviving Celtic
languages. As such, the attested “insinde” is reanalysed as “here”, and its unattested
counterpart “inse” will be “there”. With regular loss of word endings and application of
modern Gaulish phonology, that gives:
insin: here
insé: there
The concept of “over there” (i.e. at a point further away than just “there”) can be
expressed with the attested Gaulish word “pel” (< pelos, Delamarre 2003, p. 247-48):
insé pel: over there (“there far”)
18. Syntax
The interpretation of the syntax of the available ancient Gaulish texts is to a large extent a
matter of speculation and debate, as they are often poorly understood and hotly debated.
Nevertheless there are a number of features that can be observed and which can be used
in the modern Gaulish language to construct sentences. These will be detailed below.
Verbal noun clauses
Verbal nouns form one of the corner stones of modern Gaulish syntax. Unfortunately
they are not well attested in ancient Gaulish, or, if attested, they are not well understood.
According to Mees (2010) the text of Chateaubleau, which is the latest and most evolved
example of continuous Gaulish writing available today, features several examples of
verbal forms which can be thought of as verbal nouns. They are described by Mees
(2010) as “deverbalised forms” or “deverbal constructions” and appear to be used
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throughout the Chateaubleau document in a uniform manner, regardless of their various

morphologies and markings for number, aspect or tense (Mees 2010, p. 103). As such,
they “display a clear tendency to appear after clitics either to negators or verbs” (Mees
2010, p. 103). This situation is refered to as a situation of “collapsing-cum-generalsing”
of verbal nouns of various origins (Mees 2010, p. 103). Examples of such verbal noun
forms and their usage are as follows:
líu mi beni ueionna = I denounce a woman wishing

anmanbe gniíou = names knowing
sue resetesi iegiíinna = may you fix her a cursing
siaxsiou beíiassu né biti = seeking punishment let her not be
cluiou se dagisamo cele = hearing this best companion
(from Mees 2010)
Of the above, the verbal nouns are:
ueionna, gniíou, iegiíinna, siaxsiou, cluiou
These display a wide variety of suffixes and morphological features, including a future
marker (-si- in siaxsiou) and – possibly – an adverbial marker –inna, among others (the
interpretation of these suffixes is debatable).
A position is proposed here where the modern Gaulish language strips these various
deverbalised verbal noun constructions of their various suffixes, leaving just the root or
stem of the verb:
uei = to wish
gni = to know
ieg- = to curse
siag- = to seek
clui = to hear
These forms will be considered the verbal noun form of modern Gaulish verbs: the bare,
stripped back root, denuded of any suffixes. These are the forms used in the section on
verbs (see further above). As such, these verbal nouns are the equivalent both of an
English infinitive (clúi = to hear) and of an English gerund (clúi = the hearing). In
keeping with Bernard Mees’ observation that the verbal nouns of Chateaubleau “display a
clear tendency to appear after clitics either to negators or verbs” (Mees 2010, p. 103),
these verbal nouns are placed immediately after the personal pronoun which is in clitic
position to an absolute verb:
e.g.: gwél: to want

mi: I
ái: to go
> gwéla mi ái: I want to go
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ápis: to see
in épé: the horses
> gwéla mi ápis in épé: I want to see the horses
Therefore, the first verbal noun used in a complex sentence always follows immediately
after the absolute verb, without undergoing any changes to its structure. If the verbal
noun used requires a preposition, as is the case with the verbal noun “go” (> go to), then
this preposition will cause a mutation of the following word. If the following word is
another verbal noun, then this will mutate like any other noun would:
e.g.: a: to
ái: to go
ápis: to see
> gwéla mi ái a hápis in épé: I want to go to see the horses.
Since “a”, “to” is a preposition, the following word, the verbal noun, is marked by ICM.
It is important to bear in mind that the verbal noun is a deverbalised nominal

construction, i.e. a noun, not a verbal form. “ápis” means “the seeing”. Therefore
gwéla mi ápis: I want the seeing
Because a genetive relationship is expressed by apposition of two nouns, the phrase

below is genetival:
ápis in épé: the seeing of the horses
> gwéla mi ápis in épé: I want the seeing of the horses

> gwéla mi ái a hápis in épé: I want the going to the seeing of the horses
clúi: to hear / hearing

can: to sing / singing
ethné: birds
> gwéla mi clúi can in ethné: I want the hearing of the singing of the birds
> I want to hear the birds sing
Because the relationship between the verbal noun and the following object is genetival, if
the object is a personal pronoun it must be used in conjunction with the genetival particle
“i-“, used with personal pronouns only (see section on pronouns):
ti: you
i-: of
> gwéla mi ápis ithí: I want the seeing of you
> I want to see you
> gwéla mi ái a hápis ithí: I want the going to the seeing of you
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> I want to go to see you
Adjectival clauses
Verbal noun phrases such as the above can be further specified by the addition of an
adjectival clause, which complements a preceding object. This requires a specific object
to be stated:
gwéla mi ái a hápis in épé

gwéla mi clúi can in ethné
In the above phrases, “épé” and “ethné” are objects. Adjectival clauses can be used to
provide further information about the preceding objects of a main clause. To do this, a
verbal noun is used.
Verbal nouns in adjectival relationships to preceding objects are attested in Chateaubleau

at several reprises:
ne-i anmanbe gniíou = not by the names knowing it

iegumi sini, siaxsiou beiassu ne biti = I curse her, seeking punishment not let it be
beiassu sete sue, cluiou se dagisamo cele = punishing may be you, hearing this best
companion
(in Mees 2010)
In these examples, the adjectival verbal nouns are
gniíou = knowing
siaxsiou = seeking
cluiou = hearing
From these attested forms it is possible to deduce that in ancient Gaulish a verbal form
expressing an adjectival relationship with a preceding object was constructed by means of
the suffix –iou. Following regular Gaulish sound changes, this suffix would become –ió
(-ou > -o:).
A comparison with the attested Gaulish relativising particle –io is immediate. This
particle is attested in several instances:
gobedbi dugiiontiio ucuetin = the smiths who honour (or fashion/shape) Ucuetis
(Alise-Sainte-Reine, Delamarre 2003, p. 153-54)
secoui toncnaman tonsiíontío = the victors who swear an oath/who destin a destiny
(Chamalieres, Delamarre 2003, p. 298)
scrisumio uelor = that I spit is wanted
(Marcellus of Bordeaux, Delamarre 2003, p. 268)
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The resemblance between the relativising particle “–io” and the adjectival verbal suffix
“–iou” may be coincidental. Nevertheless, they appear to perform very closely related
functions. As such, it is posited here that in modern Gaulish the two have collapsed into
one particle “-íó” through assimilation, and are used only in adjectival phrases with
verbal nouns refering back to an immediately preceding object.
e.g.: rethi: to run

gwer: on
in: the
tráith: beach (< traxta)
> gwéla mi ái a hápis in épé rethíó gwer in dráith: I want to go to see the horses that
run on the beach
in ven: the woman

can: to sing
lavar: to speak
> lavára mi can in ven caníó in dech: I speak with the woman who sings beautifully
In both the above examples, the suffix –íó is used with a verbal noun that immediately
follows the noun that the adjectival clause provides information about. Essentially, the
suffix “-íó” provides a “dummy subject” for the verbal form, referring back to the
preceding object:
lavára mi can in ven caníó in dech
translates as:
speak I with the woman sing-that in beautiful
As such, the relative particle “-íó” is in subject position following the verbal noun.
The first example above can also be constructed using the progressive aspect, using the
preposition “en”:
gwéla mi ái a hápis in épé en rhethi gwer in dráith

> I want to go to see the horses running on the beach
Subordinate clauses
Subordinate clauses that have a separate subject embedded within them do not use the
suffix –íó discussed above, as the subject in a modern Gaulish phrase always follows the
verb. An adjectival verbal noun can not refer to a subject that follows after it. The
following phrase
I speak with the woman whose daughter sings beautifully

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can NOT be constructed as follows:
ó dúithir: her daughter

> lavára mi can in ven caníó ó dúithir in dech
This can NOT convey the meaning “I speak with the woman whose daughter sings
beautifully”. As the particle “–íó” effectively provides a “dummy subject” refering back
to the previously stated noun, the phrase above would have two subjects, which can not
be.
To construct the above phrase a separate particle introducing a subordinate clause with
embedded subject is required. In the ancient Gaulish text of Chateaubleau it is possible to
identify a particle that appears to fulfill this function:
iexsetesi sue regeniatu o quprinno = may you curse the family that is purchasing
may-curse you family that purchases / is purchasing
(in Mees 2010, p. 101)
It appears that the particle “o” fulfills a subordinating function in this phrase. Therefore,
it is posited here that the modern Gaulish language will use this particle “o” as a single,
all-purpose, non-referential relativising subordinating particle. The use of non- referential
relative and subordinating particles is uniform across the modern Celtic languages (Isaac
2007).
e.g.: lavára mi can in ven o cána ó dúithir in dech

“I speak with the woman that sings her daughter beautifully”
i.e. I speak with the woman whose daughter sings beautifully
Since a subject is embedded in the subordinate clause, the main verb is in absolute form,
not in verbal noun form:
can: to sing
cána ó dúithir: her daughter sings
The relativising particle “o” is augmented by the semantically empty phonetic clitic“-ch“
if the following word starts with a vowel, for ease of pronunciation, as is the case in
Modern Breton.
gal: to be able to
ápis: to see
dái: good
> gala mi ápis och esi í dái: I can see that it is good
Using the above particles complex compound sentences can be constructed:

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pethi: to ask
adhim: to-me
ma: if
gwel: to want
ré chwelsí mi: would want I
suling: dance (su “good” + ling “jump” > good-jumping > dance)
techi: to leave
ré dechi: left
ó: her
caran’wir: her boyfriend (caran “friend” + wir “man/male” suffix)
geneth: girl
al: other
> lavára mi can in ven o ré bethi adhim ma rhé chwelsí mi suling can ó dúithir o ré
dechi ó caran’wir can gheneth hal
I speak with the woman who asked to-me if I would want to dance with her
daughter whose boyfriend left with another girl
The example used in the section on adverbial clauses can also be expressed using the
relativising particle “o”:
lavára mi can in ven o cana in dech: I speak with the woman who sings beautifully
Conjunction clauses
The above example shows that subordinate clauses can also be headed by conjunctions,
such as:
“ma”, “if”:
petha in ven adhim ma chwéla mi suling can ó dúithir:

the woman asks to-me if I want to dance with her daughter
“gwé”, “or”:
a chwéla ti suling gwé né a chwéla ti?: do you want to dance or don’t you?
“ach”, “and”:
gni: to know
gwéla í suling canim ach né ghnía mi ma chwéla mi: she wants to dance with me
and I don’t know if I want to
“éithr”, “but”:
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gwéla í suling canim éithr gwéla mi ívi curu: she wants to dance with me but I want
to drink beer
Any other conjunctions can be used in a similar fashion.
Question word clauses
Question words and their attendant interrogative particles can be used to head subordinate
clauses in a way similar to that described above:
pi: who
esi: is
> né ghnía mi pí a hesi ó dúithir: I don’t know who her daughter is
pé: what
ór: hour
í: it
> a ghnía ti pé hór a hesi í?: do you know what time it is?
(“do you know what hour it is”)
pélóch: where
> né ghnía mi pélóch a hesi ó dúithir: I don’t know where her daughter is
podh: how
> né ghnía mi podh a hesi í: I don’t know how she is
ponch: when
techi: to leave
> né ghnía mi ponch a rhé dechi í: I don’t know when she left
pérí: why
> né ghnía mi pérí a chwéla í suling canim: I don’t know why she wants to dance
with me
pethi: how much / many

pané: glasses
u: of
curu: beer
> né ghnía mi pethi bané u guru a hivíthu í: I don’t know how many glasses of
beer she has drunken
19. Spatial paradigm

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Terms defining the spatial paradigm are well attested in the ancient Gaulish corpus. It is
possible to identify a number of pairs of opposing terms which between them define the
elevation aspects of the spatial paradigm. All terms are featured in Delamarre (2003) or
Lambert (2003).
gwer: on / gwó: under

uch: up / aner: down
uchel: above, over / anel: below, underneath (by analogy with uxellos, Delamarre
2003, p. 330)
ardhu: high / íth: low
These concepts are attested as being used to describe geophysical features:
uchón: waterfall, i.e. water from above (by analogy with “andounna”)
anón: source, spring, i.e. water from below (< andounna, Delamarre 2003, p. 48)
They are also attested as being applied to define metaphysical concepts:
uchedh: superior, better (Delamarre 2003, p. 330)

anedh: inferior, worse (Delamarre 2003, p. 46-47)
Similarly, they are attested as having been used in combination with the term “tam”,
“level”, to construct a scale of appreciation of worth or value (Lezoux, in Delamarre
2003):
anamich: worst, bad, poor (quality) (< andamica, Delamarre 2003, p. 46)
méthamich: mediocre, ordinary, average (quality) (< mediotamica, p. 222)
gwerthamich: best, good, excellent (quality) (Delamarre 2003, p. 317)
This allows for the construction of two parallel comparitive value systems:
a) The grammatical system, using the attested prefix “gwer” (Delamarre 2003, p. 317)
and the attested suffix “–am” (Mees 2010 p. 104; Delamarre 2003, p. 233)
dái – gwer dhái – dáisam (< dago-uer dago-dagisamo)

good better best
mes – gwer wes – mesam (< messamobi, Delamarre 2003, p. 226)

bad worse worst
b) The metaphysical system, as defined above:

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math – uchedh - gwerthamich

fine superior excellent
druch – anedh - anamich

bad 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.
20. Temporal paradigm
The temporal paradigm, used to measure the passing of the time is not comprehensively
attested in the ancient Gaulish corpus. However, based on the attested material
constructions can be made to complete the paradigm, in conjunction with some loan
words from other languages the existence of which in surviving Celtic languages appears
to justify their inclusion here, and combined with re-constructed speculative Proto-Celtic
words. All terms listed below are derived from Delamarre (2003) and Lambert (2003)
unless otherwise specified.
aman: time
séthl: generation
áiu: age
ór: hour (modern loan)

minuth: minute (id.)
sechon: second (id.)
pimdhech minuth: fifteen minutes, quarter of an hour
sim ór: half hour (< sim “half”, attested)
dí: day
siní: today
nóith: night
sinóith: tonight (by analogy with siní < sindiu > sindenocta > sinóith)
lathíu: period of 24 hours, daytime, day and night
báréi: dawn (< proto-Celtic *ba:re:gom, loss of –om & –eg > éi cf. Lambert 2003, p. 43)
methin: morning (< Latin “matina”, cf. Br. mintin, C. metten, Ir. maidin)
médhi: midday (< medh “middle” + dí)
óswédhi: afternoon (< ós “after” + medh + dí)
nesnóith: evening (< nes “near, close to” + nóith
medhnóith: midnight (< medh + noith)
aváréi: tomorrow (< a “to, at” + báréi)

ós haváréi: after tomorrow
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díes: yesterday (< proto-Celtic *gdijes)

cin dhíes: before yesterday
séithnóith: week (“seven-night”, by analogy with e.g. trinoctia)

penséithnóith: weekend (< pen “head” + séthnóith)
mís: month
blédhn: year
penvlédhn: anniversary, birthday
sonching: season (period)
sam: summer
meth: autumn (“harvest” < *met- “to harvest)
gíam: winter
gwison: spring
trinóith: three-night feast

dechnóith: ten-night feast
21. Comparative Paradigm
First degree superlative
Enough of a variety of comparative forms can be discerned in the attested Gaulish

material to permit the construction of a comparative paradigm. The inscription of Cajarc
shows:
redresta in uertamon nantou = climb to the summit of the valley (Delamarre 2003, p.
317, 332, 256)
in which can be seen that the preposition “uer”, “over, beyond, on”, is used in
combination with the word “tam”, “level”, to indicate a notion of superior quality. The
same construction is found in the word
uertragos = over foot, super foot > fast feet > “a hunting dog”
Delamarre (2003, p. 145, “diuertomu”) indicates that in both these cases as elsewhere
(diuertomu) a superlative notion is constructed with the preposition “uer”. Therefore it is
posited here that modern Gaulish constructs the first degree of its comparative paradigm
with the preposition “gwer”, which, being a preposition, causes a mutation on the
following word:
sír: long
gwer shír: longer
már: big
gwer wár: bigger
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Equative degree
Attestation of an equative degree of comparison can be discerned in the form “Comarus”

(Delamarre 2003, p. 122), which is identified by De Bernardo-Stempel and Slocum (n.d.)
as meaning “as big [as]” or “equally big” (De Bernardo-Stempel & Slocum, n.d., Old
Irish Online). This equative form is constructd with the preposition “com”. Therefore,
modern Gaulish adopts the use of the preposition “co” to construct the equative degree of
comparison. It is reiterated after the adjective to tie up the equation. As a preposition it
causes mutation both times:
có shír có shin: as long as this

có wár có hép: as big as a horse
Second degree superlative
A second degree superlative is well attested in ancient Gaulish:
dagisamo = best (Chateaubleau, Mees 2010)

belisama = most powerful (theonym, numerous attestations, see Delamarre 2003, p.
71-72)
messamobi = the worst (Lezoux, Delamarre 2003, p. 226)
nessam = the nearest (Banassac, Delamarre 2003, p. 233)
tragisama = the quickest, “most fleetfoot” (several river names, Delamarre 2003, p.
300)
brigiomu = the briefest (Coligny, Delamarre 2003, p. 88)
diuertomu = without-highest (Coligny, Delamarre 2003, p. 145)
Delamarre (2003, p. 233) identifies the second degree superlative suffix as being “-
samo”, rendered as “–omu” in Coligny. The same suffix is found in Brittonic and
Gouidelic. Therefore, it is posited here that the modern Gaulish language uses a second
degree superlative suffix –sam, to be reduced to –am after consonants:
dái: good
dáisam: best
sír: long
síram: longest (cf. Welsh hiraf)
pel: far
pelam: furthest (cf. Welsh bellaf)
nes: near
nesam: nearest (cf. Welsh nessaf, Old Ir. nessam)
This paradigm can be summarised as follows:
már: big
có wár (có): as big (as)
gwer wár (có): bigger (than)
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máram: biggest
dái: good
có dhái: as good, i.e. as well
gwer dhái: better
dáisam: best
(see also p. 92 for a discussion of the metaphysical comparative system).
Both the equative and first superlative degrees make use of the preposition “có” to link
the things that are being compared to each other:
e.g.: esi in ép-sin có wár co ‘n ép sé: this horse is as big as that horse
esi in ven-sin gwer dech có’n ven-sé: this woman is more beautiful than that woman
This same preposition is also used adverbially to provide the equivalent of the English
emphatic “so”:
e.g.: óghru: cold

aman: weather (also “time”)
esi in haman có hóghru: the weather is so cold
Sameness
A word describing sameness is not attested in the ancient Gaulish corpus. However, the
word *samalis is attested across all the modern Celtic languages, is deemed to be of
sufficient antiquity to warrant the hypothesis that it would have been included in the
ancient Gaulish language, and is widely accepted as such (Stifter 2012, pers. com.). As
such, it is posited here that the modern Gaulish language uses the word “samal” to
indicate sameness, in the following fashion:
dúithir: daughter
máthir: mother
esi in dhúithir samal ó máthir: the daughter is the same as her mother
The tablet of Lezoux provides a term which may be used to accord an added degree of
sameness (Delamarre 2003, p. 115):
messamobi molatus certiognu sueticon = the worst praises born of certainty well-
sufficient ...
In this phrase, the word “certiognu” (“born of certainty”?) contains the stem “cert-“. This
stem is translated as “right, correct, exact, true, just” (Delamarre 2003, p. 115). It is
posited here that this stem is used by the modern Gaulish language to convey an
additional degree of sameness:
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esi in dhúithir samal ó máthir in gerth: the daughter is exactly the same as her
mother
In the above example the term “exactly” is used adverbially.
In addition, use can be made of a simple and ingenious expression that can be borrowed
from modern Welsh which does not necessitate borrowing words as such:
W. yr un = the one
This can easily be rendered in modern Gaulish as:
in on: the one, i.e the same

> esi in dhúithir ach in wáthir in on: the daughter and the mother are the one, ie.
they are the same
Similarity
While the concept of similarity is not explicitly attested in the Gaulish corpus, it can be
constructed following an example from Old irish, making use of lexemes that are attested
in Gaulish:
Old Irish cum-me < *co(n) “with” + *me- “to measure” = “with-measure” = equal
measure = similar
Both these roots are attested in Gaulish:
co-: with, as, equal to

mes-: measure, judgement
This allows us to construct the word “cómes” for the concept of “similar”. It can be used
in a similar way to the English word “like”:
esi í cómes ó máthir: she is like her mother / she is similar to her mother
Quantity paradigm
A word for “more” can be deduced from attested Gaulish material. The words:
coettic (Larzac, Delamarre 2003, p.167) = with-and-more

eti (La Graufesenque, Delamarre 2003, p.167) = more
etic (Alise-Sainte-Reine, Chamalieres, Larzac, Delamarre 2003, p.167) = and-more
peti- (Larzac, Delamarre 2003, p. 249) = what-more > save (“how much”)
petidsiont (Larzac, Delamarre 2003, p. 249) = they will save
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all contain the stem “eti”, which is identified by Delamarre (2003, p. 167) as the term
“more”. Therefore, it is posited that modern Gaulish uses the word “éth” to indicate an
increase of a quantity:
curu: beer
> gwéla mi curu éth: I want more beer
The opposite “less” can be constructed from this word by means of the
adjectival/adverbial negating prefix “an-“, attested at Coligny and Larzac (Delamarre
2003, p. 43):
matu = favourable (Coligny)

anmatu = unfavourable (id.)
andogna = indigenous (Larzac)
anandogna = non-indigenous (id.)
This gives modern Gaulish a word for “less”:
éth: more
anéth: less
> né chwéla mi curu anéth: I don’t want less beer
The attested word “coettic” (see above), constructed from the preposition “co-“ + “eti +
-c”, translates as “with-more-and”. It will be used in modern Gaulish under the form
cóéth: also, furthermore
A word for “a lot”, “much”, can be identified in attested onomastic material:
eluo- = numerous, many, a lot (Delamarre 2003, p. 162)
This can be used in the modern Gaulish language as
élu: much, a lot, many

ívi: to drink
> gwéla mi ívi curu élu: I want to drink a lot of beer
rédhi: to ride
> gwéla mi rédhi épé élu: I want to ride a lot of horses
A word for “enough, abundant” can be found in the Gaulish corpus at Lezoux, where
Fleuriot identifies the term “extincon” with “sufficiency” (Delamarre 2003, p. 340).
Therefore a modern term “éithinch” can be proposed for “enough, abundant”:
mi-éthu curu éithinch: I have had enough beer/ an abundance of beer

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In addition, the word “sati-“ (Delamarre 2003, p. 268) is also identified as meaning
“sufficiency”. This would be rendered in the modern language as “sath”, with a more
restricted meaning of “enough”. The quantity paradigm for the modern Gaulish language
can therefore be summarised as follows:
élu: a lot, much, many

éth: more
anéth: less
cóéth: also
éithinch: abundant, enough
sath: enough
22. Diminutive form
The word “bardala”, attested in glossary (Delamarre 2003, p. 67), is understood to

indicate a songbird with a crest (alouette huppée), and is widely thought to be a
diminutive formed on the well known Gaulish word “bardos” (bard, singer, poet,
musician):
bardala = bard- + al + a
The suffix –al evident in the above example may be interpreted as a late Gaulish
development of an earlier suffix “–ilos”, attested elsewhere:
brogilos > breialo = small area of land or forest
Both the above terms are attested (Delamarre 2003, p. 91-92). They show the evolution
from the earlier term on “-ilo” to the late Gaulish form on “-alo”. It is posited here that
the modern Gaulish language uses the suffix “-al” as a diminutive marker:
ép: horse
épal: foal (cf. Welsh ebol, Cornish ebal, Breton ebeul, all “foal”)
cun: dog
cunal: puppy
avon: river
avónal: creek
naus: boat
nausal: small boat
23. Word Formation
The formation of words is a crucial aspect of the functioning of any language, and
particularly so for the revival and reconstruction of a language that is imperfectly and
erratically attested. The ancient Gaulish corpus bears witness to a variety of ways in
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which words were constructed. The following sections deal with these various ways, and
indicate how they might be applied to the modern Gaulish language.
Historical compound nouns
Compound words combining two or more nouns, verbal nouns or adjectives are well
attested in the ancient Gaulish material. Two components are joined by a composition
vowel, and endowed of a case ending, treating the whole as one unit. Random examples
are:
Noun + noun:
argantodanos > argant-o-dan-os = silver + magistrate > magistrate in charge of

minting silver coins (Delamarre 2003, p. 54)
blatomago > blat-o-mag-o = flower + field > flowerfield, field of flowers

teutoboduus > teut-o-bodu-us = people + raven > people raven > raven of the
people? (Delamarre 2003, p. 81)
Noun + verbal nouns:
uidubion > uidu + bion = wood + cutting > axe, saw (Delamarre 2003, p. 75)
namantobogi . namanto + bogi = enemy + breaking, hitting > enemy hitter

Noun + adjective:
glisomarga > gliso + marga = white, shining + clay > shiny clay (Delamarre 2003, p.
181)
uerolamium > uero + lamium = large + hand > generous (Delamarre 2003, p. 195)
Many of the compounds attested in the corpus of the Gaulish language, including all of
the above, conform to the standard Indo-European compound formula Modifier + Head.
However, it is possible to discern an evolution in Late Gaulish forms:
Uerolamium > uero + lam- = large + hand > generous (uero = large; lama = hand)
Lamauerus > lama + ueru- = hand + large > generous

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Attested synomyonous forms such as this are thought to indicate (Delamarre 2003, p. 99)
that Late Gaulish was undergoing a shift from the standard IE construction Modifier +
Head towards the construction Head + Modifier. Another example is found in
calliomarcos > calli-o-marc-os = shoe-horse > horse shoe
Another word for “horseshoe” is attested as
epocalium > epo-calium = horse + shoe
It is thought that the latter, following the standard IE compound noun construction rules,
is more ancient than the former, which is thought to be Late Gaulish (Delamarre 2003, p.
99). This indicates that Late Gaulish appeared to be undergoing a shift away from
Modifier + Head constructions and towards constructions of Head + Modifier.
Noun-noun compounds
As the shift described above mirrors the shift in adjectival constructions (see section on
adjectives), it is posited here that the concept of compound nouns is reinterpreted in the
modern Gaulish language as an attributive adjectival noun-noun compound. As such,
nouns and verbal nouns are interpreted as attributive adjectives modifying a preceding
head noun.
To indicate the fact that the two belong together they are graphically linked with an
apostrophe /’/, and pronounced together with emphasis on the second component. If the
second component has only one syllable, this will receive the emphasis. If the second
component has two or more syllables, the emphasis will be on the penultimate, as is
habitual. They are further phonetically linked and fused together by the application of the
regular modern Gaulish word-medial sound changes to the initial consonant of the
adjective, as per the rules outlined in section 3 (“sound changes”). Therefore, these
changes only affect t, c, b, d, g, m and gw. P, n, r, l, s and vowels are unaffected. To
recap, these changes are:
t > th
c > ch
b>v
d > dh
g > gh after C, i after V
m > w after C, m after V
gw > chw
These changes happen irrespective of the gender of the head noun. Plural is marked at the
end of the compound word.
e.g.: caliomarcos > loss of composition vowel and word ending

> calmarc > regular modern Gaulish sound changes
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> cal’warch: horse shoe

> plural cal’warché: horse shoes (emphasis in bold)
Examples of such noun-noun compounds include:
gwir: man (m)

pen: head
> gwir’pen: head man
cernu: horn (m)

táru: bull
> cernu’tháru: bull horn
téi: house (m)

curu: beer
téi’churu: pub
ép: horse
rithi: to race
> ép’rithi: racehorse
cal: shoe (f)

march: horse
> cal’warch: horseshoe
march: horse (f)

cathu: battle
> march’chathu: battlehorse (warhorse)
ben: woman (f)

launi: to wash
> ben’launi: washer woman
In the above examples, second components on p, r, l do not undergo changes. Plurals are
marked regularly:
gwir’pen > gwir’pené: head men

cernu’tháru > cernu’tharúé: bull horns
téi’churu > téi’churúé: pubs
ép’rithi > ép’rithíé: racehorses
cal’warch > cal’warché: horse shoes
march’chathu > march’chathúé: war horses
ben’launi > ben’launíé: washer women
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The noun-noun compound construction discussed here closely resembles the appositional
genitival construction, but is distinguished from it by the internal fusing of the initial
consonant of the second component:
pen: head
bó: cow
> pen’vó: cow head
> pen bó: head of a cow
As is the case above, for some words the distinction will be clear due to the internal
sound change:
cal: shoe
march: horse
cal’warch: horseshoe
cal march: a shoe of a horse
However, in cases where the second component of the compound starts with n, r, l, p or s
it wil not be possible to distinguish phonetically between a compound word and a
genitival noun phrase:
ben: woman
launi: washing
> ben’launi: washer woman
ben launi: woman of washing
The compound and the noun phrase above sound exactly the same. However, this is not
an issue as the meaning of the two phrases is identical.
Compound adjectives
If the second component of a compound is a true adjective, it is possible for the whole
compound to be interpreted as a true adjective:
lam: hand
gwéru: broad
> lamchwéru: wide hand > generous
> lamchwérúas: generosity
For the above example, an opposite is attested in
corolamus = closing-hand > avaricious (Delamarre 2003, p. 195)
In this case not a true adjective is used, but a verbal noun acting as an adjective.
Nevertheless the entire compound becomes adjectival:
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lamchor: avaricious
> lamchóras: avarice
This is a good example of the ability of a verbal noun to express adjectival qualities, and
of the flexibility of the Celtic languages, ancient and modern.
Prefixes
The attested material shows a number of prefixes were used in ancient Gaulish to
construct words. Examples are:
sú: good < suauelo- = su + auelo “wind” = good wind > “welcome”
dú: bad < ducarius = du + car- “love” = unpopular, unpleasant
di: un-, off, from < diacus = di + acu- “speed” = slow, lazy
athé: re-, again < ate- < atespatus = ate + spa- “saying” = reply, answer
an: un-, im-, non- < anandogna = an + andogna “indigenous” = non-indigenous
ané: very < ande < anderoudus = ande + roud- “red” = very red
As is clear from the above examples, these prefixes were used in combination with nouns
(auelo, acu), verbal stems/nouns (car-, spa-) and adjectives (andogna, roud-). It is
proposed here that modern Gaulish does exactly the same thing, and uses these prefixes
with nouns, verbal nouns and adjectives to construct words as required.
Because these prefixes become fused onto the words they combine with and form one
contiguous word with the first consonant of the word they fuse onto becomes subject to
the rules of word internal sound changes detailed in section 3 (“sound changes”). These
are as below:
original initial consonant after su-, du-, di-, athé-, after an-
ané
t th th
c ch ch
b v v
d dh -
g i gh
gw chw chw
m m w
All other consonants remain unchanged.
These prefixes carry the following connotations:

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1. “sú-“ expresses favourable notions of quality. It is used with nouns (swáiedh) and
verbal nouns, denuded of any word final vowels (suchwidh), and creates adjectives.
swáiedh: good looking < su-agedos < agedos “face” = “good-face”

súchwidh: clever < su-uidu < uidu “to understand” = “good-understanding”
2. “du-“ expresses unfavourable notions of quality. It is used with nouns (dwáiedh) and
verbal nouns (duchwidh) and creates adjectives.
dwáiedh: ugly < du-agedos = “bad face”

dúchwidh: stupid < du-uidu = “bad understanding”
3. “athé-“ expresses a repetition of something, comparable to English/French “re-“,

“again”. It is only used with verbal forms and creates new verbs.
Before a vowel the final –é is dropped:
athé + ávó “to do” > athávó: to repeat, do again

athé + ápis “to see” > athápis: to see again
Before a consonant the –é is retained:
athé + men “to think” > athémen: to rethink

athé + gar “to call” > athéiar: to recall, call again
athé + brís “to break” > athévrís: to re-break, break again
athé + rethi “to run” > athérethi: to re-run
The word “athé” is also used by itself and means “again”. This provides two alternative
ways of expressing a repetition:
gwéla mi ávó ichí athé: I want to do it again

gwéla mi athávó ichí: I want to do it again
4. “ané-“ expresses an intensification of something. It is only used with verbal nouns and
adjectives, and creates new verbs and adjectives:
ané + car “to love” > anéchar “to love very much” > to adore
ané + bói “to hit” > anévói “to hit very hard” > to smash
ané + már “big” > anémár “very big” > huge
ané + méi “small” > anéméi “very little” > tiny
5. “di-“ is the equivalent of English un-, im-, non-, and expresses the absence or opposite
of something. It is used with verbal nouns and nouns and creates new verbs and nouns.
di + ái “to go” > diái: to come

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di + antha “to end” > diantha: to begin

di + sámi “to stand” > disámi: to fall
di + techi “to leave” > dithechi: to arrive
di + menvéthi “to remember” > dimenvéthi: to forget
di + anthu “end” > dianthu: beginning

di + panthu “suffering” > dipanthu: enjoyment
6. “an-“ is synonymous with “di-“ discussed above, and expresses the opposite or
absence of something. It translates as un-, im-, non-, and is used with adjectives only.
an + math “fine” > anwath: bad, poor

an + gwír “true” > anchwír: untrue
an + anóghn “indigenous” > ananóghn: non-indigenous
an + caráthach “loveable” > ancharáthach: unloveable
Substantivising suffix for adjectives
In the section dealing with adjectival formation it was discussed how nouns and verbal
forms can be turned into adjectives by means of a variety of suffixes (see section 6
“adjectives”). It is also possible to turn an adjective into a noun. The Late Gaulish text of
Chateaubleau includes the following:
suante ueiommi petamassi Papissone = for wanting I desire perdition for Papissona
siaxsiou beiíassu ne biti = let her not be seeking [my] punishment
(in Mees 2010)
In the above examples, “petamassi” (with Tau Gallicum) is analysed as representing “an
abstract (accusative) form” (Mees 2010, p. 101). Comparison is made with the Irish
suffix –as and the Gothic suffix –assus (Mees 2010, p. 101). Of the word “beiíassu” it is
suggested that its suffix “–assu” (also with Tau Gallicum) also seems to “represent an
abstracting form”(Mees 2010, p. 102).
In the first case the root “pet-“ is thought to be derived from “pant-“, “suffering”, hence
the translation of “petamassi” as “perdition”. In the first case the root “bei-“ is thought to
be related to “bei-“, “strike”, and “beiassu” is translated as “punishment”.
While it is true that in neither of the two cases above illustrated an adjective is involved
in the formation of these abstract forms, a suffix similar to the one attested above is
nevertheless found in the modern Celtic languages, where it creates an abstract form from
an adjective. Examples are:
Breton “levenez”: happiness

Cornish “lowena”: happiness (<*lowenas (?))
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Irish “sonas”: happiness

“cairdeas” (friendship).
While it it not entirely sure that the suffixes apparent in the above modern languages are
descended from the same formation as “-assu”, it is nevertheless posited here that modern
Gaulish will use the suffix “-assu” to form abstract nouns from adjectives, on the basis
that it is necessary to be able to do so, and that the attested suffix “-assu” seems to fit the
bill and will make do. It is therefore proposed here that the modern Gaulish language will
use the suffix “-as” (< -assu) to form abstract nouns from adjectives:
e.g.: láen: happy > laénas: happiness

sír: long > síras: length
lithan: wide > lithanas: width
ardhu: high > ardhúas: height
már: big > máras: greatness, size
gwír: true > gwíras: truth
ríu: free > rías: freedom (loss of intervocalic –u-)
caran: friend > caranas: friendship
Prepositions as prefixes
The use of a variety of prepositions in word construction is well attested in the ancient
Gaulish corpus. They are found in word initial position and combine with verbs, nouns
and adjectives to create new words.
e.g.: adret- = attack < ad “towards” + ret- “run” (Delamarre 2003, p. 31)
conrunos = confidant < con “together” + run- “secret” (Delamarre 2003, p. 123)
cantipisontias = witnesses < canti “with” + pisontias “those who see” (Chartres, in
Stifter 2012)
diacus = slow < di “off, away from” + “acus “speed” (Delamarre 2003, p. 145)
(“di” is preposition as well as prefix; see previous section).
exobnos = fearless < ex “without, out of” + obnos “fear” (Delamarre 2003, p. 170)
It is clear from the above examples that any preposition can be prefixed to a noun, verbal
noun or adjective. It is therefore proposed here that the modern Gaulish language does
exactly that, and thus creates new words.
e.g.: can: with

echan: without (< ex + canti)
ái: to go
díái: to come (see section on prefixes further above)
ur: against
gar: call
urghar: to argue
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con: with, like

áiedh: face
conáiedh: similar
> conaiédhas: similarity, resemblance
> conaiédhi: to resemble
Calques
For the purpose of constructing words necessary for a modern language, it is proposed
here that calques be made of words in other languages, if appropriate and justifiable. A
calque is a translation of the various components of a complex word, to arrive at a
complex word in another language with the same meaning.
e.g.: pwysfawr (Welsh) = important

> pwys + mawr = weight + big
pwys < pois (French) “weight”
This idiomatic expression for the abstract concept “important” is semantically related to
the English adjective “weighty”, used e.g. for “a weighty decision to make”, which
clearly infers a notion of importance. While the ancient Gaulish corpus does not appear to
contain a word for “heavy”, it does feature the word “luxtos”, which is translated as
“loaded” (Delamarre 2003; p. 212). It is possible to posit the following:
luxtos > lúith, according to the regular soundchanges of modern Gaulish

lúith: load
> lúithach: heavy
> lúithachas: heaviness, weight
The use of the word component –maros to phrase a concept is attested in ancient Gaulish:
attested “iantomaros”, “with big desires”, is identical to the Old Irish “etmar”, which
translates as “jealous, zealous”. This indicates that the component –maros can be used to
lend an extended adjectival quality to the whole constructed word, not just to a preceding
component. Therefore the following is posited:
lúith + már > lúithwár: important

> lúithwáras: importance
It is clear that the process of forming calques on words from related languages can be of
considerable assistance in the construction of a sufficiently varied and diverse vocabulary
for the modern Gaulish language.
23. Verbal Word Derivation

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The area of derivation of words from verbal stem is particularly rich and important for
the construction of vocabulary. A number of forms exhibiting a variety of verbal suffixes
which construct a number of different concepts are attested in the Gaulish corpus:
anextlo = protection
cantlo = song, music?
sedlo = seat
caranto = friend
arganto = silver
namanto = enemy
arueriatis = which gives satisfaction
orget = murderer
cinget = warrior
orgen = murder
popillos = cook
menman = thought
garman = call
toncnaman = oath/destiny
glíon = obstruction, thing that sticks
(all from Delamarre 2003)
From the above it is possible to deduce a number of verbal form substantivising suffixes
and their meaning.
Abstract noun suffixes: -tlo, -lo, -anto, -eno, -man, -naman, -on
-tlo: aneg- > an-eg = to go-along > to accompany > to protect

> + tlo = protection
-lo: sed- = to sit

> + -lo = seat
-anto: car- = to love

> caranto = friend (someone who loves / is loved)
arg- = to shine
> arganto = silver (something that shines / is shiny)
nama- = to dislike
> namanto = enemy (someone who dislikes / is disliked)
(-anto is an ancient present particple suffix that has lost its verbal connotations and has
become fixed as a substantivising suffix; see Delamarre 2003, p. 107)
-eno: org- = to murder

> orgeno = murder
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-man: men- = to think

> menman = thought
gar- = to call
> garman = call
-naman: tonc- = to swear, pledge

> toncnaman = oath
-ion: gli- = to stick, get stuck, obstruct

> glion = something that sticks, obstruction
Agentive noun suffixes: -iatis, -eto, -ilo
-iatis: aruer- = to please

> arueriatis = that which pleases
-et: org- = to murder

> orget = murderer
cing- = to go to war (to advance) > to fight
> cinget = warrior
-ilo: pop- = to cook

> popilo: cook
Using the above information it is possible to compose a verbal word derivation paradigm
based on verbal morphology. From each verbal root will be derived:
a verbal noun
an agentive form
an abstract noun
adjectives if possible
nouns derived from these adjectives
The above suffixes will take the following modern Gaulish forms:
-tlo > -thl: loss of final vowel, spirantisation of stop

-lo > -l: loss of final vowel
-anto > an: loss of final vowel and wordfinal t (> –th) after -n
-eno > en: loss of final syllable
-man > u: lenition of –man to –uan, loss of final syllable (*-man > *-uan > *-ua >
*-u), cf. attestation of “garuo”, Delamarre 2003, p. 176
-naman > -na: loss of final syllable
-on > -on: no change
-iatis > -íath: loss of final syllable, spirantisation of stop
-eto > -eth: loss of final syllable, spirantisation of stop
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-ilo > -il: loss of final syllable
Verbal noun formation
It is proposed here that the use of the above suffixes will be determined by the
morphology of the verbal stems they complement. A number of verbal noun classes can
be outlined:
1) verbal stems on –th, -dh, -ch, -p, -v form their verbal nouns on –i:
ret- > rethi: to run

sed- > sédhi: to sit
derc- > derchi: to watch
pop- > popi: to bake
gab- > gavi: to take
Justification for this is found in attested forms on –i, e.g. “gabi”, “lubi”, “exugri”,
“carni-“. While several of these examples are imperative forms, it is posited here that this
imperative ending has spread to the verbal noun by analogy. While verbal nouns are
sufficiently attested in the ancient Gaulish corpus (e.g. at Chateaubleau and Chartres),
their formation is heterogenous (see Mees 2010) and poorly understood. Nevertheless,
the following forms are commonly proposed and accepted (Bello 2012; Bhrghros 2012):
gabi, imperative, *gabion, verbal noun

> *gabion > *gavion > gavi: to take (loss of final syllable)
lubi, imperative, *lubion, verbal noun

> *lubion > *luvion > luvi: to adore (loss of final syllable)
2) verbal stems on –Consonant+g form their verbal nouns on –e:
org- > orghe: to murder

delg- > delghe: to hold
cing- > cinge: to go to war, fight, march, advance
The above is based on the attestation of “orge” as the imperative of a verbal stem “org-“,
“to murder”, which is broadened to include all verbal stems on –Consonant+g.
3) verbal stems on –Vowel+g form their verbal nouns on –Vowel+i:
ag- > ái: to go

log- > lói: to establish
aneg- > anéi: to protect
4) verbal stems on –n, -r, -l, -m, -s form their verbal nouns without changing the root:
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men- > men: to think

gar- > gar: to call
uel- > gwel: to want
dam- > dam: to accept
apis- > ápis: to see
5) verbal stems on –a form their stems without changing their root:
cara- > cára: to love

ama- > áma: to like
nama- > náma: to dislike
peta- > petha: to ask
6) mono syllable verbal stems on –i don’t change:
gli- > glí: to stick, get stuck, obstruct

gni- > gní: to know
lig- > lí: to lie (down)
Agentive form formation
The three agentive suffixes –íath, -eth and –il are distributed according to the morphology
of the verbal nouns:
1) verbal nouns on –n, -r, -l, -m, -s, fricative stops +–i, –Vowel+i, and mono syllabic –i
take the suffix –íath:
men > meníath: thinker

gar > garíath: caller
gwel > gwelíath: wanter
dam > damíath: acceptor
ápis > apisíath: see-er
rethi > rethíath: runner

sedhi > sedhíath: sitter
derchi > derchíath: watcher
gavi > gavíath: taker
ái > áiath: go-er

anéi > anéiath: protector
lói > lóiath: establisher
gní > gníath: knower
2) verbal nouns on -e take the suffix –eth:
orghé > orgheth: murderer

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delghé > delgheth: holder

cingé > cingeth: warrior
3) verbal nouns on –pi take the suffix –il:
popi > popil: cook
4) verbal nouns on –a and -ó drop the final vowel and take the suffix –íath :
cára > caríath: lover

petha > pethíath: asker
ávó > ávíath: do-er, maker
Abstract noun formation
The suffixes –thl, -l, -an, -en, -u, -na, -on are also distributed according to the
morphology of the verbal nouns:
1) verbal nouns on –n, -r, -l, -m take the suffix –u:
men > menu: thought

gar > garu: call
gwel > gwelu: will(power)
dam > damu: acceptance
2) verbal nouns on –thi, -vi, -pi, -s and –ó drop their final vowels and take the suffix –an:
rethi > rethan: run

gavi > gavan: taking, take
popi: to cook
> popi > popan: cookery
ápis > apísan: sight
ávó > ávan: deed, action, act
3) verbal nouns on –Vowel+i take –thl:
ái > áithl: go, trip

anéi > anéithl: protection
lói > lóithl: establishment
4) verbal nouns on –dhi take –l:
sédhi > sédhl: seat

gwédhi: to pray
> gwédhl: prayer
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5) verbal nouns on –chi take -na
tonchi: to swear
> tonchna: oath
rinchi: to need
> rinchna: need, necessity
6) verbal nouns on –a take the suffix –n or –th
Some verbal forms on –a have attested nouns formed on ancient –anto that do not quite
correspond with the paradigm proposed here. These forms are fixed and are retained as
such. For these verbs secondary abstract nouns can be formed using the suffix –(a)th:
cára: to love
caran: friend
> cárath: love
náma: to dislike
naman: enemy
> námath: dislike
argha: to shine
arghan: silver
> arghath: shine
This suffix is the same as the one used to make nouns out of adjectives, see that section
for discussion.
Verbal forms on –a for which no attested ancient abstract nouns on –anto are known form
an abstract noun regularly on –an:
petha: to ask
> pethan: question
7) mono syllabic verbal nouns on –i take –on
gní: to know
> gníon: knowledge
glí: to obstruct, stick
> glíon: obstruction
frí: to spread (Bhrghros 2012)
> fríon: spread
Verbal adjectives
The past participle can be used as a verbal adjective:

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cára: to love
> caráthu: loved (Delamarre 2003, p. 107)
Further adjectives can be derived with the regular adjectival suffix –ach:
caráthu: loved
> caráthach: lovely, loveable (Delamarre 2003, p. 107)
caran: friend
> caranach: friendly
náma: to dislike
> namáthu: disliked
> namáthach: unlikeable
> naman: enemy
> namanach: hostile
Secondary abstract noun derivation
Secondary abstract nouns can be constructed using the suffix –íu, attested in the classical
form –ione: cassidanaione = magistrateship (Delamarrae 2003, p. 108)
caran: friend
caraníu: friendship
naman: enemy
namaníu: hostility
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Summary of verbal word formation paradigm
verbal noun agentive form abstract noun
verbs on -n, -r, -l, -m -íath -u
men: to think meníath: thinker ménu: thought

gar: to call garíath: caller gáru: call
gwel: to want gwelíath: wanter gwélu: will(power)
dam: to endure damíath: endurer damu: endurance
verbs on –s, -thi, -vi, -ó -íath -an
ápis: to see apisíath: see-er apísan: sight

rethi: to run rethíath: runner rethan: run
gavi: to take gavíath: taker gavan: take, taking
ávó: to do ávíath: doer ávan: deed
verbs on –Vowel+i -íath -thl
anéi: to protect anéiath: protector anéithl: protection

verbs on –dhi -íath -l
sédhi: to sit sedhíath: sitter sedhl: seat

verbs on –chi -íath -na
tonchi: to swear tonchíath: swearer tonchna: oath, pledge

verbs on –ghe -eth -en
orghe: to murder orgheth: murderer orghen: murder

verbs on –pi -il -an
popi: to cook popil: cook popan: cooking

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verbs on –a, noun attested -áiath -ath
cára: to love caráiath: lover cárath: love

verbs on –a, noun not att. -áiath -an
pétha: to ask petháiath: asker pethan: question

verbs on mono syllabic -i -íath -on
gní: to know gníath: knower gníon: knowledge
All verbal nouns ending in Consonant+i lose the final –i before the abstract noun ending.
Verbal nouns on –a retain the final –a before the agentive ending.
Derivation of verbs from nouns and adjectives
It is posited here that the modern Gaulish language can form verbs from nouns by the
simple expedient of adding the verbal ending –i to a noun or adjective:
már: big
mári: to grow (get bigger)
sír: long
síri: lengthen
cró: blood
crói: to bleed
When –i is added to words ending in –u, this –u becomes the sei-vowel –w- and the
ending becomes –wi. This ending is retained in the present tense: the tense marker –a is
suffixed after the –i:
maru: death
marwi: to die
marwía in cun: the dog dies
boru: hot spring

borwi: to bubble > to boil
borwía in duvr: the water boils
For words ending in –i or in a diphthong, a suffix –ni is applied. This suffix is attested in
the classical material (Delamarre 2003, p. 106 “carnitu”).
brau: mill
brauni: to mill
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Words ending on –gh take the regular ending –e and its attendant forms
bulgh: bag
bulghe: to bag (put in a bag)
> bulgha mi: I bag
bulgheth: bagger
bulghen: baggage
25. Numerals
Numerals are reasonably well attested in the ancient Gaulish material. A complete set of
ordinals is attested at La Graufesenque (see Delamarre 2003; Lambert 2003), and
cardinals can be deduced from indirect attestations (glosses, personal onomastic material,
toponomy). While the attestation is imperfect, enough is known to be able to reconstruct
a full set of practically useable cardinals and ordinals. The following are attested:
cardinals ordinals
1: oino 1st: cintus

2: - 2nd: ciallos (allos)
3: tri (treis, tidres) 3rd: tritos
4: petru (petuar) 4th: petuarios
5: pimpe (pempe) 5th: pimpetos
6: suex 6th: suexos
7: sextan 7th: sextametos
8: oxtu 8th: oxtumetos
9: - 9th: nametos
10: decan 10th: decametos
14: - 14th: petrudecametos
20: uoconti
30: triconti
100: canton
(in Delamarre 2003).
From the above attested forms it is possible to reconstruct the ordinal number nine:
nametos = ninth
na + met + os > nine + ordinal marker + ending
> na = nine
The ordinal number two can not be reconstructed from the above data. It can however be
deduced by comparison with the surviving historical Celtic languages. As such, it is
posited here that:
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two: dá
Furthermore, the number fourteen is attested:
petrudecametos = fourteenth
> petrudecan = fourteen
This permits the conclusion that the numbers from 11 to 19 were formed as follows:
petru-decan = four-teen
> number+ten
It is therefore possible to deduce the formation of all the missing numbers from 11 to 19:
oinodecan
dadecan
tridecan
petrudecan
pimpdecan
suexdecan
sextandecan
oxtudecan
nadecan
uoconti
It is also possible to observe that starting from the number “seventh” all ordinals are
formed with the suffix –metos. Therefore, the ordinal marker for numbers upwards of
seven for the modern Gaulish language will be:
-metos > -met > -weth after consonants

-meth after vowels
e.g.: óith: eight > óithweth: eighth

ná: nine > námeth: nineth
Applying the regular modern Gaulish sound changes to the above data gives the
following:
cardinals ordinals
1: on 1st:cin
2: dá 2nd: cíal
3: tri 3rd: tríthu
4: pethr 4th: pethúar
5: pimp 5th: pimpeth
6: swech 6th: swechu
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7: séith 7th: séithweth

8: óith 8th: óithweth
9: ná 9th: námeth
10:dech 10th: dechwecth
11:onech (ondec- > onec-) 11th: onechweth
12: dádhech 12th: dádhechweth
13: tridhech 13th: trídhechweth
14: pethrdhech 14th: pethrdhechweth
15: pimdhech (< pimp+dech: loss of –p-) 15th:pimdhechweth
16: swechdhech 16th: swechdhechweth
17: séidhech (< séith+dech: loss of –th-) 17th: séidhechweth
18: óidhech (óith+dech: loss of –th-) 18th: óidhechweth
19: nádhech 19th: nádhechweth
20: gwochon (loss of final –th after –n-) 20th: gwochonweth
100: can (as above) 100th: canweth
To construct numbers above twenty, it is proposed here that the modern Gaulish language
employ the vigesimal way of counting. This is based on the fact that such a method of
counting is widespread among and apparently indigenous to the modern Celtic languages,
and that is is also found in the French language, heir to the Gaulish substrate. As such,
multiples of twenty are constructed.
The numbers dá, tri and pethr fuse onto the following word, undergoing word internal
spirantisation following the regular rules of compound word formation:
gwochon: twenty
dachwochon: forty (“two-twenty”)
trichwochon: sixty (“three-twenty”)
petherchwochon: eighty (“four-twenty”)
After twenty or a multiple thereof the numbers 1 through till 19 are added onto the
multiple of twenty, until the next multiple is reached, after which it starts again from the
start:
20: gwochon 41: dáchwochon on

21: gwochon on 50: dáchwochon dech
22: gwochon dá 51: dáchwochon onech
23: gwochon tri 59: dáchwochon nádhech
24: gwochon pethr 60: trichwochon
25: gwochon pimp 61: trichwochon on
26: gwochon swech 69: trichwochon ná
27: gwochon séith 70: trichwochon dech
28: gwochon óith 71: trichwochon onech
29: gwochon ná 79: trichwochon nádhech
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30: gwochon dech 80: pethrchwochon

31: gwochon onech 81: pethrchwochon on
32: gwochon dadhech 89: pethrchwochon ná
33: gwochon tridhech 90: pethrchwochon dech
34: gwochon pethrdhech 99: pethrchwochon nádhech
35: gwochon pimdhech 100: can
36: gwochon swechdhech 101: can on
37: gwochon séidhech 110: can dech
38: gwochon óidhech 139: can gwochon nádhech
39: gwochon nádhech 200: da can
40: dáchwochon 500: pimp can
1000: mil
2000: dá mil
To construct the ordinals of numbers, the suffix –weth/-meth is added to the last number
of the series:
79: trichwochon nádhech

79th: trichwochon nádhechweth
100th: canweth
2000th: dá milweth
Cardinal numbers precede the noun, as is attested in the Gaulish corpus:
trimarcisia = three horseriders (Delamarre 2003, p. 302)

decamnoctiaca = three night feats (Delamarre 2003, p. 137)
> tri march: three horses

> dech nóith: ten nights
It is also attested that ordinal numbers follow the noun the refer to:
tuđđos nametos = ninth batch

> tus námeth
(Lambert 2003, p. 132)
26. Expressions and turns of phrase
Identifying turns of phrase and expressions in the Gaulish corpus is an enterprise that is
fraught with danger and incertainty, as very few phrases can be translated reliably enough
to identify such a thing as expressions or turns of phrase. Therefore, the following section
will consist of educated conjecture, suggesting and proposing phrases that may plausibly
be used in the modern Gaulish language.
Liking and loving

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A number of modal verbs can be identified that appear to convey these sentiments:
cára: to love (p. 107)

áma: to like (derived from namanto- = ne+ama+nto, p. 231)
náma: to dislike (p. 231)
lúvi: to adore (< lubi p. 209)
arúer: to please/give satisfaction (< arueriiatis p. 56-57)
(All page numbers refer to Delamarre 2003).
These verbal forms can be used as straightforward transitive verbs:
cára mi ti: I love you

áma mi ti: I like you
náma mi ti: I dislike you
lúva mi ti: I adore you
arwéra i mi: it pleases me
To express being pleased by a complex subject, the preposition “a” is used in its
conjugated form. It precedes the subject, thus effectively forming a VOS clause:
arwéra adhim depri esc: pleases to-me eating fish

> I like to eat fish
arwéra adhí ívi curu: pleases to-her drinking beer
> she likes to drink beer
The verb “arúer” is used in the expression “please”:
ma harwéra i ti: if it pleases you > “please”
(see also further below)
The same verb can also be used to express preference:
arwéra í mi éth: it pleases me more > I prefer it

arwéra í mi anéth: it pleases me less > I avoid it
The abstract noun “arwéru” can be used to construct the conceptual nouns for the above
phrases. They are adjoined with the nouns “pen”, “head” and “los”, “tail” in noun-noun
compounds:
arwéru’pen: head/main/first-pleasure > preference

arwéru’los: tail/last-pleasure > avoidance
Wanting and needing

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There are a number of verbal forms attested which express the notion of “wanting,
desiring, needing” etc. These are listed in order of strength of expression, as much as
such can be derived from their attestation:
uel-: scrisu-mi-o uelor = spit-I-that one-wants/is-wanted (Delamarre 2003, p. 312)

> that I spit is wanted / one wants that I spit / I want to spit
> gwel: to want
uei-: beni ueionna in coro bouido = woman wishing into cattle contract
suante ueiom-mi = for fancying I wish
uiro iono ueíío-biíe = true [and] just [your] wish may-be
(Mees 2010, p. 96-104)
> gwéi: to wish
iant-: onomastic component only, no context.

iant- = desire (Delamarre 2003, p. 186)
> iantha: to desire
suant-: suante ueiom-mi = for fancying I wish [punishment]

suant- is an exact match of Welsh “chwant”: covet, lust, desire
and of Breton “choant”: fancy, feel like, “avoir envie de”
> suant- appears to be ambiguous and can have negative overtones in Welsh,
and conveys wistful longing, which can be but need not be envious
(Mees 2010, p. 101)
> swantha: to fancy
rinc-: rinci-tuso = need, get the advantage of (Delamarre 2003, p. 258)

> rinchi: to need, require
e.g.: gwéla mi ái a’n dráith: I want to go to the beach

gwéia mi arghan eth: I wish [for] more money
iantha mi ben: I desire a woman
swantha mi cerdhl in tiern: I fancy the job of the boss
rincha mi depri: I need to eat
Expression of wish
The expression of a wish, intention, desire, blessing or salutation is, in many languages,
typically expressed with a subjunctive construction. However, the attested Gaulish
material shows indication that the subjunctive mood was being aligned or confused with
the future construction, both using the suffix/infix –si(e)/o- (see Lambert 2003, p. 65;
Delamarre 2003, p. 298).
Therefore, it is proposed here that the modern Gaulish language, to give expression to a
subjunctive notion, uses the future form of a verb in combination with the relative
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particle “o”, which translates as “that”. Parallels for such a construction can be found in
other Celtic languages (Irish and Scottish Gaelic) as well as in Romance (e.g. French) and
Germanic languages (English).
e.g.: o bí ti láen: “that you will be happy” > may you be happy
och urisí su tanch: “that you-pl. will find peace” > may you-pl. find peace
To construct sentences which in English would be formed with “let’s”, the imperative is
used:
ái ni a ‘nam: let’s go swimming!

clúi ni in chwíroth: let’s hear the truth!
Uses of “to have”
The expression for “to have”, attested at Banassac (“tieđi ulano celicnu”, Delamarre
2003, p. 323) can be used to express a wide variety of notions:
1) a physical attribute, permanent or non-permanent:
mi-esi derché búi: I have blue eyes
mi-esi gwolth sír: I have long hair
2) a physical state, permanent or non-permanent
mi-esi tráieth brisú: I have a broken foot

mi-esi dá coch: I have two legs
mi-esi panthu’pen: I have a headache

mi-esi oghru: I have cold > I am cold
mi-esi tes: I have warm(th) > I am warm
mi-esi nan: I have hunger > I am hungry (< Lezoux L-66, Delamarre 2003, p. 340)
mi-esi ónu: I have thirst > I am thirsty (< Banassac, Delamarre 2003, p. 242)
mi-esi achúas: I have speed > I am in a hurry
3) a state of possession, physical or intellectual
mi-esi cuchul: I have a hat/ hood

mi-esi téi: I have a house
mi-esi ménu: I have an idea (a thought)

mi-esi ulánu: I have satisfaction > I am satisfied (Banassac, Delamarre 2003, p. 323)
mi-esi in bes: I have the habit > I am used to
mi-esi gwíroth: I have truth > I am right
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4) a state of desire, intention or wistful longing
mi-esi swantha a hái a’n téi: I feel like / fancy going home
mi-esi swantha a gan: I feel like singing
The verb “to have” with a specific subject
The question of how to use the form for “to have” with a subject other than a personal
pronoun is a tricky one. In the phrase “tieđi ulano celicnu” of Banassac (Delamarre 2003,
p. 323), “ulano [celicnu]” is the subject of the verb “eđi” and “ti” is the indirect object of
the phrase, the recipient. The phrase transliterates as: “to/ at-you is the satisfaction ...”,
i.e. “the satisfaction is to-you”. Therefore the indirect object, which is in the accusative
case, precedes the verb, which is in turn followed by the subject. This gives a sentence
structure of O-V-S:
tieđi ulano celicnu

OV S
This structure is not uncommon in the Gaulish corpus:
eso ieuri rigani rosmertiac = this dedicated the Queen and Rosmerta
O V S
(Lezoux, Delamarre 2003, p. 334)
se tigi prino Ascanius = this contract buys Ascanius

O V S
(Rèze, Stifter 2012)
scrisu-mi-o uelor = that I spit one wants/ is wanted

O V(S)
It is clear that an object can be preposed to a verb if required. Therefore, it is posited here
that when a specific, complex or multiple entity is the recipient of the form “to have”, this
entity, which is is the indirect object of the phrase, precedes the form “to have”. The
personal pronoun featured in the form “to have” will agree with the number and gender
expressed in the object phrase:
é-esi: he has (to-him is)

boch már: a big mouth
é-esi boch már: he has a big mouth
in cun: the dog
in cun é-esi boch már: the dog to-him is a big mouth
> the dog he has a big mouth
> the dog has a big mouth
in wná-sé: those women

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in wná-sé sí-esi coché sír: those women they have long legs
> those women have long legs
Gwina: a female name

Gwina í-esi gwolth duv: Gwina has black hair
Subordinate clauses can thus be the recipient of the form “to have”:
in doné o né chwéla can: the people who don’t want to sing

panthu’pen: headache
in doné o né chwéla can sí-esi panthu’pen: the people who don’t want to sing have a
headache
in doné o sí-esi panthu’pen: the people who have a headache

ethn o gwéla can: a bird that wants to sing
in doné o sí-esi panthu’pen sí-esi ethn o gwéla can: the people who have a headache
have a bird that wants to sing
Expression of obligation
Something that “ought” to be done can expressed as “would be right/just/correct for

someone” to do, making use of the attested form “cert-“, translated as “just, right,
correct”:
certh: just, right, correct

a’n téi: to/ at the house > home
> ré ví certh riem ái a’n téi: it would be just/right for me to go home
> I should go home
Expression of occurence and presence
The notion of “there is” can be translated by the verbal form “esi”, without pronoun or
subject:
nausé: boats
esi nausé gwer in mór: there are boats on the sea (“boats are on the sea”)
aman: time, weather

druch: bad
diái: to come
esi aman dhruch en dhíái: there is bad weather coming (“bad weather is coming”)
né hesi néveth a hávó: there is nothing to do (“not is nothing to do”)
esi avalé gwer in pren: there are apples on the tree (“apples are on the tree”)
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Reflexivity
A reflexive pronoun “sue” may tentatively be identified in the Gaulish corpus:
suebreto = by one’s own judgement

> sue = self
(Meid in Delamarre 2003, p. 285)
It needs to be pointed out that the term “sue” also occurs at three reprises at
Chateaubleau, where it is interpreted as the 2nd pers. pl. personal pronoun “you” (Mees
2010, p. 99). Nevertheless, this pronoun is attested at Chamalieres as “suis” (Delamarre
2003, p. 337). It is posited here that for the purposes of the modern Gaulish language the
form “suis” is used as the personal pronoun “you” (pl.) and the form “sue” is used for
reflexive constructions. The latter has an obvious cognate in Romance “sui-“ (sui-cide =
self-killing, Fr. soi-meme = one’s self).
Therefore in the modern Gaulish language reflexive forms will be constructed with the
pronoun “sue”, in conjunction with the relevant personal pronoun and suffixed to it. It
does not change for gender or number.
apísa mi mi-súe: I see myself

molátha é ché-súe: he praises himself
lautha í chí-súe: she washes herself
esi in gwir en ch’iéi é-súe: the man is cursing himself
The same form is used to construct emphatic statements:
avóthu mi chí mi-súe: I did it myself

apisú sú chí sú-súe: you (pl.) have seen it yourselves
Basic phrases of courtesy
A number of basic phrases of courtesy and simple conversation can tentatively be

constructed, using either attested or semi-attested forms (e.g. brathu) or using the attested
material in a manner consistent with authentic syntactic characteristics (e.g. adjective
following head) or with general pan-Celtic and/ or Western European standards and/ or
conventions (e.g. dí wath). All words are found in Delmarre (2003) unless otherwise
indicated.
dí wath: goodday
methin dhái: good morning
óswédhí dhái: good afternoon
nesnoith dái: good evening
noith dái: good night
bráthu: thanks (< bratou decantem, Delamarre 2003, p. 85)

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má harwéra í ti: please (if it pleases you)
iach: well, healthy, sane, fit

iachas: wellbeing/ health
slán: healthy
slánas: health
> iachas dhái: good health > cheers, drinking toast
> slánas: health > goodbye
swáel: good wind > welcome
podh a hesi ti: how are you

esi mi in dhái: I am well (with adverbial particle “in”)
mi cóéth: me too, me as well
nep: any, some, neither

> né háva í dáias nep: it doesn’t do any good
> esi duvr nep en in ban: there is some water in the cup
> né hesi í on nep al: it is neither one or the other
réithu: right, law, entitlement

> mi-esi in réithu: I have the right
certh: right, correct
> esi mi certh: I am right (also “mi-esi gwíras”)
ancherth: wrong
> esi mi ancherth: I am wrong
sóru: fault
> mi-esi sóru: I have fault > I apologise
> esi í mó shóru: id.
lái: to leave, let be, let off (< [prinni] laget, Delmarre 2003, p. 253)
> lái mi ónach: leave me alone
27. Cultural background
This section aims to provide a small amount of cultural background for the modern
Gaulish language. While this is not strictly dealing with grammatical aspects of language,
language is nonetheless the vehicle through which a people’s cosmology and ontology
are expressed. As such, it is considered justifiable to provide such information as can be
gleaned from historic sources, and to shape it in such a way that it provides an
appropriate setting in which the language can be situated.
Gaulish calendar
The Gaulish calendar, refered to as the Coligny Calendar after the place where a near-
complete version was unearthed in 1897, is the source of much heated debate, bitter
argument and endless controversy. The calendar is a lunar one, following the lunar year,
but it aims to achieve agreement and balance between the lunar year and the solar year.
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The model presented here is the only one to date that achieves stunning astronomic
accuracy of an unparalleled degree and is distinguished by its high degree of relevance
and plausibility. It is the work and intellectual property of Australian computational
linguist Helen McKay (2013) and is reproduced here with explicit permission.
The translation of the names of the months suggested here is one based on a combination
of the etymologies of the names of the months, of the climatic conditions prevalent in
Western Europe in the proposed corresponding modern months, and of historically
attested cultural information. A modest attempt is made to match it up against 21st
century astronomical considerations in an effort to find approximate matches with present
day reality.The calendar is approached from a linguistic, cultural, historical and
geophysical point of view, and what is proposed here is what is considered to be a
plausible interpretation. Substantiation for the tentative translation of the names of the
months can be found in Delamarre (2003) and draws on contributions from Gwinn,
McKay and Cassell (2011-12). Many of the names of the months have several alternative
translations. The ones given here were selected based on feasibility, plausibility,
probability and overall best fit.
There is no official academic consensus on when the Gaulish year started and finished,
and opinions and theories vary wildly and are hotly contested. The solution proposed here
was arrived at as a result of extensive collaboration and consultation between Helen
McKay, Michael Cassell, Bhghros, Bellouesos Isarnos and myself
(AtedugyonYektisKeltika 2012-13), with explicit reference to Delamarre (2003) and
Lambert (2003). As such, The interpretation of the Coligny Calendar presented here starts
the year around May-June, a month before the summer solstice of 21 June. There is no
historical support for this, as there is for no other possible starting date. However, taking
account of the meaning of the names of the calendar and of their potential relevance to
seasonal, climatic and cultural conditions, it is considered reasonable to do so. Support
for this theory is provided by Gwinn (2010) and McKay (2013), although significant
opposition to this notion can be found with e.g. Cassell (2010-13).
It is suggested in the historical record that time reckoning started on the 6th day of the
moon. However, it is unclear exactly which phase of the moon that refers to. While it is
historically recorded that time was reckoned by nights rather than days and that these
started at nightfall, no indication is recorded pertaining the start of seasons and years.
In view of the above, and in view of the fact that this calendar goes to great lengths to
achieve agreement and harmony between the lunar year and the solar year, the notion is
espoused here that months were reckoned in lunations, as is obvious from the calendar
itself, and that the four solar events of the year (the solstices and equinoxes) were
significant and were taken into account. Though no specific information regarding the
use of solar dates has been recorded or has been handed down to this day, the fact that the
calendar marries the solar year with the lunar year is here taken to provide sufficient
justification for the accordance of relevance to the solar events.
Translation of the names of the months

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The names of the months found on the Coligny Calendar are listed here, with their
ranking and their rendition into modern Gaulish:
number month ancient Gaulish name modern Gaulish name

1 Samonios Samon
2 Dumanios Duman
3 Riurios Ríur
4 Anagantio(s) Anáian
5 Ogronios Oghron
6 Cutios Cuth
7 Giamonios Giamon
8 Simiuisonna Simison
9 Equos Échu
10 Elembiuos Elem
11 Edrini Édhrin
12 Cantlos Canthl
The translation and interpretation of these names is uncertain, fraught with controversy
and the subject of much bitter debate. There is no widespread consensus among experts
in the field. The following interpretations are offered here after significant debate and
consultation. Primary linguistic analysis is according to Delamarre (2003) and Lambert
(2003), with additional interpretations provided by Gwinn (2010), Cassell (2010-13),
Bhrghros (2010-2013), and Bellouesus Isarnos (2010-2013). Some of the persuasive
arguments in favour of these interpretations and their figurations in time are provided as
follows:
1) Samonios: summer
All the surviving Celtic languages make reference to summer months in their calendars. It
is proposed here that this month heralds the start of summer, and is situated around May-
June.
2) Dumanios: smoke, fumigations
It has been suggested that the concept of smoke might be refering to the tradition of
lighting bonfires at midsummer night, a custom which is widespread across western and
northern Europe and which is thought to be of great antiquity. This supports the notion of
Duman containing the summer solstice and fits with a placing of Dumanios around June-
July.
3) Riurios: harvest
It is suggested that this month is associated with the god Lugus because of the notations
“deuor lug riuri” found accompanying it on the calendar. The word “riur” has also been
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interpreted as containing the name “rivo-“, which some claim is a synonym of Lugus.
The traditional Irish calendar features a festival in honour of Lugus, “Lunasa”, and a
month named after it (August). Alternatively, the word “riur” has been analysed as
refering to “times of plenty, the fat of the land”. All of these interpretations support an
analysis of Riur as a harvest month, which can therefore plausibly be situated around
July-August.
4) Anagantios: ablutions, washing
This is one of several possible translations suggested. A concept of “cleaning up”,

washing, tidying up, can be linked with preparations for winter time, putting affairs in
order while it is still possible to do such things, before the winter weather makes it hard
or impossible. An August-September timeframe might suit this notion.
5) Ogronios: cold
Oghron is one of the very few month names that expert opinion is unanimously in
support of a single translation of: it is widely accepted that Oghron refers to “cold”.
Suggested as being situated around September-October, this month would include the
autumn equinox.
6) Cutios: difficulty?
Based on an etymology linking Cutio with modern Breton “kudenn”, it can tentatively be
proposed here that “Cutios” may refer to difficulty or problems. If considered a “month
of difficulty” it could fit in with an October-November slot, refering to a time of
inclement weather and difficult living conditions. However, support for this notion has
not as yet been found.
7) Giamonios: winter
It is universally accepted by experts in the field that “giamonos” refers to “winter”. At six
months’ remove from Samonios, this month can be considered to introduce a “winter
half” of the year, just as Samonios introduces a “summer half” of the year, thus dividing
the year into two 6-month semesters. Support for this suggested bipartite division is
found in the structure of the months themselves, which manifestly consist of two halves
of fifteen or fourteen days. A proposed November-December timeslot appears suitable
for this month.
8) Simiuisonna: half-sun
It is proposed here that this word is analysed as a compound of “simi-“, “half” and “–
sonna”, “sun”, translating roughly as “half sun, weak sun”. This admittedly does not
account for the syllable –ui-. However, a description of a “half-sun” or “weak sun” suits
this month’s proposed situation around December-January perfectly, and could as such be
135
interpreted as refering to the winter solstice: the point of the year when the sun is at its
lowest and weakest point.
9) Equos: animal foot
Equos is a bone of contention due to its apparent featuring of a preserved inherited IE

labio-velar, which in Gaulish regularly became [p] historically at least 700 years before
the estimated date of the Coligny calendar. The etymology of Equos/ Echu adopted here
is proposed by Bhrghros (2013): equos < *pekupos, “animal foot”, with regular Celtic
loss of (–)p- and maintenance of syllabic –u- after –c-, i.e. not a labiovelar. It is
tentatively suggested here that a reference to animal tracks may be intended, possibly in
the context of snow covering the land, rendering the land dead, sterile, unyielding. This
appears reasonable for a month following the winter solstice, being situated around
January-February.
10) Elembiuos: deer
It is widely accepted that this word refers to “deer”. A context of deer hunting, or,
conversely, of the end of deer hunting may be imagined. In modern France, the hunting
seasons of all kinds of native deer (red deer, roe deer, chamois etc.) close in February.
While this is obviously a modern arrangement, it is entirely possible and likely that this
happens in accordance with deer behaviour, breeding patterns and ecological factors
which may not have changed significantly since the time of the calendar. This provides a
close match for the proposed timeslot of February-March for this month. There is an
equivalent similarly named Greek month which introduces the start of the deer hunting
season.
11) Edrini: flame, fire
The suggestion that this word contains a reference to fire, flames or warmth is reasonably
widely accepted. Since it is suggested that this month is situated around March-April, it
can be imagined that it announces the start of the warmer weather. This month would also
include the spring equinox, another event traditionally associated with bonfires.
12) Cantlos
A reference to song or music is commonly agreed upon for the name of this month. It has
been suggested that it refers to the presence of birdsong in the natural world, which
provides a match with the timeslot proposed for this month, April-May.
The following table summarises these translations and compares them with realistic
conditions and/ or practices at corresponding times of year that are proposed and adopted
here. CGM stands for “Corresponding Gregorian Months”.
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# name of meaning of CGM reality check

month name
1 Samon summer May-June- start of summer – yes
2 Duman smoke June-July solstice celebrations, bonfires at

midsummer night - possible
3 Riur plenty, fat, July-August harvest time, time of plenty of food,
reference to god festival of Lunasa (of god Lugh) - yes
Lugus
4 Anaian ablutions, August- time to wash and clean before winter,
washing September preparation for winter, activitywinding
down - possible
5 Oghron cold September- start of cold season, autumn equinox –
October yes
6 Cuth difficulty October- time when life starts to get difficult,
November inclement weather – yes
7 Giamon winter November- start of winter – yes
December
8 Simison half-sun, December- sun at lowest and weakest point of year,
weak sun January winter solstice – yes
9 Echu animal tracks January- animal tracks visible in snow, land
February frozen, covered in snow, time of
scarcity– possible
10 Elem deer February- time when the deer move around the
March forest to mate, start of new activity, end
of deer hunting season, start of new life
– possible
11 Édhrin warmth, fire, March- start of the warm season, spring
April equinox, bonfires – yes
12 Canthl singing, song, April-May time of birdsong in the natural world,
music celebration of life – yes
The above table indicates that the proposed schedule is feasible, possible and reasonable.
In the spirit of the Gaulish habit of naming things in opposite pairs also evident in the
onomastic material (see Delamarre 2003, p. 351-352), it is possible to tentatively propose
a grouping of the names of the months in opposing pairs, and a divsion of the year in a
summer half and a winter half. In this model, each of the months finds its perfect opposite
in the exact same spot in the opposite half of the year, as is illustrated in the following
table.
Summer Half Winter Half

# month name meaning # month name meaning
1 Samon start of summer 1 Giamon start of winter
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2 Duman smoke and fire 2 Simison weak, watery sun

3 Ríur harvest, times of 3 Échu snow cover, times of
plenty, yield shortage, sterility
4 Anáian finishing activity, 4 Elem renewed activity,
winding down starting up
5 Oghron start of cold 5 Édhrin start of warmth
6 Cuth time of difficulty 6 Canthl time of celebration
While the above interpretation is certainly possible and feasible, it is important to bear in
mind that it is only one interpretation and makes no claim to being anything other than a
reasonably educated guess.
In summary, the year and its months can be described as follows:
Summer half of year:
Samon: May-June, start of summer

Duman: June-July, smoke (bonfires), solstice 21 June
Riur: July-August, harvest, month of plenty, month of Lugus/Riuos
Anáian: August-September, ablutions, cleaning up
Oghron: September-October, start of cold, equinox 23 September
Cuth: October-November, start of difficulty, inclement weather
Winter half of year:
Giamon: November-December, start of winter

Simison: December-January, half-sun, weak-sun, solstice 22 december
Echu: January-February, animal tracks [in the snow]
Elem: February-March, month of deer
Edhrin: March-April, flame, start of warmth, bonfires, equinox 21 March
Canthl: April-May, singing, music, birdsong
Astronomical analysis
The Gaulish calendar ran over a period of five years, during which time intercalary
months were inserted to match the solar year to the lunar year. The year varied in number
of days over the five years. The beginnings and ends of the various months oscillated to
and fro to the extent that can be seen below. The length of months varied between 29 and
30 days, varied from year to year, and were designated at either favourable (“mat”, math
in modern Gaulish) or unfavourable (“anmat”, anwath in modern Gaulish).
The brilliance of Helen McKay (2013) lies in the fact that by adjusting the length of the
months of Echu, which are not clearly recorded, to a length that is in keeping with the
rest of the months, she has produced a calendar model that achieves perfect balance and
agreement between the lunar year and the solar year. As such, it is proposed that the
Coligny calendar is a Metonic calendar, lining up the lunar year with the solar year every
138
19 years. This is achieved by adjusting the length of Echu as appropriate (see model) and
by repeating three cycles of five years complemented with a fourth cycle from which the
first year is deleted. In this way the lunar and solar year are perfectly aligned every 19
years. While there is a certain amount of speculation regarding the deletion of cycles and
the adjustment of the length of Echu as required, the bronze plaque that constituted the
calendar was fitted out with a complex series of peg holes. It is thought that these
pegholes served the exact purpose of indicating these adjustments.
Furthermore, the bronze calendar plaque under discussion would have been able to
function as a perpetual calendar: thanks to the peghole-adjustment system, it would have
been possible to keep it in synch with the real world perpetually. As such, it is without a
doubt the most sophisticated and advanced calendar of the Classical world, and is a
monumental testimony to the knowledge, achievement, understanding and organisation
of the Gaulish people. For a detailed discussion of the workings of the calendar, see
appendix The Coligny Calendar.
Below is the layout of the Coligny Calendar (reproduced with permission). The names of
the months are given in the original ancient Gaulish, as per Helen McKay’s work.
Metonic cycle of the Coligny Calendar
The following table shows the configuration with EQUOS values as 30/29/29/29/30, and
shows the full Metonic cycle as laid out in the Coligny calendar by using 4 cycles end to
end, but omitting the very first year:
139
In year I and V the month of Echu has 30 days

In year II, III and IIII Echu has 29 days
Months that are “math” (favourable): Samon, Ríur, Oghron, Cuth, Simison, Edhrin, Echu
intercalary 1
Months that are “anwath” (unfavourable): Duman, Anáian, Giamon, Elepi, Canthl, Echu
intercalary 2
The extent to which this model was able to keep in synch with real time is shown in the
following table, showing the fraction of days by which the timekeeping deviated from
true. Note that at the second intercalary the difference is exactly one day. This model
allowed the Gaulish people to keep track of time accurately and, over a timespan of 19
years, never be out more than one day, which ultimately got caught up after 19 years.
140
While it is posited here that the calendar’s time reckoning starts around May-June, this is
in actual fact irrelevant: the time reckoning could start anytime, and the model would still
hold true. No truer, more accurate calendar or system of time keeping has been recorded
anywhere within antiquity or pre-modern times, and it was not until the scientific
advances of the 20th century that the Gregorian calendar was able to come up to the
standard set by the genius of the Gaulish people.
Pantheon of Gods and Goddesses
It is generally agreed upon that there was no such thing as an organised Gaulish
Pantheon, or, that if there was, that information about it has not been accurately recorded.
What follows here is a synthesis, interpretation and manipulation of authentic recorded
information (see Delamarre 2003; Griffin 2007), brought together in a conceptual
framework that while it aspires to be plausible is nonetheless completely arbitrary.
Gods and Goddesses are organised in 4 groups of three triads. The first group reunites the
phenomenological deities, the second one the deities governing the natural world, and the
third one those deities concerned with the activities of everyday human life. The final
group deals with the relationship between humanity and the universe through
supplication. It is generally felt that the gods and goddesses in the first group are in a
position of hegemony over those in the “lower levels”, with the exception of those in the
last triad, who instead are overlords over sections of the Pantheon and, by inference, over
the other gods and goddesses. This lends a circular aspect to the web of relationships.
I. Gods and Goddesses of the phenomenological world
1) Sky: Gran, Lord of the Air

Thunder: Taran, Lord of Sound
Lightning: Belen, Lord of Fire
2) Sun: Lúi, Lord of Plant Growth

Moon: Belisama, Lady of the Tides
Stars: Siróna, Lady of Time
3) Life: Cernun, Lord of Animal Growth

Death: Rosmertha, Lady of Abundance
Fertility: Damóna, Lady of Prosperity
II. Gods and Goddesses of the Natural World
1) Mountains: Garghan
Oceans: Anchauna
Land: Lítha
2) Rivers: Nanthusweltha
141
Lakes: Borvé
Forests: Ardhwína
3) Fish: Divóna
Mammals: Epóna
Birds: Taru Tri Garan
III. Gods and Goddesses of human activity
1) Horticulture: Avel
Farming: Suchel
Hunting: Avnóva
2) Metalwork: Govan
Crafts: Berechinia
Trade: Ésu
3) War: Camul
Warriors: Anartha
Victory: Seghwé
IV. The Gods and Goddesses of humanity, supplication and the universe
1) Men: Tóthath
Women: Mathróna
Children: Mapon
2) Healing: Avétha
Learning: Nemethóna
Language: Oghwé
3) World of the Gods: Alvrich

World of the Living: Bithrich
World of the Dead: Duvrich
The latter triad refers to the vertical structure of the universe. It is conceived as a Tree of
Life (Pren Bith) that has three levels. The upper level is the Land of the Gods (Brói Alvi),
the bright and shiny world of the sky, represented by the crown of the tree. The middle
level is the Land of the Living (Brói Bith), the organic world of the surface of the Earth,
above ground, represented by the trunk of the tree. The lower level is the Land of the
Dead (Brói Duv), the underworld, the deep and dark world under the ground, represented
by the roots of the tree. Alvrich presides over Brói Alvi, Bithrich presides over Brói Bith,
and Duvrich presides over Brói Duv. Logically, these are therefore the overlords of all
the other Gods and Goddesses mentioned above, each in their own domain.
142
To reach the underworld, the dead have to complete a threefold journey across all three
levels of the universe. On each leg of the journey, they are accompanied by a different
God or Goddess whose job it is to see them safely through to the next stage.
1. They need to be taken across the sky in a lunar chariot by Oghwé, the talker, full of
wind
2. They need to be accompanied overland by Epóna, the horse, the beast of burden of
overland transport
3. They need to be ferried across an underground expanse of water by Suchel, the
farmer, who digs down into the earth for a living
In addition to this three-tiered cosmology however, there is Brói in Ióinché, the Land of
the Young. The Land of the Young is a paradise-like place that exists on the middle level,
alongside of the land of the Living, but invisible and inaccessible to it. In the Land of the
Young, time is suspended: there is no decay, only enjoyment. Entry can only be gained
through magic, and often only through specific geographic locations, where temporary
passageways between the worlds can be opened: hilltops, cavemouths, stonecircles; or at
certain times of the year (e.g. the turn of the new year).
26. Conclusion
As this document represents the reinvention of the Gaulish language, driven into
extinction by acts of military aggression, imperialism and genocide, it seems fitting to
conclude with a translation both into hypothetical Late Ancient Gaulish and the new
modern Gaulish of Article One of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights:
Esent doni olli gentui rii ac cotamici en balcassu ac rextoues. Siesesent condo ac
conuissu, ac re bisiet certo rissies adauuo canti doni alli en menman braterione.
Esi doné ol genthu ríu ach cothamich en valchas ach réithúé. Sí-esi conu ach
conchwísu, ach ré ví certh richís adhávó can dhoné al en wénu bratheríu.
All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed
with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of
brotherhood.
The invasion of an independent sovereign nation by an aggressive, expansionist,

imperialistic state bent on conquest for reasons of political and personal profit, led to the
murder of hundreds of thousands of men, women and children, and the exile into slavery
of hundreds of thousands more. It resulted in the obliteration of an erstwhile autonomous
people’s culture, identity and language. Language can be revived. People can’t.
Lest we forget.
143
Steve Gwiríu Mórghnath Hansen, Australia

April 2013
144
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http://www.scribd.com/doc/8670/Languages-in-prehistoric-Europe-north-of-the-Alps
Watkins, Calvert (1962) Indo-European origins of the Celtic verb: the sigmatic aorist.
152
http://books.google.com.au
Willem De Reuse (2009), research fellow in linguistics, University of Texas, personal

communications.
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Appendix I: Galataca Sena
Galataca Sena is an unintentional and accidental spin-off product of the development of

the modern Gaulish language. It was devised in response to calls from interested parties
to write modern Gaulish texts in a way that would be intelligible to those with general
background knowledge of the ancient language, but not of the modern version. Therefore,
Galataca Sena was conceived as a hypothetical point somewhere between ancient Gaulish
and modern Gaulish, but much closer to the former. As such, it represents a stage of the
language after the erosion and collapse of the case system and after the onset of initial
consonant mutations, but before the modernising sound changes. The hypothetical
timeframe for Galataca Sena would be approximately the 6th - 7th century CE, a century
after ancient Gaulish was last attested in writing.
It is convenient here to sketch a broad outline of the evolution of the language and to
situate the various stages in it:
I. Ancient Gaulish:
1). Early ancient Gaulish: appr. 7th century BCE-2nd century BCE. Centres around the
Lepontic and Greco-Gaulish inscriptions.
2). Middle ancient Gaulish: 2nd century BCE – 2nd century CE: the age of
Vercingetorix, Ambiorix and the invasion
3). Late ancient Gaulish: 2nd century CE – 6th century CE: the language of
Chateaubleau, gradual erosion of case system and start of lossof final syllables
II. Old Gaulish:
Galataca Sena, which translates literally as “Old Gaulish”. 6th – 7th century CE. The
state of the language after the loss of the case system, but before the sound changes. It is
a hypothetical state, not attested, but the onset of which can be discerned in the language
of Chateaubleau. The stage prior to the extinction of the language. Estimates for the
language vary from the 8th century, time of the enforcement of christianity as state
religion by Charlemagne and the erosion and loss of the foothold of the language among
the rural population of Gaul a a result (a notion considered plausible by e.g. Mees 2010),
to the 12th century. The notion that Gaulish survived in the high Alps between Helvetia
and Gaul (Haute-Savoie) is supported by some, e.g. Bhrghros (2012).
III. Modern Gaulish
The revived language of the 21st century. Subject of this document.
Brief Outline of Galataca Sena

154
Without going into too much detail, GS is basically a preliminary version of Galáthach
hAthevíu which features the same syntax, but which has retained
1) open vowel word endings which do no longer determine case

2). fully conjugated verbal paradigms
3). pre-sound change phonology
4). mutations which are only marked by an apostrophe
Verbal conjugation follows a thematic pattern, as opposed to the athematic pattern which
became the default position in GhA:
to carry, present tense:
beru mi
beres ti
beret e/i/id
beremu ni
berete suis
berent sies
passive: beror
All tenses are derived exactly the same way as in GhA, but retain the present tense
endings throughout:
Past Tense Future Tense
re beru mi bersiu mi
re beres ti bersies ti
re beret e/i/id bersiet e/i/id
re beremu ni bersiemu ni
re berete suis bersiete suis
re berent sies bersient sies
past participle: bertu
to be:
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present: past future
emi bue mi bie mi

es ti bues ti bies ti
esi e/i/id buet e/i/id biet e/i
esemu ni buemu ni biemu ni
esete suis buete suis biete suis
esent sies buent sies bient sies
past participle: etu
And so on.
In terms of morphology, masculine words end in –o and feminine words end in –a. There
are some attested as ending in –i in ancient Gaulish, these retain the –i ending. Adjectives
follow the nouns and are declined for gender both with an apostrophe at the start of the
word to indicate mutation which is not written, and at the word final syllable which takes
–o or –a as required. All phonology is as per pre-sound change. Pural is marked as per
nominative plural, but without the final –s if there was one. Verbal nouns are conceived
as neuter nouns and end on –on, -ion for stems on stops.
Example text:
Galataca Sena:
Esi id uiro o ne esent doni elui lavarentiou inda Galataca inte dago, extero esemu ni en
cerdion ad auuion sinde uer dago.
Galáthach hAthevíu:
Esi í gwír o né hesi doné élu en lhavar in Galáthach in dhái, éithr esi ni en gerdhi a hávó
sin gwer dhái.
English:
It is true that there are not a lot of people who speak Gaulish well, but we are working to
make it better.
Galataca Sena is only ever used as a companion language to GhA to provide an easily
understandable bridge between the old and the new.
Appendix II: the Coligny Calendar by Helen McKay (2013)

156
Reproduced with permission of the author.
THE COLIGNY CALENDAR AS A LUNAR CALENDAR
The pattern of calendar months and their lengths, as proposed on this

page.
IS THE COLIGNY CALENDAR A LUNAR CALENDAR?

All the evidence points to the expectation that the Coligny calendar is a complex and fine-tuned
lunar calendar. While we can still argue about how the solar years were aligned through periods
longer than the 5 years of the bronze plaque, the one thing that is without question is that the
calendar concentrates on the lunar cycle, and that its internal notations are aligned both between
months of the lunar year, and between days of the months across the years.
The daily notations of each month must have significance in relationship to the lunar phase in
which they occur. This is supported by masses of evidence, both in history and folklore, that the
Celtic (and European) peoples held the moon in great awe, and used its various phases to
regulate their own earthly activities.
It makes no sense that a lunar calendar with complex and detailed notations focused on certain
points of the lunar month should be allowed to get out of sync with the actual moon’s phases.
Certainly other lunar calendars of the time were not very precise it is true, and needed constant
adjusting, but the Coligny is different in its complex web of daily notations which make best sense
as tied to a point in the lunar phase.
Given the long history of the western European peoples watching and measuring the sun and
moon since Neolithic times, we should expect the calendar to keep in sync with the lunar cycle
with great precision.
HOW BEST TO SYNC THE CALENDAR AND LUNAR MONTHS

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Here we shall examine the 5 year cycle on the calendar plaque that we have, to see how its
calendar months fit within the same 62 synodic months of the moon.
The calendar is organized into 5 years of 12 lunar months each , with 2 intercalary months,
the
first at the lead into year 1, and the second half way through year 3. This gives a total of
62 lunar months in 5 calendar years.
One synodic lunar cycle 29.53 days
Lunar months on the calendar 62
Total number of days in 62 synodic 1830.94 days
months
In other words, if the 5 year period of the calendar is to stay in sync with the moon’s phases
overall it must contain 1831 days, the closest possible day count to 1830.94.
Strangely, this count of 1831 days has given most scholars a headache, because there
has been difficulty in fitting this count to the calendar.
If we are to presume though that the calendar does hold the correct 1831 days, then because the
calendar is constrained to count in whole days, in each 5 year cycle it will fall behind the moon by
0.06 days, (1831 – 1830.94), and, if the calendar is simply repeated every 5 years, this would
require a day to be removed from the calendar every 83 years, which as we will see below can
easily be done by adjusting the length of the variable month EQUOS in one year when required.
However, if the Coligny plaque is part of a Metonic cycle calendar, then it will stay in sync almost
indefinitely - one day in 219 years - as the difference between sun and moon after19 years is a
matter of a couple of hours, which is less than the possible variation in a lunation – more on this
later.
THE STRANGE CASE OF EQUOS
We know with reasonable certainty the length of most calendar months. But
EQUOS presents a problem as it shows an exceptional pattern to the normal MAT
months of 30 days and ANM months of 29 days.
Firstly, EQUOS is marked as ANM, the notation which usually dictates 29 days, and
in its patterns of daily notations EQUOS does indeed act as an ANM month.
However, in years 1 and 5 we can see that EQUOS is 30 days long. Year 3 can also
be confidently said to contain 30 days in EQUOS, as the script attached to the second
intercalary month which occurs in the middle of the third year, states that this year
contains 13 months and 385 (CCCLXXXV) days.
Most scholars have accepted that this means that EQUOS in years 2 and 4 is
shorter, probably 28 days long in year 2, and 29 days long in year 4. Year 4 seems
to require 29 days to keep its average months reasonably in step with the lunar
phase length. There is also an inconsistency in the length of the IVOS run in year 2,
which some have proposed is because EQUOS is shorter in that year. This however
doesn’t seem to be the case. [LINK]
However, accepting these proposed values of EQUOS as 30/28/30/29/30, gives us a
total count of 1832 days, not 1831 days. We seem to have a day too many. This run
over is for example taken as the jumping off point by Olmsted for his theory that
the calendar was allowed to go out of sync with both moon and sun, and that this
then required extra computation to track.
Zavaroni, on the other hand, looks at the individual lunations, and maintains
EQUOS with 30 days across all months in order for it to always contain a
full lunation. For full details, please see his publication.
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I recall here the reason of my thesis according to which Equos has always 30 days. Even
if one does not consider the ‘yearly lunation pattern in Table 4 – from which one may
infer that Equos’ lunation starts 35.2 hours before the first day of the month – the Equos
lunation would commonly start more than 24 hours before the end of Simivisonna
because it follows a semester with 178 days and a month with 30 days which cause a
large advance (2-08 – 29.53x7 = 1.29 days). Hence the Equos lunation is not wholly
contained within the month because it always starts at least 24 hours before the
beginning of the first solar day of the month. This systematic “being out” of the
beginning of Equos would be the reason why it was considered anmat.
But, there is another month which is in question, INTERCALARY ONE. There is

very little present in the fragments of this intercalary month, including the bottom
section. If we were to say that INTERCALARY ONE was 29 days long (rather than
the 30 days which has been generally accepted up till now), then we have a perfect
lunar calendar in sync with the actual lunar cycles.
And this 1831 day calendar is what is presented in the table above.
INTERCALARY ONE with 29 DAYS

So why has Intercalary One been thought to have 30 days, rather than the necessary
29 days? There are a couple of reasons. The first is that INTERCALARY TWO
does indeed have 30 days, and it is easy to assume the same for both intercalary
months.
The second is that line 3 of the top fragment of INTERCALARY ONE starts with
MATV (then the fragment breaks), which has been taken to be an extension of the
M(AT) of other months. But, because all the days of an intercalary month are
either copied or dragged from other months, it has no internal MD/D notations of its
own to provide supporting evidence as to whether or not the month is being used as
a MAT month. Even should this be true, as we see from EQUOS, the naming of a
month as MAT or ANM doesn’t necessarily dictate its length under some
circumstances.
On the final Intercalary One fragment, there is a break line running after the last X
of the list of day numbers in Roman numerals, and only one other X visible on the
fragment above it. Some have claimed that there is the downstroke of a V just
visible after the X, giving XV (day 15a, i.e. the 30th day). This may be so, but it is
very difficult to assert with any degree of certainty. Even if this turns out to be
correct, the day XV may have just been marked as the usual DIVERTOMV which
occurs on the ‘virtual’ 30th day of AMN months of 29 ‘real’ days length. Usually an
XV is not marked on the 30th day with DIVERTOMV, but sometimes it is, for
example ANAGANTIOS year 4 reads ‘XV DIVERTOMV’. So, even should this
turn out to be XV for day 30, this does not guarantee that Intercalary One has 30
‘real’ days.
So, is there any reason to consider that INTERCALARY ONE instead has only 29
days – apart from the necessity of keeping the calendar in sync with the moon? The
answer is simple: yes. Each intercalary day is copied from a particular month of
another year, and should INTERCALARY ONE have a 30th day, then this day
would need to be copied from DAY 30 of CANTLOS. But, CANTLOS is an ANM
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month with only 29 days – there is no day there to be copied. Therefore it isn’t
possible for INTERCALARY ONE to have a day 30.
Another reason why Intercalary One should only hold 29 days, is that if it held 30
days, then by the end of the first SAMONIOS half of year 1, there would be 5
months of 30 days and only two months of 29 days. At which point the calendar
month would be already hopelessly out of sync with the lunations by the amount of
nearly one and a half days. And this misalignment would continue to pass down
through the rest of the 5 year cycle. In other words, if Intercalary One had 30 days,
it would throw the calendar’s months significantly out of sync from the very start of
the 5 year cycle. On the other hand, 29 days keeps the calendar in perfect sync for
the 5 years.
COMPARISON OF THE EFFECT of 29 or 30 days in INTERCALARY ONE in

the FIRST YEAR
INTERCALARY ONE AND THE METONIC CYCLE

If the Coligny calendar is part of a larger cycle of years, then the Metonic cycle is a
likely candidate. The Metonic cycle is 19 solar years long and 235 synodic months, a
total of 6940 days. If we take 3 cycles of the Coligny calendar, 15 years, this
contains 5493 days, leaving 1447 days for the remaining 4 years, and a year 13 lunar
months to drop. This is exactly the first year of the calendar that we now have – an
intercalary of 29 days plus 12 lunar months of 355 days.
160
The amazing thing about this is that the Coligny plaque can be used for all four
cycles of a metonic cycle, without ever replacing it!
Below is one way this can be arranged, by dropping the entire first year, including
its 29-day intercalary, and then continuing to cycle through the next 19 years.
THE COLIGNY PLAQUE AS A METONIC CYCLE
Each box below represents the 5-year Coligny plaque. If the first year of 12 lunar
months plus a 29-day intercalary is dropped (highlighted in yellow), then the 4
cycles of the 5-year calendar create a perfect example of a Metonic calendar.
To summarise the case for INTERCALARY ONE being 29 days, rather than 30:
1) This brings the 5 year cycle into sync with the 1831 days required by 62
lunations, and the calendar keeps in perfect time with the moon over a long
period.
2) If the extra day was removed instead from EQUOS year 4, that would cause
year 4 to have lunations significantly too short
3) We have no evidence that INTERCALARY ONE holds 30 days
4) There is no day 30 in CANTLOS which the intercalary month can borrow to
form its day’s notation at day 30.
5) A month of 29 days is needed to balance the run of months in the first half of
year 1 which would otherwise hold 5 of the first 7 months as 30 day MAT
months. A length of 30 days for the intercalary would push the calendar
months out of sync immediately with respect to lunations.
6) An intercalary of 29 days is needed if the calendar is part of a Metonic cycle
calendar. If Intercalary One has 29 days, then by ignoring the first year in
the first cycle to give 4 years, followed by three 5-year cycles, we have a
perfect Metonic cycle calendar, and a bronze plaque which displays all 19
years and never needs replacing by a different version. In other words, the
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Coligny calendar provides us with the complete calendar of the Gauls, not
just a 5-year section as has been previously thought.
SYNCING INDIVIDUAL CALENDAR MONTHS WITH

LUNATIONS
So now we have a 5 year lunar calendar that has the correct number of days to keep
it in alignment with 62 synodic moons. But, this is not good enough just by itself. If
we are to use the internal notations on the calendar as indicative of a certain phase
or day of the moon, then we must also keep each individual month as closely aligned
to the synodic month as possible. That is, the lengths of months in the 5 year cycle
must show a pattern that is quite rigidly controlled, so that each calendar month
starts as closely as possible to the start of a lunation.
We do have a very good indication of what the tolerance of this syncing might be. If
we accept that day 1 of a month is the quarter moon, then the triplets 7-8-9 are the
days around the full moon, while the triplets 7a-8a-9a are the three days of the lost
moon. This gives us a wiggle room of approximately 1.5 days either side of the
actual point of the full moon (midway through day 8) in which it is acceptable for
the full moon to appear. Or expressed another way, 1 day either side of day 8. If
the full moon appeared outside this range then the dragging notations of days 7-8-9
would no longer refer to the full moon phase – and presumably the activities
normally associated with this triplet would no longer be appropriate.
The reason for the calendar months to be aligned to the moon’s phases is purely to
keep daily notations at a certain point in the moon’s phase, in particular to keep the
triplet 7-8-9 at the full moon. It has no impact at all on the pattern of each notation,
as these are determined by patterns that take no concern with the number of days a
month has. For instance, D AMB occurs on days 5 and 11, regardless of how many
days a month holds. The IVOS and TII counters also show us that all months are
considered to have 30 days, even if the DIVERTOMV day of 29-day months is a
‘virtual’ day used only for pattern purposes.
CHOSING THE BEST FITTING EQUOS VALUES FOR YEARS 2 and 4

The following table shows the way the calendar months track with the synodic
months. The first table shows the situation where EQUOS in years 2 and 4 are 28
and 29, while the second table shows when years 2 and 4 are 29 and 28. An
interesting point to note about the first table is that it gives an exact value
(difference 0) half way through the 5 year cycle at Intercalary Two.
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EQUOS 30/28/30/29/30 min -1.41 max 0.91
EQUOS 30/29/30/28/30 min -0.69 max 1.63
Although it may be difficult to see from the above tables, the first table where
EQUOS has the values 30/28/30/29/30 tracks considerably closer to the lunar cycle.
The table below is a graph of the first table above, it simply gives a more graphic
expression to the variation of the differences.
EQUOS 30/28/30/29/30 min -1.41 max 0.91
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EQUOS 30/28/30/29/30 min -1.41 max 0.91 (sorted)

The following table is the same as above, with values sorted. Here we can see how
the difference values waver around the zero (central) value, but are generally within
the expected variation allowed of 1.5 days either side. In fact most values are within
0.5 days either side. Note also that the values are reasonably equally divided either
side of the average value (0.00).
In contrast to the table above, the next table shows how the EQUOS 30/29/30/28/30
is within acceptable limits on the negative side, but pushing past the acceptable
value of 1.5 days on the positive side. But perhaps more significantly the values are
skewed into the positive side, illustrating that the EQUOS values here are not as
close a fit to the month as the 30/28/30/29/30 above.
EQUOS 30/29/30/28/30 min -0.69 max 1.63 (sorted)
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In summary, we can see that with INTERCALARY ONE of 29 days length, and
with EQUOS of 30/28/30/29/30, that the Coligny calendar presents a pattern of
calendar months which closely follows the 62 synodic lunar months of the 5 year
cycle, maintaining itself within a day either side of the exact lunar phase.
The Coligny calendar is not just a lunar calendar, but a lunar calendar which is
designed to track the moon so closely that it is generally well within a day’s
tolerance of the actual lunation at the beginning of each calendar month. Which
makes it one of the most extraordinary calendars of its time, without a doubt.
THE UNEVEN PATTERN OF MAT And ANM MONTHS

The SAMONIOS half of the year holds 4 MAT (30 day) months and 2 ANM (29
day) months. The GIAMONIOS half holds the opposite, 4 ANM months and 2
MAT months, the exception being to the length of EQUOS, as we’ve seen above.
On the surface, this is a strange arrangement. On a lunar calendar, it seems more
straightforward to arrange months in 30/29 pairs, so that they average out to a
length of 29.5 days, close to the lunar length of 29.53. However, such a simple
arrangement would see the calendar drift out of sync by nearly 2 days over the 5
year period.
The other difficulty is that 1831 days cannot be equally divided into two halves. So
that one half of the calendar will contain one day less than the other. In this case,
the first half of the calendar holds 915 days and the second half 916 days. And this
difficulty will also push the calendar further out of sync.
The fascinating thing here is that the Gauls have managed to slightly rearrange the
months and their lengths, so that the two halves of the 5 year cycle each stay in sync
with their 31 lunar months (2.5 years), to the point that GIAMONIOS in year 3 is
exactly in line with Intercalary One. They have done this in part by pushing an
extra MAT (30) month CUTIOS up into the SAMONIOS half of the year.
165
This extra MAT month in the SAMONIOS half has other advantages, one being
that it further complicates the seeming randomness of the calendar’s notations to
the casual observer. And it provides more MAT (good, auspicious) days and
notations in the summer half of the year when most social activities are taking place.
If we were to need proof that the Gauls were superb astronomers, mathematicians,
and philosophers, and all three together, then this is possibly it.
CHECKING THE FULL MOON TOLERANCE

All the above tables are calculated using the end of a full calendar month. But there
is one more thing to check before we can be sure that the above solution is correct,
we must check whether the triplet 7-8-9 always contains the full moon.
Because we can’t tell at what precise point in time the calendar is aligned exactly to
the moon to begin its first year with, I have allocated the very first day 8 of
Intercalary One as zero. By doing this, we can again watch how the values vary
around this point.
The table below shows that the picture presented by the full moon of day 8 is not too
different from the previous table showing the ends of each month, and that the full
moon will always occur within the triplet of days 7-8-9.
FULL MOON (day 8) TRACKING using EQUOS 30/28/30/29/30
ZAVARONI and LUNATIONS

There are two factors that we should also look at more closely before accepting the above
pattern of calendar months. The first has already been mentioned: that the 5 year
calendar, if recycled constantly, slips out of sync by 0.06 days, requiring a day to be
deleted roughly every 83 years. If on the other hand, if it is part of a Metonic cycle, it
slips out of sync by one day in every 219 years.
The other factor is one that has been looked at in some detail by Zavaroni, the fact that a
lunation itself is not a steady value but oscillates around the average lunation value used
above, that of 29.530589 days, or 29 days 12 hours 44 minutes and 3 seconds. Actual
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lunations vary from this average figure in a complex pattern which is dictated by the
eccentric orbits of the moon and earth. Although most lunations fall within a few hours
of the average value, an extreme lunation can be up to nearly 15 hours on either side of
the average. That is, 0.6 of a day.
This chart is taken from http://individual.utoronto.ca/kalendis/lunar/index.htm#trend
Each dot on the curve is the value of an individual lunation as it oscillates around the
average value of 29.53.
There is no easily definable pattern of lunations, each lunation in history is today given a
certain number by different cultures, and has its own unique value.
What it means for this discussion, is that every so often – in cycles of about 111 months –
the the length of a lunation might be pushed out by up to nearly 15 hours either side of
the average value. If we return to the full moon bar chart (last above), we can see that
the full moon would still occur easily within the positive side of the lunation, but if an
extreme lunation of -15 hours occurred with one of the 4 most negative values, then the
full moon would actually occur just over 2 days previously, which is nearly half a day
outside our tolerance limits. This would be a very rare occurrence, but it would still
happen.
However, if this occurred, would the people be able to tell the difference between a full
moon occurring within half a day? I don’t think this is possible using the naked eye. It is
often impossible to tell the difference between two days around the full moon. But,
practiced astronomers would presumably be able to discern the difference.
Or, would the Gaulish astronomers be able to predict these rare negative extremes and
adjust the calendar accordingly? These negative extremes occur when EQUOS is given
28 days in year 2, so it would be relatively easy to make a small adjustment to the
EQUOS pattern to avoid these moments, by giving EQUOS 29 days in year 2 and
removing a day from an adjoining year, either year 1 or year 3. But all this is assuming
that the Gauls could calculate and predict, and I’m not sure that this was possible, or if
possible, appropriate for a lunar calendar to be concerned with to that minute level.
The main reason they might have been concerned to this level, is that it is crucial to know
when the moon is at its full or dark point – in order to help predict potential eclipses. So
my suspicion is that the Gauls would certainly have known how to calculate lunations.
But is this the role of the Coligny calendar? I suspect not. I think that the calendar must
track the lunar phases closely so that the activities and omens indicated by the daily
notations made sense, but it is not designed to provide astronomers with complex
167
calculations. These calculations have been done elsewhere, and the calendar created
from them, not the reverse (as Olmsted and Zavaroni seem to infer). I need also point
out, that while Zavaroni understands the calendar to be focusing on the lunar cycle, he
also believes that the daily notations are concerned with lunations, rather than omens,
which is the main point of difference between our views.
Still, it would not be a good thing if an eclipse happened on an extreme lunation, and it
fell outside the eclipse triplets of full moon 7-8-9 and dark moon 7a-8a-9a.
VARIABLE EQUOS – ANOTHER IDEA

And, just when the story all seems to be coming together, something else entirely pops
up.
Let’s say that the city of Melbourne has commissioned me to create a massive, expensive,
very complex, modern calendar on a huge bronze plaque, for public display at the town
centre. Of course, there is one small problem, if I were to make it with February having
28 days, then I would have to pull it down every fourth year and make a second hugely
expensive calendar with the extra day of February 29 to put in its place. Well, that
would be unacceptable. So what would I do? I would create the plaque with 29 days in
February, and because it is a PEG calendar, if the year actually only has 28 days, then I’ll
place a special peg in the hole of the 29th day to indicate that it isn’t being used this year.
So, what if the Gaulish artisans did exactly the same thing? Would it be so surprising if
the bronze plaque shows EQUOS with 30 days carved across all years? This would then
allow the astronomers to mark certain instances of EQUOS with the 30th day to ignore,
simply by putting a special peg in its hole. And this pattern of when EQUOS was either
29 or 30 could then be adjusted according to how the actual lunatations of that year are
moving. For example, if a lunation is predicted to be in the extreme negative end, then
allowing that year’s EQUOS to be 29 days long would make for a very simple and
flexible system of adjustment.
So, even though we can see that years 1, 3, and 5 on the calendar are carved with 30 days,
it may not necessarily be the case that these months were normally considered to contain
30 days, but could have been reduced to 29 days.
And it also takes care of something else which has never felt right – that if EQUOS really
did have 30 days in years 1, 3 and 5, then this requires EQUOS year 2 to only have 28
days. Which in a calendar that otherwise moves to adjust itself through a variation of 29
and 30 days, seems really very odd and uncomfortable indeed. But now we are free to
allocate two 30 day months and three 29 day months to EQUOS in whatever pattern is
required across the five years.
As we’ve seen above, the 5 year calendar as we have on the bronze plaque of Coligny is
in general a finely-tuned lunar calendar. But, rarely, but every so often, it will require
EQUOS to gain or lose a day, in order to keep it closely in sync with the variable
lunations or with the unavoidable slippage of one day every 83 (or 219) years.
If the Gauls were creating a new calendar every 5 years this potential adjustment might
be taken care of each cycle when deemed necessary. But there is a problem with that.
The Coligny calendar shows distinct signs of being copied from a much earlier calendar.
Mistakes such as TRINO for PRINO show that the carvers no longer fully understood
these notations. There are also parallex mistakes where the correct notation has been
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miscopied onto the wrong line, and so on, again suggesting that the Coligny calendar is a
copy of a far older one.
But now it seems possible for the Gauls to traditionally have had just the one calendar (as
we do), but with the flexibility built into it to readjust the values of EQUOS as the
lunations fall, by the simple device of allowing EQUOS to be carved with 30 days on all
years, and a special peg to put on EQUOS day 30 when it wasn’t needed
Should this be the case, then a lot of what is said above will need to be rethought. For
instance, despite EQUOS showing 30 days in year 1, it might have effectively only been
allowed 29 in most years. We could be looking at EQUOS values of 29/29/30/29/30 for
example. This would eliminate the most negative differences in the graphs above – when
EQUOS is given the unique and strange value of only 28 days.
Note that while the pattern of whether EQUOS has 29 or 30 days is flexible, it stills
means that Intercalary One is best with 29 days, and that EQUOS needs to have the same
total of days over the five years.
I have now looked at how best the values of EQUOS would sit around an average
lunation, and compared it to the values settled on above, 30/28/30/29/30 (series one). It
turns out that there are only two likely candidate patterns that are better and that track the
moon closely enough to work with the average lunation value. Those values are
30/29/29/29/30 (series two) and 29/30/29/29/30 (series three).
EQUOS PATTERN FROM TO TOTAL RANGE
Series 1 30/28/30/29/30 -1.41 0.91 2.32
Series 2 30/29/29/29/30 -0.69 1.00 1.69
Series 3 29/30/29/29/30 -1.03 1.00 2.03
The two graphs below compare the differences of series 2 and 3 respectively to our
original series 1.
COMPARING LUNAR DIFFERENCES
Series1 EQUOS 30/28/30/29/30
Series2 EQUOS 30/29/29/29/30
169
This pattern of EQUOS oscillates the closest around the average lunation value. It has
much the same spread in the positive, but shaves approximately 0.7 days off the negative.
This has the advantage of allowing for the extreme lunation values in either positive or
negative values without exceeding the tolerance of a total of three days.
COMPARING LUNAR DIFFERENCES

Series1 EQUOS 30/28/30/29/30
Series3 EQUOS 29/30/29/29/30
170
This pattern of 30/29/29/29/30 also is a tighter fit to the average lunations. Again it
shaves off those troublesome large negative values which are created with EQUOS of 28
days in year 2. The negative side of Series 3 is not as close a fit as the pattern of Series 2
above, but it is still comfortably within the range which will allow the extreme lunation
values to be added without exceeding the tolerance value of 3 days.
There is little to chose between these two series of EQUOS values, although Series 2
EQUOS 30/29/29/29/30 is strictly speaking the best fit. Which means, in the end, I still
can’t tell exactly what the ‘usual’ EQUOS pattern would be. But in assuming that the
plaque is carved with 30 days in EQUOS in all years, a wonderful flexibility is built into
the calendar by which it can be finely adjusted according to current lunation patterns.
And it means that the bronze plaque could well be the only physical calendar that the
Gauls ever needed, as it can be adjusted on the fly, simply by inserting a peg.
There is one significant reason, though, to choose Series 2 as the ‘norm’. It is that by
having the first year of the calendar start with an intercalary of 29 days, and EQUOS of
30 days, this means that we find ourselves with a METONIC CYCLE inbuilt into the
calendar. The 19-year Metonic cycle would run starting in year 2 for the rest of the 4
years of the cycle, then through three more full cycles of 5 years. And if the metonic
cycle was used by the Gauls as a larger cycle of time, then they could also use the same
bronze plaque for all years, simply by marking the first year to be ignored during the 4
year cycle of the 19 year cycle. [LINK here to SOLAR]
So I end with another possible version of the shape of the calendar, incorporating Series
2. After all this, there is only one difference with the shape that I started with - EQUOS
years 2 and 3 are now both 29 days long, rather than 28 and 30 respectively.
171
And I will now repeat here, with EQUOS as 30/29/29/29/30, the full Metonic cycle as
laid out in the Coligny calendar by using 4 cycles end to end, but ignoring the very first
year.
172
METONIC CYCLE of the COLIGNY CALENDAR

173
Appendix III: Alternative Gaulish History
The following is a pastiche of what an alternative history of Western Europe might have
looked like, creating an environment in which the Gaulish language might have survived
and flourished.
52 BCE:
Uercingetorix (Gwerchingethrich) wins the battle of Alesia and the war. The Romans are
decimated at the battle of Alesia, and Caesar is captured. The tribes of Gaul unite and set
up a federation of nations, which also includes the people of Britain and Ireland, that
brings into being and maintains a common armed force based on voluntary contributions
alone and operates as a professional unit. The natural borders of Gaul are reinforced and
provided with armed forces to keep safe; Gaul is defined as the area between the Rhine,
the Alps, the Mediterranean, the Pyrenees and the Atlantic.

The Federation of Gaulish, British and Irish Tribes (commonly referred to as FGBIT; in
English that is) hold a tribunal which is attended by all people who wish to do so, and
which is administrated by druids. Caesar is tried fairly under the native laws of the land,
and is found to be a murdering sadist genocidal bastard. A Roman delegation is invited to
witness the tribunal and the verdict. Caesar is executed in some satisfyingly horrific
fashion. The Romans are told to piss off and don't come back. They bugger off and
retreat behind the Alps, where they spend the next 400 years fighting, murdering,
backstabbing and poisoning each other merrily with not a care in the world.

The Germanic people fidgeting behind the Rhine, being pushed in the back by the
movements of miscellaneous horseriding invaders from the East, find they can not get
across the Rhine and past the armed forces of FGBIT. Instead they turn south and follow
the Rhine's east bank in through Eastern Switserland and down into Italy. They spend a
certain amount of time happily murdering, poisoning, massacring and, at a stretch, back
stabbing each other as well as various Romans. They catch a boat from Sicily and make it
to Northern Africa; some poke up back across from Gibraltar and manage to stay in
Andalusia long enough to give it its name. They rule Spain and Italy, but not Gaul or
Britain. The Frisians, Angles and Jutes are shoved back into the North Sea and are told to
stay away if they know what's good for them, and Vortigern was drowned at birth after a
seeress looked into the innards of a freshly sacrificed chicken and saw, not surprisingly, a
bloody mess. His parents weren't too fussed, because he used to wake up ten times a
night and scream their ears off, so that was all right. And they had another 12 kids
anyway, so it didn't really matter.

Gaul, Britain and Ireland were left alone to develop their own distinctive culture. Their
languages continued to flourish and develop into the instruments of great learning and
understanding they were in ancient times, continuing a tradition tentatively recorded in
Gaul and featuring such things as the development of the investigative inclinations of the
druidic mob of people, having yearly congregations in the area of Chartres to discuss
174
science, philosophy and the conspicuous consumption of beer (back in the real world,
prior to the 16th century the vernacular language in which the single biggest body of
medical literature was written, outside of Latin and Greek, was Irish).

As an aside I think it would probably be useful to include that the library of Alexandria
was never burned down, continues to flourish to this day as a centre of great learning,
connected to the university of Alexandria, and that christianity as a religion never got any
further than an insignificant mystical nonsense-sect shared by no more than a handful of
stoned paranoid fanatics crawling around the Judean deserts, eating mushrooms and
cockroaches, and spending altogether far too much time in the midday sun without a hat
and sunscreen. Their incoherent ramblings and ravings were commonly tolerated and
indulged by their country people, who, out of the kindness of their hearts, would give
them food and water sometimes and bring their kids around to watch them scratch around
in the dirt trying to find their own arse, just for a bit of mild entertainment.

Islam, on the other hand, never got off the ground at all. On the day Mohammed was
supposed to flee to Medina, he slept in because he had a late night the night before,
indulging himself in sex with underage camels and partaking a bit too heavily of date-
wine. Therefore he forgot to set his alarm, and instead of fleeing to Medina he got
arrested for his long term refusal to pay the outstanding parking fines for his camels. As a
result he spent the rest of his days tied to a yoke and walking around in circles pulling
buckets of water out of desert wells, with as his only company a donkey, a mule and a
camel who, to Mohammed's deep and everlasting regret, steadfastly refused his sexual
advances. As his was a mind naturally given to esoteric and mystical religious
contemplation, spending every waking hour walking around in circles and dragging his
feet through the dirt without ever getting anywhere suited him perfectly, and he lived out
his days in ecstacy, dying peacefully at the ripe old age of 93 1/2, in his bed surrounded
by all his favourite camels, and one goat, because his sexual appetites had become
somewhat deviant in his old age.

As a result, untold millions of people missed out on being butchered, slaughtered,
tortured, murdered, subjugated, indoctrinated, exploited, enslaved, castrated, burned and
dehumanised. In spite of this obvious handicap, the whole of the middle east, northern
Africa and Eastern Europe passed though a 2000 year period of prosperity, cooperation
and tolerance, which, I am happy to say, continues unabatedly to this day.

All thanks to Vercingetorix. Good on him, I say.

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The Modern Gaulish Language

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1

The Gaulish Language 9

The treatment of geminate consonants 25

Standard plural formation 61

Historical compound nouns 101

III. References/ Bibliography 141

Appendix I: Galataca Sena 150

Appendix II: The Coligny Calendar by Helen McKay 153

Gwer in Cingen Galáthach

Ponch ré hái mi on methin, en havónal anel bren w. I wo m, in a creek, below a

Ponch ré hái mi on methin, en lhóchu gwevrúach wIwom, in amber

The Gaulish language

The Gaulish language is reasonably well attested, if imperfectly. There is a certain

While the process of reconstructing or reassembling a language is challenging, it has been

Historical Survival of Minority Languages

Broadly speaking, the hypothetical proposed evolution of Gaulish is characterised by two

Designation of the Gauls: Keltoi

Keltoi versus Galatae

Designation of the Gaulish language

The language speaks

An indication of the phonetical and grammatical evolution of the language may be

In modern Gaulish this is rendered as follows:

Finally, it is possible to produce a representation of the famous last words of Dumnorix,

emmi uiros rios ex toutia ria

esi mi gwir ríu e dóth ríu

I am a free man from a free nation

neí anmanbe gniíou ape niteme ueííe

These are augmented by the following consonants:

ch, dh, gh, lh, nh, rh, th, gw, chw

and the following diphthongs:

au, ái, éi, ói, úi

The various sounds represented by the above are discussed below.

The short vowels are: a e o u i

The long vowels are: á é ó ú í.

The diphthongs are: au, ái, éi, ói, úi

gwerúach = [gweru:ax] (feral)

The basic consonants of the Gaulish language are:

As mentioned above, in addition to these regular consonants Gaulish also has:

ch = [x] as in Scottish loch

lh = [xl] an /l/ preceded by [x]

Lastly, Gaulish has the semi-vowels: w, i

w = [w] as in English will

Of these, w never occurs freestanding: it is always adjacent to other consonants, and

ái = [a:j], “to go”

Classical “Caratacos” > Welsh “Caradog” (voicing of voiceless stops)

The above instances can be summarised as follows:

In the above, the grapheme “x” is considered to represent the spirantisation of

In addition to the above, there is widespread academic agreement on the disappearance of

-Cg- > -Cγ- (e.g. argant- > arxant-)

-VgV- > -ViV- (e.g. brogil- > breial-)

Classical Gaulish > Modern Gaulish

dago > dái (good)

This therefore produces the diphthongs:

ái, éi, ói, úi

in addition to the vowel inventory discussed previously.

This indicates that:

argant- > arganthoneia: -nt- > -nth-

The Tau Gallicum in Gaulish, represented by a wide variety of graphemes including đ,

e.g.: neđđamon > nesaf (“next” - Welsh)

Therefore, the change postulated for the Tau Galicum is:

st, ts, đ > s

The group –ct-

e.g.: lact- > lait (“milk”, French)

The group -sc