Welcome to the /r/Gaulish wiki!
What is Gaulish?
Gaulish is an extinct Celtic language that was once spoken primarily in Western and Central Europe from c.800 BCE to c.500 CE by a number of Celtic peoples known collectively in modern times as the Gauls. Gaulish evolved from the Proto-Celtic language which was also likely spoken in Western and Central Europe from c.1500 BC to c.800 BC by which point it had developed into the early forms of the main branches of the Celtic language family. Migration by Celtic tribes in the 4th and 3rd centuries BCE would see Celtic languages spread down the Danube into the Balkans and Anatolia and likely migrations by Gaulish-speakers into other Celtic-speaking regions as well, leaving the exact boundaries of Gaulish and its relationship to other ancient Celtic languages uncertain.
Gaulish is attested through hundreds of (often fragmentary) inscriptions as well as personal names, placenames, and a few hundred words that survived in French and Occitan. Some of these French borrowings would even enter English, giving us words such as "chariot" and "ambassador".
An example of an inscription can be seen in this religious dedication found carved into stone near the remains of a building in Alesia, the site of the famous battle where Julius Caesar defeated Vercingetorix:
| Martialis Dannotali ieuru Ucuete sosin celicnon, etic gobedbi dugiiontiio Ucuetin in Alisiia. |
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| Martialis, son of Dannotalos, dedicates this *celicnon to Ucuetis, together with the smiths who (worship) Ucuetis in Alesia |
*The meaning of the word celicnon is uncertain. Most scholars believe it's the word for the building where the inscription was found
After the Gauls were conquered by the Romans, Gaulish would be replaced by Latin as the language of law, trade, and education, and over the course of the early first millennium CE, vulgar Latin would gradually become the common language of all Continental Celtic peoples.