The Obituary
Gaulish was the Continental Celtic language spoken across Gaul, roughly modern France and neighbouring lands, before and during the Roman period. It was recorded in inscriptions using Greek, Etruscan, and Latin alphabets, though much of its religious and oral tradition was deliberately never written. After Julius Caesar’s conquest in the 50s BCE, Latin steadily displaced it, especially in towns and trade. Gaulish lingered in the countryside, by some accounts into the 5th or 6th century CE, before dissolving entirely into the Latin that would become French.
Worth remembering
- It was the language of the druids, who by Caesar's report forbade their lore from being written down.
- A scatter of Gaulish words survives in modern French, including possibly 'chêne' (oak) and 'char' (cart).
Sources
- Gaulish was a Continental Celtic language spoken in Gaul, gradually replaced by Vulgar Latin after the Roman conquest. Wikipedia
- Gaulish is thought to have survived into the 5th or 6th century CE before being supplanted by Latin. Encyclopaedia Britannica
A graveyard tradition: leave a stone to show you came, and remembered.