Gaulish influence on French
The fact is that the Gaulish language had some influence on French. The Gauls, from
whom many French people are descended, spoke a Celtic language. It was probably a P-Celtic
language, like Welsh, and not a Q-Celtic language like Irish. During my school years, my French
teacher actually told me that the very odd French way of counting the numbers 70 to 99 is based
on the old Celtic way of counting by twenties-counting by the score. So "quatre-vingts" equals
80. All France still uses this system, as do the former colonies, but Belgium no longer does.
Gauls and the Celtic language
However, it's not just that. The Gauls started out using a Celtic language that was distinct
from Latin, yet with some correspondences between the two. According to "Empires of the
Word: A Language History of the World" by Nicholas Ostler, the form of Celtic spoken in Gaul
was grammatically closer to Latin than that spoken in Britain. The Ancient Britons spoke a
Celtic language that was already more distinct. So, when Gaul was a Roman province, the thing
to do was to learn Latin, if you wanted to be educated or important. This did not preclude a use
of Gaulish as well, but the fact was that Latin began to seem too useful, too important to avoid,
and people began to make the fatal mistake of thinking their own language was worthless, or
shameful. But the author says, or implies, that Latin would not seem too outlandish or difficult.
The Gauls would "get" Latin, whereas the Britons resisted assimilation. It was easier for the
Gauls to see Latin as their language. Meanwhile, if educated, the Ancient Britons could learn to
speak Latin amazingly well, with perfect grammar even after the Romans left Britain. But they
did not lose their own tongues. On the other hand, as late antiquity turned into the Dark Ages,
people on the continent trying to write classical Latin made silly mistakes, because the rough
version of Vulgar Latin that they spoke interfered with it. By this time, of course, Gaulish would
have become Vulgar Latin, albeit with some Gaulish vocabulary added. I will come back to this
later.
Vulgar Latin
But what of Vulgar Latin itself? Another author, whose books I read about the Ancient
Celts, said that a number of Celtic words made their way into Latin itself. I can think of bracciae,
the Latin word for trousers/pants (bragas in Spanish, although there it means stockings or lady's
tights). That came from Gaulish, in classical times. Vulgar Latin was spread partly by the Roman
army, which adopted a fair number of Gaulish words and phrases. So we have the have the
league, a unit of length, which came from leuga Gallica the Latin word for this Gaulish unit of
length. The modern French word for this is lieu. There were other words of Gaulish origin,
which also made it into other Romance languages. For example, embassade (Fr.) embajada (Sp.)
and embassy. French retained some other Gaulish words, such as "bruyere" briars, and "lande"
which means an empty, uncultivated area. This has nothing to do with our word "land." which
comes from the Germanic languages, and is attested in other Germanic languages, from Gothic
onwards.
Another interesting point: some French researchers used computer algorithms to discover
other influences. What they found was that the gender of Latin words was changed in early
French to what the Gaulish gender had been. For example: "Mare (sea), had a neutral gender in
Latin, but in French it is feminine "LA mer."
What I think has happened is that a lot of French vocabulary is of Latin origin, but with
some Gaulish influence. The number of Gaulish words would have been greater in medieval
times, because a higher proportion of those Gaulish words that survived pertained to agriculture,
flora and fauna, etc.
Curiously enough, our own dear English language is Germanic. However, it has been
influenced by both French and Latin. Thus, there was a slight Gaulish influence on English too.
The fact is that the Gaulish language had some influence on French. The Gauls, from
whom many French people are descended, spoke a Celtic language. It was probably a P-Celtic
language, like Welsh, and not a Q-Celtic language like Irish. During my school years, my French
teacher actually told me that the very odd French way of counting the numbers 70 to 99 is based
on the old Celtic way of counting by twenties-counting by the score. So "quatre-vingts" equals
80. All France still uses this system, as do the former colonies, but Belgium no longer does.
Gauls and the Celtic language
However, it's not just that. The Gauls started out using a Celtic language that was distinct
from Latin, yet with some correspondences between the two. According to "Empires of the
Word: A Language History of the World" by Nicholas Ostler, the form of Celtic spoken in Gaul
was grammatically closer to Latin than that spoken in Britain. The Ancient Britons spoke a
Celtic language that was already more distinct. So, when Gaul was a Roman province, the thing
to do was to learn Latin, if you wanted to be educated or important. This did not preclude a use
of Gaulish as well, but the fact was that Latin began to seem too useful, too important to avoid,
and people began to make the fatal mistake of thinking their own language was worthless, or
shameful. But the author says, or implies, that Latin would not seem too outlandish or difficult.
The Gauls would "get" Latin, whereas the Britons resisted assimilation. It was easier for the
Gauls to see Latin as their language. Meanwhile, if educated, the Ancient Britons could learn to
speak Latin amazingly well, with perfect grammar even after the Romans left Britain. But they
did not lose their own tongues. On the other hand, as late antiquity turned into the Dark Ages,
people on the continent trying to write classical Latin made silly mistakes, because the rough
version of Vulgar Latin that they spoke interfered with it. By this time, of course, Gaulish would
have become Vulgar Latin, albeit with some Gaulish vocabulary added. I will come back to this
later.
Vulgar Latin
But what of Vulgar Latin itself? Another author, whose books I read about the Ancient
Celts, said that a number of Celtic words made their way into Latin itself. I can think of bracciae,
the Latin word for trousers/pants (bragas in Spanish, although there it means stockings or lady's
tights). That came from Gaulish, in classical times. Vulgar Latin was spread partly by the Roman
army, which adopted a fair number of Gaulish words and phrases. So we have the have the
league, a unit of length, which came from leuga Gallica the Latin word for this Gaulish unit of
length. The modern French word for this is lieu. There were other words of Gaulish origin,
which also made it into other Romance languages. For example, embassade (Fr.) embajada (Sp.)
and embassy. French retained some other Gaulish words, such as "bruyere" briars, and "lande"
which means an empty, uncultivated area. This has nothing to do with our word "land." which
comes from the Germanic languages, and is attested in other Germanic languages, from Gothic
onwards.
Another interesting point: some French researchers used computer algorithms to discover
other influences. What they found was that the gender of Latin words was changed in early
French to what the Gaulish gender had been. For example: "Mare (sea), had a neutral gender in
Latin, but in French it is feminine "LA mer."
What I think has happened is that a lot of French vocabulary is of Latin origin, but with
some Gaulish influence. The number of Gaulish words would have been greater in medieval
times, because a higher proportion of those Gaulish words that survived pertained to agriculture,
flora and fauna, etc.
Curiously enough, our own dear English language is Germanic. However, it has been
influenced by both French and Latin. Thus, there was a slight Gaulish influence on English too.
The fact is that the Gaulish language had some influence on French. The Gauls, from
whom many French people are descended, spoke a Celtic language. It was probably a P-Celtic
language, like Welsh, and not a Q-Celtic language like Irish. During my school years, my French
teacher actually told me that the very odd French way of counting the numbers 70 to 99 is based
on the old Celtic way of counting by twenties-counting by the score. So "quatre-vingts" equals
80. All France still uses this system, as do the former colonies, but Belgium no longer does.
Gauls and the Celtic language
However, it's not just that. The Gauls started out using a Celtic language that was distinct
from Latin, yet with some correspondences between the two. According to "Empires of the
Word: A Language History of the World" by Nicholas Ostler, the form of Celtic spoken in Gaul
was grammatically closer to Latin than that spoken in Britain. The Ancient Britons spoke a
Celtic language that was already more distinct. So, when Gaul was a Roman province, the thing
to do was to learn Latin, if you wanted to be educated or important. This did not preclude a use
of Gaulish as well, but the fact was that Latin began to seem too useful, too important to avoid,
and people began to make the fatal mistake of thinking their own language was worthless, or
shameful. But the author says, or implies, that Latin would not seem too outlandish or difficult.
The Gauls would "get" Latin, whereas the Britons resisted assimilation. It was easier for the
Gauls to see Latin as their language. Meanwhile, if educated, the Ancient Britons could learn to
speak Latin amazingly well, with perfect grammar even after the Romans left Britain. But they
did not lose their own tongues. On the other hand, as late antiquity turned into the Dark Ages,
people on the continent trying to write classical Latin made silly mistakes, because the rough
version of Vulgar Latin that they spoke interfered with it. By this time, of course, Gaulish would
have become Vulgar Latin, albeit with some Gaulish vocabulary added. I will come back to this
later.
Vulgar Latin
But what of Vulgar Latin itself? Another author, whose books I read about the Ancient
Celts, said that a number of Celtic words made their way into Latin itself. I can think of bracciae,
the Latin word for trousers/pants (bragas in Spanish, although there it means stockings or lady's
tights). That came from Gaulish, in classical times. Vulgar Latin was spread partly by the Roman
army, which adopted a fair number of Gaulish words and phrases. So we have the have the
league, a unit of length, which came from leuga Gallica the Latin word for this Gaulish unit of
length. The modern French word for this is lieu. There were other words of Gaulish origin,
which also made it into other Romance languages. For example, embassade (Fr.) embajada (Sp.)
and embassy. French retained some other Gaulish words, such as "bruyere" briars, and "lande"
which means an empty, uncultivated area. This has nothing to do with our word "land." which
comes from the Germanic languages, and is attested in other Germanic languages, from Gothic
onwards.
Another interesting point: some French researchers used computer algorithms to discover
other influences. What they found was that the gender of Latin words was changed in early
French to what the Gaulish gender had been. For example: "Mare (sea), had a neutral gender in
Latin, but in French it is feminine "LA mer."
What I think has happened is that a lot of French vocabulary is of Latin origin, but with
some Gaulish influence. The number of Gaulish words would have been greater in medieval
times, because a higher proportion of those Gaulish words that survived pertained to agriculture,
flora and fauna, etc.
Curiously enough, our own dear English language is Germanic. However, it has been
influenced by both French and Latin. Thus, there was a slight Gaulish influence on English too.
The fact is that the Gaulish language had some influence on French. The Gauls, from
whom many French people are descended, spoke a Celtic language. It was probably a P-Celtic
language, like Welsh, and not a Q-Celtic language like Irish. During my school years, my French
teacher actually told me that the very odd French way of counting the numbers 70 to 99 is based
on the old Celtic way of counting by twenties-counting by the score. So "quatre-vingts" equals
80. All France still uses this system, as do the former colonies, but Belgium no longer does.
Gauls and the Celtic language
However, it's not just that. The Gauls started out using a Celtic language that was distinct
from Latin, yet with some correspondences between the two. According to "Empires of the
Word: A Language History of the World" by Nicholas Ostler, the form of Celtic spoken in Gaul
was grammatically closer to Latin than that spoken in Britain. The Ancient Britons spoke a
Celtic language that was already more distinct. So, when Gaul was a Roman province, the thing
to do was to learn Latin, if you wanted to be educated or important. This did not preclude a use
of Gaulish as well, but the fact was that Latin began to seem too useful, too important to avoid,
and people began to make the fatal mistake of thinking their own language was worthless, or
shameful. But the author says, or implies, that Latin would not seem too outlandish or difficult.
The Gauls would "get" Latin, whereas the Britons resisted assimilation. It was easier for the
Gauls to see Latin as their language. Meanwhile, if educated, the Ancient Britons could learn to
speak Latin amazingly well, with perfect grammar even after the Romans left Britain. But they
did not lose their own tongues. On the other hand, as late antiquity turned into the Dark Ages,
people on the continent trying to write classical Latin made silly mistakes, because the rough
version of Vulgar Latin that they spoke interfered with it. By this time, of course, Gaulish would
have become Vulgar Latin, albeit with some Gaulish vocabulary added. I will come back to this
later.
Vulgar Latin
But what of Vulgar Latin itself? Another author, whose books I read about the Ancient
Celts, said that a number of Celtic words made their way into Latin itself. I can think of bracciae,
the Latin word for trousers/pants (bragas in Spanish, although there it means stockings or lady's
tights). That came from Gaulish, in classical times. Vulgar Latin was spread partly by the Roman
army, which adopted a fair number of Gaulish words and phrases. So we have the have the
league, a unit of length, which came from leuga Gallica the Latin word for this Gaulish unit of
length. The modern French word for this is lieu. There were other words of Gaulish origin,
which also made it into other Romance languages. For example, embassade (Fr.) embajada (Sp.)
and embassy. French retained some other Gaulish words, such as "bruyere" briars, and "lande"
which means an empty, uncultivated area. This has nothing to do with our word "land." which
comes from the Germanic languages, and is attested in other Germanic languages, from Gothic
onwards.
Another interesting point: some French researchers used computer algorithms to discover
other influences. What they found was that the gender of Latin words was changed in early
French to what the Gaulish gender had been. For example: "Mare (sea), had a neutral gender in
Latin, but in French it is feminine "LA mer."
What I think has happened is that a lot of French vocabulary is of Latin origin, but with
some Gaulish influence. The number of Gaulish words would have been greater in medieval
times, because a higher proportion of those Gaulish words that survived pertained to agriculture,
flora and fauna, etc.
Curiously enough, our own dear English language is Germanic. However, it has been
influenced by both French and Latin. Thus, there was a slight Gaulish influence on English too.
The fact is that the Gaulish language had some influence on French. The Gauls, from
whom many French people are descended, spoke a Celtic language. It was probably a P-Celtic
language, like Welsh, and not a Q-Celtic language like Irish. During my school years, my French
teacher actually told me that the very odd French way of counting the numbers 70 to 99 is based
on the old Celtic way of counting by twenties-counting by the score. So "quatre-vingts" equals
80. All France still uses this system, as do the former colonies, but Belgium no longer does.
Gauls and the Celtic language
However, it's not just that. The Gauls started out using a Celtic language that was distinct
from Latin, yet with some correspondences between the two. According to "Empires of the
Word: A Language History of the World" by Nicholas Ostler, the form of Celtic spoken in Gaul
was grammatically closer to Latin than that spoken in Britain. The Ancient Britons spoke a
Celtic language that was already more distinct. So, when Gaul was a Roman province, the thing
to do was to learn Latin, if you wanted to be educated or important. This did not preclude a use
of Gaulish as well, but the fact was that Latin began to seem too useful, too important to avoid,
and people began to make the fatal mistake of thinking their own language was worthless, or
shameful. But the author says, or implies, that Latin would not seem too outlandish or difficult.
The Gauls would "get" Latin, whereas the Britons resisted assimilation. It was easier for the
Gauls to see Latin as their language. Meanwhile, if educated, the Ancient Britons could learn to
speak Latin amazingly well, with perfect grammar even after the Romans left Britain. But they
did not lose their own tongues. On the other hand, as late antiquity turned into the Dark Ages,
people on the continent trying to write classical Latin made silly mistakes, because the rough
version of Vulgar Latin that they spoke interfered with it. By this time, of course, Gaulish would
have become Vulgar Latin, albeit with some Gaulish vocabulary added. I will come back to this
later.
Vulgar Latin
But what of Vulgar Latin itself? Another author, whose books I read about the Ancient
Celts, said that a number of Celtic words made their way into Latin itself. I can think of bracciae,
the Latin word for trousers/pants (bragas in Spanish, although there it means stockings or lady's
tights). That came from Gaulish, in classical times. Vulgar Latin was spread partly by the Roman
army, which adopted a fair number of Gaulish words and phrases. So we have the have the
league, a unit of length, which came from leuga Gallica the Latin word for this Gaulish unit of
length. The modern French word for this is lieu. There were other words of Gaulish origin,
which also made it into other Romance languages. For example, embassade (Fr.) embajada (Sp.)
and embassy. French retained some other Gaulish words, such as "bruyere" briars, and "lande"
which means an empty, uncultivated area. This has nothing to do with our word "land." which
comes from the Germanic languages, and is attested in other Germanic languages, from Gothic
onwards.
Another interesting point: some French researchers used computer algorithms to discover
other influences. What they found was that the gender of Latin words was changed in early
French to what the Gaulish gender had been. For example: "Mare (sea), had a neutral gender in
Latin, but in French it is feminine "LA mer."
What I think has happened is that a lot of French vocabulary is of Latin origin, but with
some Gaulish influence. The number of Gaulish words would have been greater in medieval
times, because a higher proportion of those Gaulish words that survived pertained to agriculture,
flora and fauna, etc.
Curiously enough, our own dear English language is Germanic. However, it has been
influenced by both French and Latin. Thus, there was a slight Gaulish influence on English too.
The fact is that the Gaulish language had some influence on French. The Gauls, from
whom many French people are descended, spoke a Celtic language. It was probably a P-Celtic
language, like Welsh, and not a Q-Celtic language like Irish. During my school years, my French
teacher actually told me that the very odd French way of counting the numbers 70 to 99 is based
on the old Celtic way of counting by twenties-counting by the score. So "quatre-vingts" equals
80. All France still uses this system, as do the former colonies, but Belgium no longer does.
Gauls and the Celtic language
However, it's not just that. The Gauls started out using a Celtic language that was distinct
from Latin, yet with some correspondences between the two. According to "Empires of the
Word: A Language History of the World" by Nicholas Ostler, the form of Celtic spoken in Gaul
was grammatically closer to Latin than that spoken in Britain. The Ancient Britons spoke a
Celtic language that was already more distinct. So, when Gaul was a Roman province, the thing
to do was to learn Latin, if you wanted to be educated or important. This did not preclude a use
of Gaulish as well, but the fact was that Latin began to seem too useful, too important to avoid,
and people began to make the fatal mistake of thinking their own language was worthless, or
shameful. But the author says, or implies, that Latin would not seem too outlandish or difficult.
The Gauls would "get" Latin, whereas the Britons resisted assimilation. It was easier for the
Gauls to see Latin as their language. Meanwhile, if educated, the Ancient Britons could learn to
speak Latin amazingly well, with perfect grammar even after the Romans left Britain. But they
did not lose their own tongues. On the other hand, as late antiquity turned into the Dark Ages,
people on the continent trying to write classical Latin made silly mistakes, because the rough
version of Vulgar Latin that they spoke interfered with it. By this time, of course, Gaulish would
have become Vulgar Latin, albeit with some Gaulish vocabulary added. I will come back to this
later.
Vulgar Latin
But what of Vulgar Latin itself? Another author, whose books I read about the Ancient
Celts, said that a number of Celtic words made their way into Latin itself. I can think of bracciae,
the Latin word for trousers/pants (bragas in Spanish, although there it means stockings or lady's
tights). That came from Gaulish, in classical times. Vulgar Latin was spread partly by the Roman
army, which adopted a fair number of Gaulish words and phrases. So we have the have the
league, a unit of length, which came from leuga Gallica the Latin word for this Gaulish unit of
length. The modern French word for this is lieu. There were other words of Gaulish origin,
which also made it into other Romance languages. For example, embassade (Fr.) embajada (Sp.)
and embassy. French retained some other Gaulish words, such as "bruyere" briars, and "lande"
which means an empty, uncultivated area. This has nothing to do with our word "land." which
comes from the Germanic languages, and is attested in other Germanic languages, from Gothic
onwards.
Another interesting point: some French researchers used computer algorithms to discover
other influences. What they found was that the gender of Latin words was changed in early
French to what the Gaulish gender had been. For example: "Mare (sea), had a neutral gender in
Latin, but in French it is feminine "LA mer."
What I think has happened is that a lot of French vocabulary is of Latin origin, but with
some Gaulish influence. The number of Gaulish words would have been greater in medieval
times, because a higher proportion of those Gaulish words that survived pertained to agriculture,
flora and fauna, etc.
Curiously enough, our own dear English language is Germanic. However, it has been
influenced by both French and Latin. Thus, there was a slight Gaulish influence on English too.
The fact is that the Gaulish language had some influence on French. The Gauls, from
whom many French people are descended, spoke a Celtic language. It was probably a P-Celtic
language, like Welsh, and not a Q-Celtic language like Irish. During my school years, my French
teacher actually told me that the very odd French way of counting the numbers 70 to 99 is based
on the old Celtic way of counting by twenties-counting by the score. So "quatre-vingts" equals
80. All France still uses this system, as do the former colonies, but Belgium no longer does.
Gauls and the Celtic language
However, it's not just that. The Gauls started out using a Celtic language that was distinct
from Latin, yet with some correspondences between the two. According to "Empires of the
Word: A Language History of the World" by Nicholas Ostler, the form of Celtic spoken in Gaul
was grammatically closer to Latin than that spoken in Britain. The Ancient Britons spoke a
Celtic language that was already more distinct. So, when Gaul was a Roman province, the thing
to do was to learn Latin, if you wanted to be educated or important. This did not preclude a use
of Gaulish as well, but the fact was that Latin began to seem too useful, too important to avoid,
and people began to make the fatal mistake of thinking their own language was worthless, or
shameful. But the author says, or implies, that Latin would not seem too outlandish or difficult.
The Gauls would "get" Latin, whereas the Britons resisted assimilation. It was easier for the
Gauls to see Latin as their language. Meanwhile, if educated, the Ancient Britons could learn to
speak Latin amazingly well, with perfect grammar even after the Romans left Britain. But they
did not lose their own tongues. On the other hand, as late antiquity turned into the Dark Ages,
people on the continent trying to write classical Latin made silly mistakes, because the rough
version of Vulgar Latin that they spoke interfered with it. By this time, of course, Gaulish would
have become Vulgar Latin, albeit with some Gaulish vocabulary added. I will come back to this
later.
Vulgar Latin
But what of Vulgar Latin itself? Another author, whose books I read about the Ancient
Celts, said that a number of Celtic words made their way into Latin itself. I can think of bracciae,
the Latin word for trousers/pants (bragas in Spanish, although there it means stockings or lady's
tights). That came from Gaulish, in classical times. Vulgar Latin was spread partly by the Roman
army, which adopted a fair number of Gaulish words and phrases. So we have the have the
league, a unit of length, which came from leuga Gallica the Latin word for this Gaulish unit of
length. The modern French word for this is lieu. There were other words of Gaulish origin,
which also made it into other Romance languages. For example, embassade (Fr.) embajada (Sp.)
and embassy. French retained some other Gaulish words, such as "bruyere" briars, and "lande"
which means an empty, uncultivated area. This has nothing to do with our word "land." which
comes from the Germanic languages, and is attested in other Germanic languages, from Gothic
onwards.
Another interesting point: some French researchers used computer algorithms to discover
other influences. What they found was that the gender of Latin words was changed in early
French to what the Gaulish gender had been. For example: "Mare (sea), had a neutral gender in
Latin, but in French it is feminine "LA mer."
What I think has happened is that a lot of French vocabulary is of Latin origin, but with
some Gaulish influence. The number of Gaulish words would have been greater in medieval
times, because a higher proportion of those Gaulish words that survived pertained to agriculture,
flora and fauna, etc.
Curiously enough, our own dear English language is Germanic. However, it has been
influenced by both French and Latin. Thus, there was a slight Gaulish influence on English too.
The fact is that the Gaulish language had some influence on French. The Gauls, from
whom many French people are descended, spoke a Celtic language. It was probably a P-Celtic
language, like Welsh, and not a Q-Celtic language like Irish. During my school years, my French
teacher actually told me that the very odd French way of counting the numbers 70 to 99 is based
on the old Celtic way of counting by twenties-counting by the score. So "quatre-vingts" equals
80. All France still uses this system, as do the former colonies, but Belgium no longer does.
Gauls and the Celtic language
However, it's not just that. The Gauls started out using a Celtic language that was distinct
from Latin, yet with some correspondences between the two. According to "Empires of the
Word: A Language History of the World" by Nicholas Ostler, the form of Celtic spoken in Gaul
was grammatically closer to Latin than that spoken in Britain. The Ancient Britons spoke a
Celtic language that was already more distinct. So, when Gaul was a Roman province, the thing
to do was to learn Latin, if you wanted to be educated or important. This did not preclude a use
of Gaulish as well, but the fact was that Latin began to seem too useful, too important to avoid,
and people began to make the fatal mistake of thinking their own language was worthless, or
shameful. But the author says, or implies, that Latin would not seem too outlandish or difficult.
The Gauls would "get" Latin, whereas the Britons resisted assimilation. It was easier for the
Gauls to see Latin as their language. Meanwhile, if educated, the Ancient Britons could learn to
speak Latin amazingly well, with perfect grammar even after the Romans left Britain. But they
did not lose their own tongues. On the other hand, as late antiquity turned into the Dark Ages,
people on the continent trying to write classical Latin made silly mistakes, because the rough
version of Vulgar Latin that they spoke interfered with it. By this time, of course, Gaulish would
have become Vulgar Latin, albeit with some Gaulish vocabulary added. I will come back to this
later.
Vulgar Latin
But what of Vulgar Latin itself? Another author, whose books I read about the Ancient
Celts, said that a number of Celtic words made their way into Latin itself. I can think of bracciae,
the Latin word for trousers/pants (bragas in Spanish, although there it means stockings or lady's
tights). That came from Gaulish, in classical times. Vulgar Latin was spread partly by the Roman
army, which adopted a fair number of Gaulish words and phrases. So we have the have the
league, a unit of length, which came from leuga Gallica the Latin word for this Gaulish unit of
length. The modern French word for this is lieu. There were other words of Gaulish origin,
which also made it into other Romance languages. For example, embassade (Fr.) embajada (Sp.)
and embassy. French retained some other Gaulish words, such as "bruyere" briars, and "lande"
which means an empty, uncultivated area. This has nothing to do with our word "land." which
comes from the Germanic languages, and is attested in other Germanic languages, from Gothic
onwards.
Another interesting point: some French researchers used computer algorithms to discover
other influences. What they found was that the gender of Latin words was changed in early
French to what the Gaulish gender had been. For example: "Mare (sea), had a neutral gender in
Latin, but in French it is feminine "LA mer."
What I think has happened is that a lot of French vocabulary is of Latin origin, but with
some Gaulish influence. The number of Gaulish words would have been greater in medieval
times, because a higher proportion of those Gaulish words that survived pertained to agriculture,
flora and fauna, etc.
Curiously enough, our own dear English language is Germanic. However, it has been
influenced by both French and Latin. Thus, there was a slight Gaulish influence on English too.
The fact is that the Gaulish language had some influence on French. The Gauls, from
whom many French people are descended, spoke a Celtic language. It was probably a P-Celtic
language, like Welsh, and not a Q-Celtic language like Irish. During my school years, my French
teacher actually told me that the very odd French way of counting the numbers 70 to 99 is based
on the old Celtic way of counting by twenties-counting by the score. So "quatre-vingts" equals
80. All France still uses this system, as do the former colonies, but Belgium no longer does.
Gauls and the Celtic language
However, it's not just that. The Gauls started out using a Celtic language that was distinct
from Latin, yet with some correspondences between the two. According to "Empires of the
Word: A Language History of the World" by Nicholas Ostler, the form of Celtic spoken in Gaul
was grammatically closer to Latin than that spoken in Britain. The Ancient Britons spoke a
Celtic language that was already more distinct. So, when Gaul was a Roman province, the thing
to do was to learn Latin, if you wanted to be educated or important. This did not preclude a use
of Gaulish as well, but the fact was that Latin began to seem too useful, too important to avoid,
and people began to make the fatal mistake of thinking their own language was worthless, or
shameful. But the author says, or implies, that Latin would not seem too outlandish or difficult.
The Gauls would "get" Latin, whereas the Britons resisted assimilation. It was easier for the
Gauls to see Latin as their language. Meanwhile, if educated, the Ancient Britons could learn to
speak Latin amazingly well, with perfect grammar even after the Romans left Britain. But they
did not lose their own tongues. On the other hand, as late antiquity turned into the Dark Ages,
people on the continent trying to write classical Latin made silly mistakes, because the rough
version of Vulgar Latin that they spoke interfered with it. By this time, of course, Gaulish would
have become Vulgar Latin, albeit with some Gaulish vocabulary added. I will come back to this
later.
Vulgar Latin
But what of Vulgar Latin itself? Another author, whose books I read about the Ancient
Celts, said that a number of Celtic words made their way into Latin itself. I can think of bracciae,
the Latin word for trousers/pants (bragas in Spanish, although there it means stockings or lady's
tights). That came from Gaulish, in classical times. Vulgar Latin was spread partly by the Roman
army, which adopted a fair number of Gaulish words and phrases. So we have the have the
league, a unit of length, which came from leuga Gallica the Latin word for this Gaulish unit of
length. The modern French word for this is lieu. There were other words of Gaulish origin,
which also made it into other Romance languages. For example, embassade (Fr.) embajada (Sp.)
and embassy. French retained some other Gaulish words, such as "bruyere" briars, and "lande"
which means an empty, uncultivated area. This has nothing to do with our word "land." which
comes from the Germanic languages, and is attested in other Germanic languages, from Gothic
onwards.
Another interesting point: some French researchers used computer algorithms to discover
other influences. What they found was that the gender of Latin words was changed in early
French to what the Gaulish gender had been. For example: "Mare (sea), had a neutral gender in
Latin, but in French it is feminine "LA mer."
What I think has happened is that a lot of French vocabulary is of Latin origin, but with
some Gaulish influence. The number of Gaulish words would have been greater in medieval
times, because a higher proportion of those Gaulish words that survived pertained to agriculture,
flora and fauna, etc.
Curiously enough, our own dear English language is Germanic. However, it has been
influenced by both French and Latin. Thus, there was a slight Gaulish influence on English too.
The fact is that the Gaulish language had some influence on French. The Gauls, from
whom many French people are descended, spoke a Celtic language. It was probably a P-Celtic
language, like Welsh, and not a Q-Celtic language like Irish. During my school years, my French
teacher actually told me that the very odd French way of counting the numbers 70 to 99 is based
on the old Celtic way of counting by twenties-counting by the score. So "quatre-vingts" equals
80. All France still uses this system, as do the former colonies, but Belgium no longer does.
Gauls and the Celtic language
However, it's not just that. The Gauls started out using a Celtic language that was distinct
from Latin, yet with some correspondences between the two. According to "Empires of the
Word: A Language History of the World" by Nicholas Ostler, the form of Celtic spoken in Gaul
was grammatically closer to Latin than that spoken in Britain. The Ancient Britons spoke a
Celtic language that was already more distinct. So, when Gaul was a Roman province, the thing
to do was to learn Latin, if you wanted to be educated or important. This did not preclude a use
of Gaulish as well, but the fact was that Latin began to seem too useful, too important to avoid,
and people began to make the fatal mistake of thinking their own language was worthless, or
shameful. But the author says, or implies, that Latin would not seem too outlandish or difficult.
The Gauls would "get" Latin, whereas the Britons resisted assimilation. It was easier for the
Gauls to see Latin as their language. Meanwhile, if educated, the Ancient Britons could learn to
speak Latin amazingly well, with perfect grammar even after the Romans left Britain. But they
did not lose their own tongues. On the other hand, as late antiquity turned into the Dark Ages,
people on the continent trying to write classical Latin made silly mistakes, because the rough
version of Vulgar Latin that they spoke interfered with it. By this time, of course, Gaulish would
have become Vulgar Latin, albeit with some Gaulish vocabulary added. I will come back to this
later.
Vulgar Latin
But what of Vulgar Latin itself? Another author, whose books I read about the Ancient
Celts, said that a number of Celtic words made their way into Latin itself. I can think of bracciae,
the Latin word for trousers/pants (bragas in Spanish, although there it means stockings or lady's
tights). That came from Gaulish, in classical times. Vulgar Latin was spread partly by the Roman
army, which adopted a fair number of Gaulish words and phrases. So we have the have the
league, a unit of length, which came from leuga Gallica the Latin word for this Gaulish unit of
length. The modern French word for this is lieu. There were other words of Gaulish origin,
which also made it into other Romance languages. For example, embassade (Fr.) embajada (Sp.)
and embassy. French retained some other Gaulish words, such as "bruyere" briars, and "lande"
which means an empty, uncultivated area. This has nothing to do with our word "land." which
comes from the Germanic languages, and is attested in other Germanic languages, from Gothic
onwards.
Another interesting point: some French researchers used computer algorithms to discover
other influences. What they found was that the gender of Latin words was changed in early
French to what the Gaulish gender had been. For example: "Mare (sea), had a neutral gender in
Latin, but in French it is feminine "LA mer."
What I think has happened is that a lot of French vocabulary is of Latin origin, but with
some Gaulish influence. The number of Gaulish words would have been greater in medieval
times, because a higher proportion of those Gaulish words that survived pertained to agriculture,
flora and fauna, etc.
Curiously enough, our own dear English language is Germanic. However, it has been
influenced by both French and Latin. Thus, there was a slight Gaulish influence on English too.
The fact is that the Gaulish language had some influence on French. The Gauls, from
whom many French people are descended, spoke a Celtic language. It was probably a P-Celtic
language, like Welsh, and not a Q-Celtic language like Irish. During my school years, my French
teacher actually told me that the very odd French way of counting the numbers 70 to 99 is based
on the old Celtic way of counting by twenties-counting by the score. So "quatre-vingts" equals
80. All France still uses this system, as do the former colonies, but Belgium no longer does.
Gauls and the Celtic language
However, it's not just that. The Gauls started out using a Celtic language that was distinct
from Latin, yet with some correspondences between the two. According to "Empires of the
Word: A Language History of the World" by Nicholas Ostler, the form of Celtic spoken in Gaul
was grammatically closer to Latin than that spoken in Britain. The Ancient Britons spoke a
Celtic language that was already more distinct. So, when Gaul was a Roman province, the thing
to do was to learn Latin, if you wanted to be educated or important. This did not preclude a use
of Gaulish as well, but the fact was that Latin began to seem too useful, too important to avoid,
and people began to make the fatal mistake of thinking their own language was worthless, or
shameful. But the author says, or implies, that Latin would not seem too outlandish or difficult.
The Gauls would "get" Latin, whereas the Britons resisted assimilation. It was easier for the
Gauls to see Latin as their language. Meanwhile, if educated, the Ancient Britons could learn to
speak Latin amazingly well, with perfect grammar even after the Romans left Britain. But they
did not lose their own tongues. On the other hand, as late antiquity turned into the Dark Ages,
people on the continent trying to write classical Latin made silly mistakes, because the rough
version of Vulgar Latin that they spoke interfered with it. By this time, of course, Gaulish would
have become Vulgar Latin, albeit with some Gaulish vocabulary added. I will come back to this
later.
Vulgar Latin
But what of Vulgar Latin itself? Another author, whose books I read about the Ancient
Celts, said that a number of Celtic words made their way into Latin itself. I can think of bracciae,
the Latin word for trousers/pants (bragas in Spanish, although there it means stockings or lady's
tights). That came from Gaulish, in classical times. Vulgar Latin was spread partly by the Roman
army, which adopted a fair number of Gaulish words and phrases. So we have the have the
league, a unit of length, which came from leuga Gallica the Latin word for this Gaulish unit of
length. The modern French word for this is lieu. There were other words of Gaulish origin,
which also made it into other Romance languages. For example, embassade (Fr.) embajada (Sp.)
and embassy. French retained some other Gaulish words, such as "bruyere" briars, and "lande"
which means an empty, uncultivated area. This has nothing to do with our word "land." which
comes from the Germanic languages, and is attested in other Germanic languages, from Gothic
onwards.
Another interesting point: some French researchers used computer algorithms to discover
other influences. What they found was that the gender of Latin words was changed in early
French to what the Gaulish gender had been. For example: "Mare (sea), had a neutral gender in
Latin, but in French it is feminine "LA mer."
What I think has happened is that a lot of French vocabulary is of Latin origin, but with
some Gaulish influence. The number of Gaulish words would have been greater in medieval
times, because a higher proportion of those Gaulish words that survived pertained to agriculture,
flora and fauna, etc.
Curiously enough, our own dear English language is Germanic. However, it has been
influenced by both French and Latin. Thus, there was a slight Gaulish influence on English too.
The fact is that the Gaulish language had some influence on French. The Gauls, from
whom many French people are descended, spoke a Celtic language. It was probably a P-Celtic
language, like Welsh, and not a Q-Celtic language like Irish. During my school years, my French
teacher actually told me that the very odd French way of counting the numbers 70 to 99 is based
on the old Celtic way of counting by twenties-counting by the score. So "quatre-vingts" equals
80. All France still uses this system, as do the former colonies, but Belgium no longer does.
Gauls and the Celtic language
However, it's not just that. The Gauls started out using a Celtic language that was distinct
from Latin, yet with some correspondences between the two. According to "Empires of the
Word: A Language History of the World" by Nicholas Ostler, the form of Celtic spoken in Gaul
was grammatically closer to Latin than that spoken in Britain. The Ancient Britons spoke a
Celtic language that was already more distinct. So, when Gaul was a Roman province, the thing
to do was to learn Latin, if you wanted to be educated or important. This did not preclude a use
of Gaulish as well, but the fact was that Latin began to seem too useful, too important to avoid,
and people began to make the fatal mistake of thinking their own language was worthless, or
shameful. But the author says, or implies, that Latin would not seem too outlandish or difficult.
The Gauls would "get" Latin, whereas the Britons resisted assimilation. It was easier for the
Gauls to see Latin as their language. Meanwhile, if educated, the Ancient Britons could learn to
speak Latin amazingly well, with perfect grammar even after the Romans left Britain. But they
did not lose their own tongues. On the other hand, as late antiquity turned into the Dark Ages,
people on the continent trying to write classical Latin made silly mistakes, because the rough
version of Vulgar Latin that they spoke interfered with it. By this time, of course, Gaulish would
have become Vulgar Latin, albeit with some Gaulish vocabulary added. I will come back to this
later.
Vulgar Latin
But what of Vulgar Latin itself? Another author, whose books I read about the Ancient
Celts, said that a number of Celtic words made their way into Latin itself. I can think of bracciae,
the Latin word for trousers/pants (bragas in Spanish, although there it means stockings or lady's
tights). That came from Gaulish, in classical times. Vulgar Latin was spread partly by the Roman
army, which adopted a fair number of Gaulish words and phrases. So we have the have the
league, a unit of length, which came from leuga Gallica the Latin word for this Gaulish unit of
length. The modern French word for this is lieu. There were other words of Gaulish origin,
which also made it into other Romance languages. For example, embassade (Fr.) embajada (Sp.)
and embassy. French retained some other Gaulish words, such as "bruyere" briars, and "lande"
which means an empty, uncultivated area. This has nothing to do with our word "land." which
comes from the Germanic languages, and is attested in other Germanic languages, from Gothic
onwards.
Another interesting point: some French researchers used computer algorithms to discover
other influences. What they found was that the gender of Latin words was changed in early
French to what the Gaulish gender had been. For example: "Mare (sea), had a neutral gender in
Latin, but in French it is feminine "LA mer."
What I think has happened is that a lot of French vocabulary is of Latin origin, but with
some Gaulish influence. The number of Gaulish words would have been greater in medieval
times, because a higher proportion of those Gaulish words that survived pertained to agriculture,
flora and fauna, etc.
Curiously enough, our own dear English language is Germanic. However, it has been
influenced by both French and Latin. Thus, there was a slight Gaulish influence on English too.
The fact is that the Gaulish language had some influence on French. The Gauls, from
whom many French people are descended, spoke a Celtic language. It was probably a P-Celtic
language, like Welsh, and not a Q-Celtic language like Irish. During my school years, my French
teacher actually told me that the very odd French way of counting the numbers 70 to 99 is based
on the old Celtic way of counting by twenties-counting by the score. So "quatre-vingts" equals
80. All France still uses this system, as do the former colonies, but Belgium no longer does.
Gauls and the Celtic language
However, it's not just that. The Gauls started out using a Celtic language that was distinct
from Latin, yet with some correspondences between the two. According to "Empires of the
Word: A Language History of the World" by Nicholas Ostler, the form of Celtic spoken in Gaul
was grammatically closer to Latin than that spoken in Britain. The Ancient Britons spoke a
Celtic language that was already more distinct. So, when Gaul was a Roman province, the thing
to do was to learn Latin, if you wanted to be educated or important. This did not preclude a use
of Gaulish as well, but the fact was that Latin began to seem too useful, too important to avoid,
and people began to make the fatal mistake of thinking their own language was worthless, or
shameful. But the author says, or implies, that Latin would not seem too outlandish or difficult.
The Gauls would "get" Latin, whereas the Britons resisted assimilation. It was easier for the
Gauls to see Latin as their language. Meanwhile, if educated, the Ancient Britons could learn to
speak Latin amazingly well, with perfect grammar even after the Romans left Britain. But they
did not lose their own tongues. On the other hand, as late antiquity turned into the Dark Ages,
people on the continent trying to write classical Latin made silly mistakes, because the rough
version of Vulgar Latin that they spoke interfered with it. By this time, of course, Gaulish would
have become Vulgar Latin, albeit with some Gaulish vocabulary added. I will come back to this
later.
Vulgar Latin
But what of Vulgar Latin itself? Another author, whose books I read about the Ancient
Celts, said that a number of Celtic words made their way into Latin itself. I can think of bracciae,
the Latin word for trousers/pants (bragas in Spanish, although there it means stockings or lady's
tights). That came from Gaulish, in classical times. Vulgar Latin was spread partly by the Roman
army, which adopted a fair number of Gaulish words and phrases. So we have the have the
league, a unit of length, which came from leuga Gallica the Latin word for this Gaulish unit of
length. The modern French word for this is lieu. There were other words of Gaulish origin,
which also made it into other Romance languages. For example, embassade (Fr.) embajada (Sp.)
and embassy. French retained some other Gaulish words, such as "bruyere" briars, and "lande"
which means an empty, uncultivated area. This has nothing to do with our word "land." which
comes from the Germanic languages, and is attested in other Germanic languages, from Gothic
onwards.
Another interesting point: some French researchers used computer algorithms to discover
other influences. What they found was that the gender of Latin words was changed in early
French to what the Gaulish gender had been. For example: "Mare (sea), had a neutral gender in
Latin, but in French it is feminine "LA mer."
What I think has happened is that a lot of French vocabulary is of Latin origin, but with
some Gaulish influence. The number of Gaulish words would have been greater in medieval
times, because a higher proportion of those Gaulish words that survived pertained to agriculture,
flora and fauna, etc.
Curiously enough, our own dear English language is Germanic. However, it has been
influenced by both French and Latin. Thus, there was a slight Gaulish influence on English too.
The fact is that the Gaulish language had some influence on French. The Gauls, from
whom many French people are descended, spoke a Celtic language. It was probably a P-Celtic
language, like Welsh, and not a Q-Celtic language like Irish. During my school years, my French
teacher actually told me that the very odd French way of counting the numbers 70 to 99 is based
on the old Celtic way of counting by twenties-counting by the score. So "quatre-vingts" equals
80. All France still uses this system, as do the former colonies, but Belgium no longer does.
Gauls and the Celtic language
However, it's not just that. The Gauls started out using a Celtic language that was distinct
from Latin, yet with some correspondences between the two. According to "Empires of the
Word: A Language History of the World" by Nicholas Ostler, the form of Celtic spoken in Gaul
was grammatically closer to Latin than that spoken in Britain. The Ancient Britons spoke a
Celtic language that was already more distinct. So, when Gaul was a Roman province, the thing
to do was to learn Latin, if you wanted to be educated or important. This did not preclude a use
of Gaulish as well, but the fact was that Latin began to seem too useful, too important to avoid,
and people began to make the fatal mistake of thinking their own language was worthless, or
shameful. But the author says, or implies, that Latin would not seem too outlandish or difficult.
The Gauls would "get" Latin, whereas the Britons resisted assimilation. It was easier for the
Gauls to see Latin as their language. Meanwhile, if educated, the Ancient Britons could learn to
speak Latin amazingly well, with perfect grammar even after the Romans left Britain. But they
did not lose their own tongues. On the other hand, as late antiquity turned into the Dark Ages,
people on the continent trying to write classical Latin made silly mistakes, because the rough
version of Vulgar Latin that they spoke interfered with it. By this time, of course, Gaulish would
have become Vulgar Latin, albeit with some Gaulish vocabulary added. I will come back to this
later.
Vulgar Latin
But what of Vulgar Latin itself? Another author, whose books I read about the Ancient
Celts, said that a number of Celtic words made their way into Latin itself. I can think of bracciae,
the Latin word for trousers/pants (bragas in Spanish, although there it means stockings or lady's
tights). That came from Gaulish, in classical times. Vulgar Latin was spread partly by the Roman
army, which adopted a fair number of Gaulish words and phrases. So we have the have the
league, a unit of length, which came from leuga Gallica the Latin word for this Gaulish unit of
length. The modern French word for this is lieu. There were other words of Gaulish origin,
which also made it into other Romance languages. For example, embassade (Fr.) embajada (Sp.)
and embassy. French retained some other Gaulish words, such as "bruyere" briars, and "lande"
which means an empty, uncultivated area. This has nothing to do with our word "land." which
comes from the Germanic languages, and is attested in other Germanic languages, from Gothic
onwards.
Another interesting point: some French researchers used computer algorithms to discover
other influences. What they found was that the gender of Latin words was changed in early
French to what the Gaulish gender had been. For example: "Mare (sea), had a neutral gender in
Latin, but in French it is feminine "LA mer."
What I think has happened is that a lot of French vocabulary is of Latin origin, but with
some Gaulish influence. The number of Gaulish words would have been greater in medieval
times, because a higher proportion of those Gaulish words that survived pertained to agriculture,
flora and fauna, etc.
Curiously enough, our own dear English language is Germanic. However, it has been
influenced by both French and Latin. Thus, there was a slight Gaulish influence on English too.
The fact is that the Gaulish language had some influence on French. The Gauls, from
whom many French people are descended, spoke a Celtic language. It was probably a P-Celtic
language, like Welsh, and not a Q-Celtic language like Irish. During my school years, my French
teacher actually told me that the very odd French way of counting the numbers 70 to 99 is based
on the old Celtic way of counting by twenties-counting by the score. So "quatre-vingts" equals
80. All France still uses this system, as do the former colonies, but Belgium no longer does.
Gauls and the Celtic language
However, it's not just that. The Gauls started out using a Celtic language that was distinct
from Latin, yet with some correspondences between the two. According to "Empires of the
Word: A Language History of the World" by Nicholas Ostler, the form of Celtic spoken in Gaul
was grammatically closer to Latin than that spoken in Britain. The Ancient Britons spoke a
Celtic language that was already more distinct. So, when Gaul was a Roman province, the thing
to do was to learn Latin, if you wanted to be educated or important. This did not preclude a use
of Gaulish as well, but the fact was that Latin began to seem too useful, too important to avoid,
and people began to make the fatal mistake of thinking their own language was worthless, or
shameful. But the author says, or implies, that Latin would not seem too outlandish or difficult.
The Gauls would "get" Latin, whereas the Britons resisted assimilation. It was easier for the
Gauls to see Latin as their language. Meanwhile, if educated, the Ancient Britons could learn to
speak Latin amazingly well, with perfect grammar even after the Romans left Britain. But they
did not lose their own tongues. On the other hand, as late antiquity turned into the Dark Ages,
people on the continent trying to write classical Latin made silly mistakes, because the rough
version of Vulgar Latin that they spoke interfered with it. By this time, of course, Gaulish would
have become Vulgar Latin, albeit with some Gaulish vocabulary added. I will come back to this
later.
Vulgar Latin
But what of Vulgar Latin itself? Another author, whose books I read about the Ancient
Celts, said that a number of Celtic words made their way into Latin itself. I can think of bracciae,
the Latin word for trousers/pants (bragas in Spanish, although there it means stockings or lady's
tights). That came from Gaulish, in classical times. Vulgar Latin was spread partly by the Roman
army, which adopted a fair number of Gaulish words and phrases. So we have the have the
league, a unit of length, which came from leuga Gallica the Latin word for this Gaulish unit of
length. The modern French word for this is lieu. There were other words of Gaulish origin,
which also made it into other Romance languages. For example, embassade (Fr.) embajada (Sp.)
and embassy. French retained some other Gaulish words, such as "bruyere" briars, and "lande"
which means an empty, uncultivated area. This has nothing to do with our word "land." which
comes from the Germanic languages, and is attested in other Germanic languages, from Gothic
onwards.
Another interesting point: some French researchers used computer algorithms to discover
other influences. What they found was that the gender of Latin words was changed in early
French to what the Gaulish gender had been. For example: "Mare (sea), had a neutral gender in
Latin, but in French it is feminine "LA mer."
What I think has happened is that a lot of French vocabulary is of Latin origin, but with
some Gaulish influence. The number of Gaulish words would have been greater in medieval
times, because a higher proportion of those Gaulish words that survived pertained to agriculture,
flora and fauna, etc.
Curiously enough, our own dear English language is Germanic. However, it has been
influenced by both French and Latin. Thus, there was a slight Gaulish influence on English too.
The fact is that the Gaulish language had some influence on French. The Gauls, from
whom many French people are descended, spoke a Celtic language. It was probably a P-Celtic
language, like Welsh, and not a Q-Celtic language like Irish. During my school years, my French
teacher actually told me that the very odd French way of counting the numbers 70 to 99 is based
on the old Celtic way of counting by twenties-counting by the score. So "quatre-vingts" equals
80. All France still uses this system, as do the former colonies, but Belgium no longer does.
Gauls and the Celtic language
However, it's not just that. The Gauls started out using a Celtic language that was distinct
from Latin, yet with some correspondences between the two. According to "Empires of the
Word: A Language History of the World" by Nicholas Ostler, the form of Celtic spoken in Gaul
was grammatically closer to Latin than that spoken in Britain. The Ancient Britons spoke a
Celtic language that was already more distinct. So, when Gaul was a Roman province, the thing
to do was to learn Latin, if you wanted to be educated or important. This did not preclude a use
of Gaulish as well, but the fact was that Latin began to seem too useful, too important to avoid,
and people began to make the fatal mistake of thinking their own language was worthless, or
shameful. But the author says, or implies, that Latin would not seem too outlandish or difficult.
The Gauls would "get" Latin, whereas the Britons resisted assimilation. It was easier for the
Gauls to see Latin as their language. Meanwhile, if educated, the Ancient Britons could learn to
speak Latin amazingly well, with perfect grammar even after the Romans left Britain. But they
did not lose their own tongues. On the other hand, as late antiquity turned into the Dark Ages,
people on the continent trying to write classical Latin made silly mistakes, because the rough
version of Vulgar Latin that they spoke interfered with it. By this time, of course, Gaulish would
have become Vulgar Latin, albeit with some Gaulish vocabulary added. I will come back to this
later.
Vulgar Latin
But what of Vulgar Latin itself? Another author, whose books I read about the Ancient
Celts, said that a number of Celtic words made their way into Latin itself. I can think of bracciae,
the Latin word for trousers/pants (bragas in Spanish, although there it means stockings or lady's
tights). That came from Gaulish, in classical times. Vulgar Latin was spread partly by the Roman
army, which adopted a fair number of Gaulish words and phrases. So we have the have the
league, a unit of length, which came from leuga Gallica the Latin word for this Gaulish unit of
length. The modern French word for this is lieu. There were other words of Gaulish origin,
which also made it into other Romance languages. For example, embassade (Fr.) embajada (Sp.)
and embassy. French retained some other Gaulish words, such as "bruyere" briars, and "lande"
which means an empty, uncultivated area. This has nothing to do with our word "land." which
comes from the Germanic languages, and is attested in other Germanic languages, from Gothic
onwards.
Another interesting point: some French researchers used computer algorithms to discover
other influences. What they found was that the gender of Latin words was changed in early
French to what the Gaulish gender had been. For example: "Mare (sea), had a neutral gender in
Latin, but in French it is feminine "LA mer."
What I think has happened is that a lot of French vocabulary is of Latin origin, but with
some Gaulish influence. The number of Gaulish words would have been greater in medieval
times, because a higher proportion of those Gaulish words that survived pertained to agriculture,
flora and fauna, etc.
Curiously enough, our own dear English language is Germanic. However, it has been
influenced by both French and Latin. Thus, there was a slight Gaulish influence on English too.
The fact is that the Gaulish language had some influence on French. The Gauls, from
whom many French people are descended, spoke a Celtic language. It was probably a P-Celtic
language, like Welsh, and not a Q-Celtic language like Irish. During my school years, my French
teacher actually told me that the very odd French way of counting the numbers 70 to 99 is based
on the old Celtic way of counting by twenties-counting by the score. So "quatre-vingts" equals
80. All France still uses this system, as do the former colonies, but Belgium no longer does.
Gauls and the Celtic language
However, it's not just that. The Gauls started out using a Celtic language that was distinct
from Latin, yet with some correspondences between the two. According to "Empires of the
Word: A Language History of the World" by Nicholas Ostler, the form of Celtic spoken in Gaul
was grammatically closer to Latin than that spoken in Britain. The Ancient Britons spoke a
Celtic language that was already more distinct. So, when Gaul was a Roman province, the thing
to do was to learn Latin, if you wanted to be educated or important. This did not preclude a use
of Gaulish as well, but the fact was that Latin began to seem too useful, too important to avoid,
and people began to make the fatal mistake of thinking their own language was worthless, or
shameful. But the author says, or implies, that Latin would not seem too outlandish or difficult.
The Gauls would "get" Latin, whereas the Britons resisted assimilation. It was easier for the
Gauls to see Latin as their language. Meanwhile, if educated, the Ancient Britons could learn to
speak Latin amazingly well, with perfect grammar even after the Romans left Britain. But they
did not lose their own tongues. On the other hand, as late antiquity turned into the Dark Ages,
people on the continent trying to write classical Latin made silly mistakes, because the rough
version of Vulgar Latin that they spoke interfered with it. By this time, of course, Gaulish would
have become Vulgar Latin, albeit with some Gaulish vocabulary added. I will come back to this
later.
Vulgar Latin
But what of Vulgar Latin itself? Another author, whose books I read about the Ancient
Celts, said that a number of Celtic words made their way into Latin itself. I can think of bracciae,
the Latin word for trousers/pants (bragas in Spanish, although there it means stockings or lady's
tights). That came from Gaulish, in classical times. Vulgar Latin was spread partly by the Roman
army, which adopted a fair number of Gaulish words and phrases. So we have the have the
league, a unit of length, which came from leuga Gallica the Latin word for this Gaulish unit of
length. The modern French word for this is lieu. There were other words of Gaulish origin,
which also made it into other Romance languages. For example, embassade (Fr.) embajada (Sp.)
and embassy. French retained some other Gaulish words, such as "bruyere" briars, and "lande"
which means an empty, uncultivated area. This has nothing to do with our word "land." which
comes from the Germanic languages, and is attested in other Germanic languages, from Gothic
onwards.
Another interesting point: some French researchers used computer algorithms to discover
other influences. What they found was that the gender of Latin words was changed in early
French to what the Gaulish gender had been. For example: "Mare (sea), had a neutral gender in
Latin, but in French it is feminine "LA mer."
What I think has happened is that a lot of French vocabulary is of Latin origin, but with
some Gaulish influence. The number of Gaulish words would have been greater in medieval
times, because a higher proportion of those Gaulish words that survived pertained to agriculture,
flora and fauna, etc.
Curiously enough, our own dear English language is Germanic. However, it has been
influenced by both French and Latin. Thus, there was a slight Gaulish influence on English too.
The fact is that the Gaulish language had some influence on French. The Gauls, from
whom many French people are descended, spoke a Celtic language. It was probably a P-Celtic
language, like Welsh, and not a Q-Celtic language like Irish. During my school years, my French
teacher actually told me that the very odd French way of counting the numbers 70 to 99 is based
on the old Celtic way of counting by twenties-counting by the score. So "quatre-vingts" equals
80. All France still uses this system, as do the former colonies, but Belgium no longer does.
Gauls and the Celtic language
However, it's not just that. The Gauls started out using a Celtic language that was distinct
from Latin, yet with some correspondences between the two. According to "Empires of the
Word: A Language History of the World" by Nicholas Ostler, the form of Celtic spoken in Gaul
was grammatically closer to Latin than that spoken in Britain. The Ancient Britons spoke a
Celtic language that was already more distinct. So, when Gaul was a Roman province, the thing
to do was to learn Latin, if you wanted to be educated or important. This did not preclude a use
of Gaulish as well, but the fact was that Latin began to seem too useful, too important to avoid,
and people began to make the fatal mistake of thinking their own language was worthless, or
shameful. But the author says, or implies, that Latin would not seem too outlandish or difficult.
The Gauls would "get" Latin, whereas the Britons resisted assimilation. It was easier for the
Gauls to see Latin as their language. Meanwhile, if educated, the Ancient Britons could learn to
speak Latin amazingly well, with perfect grammar even after the Romans left Britain. But they
did not lose their own tongues. On the other hand, as late antiquity turned into the Dark Ages,
people on the continent trying to write classical Latin made silly mistakes, because the rough
version of Vulgar Latin that they spoke interfered with it. By this time, of course, Gaulish would
have become Vulgar Latin, albeit with some Gaulish vocabulary added. I will come back to this
later.
Vulgar Latin
But what of Vulgar Latin itself? Another author, whose books I read about the Ancient
Celts, said that a number of Celtic words made their way into Latin itself. I can think of bracciae,
the Latin word for trousers/pants (bragas in Spanish, although there it means stockings or lady's
tights). That came from Gaulish, in classical times. Vulgar Latin was spread partly by the Roman
army, which adopted a fair number of Gaulish words and phrases. So we have the have the
league, a unit of length, which came from leuga Gallica the Latin word for this Gaulish unit of
length. The modern French word for this is lieu. There were other words of Gaulish origin,
which also made it into other Romance languages. For example, embassade (Fr.) embajada (Sp.)
and embassy. French retained some other Gaulish words, such as "bruyere" briars, and "lande"
which means an empty, uncultivated area. This has nothing to do with our word "land." which
comes from the Germanic languages, and is attested in other Germanic languages, from Gothic
onwards.
Another interesting point: some French researchers used computer algorithms to discover
other influences. What they found was that the gender of Latin words was changed in early
French to what the Gaulish gender had been. For example: "Mare (sea), had a neutral gender in
Latin, but in French it is feminine "LA mer."
What I think has happened is that a lot of French vocabulary is of Latin origin, but with
some Gaulish influence. The number of Gaulish words would have been greater in medieval
times, because a higher proportion of those Gaulish words that survived pertained to agriculture,
flora and fauna, etc.
Curiously enough, our own dear English language is Germanic. However, it has been
influenced by both French and Latin. Thus, there was a slight Gaulish influence on English too.
The fact is that the Gaulish language had some influence on French. The Gauls, from
whom many French people are descended, spoke a Celtic language. It was probably a P-Celtic
language, like Welsh, and not a Q-Celtic language like Irish. During my school years, my French
teacher actually told me that the very odd French way of counting the numbers 70 to 99 is based
on the old Celtic way of counting by twenties-counting by the score. So "quatre-vingts" equals
80. All France still uses this system, as do the former colonies, but Belgium no longer does.
Gauls and the Celtic language
However, it's not just that. The Gauls started out using a Celtic language that was distinct
from Latin, yet with some correspondences between the two. According to "Empires of the
Word: A Language History of the World" by Nicholas Ostler, the form of Celtic spoken in Gaul
was grammatically closer to Latin than that spoken in Britain. The Ancient Britons spoke a
Celtic language that was already more distinct. So, when Gaul was a Roman province, the thing
to do was to learn Latin, if you wanted to be educated or important. This did not preclude a use
of Gaulish as well, but the fact was that Latin began to seem too useful, too important to avoid,
and people began to make the fatal mistake of thinking their own language was worthless, or
shameful. But the author says, or implies, that Latin would not seem too outlandish or difficult.
The Gauls would "get" Latin, whereas the Britons resisted assimilation. It was easier for the
Gauls to see Latin as their language. Meanwhile, if educated, the Ancient Britons could learn to
speak Latin amazingly well, with perfect grammar even after the Romans left Britain. But they
did not lose their own tongues. On the other hand, as late antiquity turned into the Dark Ages,
people on the continent trying to write classical Latin made silly mistakes, because the rough
version of Vulgar Latin that they spoke interfered with it. By this time, of course, Gaulish would
have become Vulgar Latin, albeit with some Gaulish vocabulary added. I will come back to this
later.
Vulgar Latin
But what of Vulgar Latin itself? Another author, whose books I read about the Ancient
Celts, said that a number of Celtic words made their way into Latin itself. I can think of bracciae,
the Latin word for trousers/pants (bragas in Spanish, although there it means stockings or lady's
tights). That came from Gaulish, in classical times. Vulgar Latin was spread partly by the Roman
army, which adopted a fair number of Gaulish words and phrases. So we have the have the
league, a unit of length, which came from leuga Gallica the Latin word for this Gaulish unit of
length. The modern French word for this is lieu. There were other words of Gaulish origin,
which also made it into other Romance languages. For example, embassade (Fr.) embajada (Sp.)
and embassy. French retained some other Gaulish words, such as "bruyere" briars, and "lande"
which means an empty, uncultivated area. This has nothing to do with our word "land." which
comes from the Germanic languages, and is attested in other Germanic languages, from Gothic
onwards.
Another interesting point: some French researchers used computer algorithms to discover
other influences. What they found was that the gender of Latin words was changed in early
French to what the Gaulish gender had been. For example: "Mare (sea), had a neutral gender in
Latin, but in French it is feminine "LA mer."
What I think has happened is that a lot of French vocabulary is of Latin origin, but with
some Gaulish influence. The number of Gaulish words would have been greater in medieval
times, because a higher proportion of those Gaulish words that survived pertained to agriculture,
flora and fauna, etc.
Curiously enough, our own dear English language is Germanic. However, it has been
influenced by both French and Latin. Thus, there was a slight Gaulish influence on English too.
The fact is that the Gaulish language had some influence on French. The Gauls, from
whom many French people are descended, spoke a Celtic language. It was probably a P-Celtic
language, like Welsh, and not a Q-Celtic language like Irish. During my school years, my French
teacher actually told me that the very odd French way of counting the numbers 70 to 99 is based
on the old Celtic way of counting by twenties-counting by the score. So "quatre-vingts" equals
80. All France still uses this system, as do the former colonies, but Belgium no longer does.
Gauls and the Celtic language
However, it's not just that. The Gauls started out using a Celtic language that was distinct
from Latin, yet with some correspondences between the two. According to "Empires of the
Word: A Language History of the World" by Nicholas Ostler, the form of Celtic spoken in Gaul
was grammatically closer to Latin than that spoken in Britain. The Ancient Britons spoke a
Celtic language that was already more distinct. So, when Gaul was a Roman province, the thing
to do was to learn Latin, if you wanted to be educated or important. This did not preclude a use
of Gaulish as well, but the fact was that Latin began to seem too useful, too important to avoid,
and people began to make the fatal mistake of thinking their own language was worthless, or
shameful. But the author says, or implies, that Latin would not seem too outlandish or difficult.
The Gauls would "get" Latin, whereas the Britons resisted assimilation. It was easier for the
Gauls to see Latin as their language. Meanwhile, if educated, the Ancient Britons could learn to
speak Latin amazingly well, with perfect grammar even after the Romans left Britain. But they
did not lose their own tongues. On the other hand, as late antiquity turned into the Dark Ages,
people on the continent trying to write classical Latin made silly mistakes, because the rough
version of Vulgar Latin that they spoke interfered with it. By this time, of course, Gaulish would
have become Vulgar Latin, albeit with some Gaulish vocabulary added. I will come back to this
later.
Vulgar Latin
But what of Vulgar Latin itself? Another author, whose books I read about the Ancient
Celts, said that a number of Celtic words made their way into Latin itself. I can think of bracciae,
the Latin word for trousers/pants (bragas in Spanish, although there it means stockings or lady's
tights). That came from Gaulish, in classical times. Vulgar Latin was spread partly by the Roman
army, which adopted a fair number of Gaulish words and phrases. So we have the have the
league, a unit of length, which came from leuga Gallica the Latin word for this Gaulish unit of
length. The modern French word for this is lieu. There were other words of Gaulish origin,
which also made it into other Romance languages. For example, embassade (Fr.) embajada (Sp.)
and embassy. French retained some other Gaulish words, such as "bruyere" briars, and "lande"
which means an empty, uncultivated area. This has nothing to do with our word "land." which
comes from the Germanic languages, and is attested in other Germanic languages, from Gothic
onwards.
Another interesting point: some French researchers used computer algorithms to discover
other influences. What they found was that the gender of Latin words was changed in early
French to what the Gaulish gender had been. For example: "Mare (sea), had a neutral gender in
Latin, but in French it is feminine "LA mer."
What I think has happened is that a lot of French vocabulary is of Latin origin, but with
some Gaulish influence. The number of Gaulish words would have been greater in medieval
times, because a higher proportion of those Gaulish words that survived pertained to agriculture,
flora and fauna, etc.
Curiously enough, our own dear English language is Germanic. However, it has been
influenced by both French and Latin. Thus, there was a slight Gaulish influence on English too.
The fact is that the Gaulish language had some influence on French. The Gauls, from
whom many French people are descended, spoke a Celtic language. It was probably a P-Celtic
language, like Welsh, and not a Q-Celtic language like Irish. During my school years, my French
teacher actually told me that the very odd French way of counting the numbers 70 to 99 is based
on the old Celtic way of counting by twenties-counting by the score. So "quatre-vingts" equals
80. All France still uses this system, as do the former colonies, but Belgium no longer does.
Gauls and the Celtic language
However, it's not just that. The Gauls started out using a Celtic language that was distinct
from Latin, yet with some correspondences between the two. According to "Empires of the
Word: A Language History of the World" by Nicholas Ostler, the form of Celtic spoken in Gaul
was grammatically closer to Latin than that spoken in Britain. The Ancient Britons spoke a
Celtic language that was already more distinct. So, when Gaul was a Roman province, the thing
to do was to learn Latin, if you wanted to be educated or important. This did not preclude a use
of Gaulish as well, but the fact was that Latin began to seem too useful, too important to avoid,
and people began to make the fatal mistake of thinking their own language was worthless, or
shameful. But the author says, or implies, that Latin would not seem too outlandish or difficult.
The Gauls would "get" Latin, whereas the Britons resisted assimilation. It was easier for the
Gauls to see Latin as their language. Meanwhile, if educated, the Ancient Britons could learn to
speak Latin amazingly well, with perfect grammar even after the Romans left Britain. But they
did not lose their own tongues. On the other hand, as late antiquity turned into the Dark Ages,
people on the continent trying to write classical Latin made silly mistakes, because the rough
version of Vulgar Latin that they spoke interfered with it. By this time, of course, Gaulish would
have become Vulgar Latin, albeit with some Gaulish vocabulary added. I will come back to this
later.
Vulgar Latin
But what of Vulgar Latin itself? Another author, whose books I read about the Ancient
Celts, said that a number of Celtic words made their way into Latin itself. I can think of bracciae,
the Latin word for trousers/pants (bragas in Spanish, although there it means stockings or lady's
tights). That came from Gaulish, in classical times. Vulgar Latin was spread partly by the Roman
army, which adopted a fair number of Gaulish words and phrases. So we have the have the
league, a unit of length, which came from leuga Gallica the Latin word for this Gaulish unit of
length. The modern French word for this is lieu. There were other words of Gaulish origin,
which also made it into other Romance languages. For example, embassade (Fr.) embajada (Sp.)
and embassy. French retained some other Gaulish words, such as "bruyere" briars, and "lande"
which means an empty, uncultivated area. This has nothing to do with our word "land." which
comes from the Germanic languages, and is attested in other Germanic languages, from Gothic
onwards.
Another interesting point: some French researchers used computer algorithms to discover
other influences. What they found was that the gender of Latin words was changed in early
French to what the Gaulish gender had been. For example: "Mare (sea), had a neutral gender in
Latin, but in French it is feminine "LA mer."
What I think has happened is that a lot of French vocabulary is of Latin origin, but with
some Gaulish influence. The number of Gaulish words would have been greater in medieval
times, because a higher proportion of those Gaulish words that survived pertained to agriculture,
flora and fauna, etc.
Curiously enough, our own dear English language is Germanic. However, it has been
influenced by both French and Latin. Thus, there was a slight Gaulish influence on English too.
The fact is that the Gaulish language had some influence on French. The Gauls, from
whom many French people are descended, spoke a Celtic language. It was probably a P-Celtic
language, like Welsh, and not a Q-Celtic language like Irish. During my school years, my French
teacher actually told me that the very odd French way of counting the numbers 70 to 99 is based
on the old Celtic way of counting by twenties-counting by the score. So "quatre-vingts" equals
80. All France still uses this system, as do the former colonies, but Belgium no longer does.
Gauls and the Celtic language
However, it's not just that. The Gauls started out using a Celtic language that was distinct
from Latin, yet with some correspondences between the two. According to "Empires of the
Word: A Language History of the World" by Nicholas Ostler, the form of Celtic spoken in Gaul
was grammatically closer to Latin than that spoken in Britain. The Ancient Britons spoke a
Celtic language that was already more distinct. So, when Gaul was a Roman province, the thing
to do was to learn Latin, if you wanted to be educated or important. This did not preclude a use
of Gaulish as well, but the fact was that Latin began to seem too useful, too important to avoid,
and people began to make the fatal mistake of thinking their own language was worthless, or
shameful. But the author says, or implies, that Latin would not seem too outlandish or difficult.
The Gauls would "get" Latin, whereas the Britons resisted assimilation. It was easier for the
Gauls to see Latin as their language. Meanwhile, if educated, the Ancient Britons could learn to
speak Latin amazingly well, with perfect grammar even after the Romans left Britain. But they
did not lose their own tongues. On the other hand, as late antiquity turned into the Dark Ages,
people on the continent trying to write classical Latin made silly mistakes, because the rough
version of Vulgar Latin that they spoke interfered with it. By this time, of course, Gaulish would
have become Vulgar Latin, albeit with some Gaulish vocabulary added. I will come back to this
later.
Vulgar Latin
But what of Vulgar Latin itself? Another author, whose books I read about the Ancient
Celts, said that a number of Celtic words made their way into Latin itself. I can think of bracciae,
the Latin word for trousers/pants (bragas in Spanish, although there it means stockings or lady's
tights). That came from Gaulish, in classical times. Vulgar Latin was spread partly by the Roman
army, which adopted a fair number of Gaulish words and phrases. So we have the have the
league, a unit of length, which came from leuga Gallica the Latin word for this Gaulish unit of
length. The modern French word for this is lieu. There were other words of Gaulish origin,
which also made it into other Romance languages. For example, embassade (Fr.) embajada (Sp.)
and embassy. French retained some other Gaulish words, such as "bruyere" briars, and "lande"
which means an empty, uncultivated area. This has nothing to do with our word "land." which
comes from the Germanic languages, and is attested in other Germanic languages, from Gothic
onwards.
Another interesting point: some French researchers used computer algorithms to discover
other influences. What they found was that the gender of Latin words was changed in early
French to what the Gaulish gender had been. For example: "Mare (sea), had a neutral gender in
Latin, but in French it is feminine "LA mer."
What I think has happened is that a lot of French vocabulary is of Latin origin, but with
some Gaulish influence. The number of Gaulish words would have been greater in medieval
times, because a higher proportion of those Gaulish words that survived pertained to agriculture,
flora and fauna, etc.
Curiously enough, our own dear English language is Germanic. However, it has been
influenced by both French and Latin. Thus, there was a slight Gaulish influence on English too.
The fact is that the Gaulish language had some influence on French. The Gauls, from
whom many French people are descended, spoke a Celtic language. It was probably a P-Celtic
language, like Welsh, and not a Q-Celtic language like Irish. During my school years, my French
teacher actually told me that the very odd French way of counting the numbers 70 to 99 is based
on the old Celtic way of counting by twenties-counting by the score. So "quatre-vingts" equals
80. All France still uses this system, as do the former colonies, but Belgium no longer does.
Gauls and the Celtic language
However, it's not just that. The Gauls started out using a Celtic language that was distinct
from Latin, yet with some correspondences between the two. According to "Empires of the
Word: A Language History of the World" by Nicholas Ostler, the form of Celtic spoken in Gaul
was grammatically closer to Latin than that spoken in Britain. The Ancient Britons spoke a
Celtic language that was already more distinct. So, when Gaul was a Roman province, the thing
to do was to learn Latin, if you wanted to be educated or important. This did not preclude a use
of Gaulish as well, but the fact was that Latin began to seem too useful, too important to avoid,
and people began to make the fatal mistake of thinking their own language was worthless, or
shameful. But the author says, or implies, that Latin would not seem too outlandish or difficult.
The Gauls would "get" Latin, whereas the Britons resisted assimilation. It was easier for the
Gauls to see Latin as their language. Meanwhile, if educated, the Ancient Britons could learn to
speak Latin amazingly well, with perfect grammar even after the Romans left Britain. But they
did not lose their own tongues. On the other hand, as late antiquity turned into the Dark Ages,
people on the continent trying to write classical Latin made silly mistakes, because the rough
version of Vulgar Latin that they spoke interfered with it. By this time, of course, Gaulish would
have become Vulgar Latin, albeit with some Gaulish vocabulary added. I will come back to this
later.
Vulgar Latin
But what of Vulgar Latin itself? Another author, whose books I read about the Ancient
Celts, said that a number of Celtic words made their way into Latin itself. I can think of bracciae,
the Latin word for trousers/pants (bragas in Spanish, although there it means stockings or lady's
tights). That came from Gaulish, in classical times. Vulgar Latin was spread partly by the Roman
army, which adopted a fair number of Gaulish words and phrases. So we have the have the
league, a unit of length, which came from leuga Gallica the Latin word for this Gaulish unit of
length. The modern French word for this is lieu. There were other words of Gaulish origin,
which also made it into other Romance languages. For example, embassade (Fr.) embajada (Sp.)
and embassy. French retained some other Gaulish words, such as "bruyere" briars, and "lande"
which means an empty, uncultivated area. This has nothing to do with our word "land." which
comes from the Germanic languages, and is attested in other Germanic languages, from Gothic
onwards.
Another interesting point: some French researchers used computer algorithms to discover
other influences. What they found was that the gender of Latin words was changed in early
French to what the Gaulish gender had been. For example: "Mare (sea), had a neutral gender in
Latin, but in French it is feminine "LA mer."
What I think has happened is that a lot of French vocabulary is of Latin origin, but with
some Gaulish influence. The number of Gaulish words would have been greater in medieval
times, because a higher proportion of those Gaulish words that survived pertained to agriculture,
flora and fauna, etc.
Curiously enough, our own dear English language is Germanic. However, it has been
influenced by both French and Latin. Thus, there was a slight Gaulish influence on English too.
The fact is that the Gaulish language had some influence on French. The Gauls, from
whom many French people are descended, spoke a Celtic language. It was probably a P-Celtic
language, like Welsh, and not a Q-Celtic language like Irish. During my school years, my French
teacher actually told me that the very odd French way of counting the numbers 70 to 99 is based
on the old Celtic way of counting by twenties-counting by the score. So "quatre-vingts" equals
80. All France still uses this system, as do the former colonies, but Belgium no longer does.
Gauls and the Celtic language
However, it's not just that. The Gauls started out using a Celtic language that was distinct
from Latin, yet with some correspondences between the two. According to "Empires of the
Word: A Language History of the World" by Nicholas Ostler, the form of Celtic spoken in Gaul
was grammatically closer to Latin than that spoken in Britain. The Ancient Britons spoke a
Celtic language that was already more distinct. So, when Gaul was a Roman province, the thing
to do was to learn Latin, if you wanted to be educated or important. This did not preclude a use
of Gaulish as well, but the fact was that Latin began to seem too useful, too important to avoid,
and people began to make the fatal mistake of thinking their own language was worthless, or
shameful. But the author says, or implies, that Latin would not seem too outlandish or difficult.
The Gauls would "get" Latin, whereas the Britons resisted assimilation. It was easier for the
Gauls to see Latin as their language. Meanwhile, if educated, the Ancient Britons could learn to
speak Latin amazingly well, with perfect grammar even after the Romans left Britain. But they
did not lose their own tongues. On the other hand, as late antiquity turned into the Dark Ages,
people on the continent trying to write classical Latin made silly mistakes, because the rough
version of Vulgar Latin that they spoke interfered with it. By this time, of course, Gaulish would
have become Vulgar Latin, albeit with some Gaulish vocabulary added. I will come back to this
later.
Vulgar Latin
But what of Vulgar Latin itself? Another author, whose books I read about the Ancient
Celts, said that a number of Celtic words made their way into Latin itself. I can think of bracciae,
the Latin word for trousers/pants (bragas in Spanish, although there it means stockings or lady's
tights). That came from Gaulish, in classical times. Vulgar Latin was spread partly by the Roman
army, which adopted a fair number of Gaulish words and phrases. So we have the have the
league, a unit of length, which came from leuga Gallica the Latin word for this Gaulish unit of
length. The modern French word for this is lieu. There were other words of Gaulish origin,
which also made it into other Romance languages. For example, embassade (Fr.) embajada (Sp.)
and embassy. French retained some other Gaulish words, such as "bruyere" briars, and "lande"
which means an empty, uncultivated area. This has nothing to do with our word "land." which
comes from the Germanic languages, and is attested in other Germanic languages, from Gothic
onwards.
Another interesting point: some French researchers used computer algorithms to discover
other influences. What they found was that the gender of Latin words was changed in early
French to what the Gaulish gender had been. For example: "Mare (sea), had a neutral gender in
Latin, but in French it is feminine "LA mer."
What I think has happened is that a lot of French vocabulary is of Latin origin, but with
some Gaulish influence. The number of Gaulish words would have been greater in medieval
times, because a higher proportion of those Gaulish words that survived pertained to agriculture,
flora and fauna, etc.
Curiously enough, our own dear English language is Germanic. However, it has been
influenced by both French and Latin. Thus, there was a slight Gaulish influence on English too.
The fact is that the Gaulish language had some influence on French. The Gauls, from
whom many French people are descended, spoke a Celtic language. It was probably a P-Celtic
language, like Welsh, and not a Q-Celtic language like Irish. During my school years, my French
teacher actually told me that the very odd French way of counting the numbers 70 to 99 is based
on the old Celtic way of counting by twenties-counting by the score. So "quatre-vingts" equals
80. All France still uses this system, as do the former colonies, but Belgium no longer does.
Gauls and the Celtic language
However, it's not just that. The Gauls started out using a Celtic language that was distinct
from Latin, yet with some correspondences between the two. According to "Empires of the
Word: A Language History of the World" by Nicholas Ostler, the form of Celtic spoken in Gaul
was grammatically closer to Latin than that spoken in Britain. The Ancient Britons spoke a
Celtic language that was already more distinct. So, when Gaul was a Roman province, the thing
to do was to learn Latin, if you wanted to be educated or important. This did not preclude a use
of Gaulish as well, but the fact was that Latin began to seem too useful, too important to avoid,
and people began to make the fatal mistake of thinking their own language was worthless, or
shameful. But the author says, or implies, that Latin would not seem too outlandish or difficult.
The Gauls would "get" Latin, whereas the Britons resisted assimilation. It was easier for the
Gauls to see Latin as their language. Meanwhile, if educated, the Ancient Britons could learn to
speak Latin amazingly well, with perfect grammar even after the Romans left Britain. But they
did not lose their own tongues. On the other hand, as late antiquity turned into the Dark Ages,
people on the continent trying to write classical Latin made silly mistakes, because the rough
version of Vulgar Latin that they spoke interfered with it. By this time, of course, Gaulish would
have become Vulgar Latin, albeit with some Gaulish vocabulary added. I will come back to this
later.
Vulgar Latin
But what of Vulgar Latin itself? Another author, whose books I read about the Ancient
Celts, said that a number of Celtic words made their way into Latin itself. I can think of bracciae,
the Latin word for trousers/pants (bragas in Spanish, although there it means stockings or lady's
tights). That came from Gaulish, in classical times. Vulgar Latin was spread partly by the Roman
army, which adopted a fair number of Gaulish words and phrases. So we have the have the
league, a unit of length, which came from leuga Gallica the Latin word for this Gaulish unit of
length. The modern French word for this is lieu. There were other words of Gaulish origin,
which also made it into other Romance languages. For example, embassade (Fr.) embajada (Sp.)
and embassy. French retained some other Gaulish words, such as "bruyere" briars, and "lande"
which means an empty, uncultivated area. This has nothing to do with our word "land." which
comes from the Germanic languages, and is attested in other Germanic languages, from Gothic
onwards.
Another interesting point: some French researchers used computer algorithms to discover
other influences. What they found was that the gender of Latin words was changed in early
French to what the Gaulish gender had been. For example: "Mare (sea), had a neutral gender in
Latin, but in French it is feminine "LA mer."
What I think has happened is that a lot of French vocabulary is of Latin origin, but with
some Gaulish influence. The number of Gaulish words would have been greater in medieval
times, because a higher proportion of those Gaulish words that survived pertained to agriculture,
flora and fauna, etc.
Curiously enough, our own dear English language is Germanic. However, it has been
influenced by both French and Latin. Thus, there was a slight Gaulish influence on English too.
The fact is that the Gaulish language had some influence on French. The Gauls, from
whom many French people are descended, spoke a Celtic language. It was probably a P-Celtic
language, like Welsh, and not a Q-Celtic language like Irish. During my school years, my French
teacher actually told me that the very odd French way of counting the numbers 70 to 99 is based
on the old Celtic way of counting by twenties-counting by the score. So "quatre-vingts" equals
80. All France still uses this system, as do the former colonies, but Belgium no longer does.
Gauls and the Celtic language
However, it's not just that. The Gauls started out using a Celtic language that was distinct
from Latin, yet with some correspondences between the two. According to "Empires of the
Word: A Language History of the World" by Nicholas Ostler, the form of Celtic spoken in Gaul
was grammatically closer to Latin than that spoken in Britain. The Ancient Britons spoke a
Celtic language that was already more distinct. So, when Gaul was a Roman province, the thing
to do was to learn Latin, if you wanted to be educated or important. This did not preclude a use
of Gaulish as well, but the fact was that Latin began to seem too useful, too important to avoid,
and people began to make the fatal mistake of thinking their own language was worthless, or
shameful. But the author says, or implies, that Latin would not seem too outlandish or difficult.
The Gauls would "get" Latin, whereas the Britons resisted assimilation. It was easier for the
Gauls to see Latin as their language. Meanwhile, if educated, the Ancient Britons could learn to
speak Latin amazingly well, with perfect grammar even after the Romans left Britain. But they
did not lose their own tongues. On the other hand, as late antiquity turned into the Dark Ages,
people on the continent trying to write classical Latin made silly mistakes, because the rough
version of Vulgar Latin that they spoke interfered with it. By this time, of course, Gaulish would
have become Vulgar Latin, albeit with some Gaulish vocabulary added. I will come back to this
later.
Vulgar Latin
But what of Vulgar Latin itself? Another author, whose books I read about the Ancient
Celts, said that a number of Celtic words made their way into Latin itself. I can think of bracciae,
the Latin word for trousers/pants (bragas in Spanish, although there it means stockings or lady's
tights). That came from Gaulish, in classical times. Vulgar Latin was spread partly by the Roman
army, which adopted a fair number of Gaulish words and phrases. So we have the have the
league, a unit of length, which came from leuga Gallica the Latin word for this Gaulish unit of
length. The modern French word for this is lieu. There were other words of Gaulish origin,
which also made it into other Romance languages. For example, embassade (Fr.) embajada (Sp.)
and embassy. French retained some other Gaulish words, such as "bruyere" briars, and "lande"
which means an empty, uncultivated area. This has nothing to do with our word "land." which
comes from the Germanic languages, and is attested in other Germanic languages, from Gothic
onwards.
Another interesting point: some French researchers used computer algorithms to discover
other influences. What they found was that the gender of Latin words was changed in early
French to what the Gaulish gender had been. For example: "Mare (sea), had a neutral gender in
Latin, but in French it is feminine "LA mer."
What I think has happened is that a lot of French vocabulary is of Latin origin, but with
some Gaulish influence. The number of Gaulish words would have been greater in medieval
times, because a higher proportion of those Gaulish words that survived pertained to agriculture,
flora and fauna, etc.
Curiously enough, our own dear English language is Germanic. However, it has been
influenced by both French and Latin. Thus, there was a slight Gaulish influence on English too.
The fact is that the Gaulish language had some influence on French. The Gauls, from
whom many French people are descended, spoke a Celtic language. It was probably a P-Celtic
language, like Welsh, and not a Q-Celtic language like Irish. During my school years, my French
teacher actually told me that the very odd French way of counting the numbers 70 to 99 is based
on the old Celtic way of counting by twenties-counting by the score. So "quatre-vingts" equals
80. All France still uses this system, as do the former colonies, but Belgium no longer does.
Gauls and the Celtic language
However, it's not just that. The Gauls started out using a Celtic language that was distinct
from Latin, yet with some correspondences between the two. According to "Empires of the
Word: A Language History of the World" by Nicholas Ostler, the form of Celtic spoken in Gaul
was grammatically closer to Latin than that spoken in Britain. The Ancient Britons spoke a
Celtic language that was already more distinct. So, when Gaul was a Roman province, the thing
to do was to learn Latin, if you wanted to be educated or important. This did not preclude a use
of Gaulish as well, but the fact was that Latin began to seem too useful, too important to avoid,
and people began to make the fatal mistake of thinking their own language was worthless, or
shameful. But the author says, or implies, that Latin would not seem too outlandish or difficult.
The Gauls would "get" Latin, whereas the Britons resisted assimilation. It was easier for the
Gauls to see Latin as their language. Meanwhile, if educated, the Ancient Britons could learn to
speak Latin amazingly well, with perfect grammar even after the Romans left Britain. But they
did not lose their own tongues. On the other hand, as late antiquity turned into the Dark Ages,
people on the continent trying to write classical Latin made silly mistakes, because the rough
version of Vulgar Latin that they spoke interfered with it. By this time, of course, Gaulish would
have become Vulgar Latin, albeit with some Gaulish vocabulary added. I will come back to this
later.
Vulgar Latin
But what of Vulgar Latin itself? Another author, whose books I read about the Ancient
Celts, said that a number of Celtic words made their way into Latin itself. I can think of bracciae,
the Latin word for trousers/pants (bragas in Spanish, although there it means stockings or lady's
tights). That came from Gaulish, in classical times. Vulgar Latin was spread partly by the Roman
army, which adopted a fair number of Gaulish words and phrases. So we have the have the
league, a unit of length, which came from leuga Gallica the Latin word for this Gaulish unit of
length. The modern French word for this is lieu. There were other words of Gaulish origin,
which also made it into other Romance languages. For example, embassade (Fr.) embajada (Sp.)
and embassy. French retained some other Gaulish words, such as "bruyere" briars, and "lande"
which means an empty, uncultivated area. This has nothing to do with our word "land." which
comes from the Germanic languages, and is attested in other Germanic languages, from Gothic
onwards.
Another interesting point: some French researchers used computer algorithms to discover
other influences. What they found was that the gender of Latin words was changed in early
French to what the Gaulish gender had been. For example: "Mare (sea), had a neutral gender in
Latin, but in French it is feminine "LA mer."
What I think has happened is that a lot of French vocabulary is of Latin origin, but with
some Gaulish influence. The number of Gaulish words would have been greater in medieval
times, because a higher proportion of those Gaulish words that survived pertained to agriculture,
flora and fauna, etc.
Curiously enough, our own dear English language is Germanic. However, it has been
influenced by both French and Latin. Thus, there was a slight Gaulish influence on English too.
The fact is that the Gaulish language had some influence on French. The Gauls, from
whom many French people are descended, spoke a Celtic language. It was probably a P-Celtic
language, like Welsh, and not a Q-Celtic language like Irish. During my school years, my French
teacher actually told me that the very odd French way of counting the numbers 70 to 99 is based
on the old Celtic way of counting by twenties-counting by the score. So "quatre-vingts" equals
80. All France still uses this system, as do the former colonies, but Belgium no longer does.
Gauls and the Celtic language
However, it's not just that. The Gauls started out using a Celtic language that was distinct
from Latin, yet with some correspondences between the two. According to "Empires of the
Word: A Language History of the World" by Nicholas Ostler, the form of Celtic spoken in Gaul
was grammatically closer to Latin than that spoken in Britain. The Ancient Britons spoke a
Celtic language that was already more distinct. So, when Gaul was a Roman province, the thing
to do was to learn Latin, if you wanted to be educated or important. This did not preclude a use
of Gaulish as well, but the fact was that Latin began to seem too useful, too important to avoid,
and people began to make the fatal mistake of thinking their own language was worthless, or
shameful. But the author says, or implies, that Latin would not seem too outlandish or difficult.
The Gauls would "get" Latin, whereas the Britons resisted assimilation. It was easier for the
Gauls to see Latin as their language. Meanwhile, if educated, the Ancient Britons could learn to
speak Latin amazingly well, with perfect grammar even after the Romans left Britain. But they
did not lose their own tongues. On the other hand, as late antiquity turned into the Dark Ages,
people on the continent trying to write classical Latin made silly mistakes, because the rough
version of Vulgar Latin that they spoke interfered with it. By this time, of course, Gaulish would
have become Vulgar Latin, albeit with some Gaulish vocabulary added. I will come back to this
later.
Vulgar Latin
But what of Vulgar Latin itself? Another author, whose books I read about the Ancient
Celts, said that a number of Celtic words made their way into Latin itself. I can think of bracciae,
the Latin word for trousers/pants (bragas in Spanish, although there it means stockings or lady's
tights). That came from Gaulish, in classical times. Vulgar Latin was spread partly by the Roman
army, which adopted a fair number of Gaulish words and phrases. So we have the have the
league, a unit of length, which came from leuga Gallica the Latin word for this Gaulish unit of
length. The modern French word for this is lieu. There were other words of Gaulish origin,
which also made it into other Romance languages. For example, embassade (Fr.) embajada (Sp.)
and embassy. French retained some other Gaulish words, such as "bruyere" briars, and "lande"
which means an empty, uncultivated area. This has nothing to do with our word "land." which
comes from the Germanic languages, and is attested in other Germanic languages, from Gothic
onwards.
Another interesting point: some French researchers used computer algorithms to discover
other influences. What they found was that the gender of Latin words was changed in early
French to what the Gaulish gender had been. For example: "Mare (sea), had a neutral gender in
Latin, but in French it is feminine "LA mer."
What I think has happened is that a lot of French vocabulary is of Latin origin, but with
some Gaulish influence. The number of Gaulish words would have been greater in medieval
times, because a higher proportion of those Gaulish words that survived pertained to agriculture,
flora and fauna, etc.
Curiously enough, our own dear English language is Germanic. However, it has been
influenced by both French and Latin. Thus, there was a slight Gaulish influence on English too.
The fact is that the Gaulish language had some influence on French. The Gauls, from
whom many French people are descended, spoke a Celtic language. It was probably a P-Celtic
language, like Welsh, and not a Q-Celtic language like Irish. During my school years, my French
teacher actually told me that the very odd French way of counting the numbers 70 to 99 is based
on the old Celtic way of counting by twenties-counting by the score. So "quatre-vingts" equals
80. All France still uses this system, as do the former colonies, but Belgium no longer does.
Gauls and the Celtic language
However, it's not just that. The Gauls started out using a Celtic language that was distinct
from Latin, yet with some correspondences between the two. According to "Empires of the
Word: A Language History of the World" by Nicholas Ostler, the form of Celtic spoken in Gaul
was grammatically closer to Latin than that spoken in Britain. The Ancient Britons spoke a
Celtic language that was already more distinct. So, when Gaul was a Roman province, the thing
to do was to learn Latin, if you wanted to be educated or important. This did not preclude a use
of Gaulish as well, but the fact was that Latin began to seem too useful, too important to avoid,
and people began to make the fatal mistake of thinking their own language was worthless, or
shameful. But the author says, or implies, that Latin would not seem too outlandish or difficult.
The Gauls would "get" Latin, whereas the Britons resisted assimilation. It was easier for the
Gauls to see Latin as their language. Meanwhile, if educated, the Ancient Britons could learn to
speak Latin amazingly well, with perfect grammar even after the Romans left Britain. But they
did not lose their own tongues. On the other hand, as late antiquity turned into the Dark Ages,
people on the continent trying to write classical Latin made silly mistakes, because the rough
version of Vulgar Latin that they spoke interfered with it. By this time, of course, Gaulish would
have become Vulgar Latin, albeit with some Gaulish vocabulary added. I will come back to this
later.
Vulgar Latin
But what of Vulgar Latin itself? Another author, whose books I read about the Ancient
Celts, said that a number of Celtic words made their way into Latin itself. I can think of bracciae,
the Latin word for trousers/pants (bragas in Spanish, although there it means stockings or lady's
tights). That came from Gaulish, in classical times. Vulgar Latin was spread partly by the Roman
army, which adopted a fair number of Gaulish words and phrases. So we have the have the
league, a unit of length, which came from leuga Gallica the Latin word for this Gaulish unit of
length. The modern French word for this is lieu. There were other words of Gaulish origin,
which also made it into other Romance languages. For example, embassade (Fr.) embajada (Sp.)
and embassy. French retained some other Gaulish words, such as "bruyere" briars, and "lande"
which means an empty, uncultivated area. This has nothing to do with our word "land." which
comes from the Germanic languages, and is attested in other Germanic languages, from Gothic
onwards.
Another interesting point: some French researchers used computer algorithms to discover
other influences. What they found was that the gender of Latin words was changed in early
French to what the Gaulish gender had been. For example: "Mare (sea), had a neutral gender in
Latin, but in French it is feminine "LA mer."
What I think has happened is that a lot of French vocabulary is of Latin origin, but with
some Gaulish influence. The number of Gaulish words would have been greater in medieval
times, because a higher proportion of those Gaulish words that survived pertained to agriculture,
flora and fauna, etc.
Curiously enough, our own dear English language is Germanic. However, it has been
influenced by both French and Latin. Thus, there was a slight Gaulish influence on English too.
The fact is that the Gaulish language had some influence on French. The Gauls, from
whom many French people are descended, spoke a Celtic language. It was probably a P-Celtic
language, like Welsh, and not a Q-Celtic language like Irish. During my school years, my French
teacher actually told me that the very odd French way of counting the numbers 70 to 99 is based
on the old Celtic way of counting by twenties-counting by the score. So "quatre-vingts" equals
80. All France still uses this system, as do the former colonies, but Belgium no longer does.
Gauls and the Celtic language
However, it's not just that. The Gauls started out using a Celtic language that was distinct
from Latin, yet with some correspondences between the two. According to "Empires of the
Word: A Language History of the World" by Nicholas Ostler, the form of Celtic spoken in Gaul
was grammatically closer to Latin than that spoken in Britain. The Ancient Britons spoke a
Celtic language that was already more distinct. So, when Gaul was a Roman province, the thing
to do was to learn Latin, if you wanted to be educated or important. This did not preclude a use
of Gaulish as well, but the fact was that Latin began to seem too useful, too important to avoid,
and people began to make the fatal mistake of thinking their own language was worthless, or
shameful. But the author says, or implies, that Latin would not seem too outlandish or difficult.
The Gauls would "get" Latin, whereas the Britons resisted assimilation. It was easier for the
Gauls to see Latin as their language. Meanwhile, if educated, the Ancient Britons could learn to
speak Latin amazingly well, with perfect grammar even after the Romans left Britain. But they
did not lose their own tongues. On the other hand, as late antiquity turned into the Dark Ages,
people on the continent trying to write classical Latin made silly mistakes, because the rough
version of Vulgar Latin that they spoke interfered with it. By this time, of course, Gaulish would
have become Vulgar Latin, albeit with some Gaulish vocabulary added. I will come back to this
later.
Vulgar Latin
But what of Vulgar Latin itself? Another author, whose books I read about the Ancient
Celts, said that a number of Celtic words made their way into Latin itself. I can think of bracciae,
the Latin word for trousers/pants (bragas in Spanish, although there it means stockings or lady's
tights). That came from Gaulish, in classical times. Vulgar Latin was spread partly by the Roman
army, which adopted a fair number of Gaulish words and phrases. So we have the have the
league, a unit of length, which came from leuga Gallica the Latin word for this Gaulish unit of
length. The modern French word for this is lieu. There were other words of Gaulish origin,
which also made it into other Romance languages. For example, embassade (Fr.) embajada (Sp.)
and embassy. French retained some other Gaulish words, such as "bruyere" briars, and "lande"
which means an empty, uncultivated area. This has nothing to do with our word "land." which
comes from the Germanic languages, and is attested in other Germanic languages, from Gothic
onwards.
Another interesting point: some French researchers used computer algorithms to discover
other influences. What they found was that the gender of Latin words was changed in early
French to what the Gaulish gender had been. For example: "Mare (sea), had a neutral gender in
Latin, but in French it is feminine "LA mer."
What I think has happened is that a lot of French vocabulary is of Latin origin, but with
some Gaulish influence. The number of Gaulish words would have been greater in medieval
times, because a higher proportion of those Gaulish words that survived pertained to agriculture,
flora and fauna, etc.
Curiously enough, our own dear English language is Germanic. However, it has been
influenced by both French and Latin. Thus, there was a slight Gaulish influence on English too.
The fact is that the Gaulish language had some influence on French. The Gauls, from
whom many French people are descended, spoke a Celtic language. It was probably a P-Celtic
language, like Welsh, and not a Q-Celtic language like Irish. During my school years, my French
teacher actually told me that the very odd French way of counting the numbers 70 to 99 is based
on the old Celtic way of counting by twenties-counting by the score. So "quatre-vingts" equals
80. All France still uses this system, as do the former colonies, but Belgium no longer does.
Gauls and the Celtic language
However, it's not just that. The Gauls started out using a Celtic language that was distinct
from Latin, yet with some correspondences between the two. According to "Empires of the
Word: A Language History of the World" by Nicholas Ostler, the form of Celtic spoken in Gaul
was grammatically closer to Latin than that spoken in Britain. The Ancient Britons spoke a
Celtic language that was already more distinct. So, when Gaul was a Roman province, the thing
to do was to learn Latin, if you wanted to be educated or important. This did not preclude a use
of Gaulish as well, but the fact was that Latin began to seem too useful, too important to avoid,
and people began to make the fatal mistake of thinking their own language was worthless, or
shameful. But the author says, or implies, that Latin would not seem too outlandish or difficult.
The Gauls would "get" Latin, whereas the Britons resisted assimilation. It was easier for the
Gauls to see Latin as their language. Meanwhile, if educated, the Ancient Britons could learn to
speak Latin amazingly well, with perfect grammar even after the Romans left Britain. But they
did not lose their own tongues. On the other hand, as late antiquity turned into the Dark Ages,
people on the continent trying to write classical Latin made silly mistakes, because the rough
version of Vulgar Latin that they spoke interfered with it. By this time, of course, Gaulish would
have become Vulgar Latin, albeit with some Gaulish vocabulary added. I will come back to this
later.
Vulgar Latin
But what of Vulgar Latin itself? Another author, whose books I read about the Ancient
Celts, said that a number of Celtic words made their way into Latin itself. I can think of bracciae,
the Latin word for trousers/pants (bragas in Spanish, although there it means stockings or lady's
tights). That came from Gaulish, in classical times. Vulgar Latin was spread partly by the Roman
army, which adopted a fair number of Gaulish words and phrases. So we have the have the
league, a unit of length, which came from leuga Gallica the Latin word for this Gaulish unit of
length. The modern French word for this is lieu. There were other words of Gaulish origin,
which also made it into other Romance languages. For example, embassade (Fr.) embajada (Sp.)
and embassy. French retained some other Gaulish words, such as "bruyere" briars, and "lande"
which means an empty, uncultivated area. This has nothing to do with our word "land." which
comes from the Germanic languages, and is attested in other Germanic languages, from Gothic
onwards.
Another interesting point: some French researchers used computer algorithms to discover
other influences. What they found was that the gender of Latin words was changed in early
French to what the Gaulish gender had been. For example: "Mare (sea), had a neutral gender in
Latin, but in French it is feminine "LA mer."
What I think has happened is that a lot of French vocabulary is of Latin origin, but with
some Gaulish influence. The number of Gaulish words would have been greater in medieval
times, because a higher proportion of those Gaulish words that survived pertained to agriculture,
flora and fauna, etc.
Curiously enough, our own dear English language is Germanic. However, it has been
influenced by both French and Latin. Thus, there was a slight Gaulish influence on English too.
The fact is that the Gaulish language had some influence on French. The Gauls, from
whom many French people are descended, spoke a Celtic language. It was probably a P-Celtic
language, like Welsh, and not a Q-Celtic language like Irish. During my school years, my French
teacher actually told me that the very odd French way of counting the numbers 70 to 99 is based
on the old Celtic way of counting by twenties-counting by the score. So "quatre-vingts" equals
80. All France still uses this system, as do the former colonies, but Belgium no longer does.
Gauls and the Celtic language
However, it's not just that. The Gauls started out using a Celtic language that was distinct
from Latin, yet with some correspondences between the two. According to "Empires of the
Word: A Language History of the World" by Nicholas Ostler, the form of Celtic spoken in Gaul
was grammatically closer to Latin than that spoken in Britain. The Ancient Britons spoke a
Celtic language that was already more distinct. So, when Gaul was a Roman province, the thing
to do was to learn Latin, if you wanted to be educated or important. This did not preclude a use
of Gaulish as well, but the fact was that Latin began to seem too useful, too important to avoid,
and people began to make the fatal mistake of thinking their own language was worthless, or
shameful. But the author says, or implies, that Latin would not seem too outlandish or difficult.
The Gauls would "get" Latin, whereas the Britons resisted assimilation. It was easier for the
Gauls to see Latin as their language. Meanwhile, if educated, the Ancient Britons could learn to
speak Latin amazingly well, with perfect grammar even after the Romans left Britain. But they
did not lose their own tongues. On the other hand, as late antiquity turned into the Dark Ages,
people on the continent trying to write classical Latin made silly mistakes, because the rough
version of Vulgar Latin that they spoke interfered with it. By this time, of course, Gaulish would
have become Vulgar Latin, albeit with some Gaulish vocabulary added. I will come back to this
later.
Vulgar Latin
But what of Vulgar Latin itself? Another author, whose books I read about the Ancient
Celts, said that a number of Celtic words made their way into Latin itself. I can think of bracciae,
the Latin word for trousers/pants (bragas in Spanish, although there it means stockings or lady's
tights). That came from Gaulish, in classical times. Vulgar Latin was spread partly by the Roman
army, which adopted a fair number of Gaulish words and phrases. So we have the have the
league, a unit of length, which came from leuga Gallica the Latin word for this Gaulish unit of
length. The modern French word for this is lieu. There were other words of Gaulish origin,
which also made it into other Romance languages. For example, embassade (Fr.) embajada (Sp.)
and embassy. French retained some other Gaulish words, such as "bruyere" briars, and "lande"
which means an empty, uncultivated area. This has nothing to do with our word "land." which
comes from the Germanic languages, and is attested in other Germanic languages, from Gothic
onwards.
Another interesting point: some French researchers used computer algorithms to discover
other influences. What they found was that the gender of Latin words was changed in early
French to what the Gaulish gender had been. For example: "Mare (sea), had a neutral gender in
Latin, but in French it is feminine "LA mer."
What I think has happened is that a lot of French vocabulary is of Latin origin, but with
some Gaulish influence. The number of Gaulish words would have been greater in medieval
times, because a higher proportion of those Gaulish words that survived pertained to agriculture,
flora and fauna, etc.
Curiously enough, our own dear English language is Germanic. However, it has been
influenced by both French and Latin. Thus, there was a slight Gaulish influence on English too.
The fact is that the Gaulish language had some influence on French. The Gauls, from
whom many French people are descended, spoke a Celtic language. It was probably a P-Celtic
language, like Welsh, and not a Q-Celtic language like Irish. During my school years, my French
teacher actually told me that the very odd French way of counting the numbers 70 to 99 is based
on the old Celtic way of counting by twenties-counting by the score. So "quatre-vingts" equals
80. All France still uses this system, as do the former colonies, but Belgium no longer does.
Gauls and the Celtic language
However, it's not just that. The Gauls started out using a Celtic language that was distinct
from Latin, yet with some correspondences between the two. According to "Empires of the
Word: A Language History of the World" by Nicholas Ostler, the form of Celtic spoken in Gaul
was grammatically closer to Latin than that spoken in Britain. The Ancient Britons spoke a
Celtic language that was already more distinct. So, when Gaul was a Roman province, the thing
to do was to learn Latin, if you wanted to be educated or important. This did not preclude a use
of Gaulish as well, but the fact was that Latin began to seem too useful, too important to avoid,
and people began to make the fatal mistake of thinking their own language was worthless, or
shameful. But the author says, or implies, that Latin would not seem too outlandish or difficult.
The Gauls would "get" Latin, whereas the Britons resisted assimilation. It was easier for the
Gauls to see Latin as their language. Meanwhile, if educated, the Ancient Britons could learn to
speak Latin amazingly well, with perfect grammar even after the Romans left Britain. But they
did not lose their own tongues. On the other hand, as late antiquity turned into the Dark Ages,
people on the continent trying to write classical Latin made silly mistakes, because the rough
version of Vulgar Latin that they spoke interfered with it. By this time, of course, Gaulish would
have become Vulgar Latin, albeit with some Gaulish vocabulary added. I will come back to this
later.
Vulgar Latin
But what of Vulgar Latin itself? Another author, whose books I read about the Ancient
Celts, said that a number of Celtic words made their way into Latin itself. I can think of bracciae,
the Latin word for trousers/pants (bragas in Spanish, although there it means stockings or lady's
tights). That came from Gaulish, in classical times. Vulgar Latin was spread partly by the Roman
army, which adopted a fair number of Gaulish words and phrases. So we have the have the
league, a unit of length, which came from leuga Gallica the Latin word for this Gaulish unit of
length. The modern French word for this is lieu. There were other words of Gaulish origin,
which also made it into other Romance languages. For example, embassade (Fr.) embajada (Sp.)
and embassy. French retained some other Gaulish words, such as "bruyere" briars, and "lande"
which means an empty, uncultivated area. This has nothing to do with our word "land." which
comes from the Germanic languages, and is attested in other Germanic languages, from Gothic
onwards.
Another interesting point: some French researchers used computer algorithms to discover
other influences. What they found was that the gender of Latin words was changed in early
French to what the Gaulish gender had been. For example: "Mare (sea), had a neutral gender in
Latin, but in French it is feminine "LA mer."
What I think has happened is that a lot of French vocabulary is of Latin origin, but with
some Gaulish influence. The number of Gaulish words would have been greater in medieval
times, because a higher proportion of those Gaulish words that survived pertained to agriculture,
flora and fauna, etc.
Curiously enough, our own dear English language is Germanic. However, it has been
influenced by both French and Latin. Thus, there was a slight Gaulish influence on English too.
The fact is that the Gaulish language had some influence on French. The Gauls, from
whom many French people are descended, spoke a Celtic language. It was probably a P-Celtic
language, like Welsh, and not a Q-Celtic language like Irish. During my school years, my French
teacher actually told me that the very odd French way of counting the numbers 70 to 99 is based
on the old Celtic way of counting by twenties-counting by the score. So "quatre-vingts" equals
80. All France still uses this system, as do the former colonies, but Belgium no longer does.
Gauls and the Celtic language
However, it's not just that. The Gauls started out using a Celtic language that was distinct
from Latin, yet with some correspondences between the two. According to "Empires of the
Word: A Language History of the World" by Nicholas Ostler, the form of Celtic spoken in Gaul
was grammatically closer to Latin than that spoken in Britain. The Ancient Britons spoke a
Celtic language that was already more distinct. So, when Gaul was a Roman province, the thing
to do was to learn Latin, if you wanted to be educated or important. This did not preclude a use
of Gaulish as well, but the fact was that Latin began to seem too useful, too important to avoid,
and people began to make the fatal mistake of thinking their own language was worthless, or
shameful. But the author says, or implies, that Latin would not seem too outlandish or difficult.
The Gauls would "get" Latin, whereas the Britons resisted assimilation. It was easier for the
Gauls to see Latin as their language. Meanwhile, if educated, the Ancient Britons could learn to
speak Latin amazingly well, with perfect grammar even after the Romans left Britain. But they
did not lose their own tongues. On the other hand, as late antiquity turned into the Dark Ages,
people on the continent trying to write classical Latin made silly mistakes, because the rough
version of Vulgar Latin that they spoke interfered with it. By this time, of course, Gaulish would
have become Vulgar Latin, albeit with some Gaulish vocabulary added. I will come back to this
later.
Vulgar Latin
But what of Vulgar Latin itself? Another author, whose books I read about the Ancient
Celts, said that a number of Celtic words made their way into Latin itself. I can think of bracciae,
the Latin word for trousers/pants (bragas in Spanish, although there it means stockings or lady's
tights). That came from Gaulish, in classical times. Vulgar Latin was spread partly by the Roman
army, which adopted a fair number of Gaulish words and phrases. So we have the have the
league, a unit of length, which came from leuga Gallica the Latin word for this Gaulish unit of
length. The modern French word for this is lieu. There were other words of Gaulish origin,
which also made it into other Romance languages. For example, embassade (Fr.) embajada (Sp.)
and embassy. French retained some other Gaulish words, such as "bruyere" briars, and "lande"
which means an empty, uncultivated area. This has nothing to do with our word "land." which
comes from the Germanic languages, and is attested in other Germanic languages, from Gothic
onwards.
Another interesting point: some French researchers used computer algorithms to discover
other influences. What they found was that the gender of Latin words was changed in early
French to what the Gaulish gender had been. For example: "Mare (sea), had a neutral gender in
Latin, but in French it is feminine "LA mer."
What I think has happened is that a lot of French vocabulary is of Latin origin, but with
some Gaulish influence. The number of Gaulish words would have been greater in medieval
times, because a higher proportion of those Gaulish words that survived pertained to agriculture,
flora and fauna, etc.
Curiously enough, our own dear English language is Germanic. However, it has been
influenced by both French and Latin. Thus, there was a slight Gaulish influence on English too.
The fact is that the Gaulish language had some influence on French. The Gauls, from
whom many French people are descended, spoke a Celtic language. It was probably a P-Celtic
language, like Welsh, and not a Q-Celtic language like Irish. During my school years, my French
teacher actually told me that the very odd French way of counting the numbers 70 to 99 is based
on the old Celtic way of counting by twenties-counting by the score. So "quatre-vingts" equals
80. All France still uses this system, as do the former colonies, but Belgium no longer does.
Gauls and the Celtic language
However, it's not just that. The Gauls started out using a Celtic language that was distinct
from Latin, yet with some correspondences between the two. According to "Empires of the
Word: A Language History of the World" by Nicholas Ostler, the form of Celtic spoken in Gaul
was grammatically closer to Latin than that spoken in Britain. The Ancient Britons spoke a
Celtic language that was already more distinct. So, when Gaul was a Roman province, the thing
to do was to learn Latin, if you wanted to be educated or important. This did not preclude a use
of Gaulish as well, but the fact was that Latin began to seem too useful, too important to avoid,
and people began to make the fatal mistake of thinking their own language was worthless, or
shameful. But the author says, or implies, that Latin would not seem too outlandish or difficult.
The Gauls would "get" Latin, whereas the Britons resisted assimilation. It was easier for the
Gauls to see Latin as their language. Meanwhile, if educated, the Ancient Britons could learn to
speak Latin amazingly well, with perfect grammar even after the Romans left Britain. But they
did not lose their own tongues. On the other hand, as late antiquity turned into the Dark Ages,
people on the continent trying to write classical Latin made silly mistakes, because the rough
version of Vulgar Latin that they spoke interfered with it. By this time, of course, Gaulish would
have become Vulgar Latin, albeit with some Gaulish vocabulary added. I will come back to this
later.
Vulgar Latin
But what of Vulgar Latin itself? Another author, whose books I read about the Ancient
Celts, said that a number of Celtic words made their way into Latin itself. I can think of bracciae,
the Latin word for trousers/pants (bragas in Spanish, although there it means stockings or lady's
tights). That came from Gaulish, in classical times. Vulgar Latin was spread partly by the Roman
army, which adopted a fair number of Gaulish words and phrases. So we have the have the
league, a unit of length, which came from leuga Gallica the Latin word for this Gaulish unit of
length. The modern French word for this is lieu. There were other words of Gaulish origin,
which also made it into other Romance languages. For example, embassade (Fr.) embajada (Sp.)
and embassy. French retained some other Gaulish words, such as "bruyere" briars, and "lande"
which means an empty, uncultivated area. This has nothing to do with our word "land." which
comes from the Germanic languages, and is attested in other Germanic languages, from Gothic
onwards.
Another interesting point: some French researchers used computer algorithms to discover
other influences. What they found was that the gender of Latin words was changed in early
French to what the Gaulish gender had been. For example: "Mare (sea), had a neutral gender in
Latin, but in French it is feminine "LA mer."
What I think has happened is that a lot of French vocabulary is of Latin origin, but with
some Gaulish influence. The number of Gaulish words would have been greater in medieval
times, because a higher proportion of those Gaulish words that survived pertained to agriculture,
flora and fauna, etc.
Curiously enough, our own dear English language is Germanic. However, it has been
influenced by both French and Latin. Thus, there was a slight Gaulish influence on English too.
The fact is that the Gaulish language had some influence on French. The Gauls, from
whom many French people are descended, spoke a Celtic language. It was probably a P-Celtic
language, like Welsh, and not a Q-Celtic language like Irish. During my school years, my French
teacher actually told me that the very odd French way of counting the numbers 70 to 99 is based
on the old Celtic way of counting by twenties-counting by the score. So "quatre-vingts" equals
80. All France still uses this system, as do the former colonies, but Belgium no longer does.
Gauls and the Celtic language
However, it's not just that. The Gauls started out using a Celtic language that was distinct
from Latin, yet with some correspondences between the two. According to "Empires of the
Word: A Language History of the World" by Nicholas Ostler, the form of Celtic spoken in Gaul
was grammatically closer to Latin than that spoken in Britain. The Ancient Britons spoke a
Celtic language that was already more distinct. So, when Gaul was a Roman province, the thing
to do was to learn Latin, if you wanted to be educated or important. This did not preclude a use
of Gaulish as well, but the fact was that Latin began to seem too useful, too important to avoid,
and people began to make the fatal mistake of thinking their own language was worthless, or
shameful. But the author says, or implies, that Latin would not seem too outlandish or difficult.
The Gauls would "get" Latin, whereas the Britons resisted assimilation. It was easier for the
Gauls to see Latin as their language. Meanwhile, if educated, the Ancient Britons could learn to
speak Latin amazingly well, with perfect grammar even after the Romans left Britain. But they
did not lose their own tongues. On the other hand, as late antiquity turned into the Dark Ages,
people on the continent trying to write classical Latin made silly mistakes, because the rough
version of Vulgar Latin that they spoke interfered with it. By this time, of course, Gaulish would
have become Vulgar Latin, albeit with some Gaulish vocabulary added. I will come back to this
later.
Vulgar Latin
But what of Vulgar Latin itself? Another author, whose books I read about the Ancient
Celts, said that a number of Celtic words made their way into Latin itself. I can think of bracciae,
the Latin word for trousers/pants (bragas in Spanish, although there it means stockings or lady's
tights). That came from Gaulish, in classical times. Vulgar Latin was spread partly by the Roman
army, which adopted a fair number of Gaulish words and phrases. So we have the have the
league, a unit of length, which came from leuga Gallica the Latin word for this Gaulish unit of
length. The modern French word for this is lieu. There were other words of Gaulish origin,
which also made it into other Romance languages. For example, embassade (Fr.) embajada (Sp.)
and embassy. French retained some other Gaulish words, such as "bruyere" briars, and "lande"
which means an empty, uncultivated area. This has nothing to do with our word "land." which
comes from the Germanic languages, and is attested in other Germanic languages, from Gothic
onwards.
Another interesting point: some French researchers used computer algorithms to discover
other influences. What they found was that the gender of Latin words was changed in early
French to what the Gaulish gender had been. For example: "Mare (sea), had a neutral gender in
Latin, but in French it is feminine "LA mer."
What I think has happened is that a lot of French vocabulary is of Latin origin, but with
some Gaulish influence. The number of Gaulish words would have been greater in medieval
times, because a higher proportion of those Gaulish words that survived pertained to agriculture,
flora and fauna, etc.
Curiously enough, our own dear English language is Germanic. However, it has been
influenced by both French and Latin. Thus, there was a slight Gaulish influence on English too.
The fact is that the Gaulish language had some influence on French. The Gauls, from
whom many French people are descended, spoke a Celtic language. It was probably a P-Celtic
language, like Welsh, and not a Q-Celtic language like Irish. During my school years, my French
teacher actually told me that the very odd French way of counting the numbers 70 to 99 is based
on the old Celtic way of counting by twenties-counting by the score. So "quatre-vingts" equals
80. All France still uses this system, as do the former colonies, but Belgium no longer does.
Gauls and the Celtic language
However, it's not just that. The Gauls started out using a Celtic language that was distinct
from Latin, yet with some correspondences between the two. According to "Empires of the
Word: A Language History of the World" by Nicholas Ostler, the form of Celtic spoken in Gaul
was grammatically closer to Latin than that spoken in Britain. The Ancient Britons spoke a
Celtic language that was already more distinct. So, when Gaul was a Roman province, the thing
to do was to learn Latin, if you wanted to be educated or important. This did not preclude a use
of Gaulish as well, but the fact was that Latin began to seem too useful, too important to avoid,
and people began to make the fatal mistake of thinking their own language was worthless, or
shameful. But the author says, or implies, that Latin would not seem too outlandish or difficult.
The Gauls would "get" Latin, whereas the Britons resisted assimilation. It was easier for the
Gauls to see Latin as their language. Meanwhile, if educated, the Ancient Britons could learn to
speak Latin amazingly well, with perfect grammar even after the Romans left Britain. But they
did not lose their own tongues. On the other hand, as late antiquity turned into the Dark Ages,
people on the continent trying to write classical Latin made silly mistakes, because the rough
version of Vulgar Latin that they spoke interfered with it. By this time, of course, Gaulish would
have become Vulgar Latin, albeit with some Gaulish vocabulary added. I will come back to this
later.
Vulgar Latin
But what of Vulgar Latin itself? Another author, whose books I read about the Ancient
Celts, said that a number of Celtic words made their way into Latin itself. I can think of bracciae,
the Latin word for trousers/pants (bragas in Spanish, although there it means stockings or lady's
tights). That came from Gaulish, in classical times. Vulgar Latin was spread partly by the Roman
army, which adopted a fair number of Gaulish words and phrases. So we have the have the
league, a unit of length, which came from leuga Gallica the Latin word for this Gaulish unit of
length. The modern French word for this is lieu. There were other words of Gaulish origin,
which also made it into other Romance languages. For example, embassade (Fr.) embajada (Sp.)
and embassy. French retained some other Gaulish words, such as "bruyere" briars, and "lande"
which means an empty, uncultivated area. This has nothing to do with our word "land." which
comes from the Germanic languages, and is attested in other Germanic languages, from Gothic
onwards.
Another interesting point: some French researchers used computer algorithms to discover
other influences. What they found was that the gender of Latin words was changed in early
French to what the Gaulish gender had been. For example: "Mare (sea), had a neutral gender in
Latin, but in French it is feminine "LA mer."
What I think has happened is that a lot of French vocabulary is of Latin origin, but with
some Gaulish influence. The number of Gaulish words would have been greater in medieval
times, because a higher proportion of those Gaulish words that survived pertained to agriculture,
flora and fauna, etc.
Curiously enough, our own dear English language is Germanic. However, it has been
influenced by both French and Latin. Thus, there was a slight Gaulish influence on English too.
The fact is that the Gaulish language had some influence on French. The Gauls, from
whom many French people are descended, spoke a Celtic language. It was probably a P-Celtic
language, like Welsh, and not a Q-Celtic language like Irish. During my school years, my French
teacher actually told me that the very odd French way of counting the numbers 70 to 99 is based
on the old Celtic way of counting by twenties-counting by the score. So "quatre-vingts" equals
80. All France still uses this system, as do the former colonies, but Belgium no longer does.
Gauls and the Celtic language
However, it's not just that. The Gauls started out using a Celtic language that was distinct
from Latin, yet with some correspondences between the two. According to "Empires of the
Word: A Language History of the World" by Nicholas Ostler, the form of Celtic spoken in Gaul
was grammatically closer to Latin than that spoken in Britain. The Ancient Britons spoke a
Celtic language that was already more distinct. So, when Gaul was a Roman province, the thing
to do was to learn Latin, if you wanted to be educated or important. This did not preclude a use
of Gaulish as well, but the fact was that Latin began to seem too useful, too important to avoid,
and people began to make the fatal mistake of thinking their own language was worthless, or
shameful. But the author says, or implies, that Latin would not seem too outlandish or difficult.
The Gauls would "get" Latin, whereas the Britons resisted assimilation. It was easier for the
Gauls to see Latin as their language. Meanwhile, if educated, the Ancient Britons could learn to
speak Latin amazingly well, with perfect grammar even after the Romans left Britain. But they
did not lose their own tongues. On the other hand, as late antiquity turned into the Dark Ages,
people on the continent trying to write classical Latin made silly mistakes, because the rough
version of Vulgar Latin that they spoke interfered with it. By this time, of course, Gaulish would
have become Vulgar Latin, albeit with some Gaulish vocabulary added. I will come back to this
later.
Vulgar Latin
But what of Vulgar Latin itself? Another author, whose books I read about the Ancient
Celts, said that a number of Celtic words made their way into Latin itself. I can think of bracciae,
the Latin word for trousers/pants (bragas in Spanish, although there it means stockings or lady's
tights). That came from Gaulish, in classical times. Vulgar Latin was spread partly by the Roman
army, which adopted a fair number of Gaulish words and phrases. So we have the have the
league, a unit of length, which came from leuga Gallica the Latin word for this Gaulish unit of
length. The modern French word for this is lieu. There were other words of Gaulish origin,
which also made it into other Romance languages. For example, embassade (Fr.) embajada (Sp.)
and embassy. French retained some other Gaulish words, such as "bruyere" briars, and "lande"
which means an empty, uncultivated area. This has nothing to do with our word "land." which
comes from the Germanic languages, and is attested in other Germanic languages, from Gothic
onwards.
Another interesting point: some French researchers used computer algorithms to discover
other influences. What they found was that the gender of Latin words was changed in early
French to what the Gaulish gender had been. For example: "Mare (sea), had a neutral gender in
Latin, but in French it is feminine "LA mer."
What I think has happened is that a lot of French vocabulary is of Latin origin, but with
some Gaulish influence. The number of Gaulish words would have been greater in medieval
times, because a higher proportion of those Gaulish words that survived pertained to agriculture,
flora and fauna, etc.
Curiously enough, our own dear English language is Germanic. However, it has been
influenced by both French and Latin. Thus, there was a slight Gaulish influence on English too.
The fact is that the Gaulish language had some influence on French. The Gauls, from
whom many French people are descended, spoke a Celtic language. It was probably a P-Celtic
language, like Welsh, and not a Q-Celtic language like Irish. During my school years, my French
teacher actually told me that the very odd French way of counting the numbers 70 to 99 is based
on the old Celtic way of counting by twenties-counting by the score. So "quatre-vingts" equals
80. All France still uses this system, as do the former colonies, but Belgium no longer does.
Gauls and the Celtic language
However, it's not just that. The Gauls started out using a Celtic language that was distinct
from Latin, yet with some correspondences between the two. According to "Empires of the
Word: A Language History of the World" by Nicholas Ostler, the form of Celtic spoken in Gaul
was grammatically closer to Latin than that spoken in Britain. The Ancient Britons spoke a
Celtic language that was already more distinct. So, when Gaul was a Roman province, the thing
to do was to learn Latin, if you wanted to be educated or important. This did not preclude a use
of Gaulish as well, but the fact was that Latin began to seem too useful, too important to avoid,
and people began to make the fatal mistake of thinking their own language was worthless, or
shameful. But the author says, or implies, that Latin would not seem too outlandish or difficult.
The Gauls would "get" Latin, whereas the Britons resisted assimilation. It was easier for the
Gauls to see Latin as their language. Meanwhile, if educated, the Ancient Britons could learn to
speak Latin amazingly well, with perfect grammar even after the Romans left Britain. But they
did not lose their own tongues. On the other hand, as late antiquity turned into the Dark Ages,
people on the continent trying to write classical Latin made silly mistakes, because the rough
version of Vulgar Latin that they spoke interfered with it. By this time, of course, Gaulish would
have become Vulgar Latin, albeit with some Gaulish vocabulary added. I will come back to this
later.
Vulgar Latin
But what of Vulgar Latin itself? Another author, whose books I read about the Ancient
Celts, said that a number of Celtic words made their way into Latin itself. I can think of bracciae,
the Latin word for trousers/pants (bragas in Spanish, although there it means stockings or lady's
tights). That came from Gaulish, in classical times. Vulgar Latin was spread partly by the Roman
army, which adopted a fair number of Gaulish words and phrases. So we have the have the
league, a unit of length, which came from leuga Gallica the Latin word for this Gaulish unit of
length. The modern French word for this is lieu. There were other words of Gaulish origin,
which also made it into other Romance languages. For example, embassade (Fr.) embajada (Sp.)
and embassy. French retained some other Gaulish words, such as "bruyere" briars, and "lande"
which means an empty, uncultivated area. This has nothing to do with our word "land." which
comes from the Germanic languages, and is attested in other Germanic languages, from Gothic
onwards.
Another interesting point: some French researchers used computer algorithms to discover
other influences. What they found was that the gender of Latin words was changed in early
French to what the Gaulish gender had been. For example: "Mare (sea), had a neutral gender in
Latin, but in French it is feminine "LA mer."
What I think has happened is that a lot of French vocabulary is of Latin origin, but with
some Gaulish influence. The number of Gaulish words would have been greater in medieval
times, because a higher proportion of those Gaulish words that survived pertained to agriculture,
flora and fauna, etc.
Curiously enough, our own dear English language is Germanic. However, it has been
influenced by both French and Latin. Thus, there was a slight Gaulish influence on English too.
The fact is that the Gaulish language had some influence on French. The Gauls, from
whom many French people are descended, spoke a Celtic language. It was probably a P-Celtic
language, like Welsh, and not a Q-Celtic language like Irish. During my school years, my French
teacher actually told me that the very odd French way of counting the numbers 70 to 99 is based
on the old Celtic way of counting by twenties-counting by the score. So "quatre-vingts" equals
80. All France still uses this system, as do the former colonies, but Belgium no longer does.
Gauls and the Celtic language
However, it's not just that. The Gauls started out using a Celtic language that was distinct
from Latin, yet with some correspondences between the two. According to "Empires of the
Word: A Language History of the World" by Nicholas Ostler, the form of Celtic spoken in Gaul
was grammatically closer to Latin than that spoken in Britain. The Ancient Britons spoke a
Celtic language that was already more distinct. So, when Gaul was a Roman province, the thing
to do was to learn Latin, if you wanted to be educated or important. This did not preclude a use
of Gaulish as well, but the fact was that Latin began to seem too useful, too important to avoid,
and people began to make the fatal mistake of thinking their own language was worthless, or
shameful. But the author says, or implies, that Latin would not seem too outlandish or difficult.
The Gauls would "get" Latin, whereas the Britons resisted assimilation. It was easier for the
Gauls to see Latin as their language. Meanwhile, if educated, the Ancient Britons could learn to
speak Latin amazingly well, with perfect grammar even after the Romans left Britain. But they
did not lose their own tongues. On the other hand, as late antiquity turned into the Dark Ages,
people on the continent trying to write classical Latin made silly mistakes, because the rough
version of Vulgar Latin that they spoke interfered with it. By this time, of course, Gaulish would
have become Vulgar Latin, albeit with some Gaulish vocabulary added. I will come back to this
later.
Vulgar Latin
But what of Vulgar Latin itself? Another author, whose books I read about the Ancient
Celts, said that a number of Celtic words made their way into Latin itself. I can think of bracciae,
the Latin word for trousers/pants (bragas in Spanish, although there it means stockings or lady's
tights). That came from Gaulish, in classical times. Vulgar Latin was spread partly by the Roman
army, which adopted a fair number of Gaulish words and phrases. So we have the have the
league, a unit of length, which came from leuga Gallica the Latin word for this Gaulish unit of
length. The modern French word for this is lieu. There were other words of Gaulish origin,
which also made it into other Romance languages. For example, embassade (Fr.) embajada (Sp.)
and embassy. French retained some other Gaulish words, such as "bruyere" briars, and "lande"
which means an empty, uncultivated area. This has nothing to do with our word "land." which
comes from the Germanic languages, and is attested in other Germanic languages, from Gothic
onwards.
Another interesting point: some French researchers used computer algorithms to discover
other influences. What they found was that the gender of Latin words was changed in early
French to what the Gaulish gender had been. For example: "Mare (sea), had a neutral gender in
Latin, but in French it is feminine "LA mer."
What I think has happened is that a lot of French vocabulary is of Latin origin, but with
some Gaulish influence. The number of Gaulish words would have been greater in medieval
times, because a higher proportion of those Gaulish words that survived pertained to agriculture,
flora and fauna, etc.
Curiously enough, our own dear English language is Germanic. However, it has been
influenced by both French and Latin. Thus, there was a slight Gaulish influence on English too.
The fact is that the Gaulish language had some influence on French. The Gauls, from
whom many French people are descended, spoke a Celtic language. It was probably a P-Celtic
language, like Welsh, and not a Q-Celtic language like Irish. During my school years, my French
teacher actually told me that the very odd French way of counting the numbers 70 to 99 is based
on the old Celtic way of counting by twenties-counting by the score. So "quatre-vingts" equals
80. All France still uses this system, as do the former colonies, but Belgium no longer does.
Gauls and the Celtic language
However, it's not just that. The Gauls started out using a Celtic language that was distinct
from Latin, yet with some correspondences between the two. According to "Empires of the
Word: A Language History of the World" by Nicholas Ostler, the form of Celtic spoken in Gaul
was grammatically closer to Latin than that spoken in Britain. The Ancient Britons spoke a
Celtic language that was already more distinct. So, when Gaul was a Roman province, the thing
to do was to learn Latin, if you wanted to be educated or important. This did not preclude a use
of Gaulish as well, but the fact was that Latin began to seem too useful, too important to avoid,
and people began to make the fatal mistake of thinking their own language was worthless, or
shameful. But the author says, or implies, that Latin would not seem too outlandish or difficult.
The Gauls would "get" Latin, whereas the Britons resisted assimilation. It was easier for the
Gauls to see Latin as their language. Meanwhile, if educated, the Ancient Britons could learn to
speak Latin amazingly well, with perfect grammar even after the Romans left Britain. But they
did not lose their own tongues. On the other hand, as late antiquity turned into the Dark Ages,
people on the continent trying to write classical Latin made silly mistakes, because the rough
version of Vulgar Latin that they spoke interfered with it. By this time, of course, Gaulish would
have become Vulgar Latin, albeit with some Gaulish vocabulary added. I will come back to this
later.
Vulgar Latin
But what of Vulgar Latin itself? Another author, whose books I read about the Ancient
Celts, said that a number of Celtic words made their way into Latin itself. I can think of bracciae,
the Latin word for trousers/pants (bragas in Spanish, although there it means stockings or lady's
tights). That came from Gaulish, in classical times. Vulgar Latin was spread partly by the Roman
army, which adopted a fair number of Gaulish words and phrases. So we have the have the
league, a unit of length, which came from leuga Gallica the Latin word for this Gaulish unit of
length. The modern French word for this is lieu. There were other words of Gaulish origin,
which also made it into other Romance languages. For example, embassade (Fr.) embajada (Sp.)
and embassy. French retained some other Gaulish words, such as "bruyere" briars, and "lande"
which means an empty, uncultivated area. This has nothing to do with our word "land." which
comes from the Germanic languages, and is attested in other Germanic languages, from Gothic
onwards.
Another interesting point: some French researchers used computer algorithms to discover
other influences. What they found was that the gender of Latin words was changed in early
French to what the Gaulish gender had been. For example: "Mare (sea), had a neutral gender in
Latin, but in French it is feminine "LA mer."
What I think has happened is that a lot of French vocabulary is of Latin origin, but with
some Gaulish influence. The number of Gaulish words would have been greater in medieval
times, because a higher proportion of those Gaulish words that survived pertained to agriculture,
flora and fauna, etc.
Curiously enough, our own dear English language is Germanic. However, it has been
influenced by both French and Latin. Thus, there was a slight Gaulish influence on English too.
The fact is that the Gaulish language had some influence on French. The Gauls, from
whom many French people are descended, spoke a Celtic language. It was probably a P-Celtic
language, like Welsh, and not a Q-Celtic language like Irish. During my school years, my French
teacher actually told me that the very odd French way of counting the numbers 70 to 99 is based
on the old Celtic way of counting by twenties-counting by the score. So "quatre-vingts" equals
80. All France still uses this system, as do the former colonies, but Belgium no longer does.
Gauls and the Celtic language
However, it's not just that. The Gauls started out using a Celtic language that was distinct
from Latin, yet with some correspondences between the two. According to "Empires of the
Word: A Language History of the World" by Nicholas Ostler, the form of Celtic spoken in Gaul
was grammatically closer to Latin than that spoken in Britain. The Ancient Britons spoke a
Celtic language that was already more distinct. So, when Gaul was a Roman province, the thing
to do was to learn Latin, if you wanted to be educated or important. This did not preclude a use
of Gaulish as well, but the fact was that Latin began to seem too useful, too important to avoid,
and people began to make the fatal mistake of thinking their own language was worthless, or
shameful. But the author says, or implies, that Latin would not seem too outlandish or difficult.
The Gauls would "get" Latin, whereas the Britons resisted assimilation. It was easier for the
Gauls to see Latin as their language. Meanwhile, if educated, the Ancient Britons could learn to
speak Latin amazingly well, with perfect grammar even after the Romans left Britain. But they
did not lose their own tongues. On the other hand, as late antiquity turned into the Dark Ages,
people on the continent trying to write classical Latin made silly mistakes, because the rough
version of Vulgar Latin that they spoke interfered with it. By this time, of course, Gaulish would
have become Vulgar Latin, albeit with some Gaulish vocabulary added. I will come back to this
later.
Vulgar Latin
But what of Vulgar Latin itself? Another author, whose books I read about the Ancient
Celts, said that a number of Celtic words made their way into Latin itself. I can think of bracciae,
the Latin word for trousers/pants (bragas in Spanish, although there it means stockings or lady's
tights). That came from Gaulish, in classical times. Vulgar Latin was spread partly by the Roman
army, which adopted a fair number of Gaulish words and phrases. So we have the have the
league, a unit of length, which came from leuga Gallica the Latin word for this Gaulish unit of
length. The modern French word for this is lieu. There were other words of Gaulish origin,
which also made it into other Romance languages. For example, embassade (Fr.) embajada (Sp.)
and embassy. French retained some other Gaulish words, such as "bruyere" briars, and "lande"
which means an empty, uncultivated area. This has nothing to do with our word "land." which
comes from the Germanic languages, and is attested in other Germanic languages, from Gothic
onwards.
Another interesting point: some French researchers used computer algorithms to discover
other influences. What they found was that the gender of Latin words was changed in early
French to what the Gaulish gender had been. For example: "Mare (sea), had a neutral gender in
Latin, but in French it is feminine "LA mer."
What I think has happened is that a lot of French vocabulary is of Latin origin, but with
some Gaulish influence. The number of Gaulish words would have been greater in medieval
times, because a higher proportion of those Gaulish words that survived pertained to agriculture,
flora and fauna, etc.
Curiously enough, our own dear English language is Germanic. However, it has been
influenced by both French and Latin. Thus, there was a slight Gaulish influence on English too.
The fact is that the Gaulish language had some influence on French. The Gauls, from
whom many French people are descended, spoke a Celtic language. It was probably a P-Celtic
language, like Welsh, and not a Q-Celtic language like Irish. During my school years, my French
teacher actually told me that the very odd French way of counting the numbers 70 to 99 is based
on the old Celtic way of counting by twenties-counting by the score. So "quatre-vingts" equals
80. All France still uses this system, as do the former colonies, but Belgium no longer does.
Gauls and the Celtic language
However, it's not just that. The Gauls started out using a Celtic language that was distinct
from Latin, yet with some correspondences between the two. According to "Empires of the
Word: A Language History of the World" by Nicholas Ostler, the form of Celtic spoken in Gaul
was grammatically closer to Latin than that spoken in Britain. The Ancient Britons spoke a
Celtic language that was already more distinct. So, when Gaul was a Roman province, the thing
to do was to learn Latin, if you wanted to be educated or important. This did not preclude a use
of Gaulish as well, but the fact was that Latin began to seem too useful, too important to avoid,
and people began to make the fatal mistake of thinking their own language was worthless, or
shameful. But the author says, or implies, that Latin would not seem too outlandish or difficult.
The Gauls would "get" Latin, whereas the Britons resisted assimilation. It was easier for the
Gauls to see Latin as their language. Meanwhile, if educated, the Ancient Britons could learn to
speak Latin amazingly well, with perfect grammar even after the Romans left Britain. But they
did not lose their own tongues. On the other hand, as late antiquity turned into the Dark Ages,
people on the continent trying to write classical Latin made silly mistakes, because the rough
version of Vulgar Latin that they spoke interfered with it. By this time, of course, Gaulish would
have become Vulgar Latin, albeit with some Gaulish vocabulary added. I will come back to this
later.
Vulgar Latin
But what of Vulgar Latin itself? Another author, whose books I read about the Ancient
Celts, said that a number of Celtic words made their way into Latin itself. I can think of bracciae,
the Latin word for trousers/pants (bragas in Spanish, although there it means stockings or lady's
tights). That came from Gaulish, in classical times. Vulgar Latin was spread partly by the Roman
army, which adopted a fair number of Gaulish words and phrases. So we have the have the
league, a unit of length, which came from leuga Gallica the Latin word for this Gaulish unit of
length. The modern French word for this is lieu. There were other words of Gaulish origin,
which also made it into other Romance languages. For example, embassade (Fr.) embajada (Sp.)
and embassy. French retained some other Gaulish words, such as "bruyere" briars, and "lande"
which means an empty, uncultivated area. This has nothing to do with our word "land." which
comes from the Germanic languages, and is attested in other Germanic languages, from Gothic
onwards.
Another interesting point: some French researchers used computer algorithms to discover
other influences. What they found was that the gender of Latin words was changed in early
French to what the Gaulish gender had been. For example: "Mare (sea), had a neutral gender in
Latin, but in French it is feminine "LA mer."
What I think has happened is that a lot of French vocabulary is of Latin origin, but with
some Gaulish influence. The number of Gaulish words would have been greater in medieval
times, because a higher proportion of those Gaulish words that survived pertained to agriculture,
flora and fauna, etc.
Curiously enough, our own dear English language is Germanic. However, it has been
influenced by both French and Latin. Thus, there was a slight Gaulish influence on English too.
The fact is that the Gaulish language had some influence on French. The Gauls, from
whom many French people are descended, spoke a Celtic language. It was probably a P-Celtic
language, like Welsh, and not a Q-Celtic language like Irish. During my school years, my French
teacher actually told me that the very odd French way of counting the numbers 70 to 99 is based
on the old Celtic way of counting by twenties-counting by the score. So "quatre-vingts" equals
80. All France still uses this system, as do the former colonies, but Belgium no longer does.
Gauls and the Celtic language
However, it's not just that. The Gauls started out using a Celtic language that was distinct
from Latin, yet with some correspondences between the two. According to "Empires of the
Word: A Language History of the World" by Nicholas Ostler, the form of Celtic spoken in Gaul
was grammatically closer to Latin than that spoken in Britain. The Ancient Britons spoke a
Celtic language that was already more distinct. So, when Gaul was a Roman province, the thing
to do was to learn Latin, if you wanted to be educated or important. This did not preclude a use
of Gaulish as well, but the fact was that Latin began to seem too useful, too important to avoid,
and people began to make the fatal mistake of thinking their own language was worthless, or
shameful. But the author says, or implies, that Latin would not seem too outlandish or difficult.
The Gauls would "get" Latin, whereas the Britons resisted assimilation. It was easier for the
Gauls to see Latin as their language. Meanwhile, if educated, the Ancient Britons could learn to
speak Latin amazingly well, with perfect grammar even after the Romans left Britain. But they
did not lose their own tongues. On the other hand, as late antiquity turned into the Dark Ages,
people on the continent trying to write classical Latin made silly mistakes, because the rough
version of Vulgar Latin that they spoke interfered with it. By this time, of course, Gaulish would
have become Vulgar Latin, albeit with some Gaulish vocabulary added. I will come back to this
later.
Vulgar Latin
But what of Vulgar Latin itself? Another author, whose books I read about the Ancient
Celts, said that a number of Celtic words made their way into Latin itself. I can think of bracciae,
the Latin word for trousers/pants (bragas in Spanish, although there it means stockings or lady's
tights). That came from Gaulish, in classical times. Vulgar Latin was spread partly by the Roman
army, which adopted a fair number of Gaulish words and phrases. So we have the have the
league, a unit of length, which came from leuga Gallica the Latin word for this Gaulish unit of
length. The modern French word for this is lieu. There were other words of Gaulish origin,
which also made it into other Romance languages. For example, embassade (Fr.) embajada (Sp.)
and embassy. French retained some other Gaulish words, such as "bruyere" briars, and "lande"
which means an empty, uncultivated area. This has nothing to do with our word "land." which
comes from the Germanic languages, and is attested in other Germanic languages, from Gothic
onwards.
Another interesting point: some French researchers used computer algorithms to discover
other influences. What they found was that the gender of Latin words was changed in early
French to what the Gaulish gender had been. For example: "Mare (sea), had a neutral gender in
Latin, but in French it is feminine "LA mer."
What I think has happened is that a lot of French vocabulary is of Latin origin, but with
some Gaulish influence. The number of Gaulish words would have been greater in medieval
times, because a higher proportion of those Gaulish words that survived pertained to agriculture,
flora and fauna, etc.
Curiously enough, our own dear English language is Germanic. However, it has been
influenced by both French and Latin. Thus, there was a slight Gaulish influence on English too.
The fact is that the Gaulish language had some influence on French. The Gauls, from
whom many French people are descended, spoke a Celtic language. It was probably a P-Celtic
language, like Welsh, and not a Q-Celtic language like Irish. During my school years, my French
teacher actually told me that the very odd French way of counting the numbers 70 to 99 is based
on the old Celtic way of counting by twenties-counting by the score. So "quatre-vingts" equals
80. All France still uses this system, as do the former colonies, but Belgium no longer does.
Gauls and the Celtic language
However, it's not just that. The Gauls started out using a Celtic language that was distinct
from Latin, yet with some correspondences between the two. According to "Empires of the
Word: A Language History of the World" by Nicholas Ostler, the form of Celtic spoken in Gaul
was grammatically closer to Latin than that spoken in Britain. The Ancient Britons spoke a
Celtic language that was already more distinct. So, when Gaul was a Roman province, the thing
to do was to learn Latin, if you wanted to be educated or important. This did not preclude a use
of Gaulish as well, but the fact was that Latin began to seem too useful, too important to avoid,
and people began to make the fatal mistake of thinking their own language was worthless, or
shameful. But the author says, or implies, that Latin would not seem too outlandish or difficult.
The Gauls would "get" Latin, whereas the Britons resisted assimilation. It was easier for the
Gauls to see Latin as their language. Meanwhile, if educated, the Ancient Britons could learn to
speak Latin amazingly well, with perfect grammar even after the Romans left Britain. But they
did not lose their own tongues. On the other hand, as late antiquity turned into the Dark Ages,
people on the continent trying to write classical Latin made silly mistakes, because the rough
version of Vulgar Latin that they spoke interfered with it. By this time, of course, Gaulish would
have become Vulgar Latin, albeit with some Gaulish vocabulary added. I will come back to this
later.
Vulgar Latin
But what of Vulgar Latin itself? Another author, whose books I read about the Ancient
Celts, said that a number of Celtic words made their way into Latin itself. I can think of bracciae,
the Latin word for trousers/pants (bragas in Spanish, although there it means stockings or lady's
tights). That came from Gaulish, in classical times. Vulgar Latin was spread partly by the Roman
army, which adopted a fair number of Gaulish words and phrases. So we have the have the
league, a unit of length, which came from leuga Gallica the Latin word for this Gaulish unit of
length. The modern French word for this is lieu. There were other words of Gaulish origin,
which also made it into other Romance languages. For example, embassade (Fr.) embajada (Sp.)
and embassy. French retained some other Gaulish words, such as "bruyere" briars, and "lande"
which means an empty, uncultivated area. This has nothing to do with our word "land." which
comes from the Germanic languages, and is attested in other Germanic languages, from Gothic
onwards.
Another interesting point: some French researchers used computer algorithms to discover
other influences. What they found was that the gender of Latin words was changed in early
French to what the Gaulish gender had been. For example: "Mare (sea), had a neutral gender in
Latin, but in French it is feminine "LA mer."
What I think has happened is that a lot of French vocabulary is of Latin origin, but with
some Gaulish influence. The number of Gaulish words would have been greater in medieval
times, because a higher proportion of those Gaulish words that survived pertained to agriculture,
flora and fauna, etc.
Curiously enough, our own dear English language is Germanic. However, it has been
influenced by both French and Latin. Thus, there was a slight Gaulish influence on English too.
The fact is that the Gaulish language had some influence on French. The Gauls, from
whom many French people are descended, spoke a Celtic language. It was probably a P-Celtic
language, like Welsh, and not a Q-Celtic language like Irish. During my school years, my French
teacher actually told me that the very odd French way of counting the numbers 70 to 99 is based
on the old Celtic way of counting by twenties-counting by the score. So "quatre-vingts" equals
80. All France still uses this system, as do the former colonies, but Belgium no longer does.
Gauls and the Celtic language
However, it's not just that. The Gauls started out using a Celtic language that was distinct
from Latin, yet with some correspondences between the two. According to "Empires of the
Word: A Language History of the World" by Nicholas Ostler, the form of Celtic spoken in Gaul
was grammatically closer to Latin than that spoken in Britain. The Ancient Britons spoke a
Celtic language that was already more distinct. So, when Gaul was a Roman province, the thing
to do was to learn Latin, if you wanted to be educated or important. This did not preclude a use
of Gaulish as well, but the fact was that Latin began to seem too useful, too important to avoid,
and people began to make the fatal mistake of thinking their own language was worthless, or
shameful. But the author says, or implies, that Latin would not seem too outlandish or difficult.
The Gauls would "get" Latin, whereas the Britons resisted assimilation. It was easier for the
Gauls to see Latin as their language. Meanwhile, if educated, the Ancient Britons could learn to
speak Latin amazingly well, with perfect grammar even after the Romans left Britain. But they
did not lose their own tongues. On the other hand, as late antiquity turned into the Dark Ages,
people on the continent trying to write classical Latin made silly mistakes, because the rough
version of Vulgar Latin that they spoke interfered with it. By this time, of course, Gaulish would
have become Vulgar Latin, albeit with some Gaulish vocabulary added. I will come back to this
later.
Vulgar Latin
But what of Vulgar Latin itself? Another author, whose books I read about the Ancient
Celts, said that a number of Celtic words made their way into Latin itself. I can think of bracciae,
the Latin word for trousers/pants (bragas in Spanish, although there it means stockings or lady's
tights). That came from Gaulish, in classical times. Vulgar Latin was spread partly by the Roman
army, which adopted a fair number of Gaulish words and phrases. So we have the have the
league, a unit of length, which came from leuga Gallica the Latin word for this Gaulish unit of
length. The modern French word for this is lieu. There were other words of Gaulish origin,
which also made it into other Romance languages. For example, embassade (Fr.) embajada (Sp.)
and embassy. French retained some other Gaulish words, such as "bruyere" briars, and "lande"
which means an empty, uncultivated area. This has nothing to do with our word "land." which
comes from the Germanic languages, and is attested in other Germanic languages, from Gothic
onwards.
Another interesting point: some French researchers used computer algorithms to discover
other influences. What they found was that the gender of Latin words was changed in early
French to what the Gaulish gender had been. For example: "Mare (sea), had a neutral gender in
Latin, but in French it is feminine "LA mer."
What I think has happened is that a lot of French vocabulary is of Latin origin, but with
some Gaulish influence. The number of Gaulish words would have been greater in medieval
times, because a higher proportion of those Gaulish words that survived pertained to agriculture,
flora and fauna, etc.
Curiously enough, our own dear English language is Germanic. However, it has been
influenced by both French and Latin. Thus, there was a slight Gaulish influence on English too.
The fact is that the Gaulish language had some influence on French. The Gauls, from
whom many French people are descended, spoke a Celtic language. It was probably a P-Celtic
language, like Welsh, and not a Q-Celtic language like Irish. During my school years, my French
teacher actually told me that the very odd French way of counting the numbers 70 to 99 is based
on the old Celtic way of counting by twenties-counting by the score. So "quatre-vingts" equals
80. All France still uses this system, as do the former colonies, but Belgium no longer does.
Gauls and the Celtic language
However, it's not just that. The Gauls started out using a Celtic language that was distinct
from Latin, yet with some correspondences between the two. According to "Empires of the
Word: A Language History of the World" by Nicholas Ostler, the form of Celtic spoken in Gaul
was grammatically closer to Latin than that spoken in Britain. The Ancient Britons spoke a
Celtic language that was already more distinct. So, when Gaul was a Roman province, the thing
to do was to learn Latin, if you wanted to be educated or important. This did not preclude a use
of Gaulish as well, but the fact was that Latin began to seem too useful, too important to avoid,
and people began to make the fatal mistake of thinking their own language was worthless, or
shameful. But the author says, or implies, that Latin would not seem too outlandish or difficult.
The Gauls would "get" Latin, whereas the Britons resisted assimilation. It was easier for the
Gauls to see Latin as their language. Meanwhile, if educated, the Ancient Britons could learn to
speak Latin amazingly well, with perfect grammar even after the Romans left Britain. But they
did not lose their own tongues. On the other hand, as late antiquity turned into the Dark Ages,
people on the continent trying to write classical Latin made silly mistakes, because the rough
version of Vulgar Latin that they spoke interfered with it. By this time, of course, Gaulish would
have become Vulgar Latin, albeit with some Gaulish vocabulary added. I will come back to this
later.
Vulgar Latin
But what of Vulgar Latin itself? Another author, whose books I read about the Ancient
Celts, said that a number of Celtic words made their way into Latin itself. I can think of bracciae,
the Latin word for trousers/pants (bragas in Spanish, although there it means stockings or lady's
tights). That came from Gaulish, in classical times. Vulgar Latin was spread partly by the Roman
army, which adopted a fair number of Gaulish words and phrases. So we have the have the
league, a unit of length, which came from leuga Gallica the Latin word for this Gaulish unit of
length. The modern French word for this is lieu. There were other words of Gaulish origin,
which also made it into other Romance languages. For example, embassade (Fr.) embajada (Sp.)
and embassy. French retained some other Gaulish words, such as "bruyere" briars, and "lande"
which means an empty, uncultivated area. This has nothing to do with our word "land." which
comes from the Germanic languages, and is attested in other Germanic languages, from Gothic
onwards.
Another interesting point: some French researchers used computer algorithms to discover
other influences. What they found was that the gender of Latin words was changed in early
French to what the Gaulish gender had been. For example: "Mare (sea), had a neutral gender in
Latin, but in French it is feminine "LA mer."
What I think has happened is that a lot of French vocabulary is of Latin origin, but with
some Gaulish influence. The number of Gaulish words would have been greater in medieval
times, because a higher proportion of those Gaulish words that survived pertained to agriculture,
flora and fauna, etc.
Curiously enough, our own dear English language is Germanic. However, it has been
influenced by both French and Latin. Thus, there was a slight Gaulish influence on English too.
The fact is that the Gaulish language had some influence on French. The Gauls, from
whom many French people are descended, spoke a Celtic language. It was probably a P-Celtic
language, like Welsh, and not a Q-Celtic language like Irish. During my school years, my French
teacher actually told me that the very odd French way of counting the numbers 70 to 99 is based
on the old Celtic way of counting by twenties-counting by the score. So "quatre-vingts" equals
80. All France still uses this system, as do the former colonies, but Belgium no longer does.
Gauls and the Celtic language
However, it's not just that. The Gauls started out using a Celtic language that was distinct
from Latin, yet with some correspondences between the two. According to "Empires of the
Word: A Language History of the World" by Nicholas Ostler, the form of Celtic spoken in Gaul
was grammatically closer to Latin than that spoken in Britain. The Ancient Britons spoke a
Celtic language that was already more distinct. So, when Gaul was a Roman province, the thing
to do was to learn Latin, if you wanted to be educated or important. This did not preclude a use
of Gaulish as well, but the fact was that Latin began to seem too useful, too important to avoid,
and people began to make the fatal mistake of thinking their own language was worthless, or
shameful. But the author says, or implies, that Latin would not seem too outlandish or difficult.
The Gauls would "get" Latin, whereas the Britons resisted assimilation. It was easier for the
Gauls to see Latin as their language. Meanwhile, if educated, the Ancient Britons could learn to
speak Latin amazingly well, with perfect grammar even after the Romans left Britain. But they
did not lose their own tongues. On the other hand, as late antiquity turned into the Dark Ages,
people on the continent trying to write classical Latin made silly mistakes, because the rough
version of Vulgar Latin that they spoke interfered with it. By this time, of course, Gaulish would
have become Vulgar Latin, albeit with some Gaulish vocabulary added. I will come back to this
later.
Vulgar Latin
But what of Vulgar Latin itself? Another author, whose books I read about the Ancient
Celts, said that a number of Celtic words made their way into Latin itself. I can think of bracciae,
the Latin word for trousers/pants (bragas in Spanish, although there it means stockings or lady's
tights). That came from Gaulish, in classical times. Vulgar Latin was spread partly by the Roman
army, which adopted a fair number of Gaulish words and phrases. So we have the have the
league, a unit of length, which came from leuga Gallica the Latin word for this Gaulish unit of
length. The modern French word for this is lieu. There were other words of Gaulish origin,
which also made it into other Romance languages. For example, embassade (Fr.) embajada (Sp.)
and embassy. French retained some other Gaulish words, such as "bruyere" briars, and "lande"
which means an empty, uncultivated area. This has nothing to do with our word "land." which
comes from the Germanic languages, and is attested in other Germanic languages, from Gothic
onwards.
Another interesting point: some French researchers used computer algorithms to discover
other influences. What they found was that the gender of Latin words was changed in early
French to what the Gaulish gender had been. For example: "Mare (sea), had a neutral gender in
Latin, but in French it is feminine "LA mer."
What I think has happened is that a lot of French vocabulary is of Latin origin, but with
some Gaulish influence. The number of Gaulish words would have been greater in medieval
times, because a higher proportion of those Gaulish words that survived pertained to agriculture,
flora and fauna, etc.
Curiously enough, our own dear English language is Germanic. However, it has been
influenced by both French and Latin. Thus, there was a slight Gaulish influence on English too.
The fact is that the Gaulish language had some influence on French. The Gauls, from
whom many French people are descended, spoke a Celtic language. It was probably a P-Celtic
language, like Welsh, and not a Q-Celtic language like Irish. During my school years, my French
teacher actually told me that the very odd French way of counting the numbers 70 to 99 is based
on the old Celtic way of counting by twenties-counting by the score. So "quatre-vingts" equals
80. All France still uses this system, as do the former colonies, but Belgium no longer does.
Gauls and the Celtic language
However, it's not just that. The Gauls started out using a Celtic language that was distinct
from Latin, yet with some correspondences between the two. According to "Empires of the
Word: A Language History of the World" by Nicholas Ostler, the form of Celtic spoken in Gaul
was grammatically closer to Latin than that spoken in Britain. The Ancient Britons spoke a
Celtic language that was already more distinct. So, when Gaul was a Roman province, the thing
to do was to learn Latin, if you wanted to be educated or important. This did not preclude a use
of Gaulish as well, but the fact was that Latin began to seem too useful, too important to avoid,
and people began to make the fatal mistake of thinking their own language was worthless, or
shameful. But the author says, or implies, that Latin would not seem too outlandish or difficult.
The Gauls would "get" Latin, whereas the Britons resisted assimilation. It was easier for the
Gauls to see Latin as their language. Meanwhile, if educated, the Ancient Britons could learn to
speak Latin amazingly well, with perfect grammar even after the Romans left Britain. But they
did not lose their own tongues. On the other hand, as late antiquity turned into the Dark Ages,
people on the continent trying to write classical Latin made silly mistakes, because the rough
version of Vulgar Latin that they spoke interfered with it. By this time, of course, Gaulish would
have become Vulgar Latin, albeit with some Gaulish vocabulary added. I will come back to this
later.
Vulgar Latin
But what of Vulgar Latin itself? Another author, whose books I read about the Ancient
Celts, said that a number of Celtic words made their way into Latin itself. I can think of bracciae,
the Latin word for trousers/pants (bragas in Spanish, although there it means stockings or lady's
tights). That came from Gaulish, in classical times. Vulgar Latin was spread partly by the Roman
army, which adopted a fair number of Gaulish words and phrases. So we have the have the
league, a unit of length, which came from leuga Gallica the Latin word for this Gaulish unit of
length. The modern French word for this is lieu. There were other words of Gaulish origin,
which also made it into other Romance languages. For example, embassade (Fr.) embajada (Sp.)
and embassy. French retained some other Gaulish words, such as "bruyere" briars, and "lande"
which means an empty, uncultivated area. This has nothing to do with our word "land." which
comes from the Germanic languages, and is attested in other Germanic languages, from Gothic
onwards.
Another interesting point: some French researchers used computer algorithms to discover
other influences. What they found was that the gender of Latin words was changed in early
French to what the Gaulish gender had been. For example: "Mare (sea), had a neutral gender in
Latin, but in French it is feminine "LA mer."
What I think has happened is that a lot of French vocabulary is of Latin origin, but with
some Gaulish influence. The number of Gaulish words would have been greater in medieval
times, because a higher proportion of those Gaulish words that survived pertained to agriculture,
flora and fauna, etc.
Curiously enough, our own dear English language is Germanic. However, it has been
influenced by both French and Latin. Thus, there was a slight Gaulish influence on English too.
The fact is that the Gaulish language had some influence on French. The Gauls, from
whom many French people are descended, spoke a Celtic language. It was probably a P-Celtic
language, like Welsh, and not a Q-Celtic language like Irish. During my school years, my French
teacher actually told me that the very odd French way of counting the numbers 70 to 99 is based
on the old Celtic way of counting by twenties-counting by the score. So "quatre-vingts" equals
80. All France still uses this system, as do the former colonies, but Belgium no longer does.
Gauls and the Celtic language
However, it's not just that. The Gauls started out using a Celtic language that was distinct
from Latin, yet with some correspondences between the two. According to "Empires of the
Word: A Language History of the World" by Nicholas Ostler, the form of Celtic spoken in Gaul
was grammatically closer to Latin than that spoken in Britain. The Ancient Britons spoke a
Celtic language that was already more distinct. So, when Gaul was a Roman province, the thing
to do was to learn Latin, if you wanted to be educated or important. This did not preclude a use
of Gaulish as well, but the fact was that Latin began to seem too useful, too important to avoid,
and people began to make the fatal mistake of thinking their own language was worthless, or
shameful. But the author says, or implies, that Latin would not seem too outlandish or difficult.
The Gauls would "get" Latin, whereas the Britons resisted assimilation. It was easier for the
Gauls to see Latin as their language. Meanwhile, if educated, the Ancient Britons could learn to
speak Latin amazingly well, with perfect grammar even after the Romans left Britain. But they
did not lose their own tongues. On the other hand, as late antiquity turned into the Dark Ages,
people on the continent trying to write classical Latin made silly mistakes, because the rough
version of Vulgar Latin that they spoke interfered with it. By this time, of course, Gaulish would
have become Vulgar Latin, albeit with some Gaulish vocabulary added. I will come back to this
later.
Vulgar Latin
But what of Vulgar Latin itself? Another author, whose books I read about the Ancient
Celts, said that a number of Celtic words made their way into Latin itself. I can think of bracciae,
the Latin word for trousers/pants (bragas in Spanish, although there it means stockings or lady's
tights). That came from Gaulish, in classical times. Vulgar Latin was spread partly by the Roman
army, which adopted a fair number of Gaulish words and phrases. So we have the have the
league, a unit of length, which came from leuga Gallica the Latin word for this Gaulish unit of
length. The modern French word for this is lieu. There were other words of Gaulish origin,
which also made it into other Romance languages. For example, embassade (Fr.) embajada (Sp.)
and embassy. French retained some other Gaulish words, such as "bruyere" briars, and "lande"
which means an empty, uncultivated area. This has nothing to do with our word "land." which
comes from the Germanic languages, and is attested in other Germanic languages, from Gothic
onwards.
Another interesting point: some French researchers used computer algorithms to discover
other influences. What they found was that the gender of Latin words was changed in early
French to what the Gaulish gender had been. For example: "Mare (sea), had a neutral gender in
Latin, but in French it is feminine "LA mer."
What I think has happened is that a lot of French vocabulary is of Latin origin, but with
some Gaulish influence. The number of Gaulish words would have been greater in medieval
times, because a higher proportion of those Gaulish words that survived pertained to agriculture,
flora and fauna, etc.
Curiously enough, our own dear English language is Germanic. However, it has been
influenced by both French and Latin. Thus, there was a slight Gaulish influence on English too.
The fact is that the Gaulish language had some influence on French. The Gauls, from
whom many French people are descended, spoke a Celtic language. It was probably a P-Celtic
language, like Welsh, and not a Q-Celtic language like Irish. During my school years, my French
teacher actually told me that the very odd French way of counting the numbers 70 to 99 is based
on the old Celtic way of counting by twenties-counting by the score. So "quatre-vingts" equals
80. All France still uses this system, as do the former colonies, but Belgium no longer does.
Gauls and the Celtic language
However, it's not just that. The Gauls started out using a Celtic language that was distinct
from Latin, yet with some correspondences between the two. According to "Empires of the
Word: A Language History of the World" by Nicholas Ostler, the form of Celtic spoken in Gaul
was grammatically closer to Latin than that spoken in Britain. The Ancient Britons spoke a
Celtic language that was already more distinct. So, when Gaul was a Roman province, the thing
to do was to learn Latin, if you wanted to be educated or important. This did not preclude a use
of Gaulish as well, but the fact was that Latin began to seem too useful, too important to avoid,
and people began to make the fatal mistake of thinking their own language was worthless, or
shameful. But the author says, or implies, that Latin would not seem too outlandish or difficult.
The Gauls would "get" Latin, whereas the Britons resisted assimilation. It was easier for the
Gauls to see Latin as their language. Meanwhile, if educated, the Ancient Britons could learn to
speak Latin amazingly well, with perfect grammar even after the Romans left Britain. But they
did not lose their own tongues. On the other hand, as late antiquity turned into the Dark Ages,
people on the continent trying to write classical Latin made silly mistakes, because the rough
version of Vulgar Latin that they spoke interfered with it. By this time, of course, Gaulish would
have become Vulgar Latin, albeit with some Gaulish vocabulary added. I will come back to this
later.
Vulgar Latin
But what of Vulgar Latin itself? Another author, whose books I read about the Ancient
Celts, said that a number of Celtic words made their way into Latin itself. I can think of bracciae,
the Latin word for trousers/pants (bragas in Spanish, although there it means stockings or lady's
tights). That came from Gaulish, in classical times. Vulgar Latin was spread partly by the Roman
army, which adopted a fair number of Gaulish words and phrases. So we have the have the
league, a unit of length, which came from leuga Gallica the Latin word for this Gaulish unit of
length. The modern French word for this is lieu. There were other words of Gaulish origin,
which also made it into other Romance languages. For example, embassade (Fr.) embajada (Sp.)
and embassy. French retained some other Gaulish words, such as "bruyere" briars, and "lande"
which means an empty, uncultivated area. This has nothing to do with our word "land." which
comes from the Germanic languages, and is attested in other Germanic languages, from Gothic
onwards.
Another interesting point: some French researchers used computer algorithms to discover
other influences. What they found was that the gender of Latin words was changed in early
French to what the Gaulish gender had been. For example: "Mare (sea), had a neutral gender in
Latin, but in French it is feminine "LA mer."
What I think has happened is that a lot of French vocabulary is of Latin origin, but with
some Gaulish influence. The number of Gaulish words would have been greater in medieval
times, because a higher proportion of those Gaulish words that survived pertained to agriculture,
flora and fauna, etc.
Curiously enough, our own dear English language is Germanic. However, it has been
influenced by both French and Latin. Thus, there was a slight Gaulish influence on English too.
The fact is that the Gaulish language had some influence on French. The Gauls, from
whom many French people are descended, spoke a Celtic language. It was probably a P-Celtic
language, like Welsh, and not a Q-Celtic language like Irish. During my school years, my French
teacher actually told me that the very odd French way of counting the numbers 70 to 99 is based
on the old Celtic way of counting by twenties-counting by the score. So "quatre-vingts" equals
80. All France still uses this system, as do the former colonies, but Belgium no longer does.
Gauls and the Celtic language
However, it's not just that. The Gauls started out using a Celtic language that was distinct
from Latin, yet with some correspondences between the two. According to "Empires of the
Word: A Language History of the World" by Nicholas Ostler, the form of Celtic spoken in Gaul
was grammatically closer to Latin than that spoken in Britain. The Ancient Britons spoke a
Celtic language that was already more distinct. So, when Gaul was a Roman province, the thing
to do was to learn Latin, if you wanted to be educated or important. This did not preclude a use
of Gaulish as well, but the fact was that Latin began to seem too useful, too important to avoid,
and people began to make the fatal mistake of thinking their own language was worthless, or
shameful. But the author says, or implies, that Latin would not seem too outlandish or difficult.
The Gauls would "get" Latin, whereas the Britons resisted assimilation. It was easier for the
Gauls to see Latin as their language. Meanwhile, if educated, the Ancient Britons could learn to
speak Latin amazingly well, with perfect grammar even after the Romans left Britain. But they
did not lose their own tongues. On the other hand, as late antiquity turned into the Dark Ages,
people on the continent trying to write classical Latin made silly mistakes, because the rough
version of Vulgar Latin that they spoke interfered with it. By this time, of course, Gaulish would
have become Vulgar Latin, albeit with some Gaulish vocabulary added. I will come back to this
later.
Vulgar Latin
But what of Vulgar Latin itself? Another author, whose books I read about the Ancient
Celts, said that a number of Celtic words made their way into Latin itself. I can think of bracciae,
the Latin word for trousers/pants (bragas in Spanish, although there it means stockings or lady's
tights). That came from Gaulish, in classical times. Vulgar Latin was spread partly by the Roman
army, which adopted a fair number of Gaulish words and phrases. So we have the have the
league, a unit of length, which came from leuga Gallica the Latin word for this Gaulish unit of
length. The modern French word for this is lieu. There were other words of Gaulish origin,
which also made it into other Romance languages. For example, embassade (Fr.) embajada (Sp.)
and embassy. French retained some other Gaulish words, such as "bruyere" briars, and "lande"
which means an empty, uncultivated area. This has nothing to do with our word "land." which
comes from the Germanic languages, and is attested in other Germanic languages, from Gothic
onwards.
Another interesting point: some French researchers used computer algorithms to discover
other influences. What they found was that the gender of Latin words was changed in early
French to what the Gaulish gender had been. For example: "Mare (sea), had a neutral gender in
Latin, but in French it is feminine "LA mer."
What I think has happened is that a lot of French vocabulary is of Latin origin, but with
some Gaulish influence. The number of Gaulish words would have been greater in medieval
times, because a higher proportion of those Gaulish words that survived pertained to agriculture,
flora and fauna, etc.
Curiously enough, our own dear English language is Germanic. However, it has been
influenced by both French and Latin. Thus, there was a slight Gaulish influence on English too.
The fact is that the Gaulish language had some influence on French. The Gauls, from
whom many French people are descended, spoke a Celtic language. It was probably a P-Celtic
language, like Welsh, and not a Q-Celtic language like Irish. During my school years, my French
teacher actually told me that the very odd French way of counting the numbers 70 to 99 is based
on the old Celtic way of counting by twenties-counting by the score. So "quatre-vingts" equals
80. All France still uses this system, as do the former colonies, but Belgium no longer does.
Gauls and the Celtic language
However, it's not just that. The Gauls started out using a Celtic language that was distinct
from Latin, yet with some correspondences between the two. According to "Empires of the
Word: A Language History of the World" by Nicholas Ostler, the form of Celtic spoken in Gaul
was grammatically closer to Latin than that spoken in Britain. The Ancient Britons spoke a
Celtic language that was already more distinct. So, when Gaul was a Roman province, the thing
to do was to learn Latin, if you wanted to be educated or important. This did not preclude a use
of Gaulish as well, but the fact was that Latin began to seem too useful, too important to avoid,
and people began to make the fatal mistake of thinking their own language was worthless, or
shameful. But the author says, or implies, that Latin would not seem too outlandish or difficult.
The Gauls would "get" Latin, whereas the Britons resisted assimilation. It was easier for the
Gauls to see Latin as their language. Meanwhile, if educated, the Ancient Britons could learn to
speak Latin amazingly well, with perfect grammar even after the Romans left Britain. But they
did not lose their own tongues. On the other hand, as late antiquity turned into the Dark Ages,
people on the continent trying to write classical Latin made silly mistakes, because the rough
version of Vulgar Latin that they spoke interfered with it. By this time, of course, Gaulish would
have become Vulgar Latin, albeit with some Gaulish vocabulary added. I will come back to this
later.
Vulgar Latin
But what of Vulgar Latin itself? Another author, whose books I read about the Ancient
Celts, said that a number of Celtic words made their way into Latin itself. I can think of bracciae,
the Latin word for trousers/pants (bragas in Spanish, although there it means stockings or lady's
tights). That came from Gaulish, in classical times. Vulgar Latin was spread partly by the Roman
army, which adopted a fair number of Gaulish words and phrases. So we have the have the
league, a unit of length, which came from leuga Gallica the Latin word for this Gaulish unit of
length. The modern French word for this is lieu. There were other words of Gaulish origin,
which also made it into other Romance languages. For example, embassade (Fr.) embajada (Sp.)
and embassy. French retained some other Gaulish words, such as "bruyere" briars, and "lande"
which means an empty, uncultivated area. This has nothing to do with our word "land." which
comes from the Germanic languages, and is attested in other Germanic languages, from Gothic
onwards.
Another interesting point: some French researchers used computer algorithms to discover
other influences. What they found was that the gender of Latin words was changed in early
French to what the Gaulish gender had been. For example: "Mare (sea), had a neutral gender in
Latin, but in French it is feminine "LA mer."
What I think has happened is that a lot of French vocabulary is of Latin origin, but with
some Gaulish influence. The number of Gaulish words would have been greater in medieval
times, because a higher proportion of those Gaulish words that survived pertained to agriculture,
flora and fauna, etc.
Curiously enough, our own dear English language is Germanic. However, it has been
influenced by both French and Latin. Thus, there was a slight Gaulish influence on English too.
The fact is that the Gaulish language had some influence on French. The Gauls, from
whom many French people are descended, spoke a Celtic language. It was probably a P-Celtic
language, like Welsh, and not a Q-Celtic language like Irish. During my school years, my French
teacher actually told me that the very odd French way of counting the numbers 70 to 99 is based
on the old Celtic way of counting by twenties-counting by the score. So "quatre-vingts" equals
80. All France still uses this system, as do the former colonies, but Belgium no longer does.
Gauls and the Celtic language
However, it's not just that. The Gauls started out using a Celtic language that was distinct
from Latin, yet with some correspondences between the two. According to "Empires of the
Word: A Language History of the World" by Nicholas Ostler, the form of Celtic spoken in Gaul
was grammatically closer to Latin than that spoken in Britain. The Ancient Britons spoke a
Celtic language that was already more distinct. So, when Gaul was a Roman province, the thing
to do was to learn Latin, if you wanted to be educated or important. This did not preclude a use
of Gaulish as well, but the fact was that Latin began to seem too useful, too important to avoid,
and people began to make the fatal mistake of thinking their own language was worthless, or
shameful. But the author says, or implies, that Latin would not seem too outlandish or difficult.
The Gauls would "get" Latin, whereas the Britons resisted assimilation. It was easier for the
Gauls to see Latin as their language. Meanwhile, if educated, the Ancient Britons could learn to
speak Latin amazingly well, with perfect grammar even after the Romans left Britain. But they
did not lose their own tongues. On the other hand, as late antiquity turned into the Dark Ages,
people on the continent trying to write classical Latin made silly mistakes, because the rough
version of Vulgar Latin that they spoke interfered with it. By this time, of course, Gaulish would
have become Vulgar Latin, albeit with some Gaulish vocabulary added. I will come back to this
later.
Vulgar Latin
But what of Vulgar Latin itself? Another author, whose books I read about the Ancient
Celts, said that a number of Celtic words made their way into Latin itself. I can think of bracciae,
the Latin word for trousers/pants (bragas in Spanish, although there it means stockings or lady's
tights). That came from Gaulish, in classical times. Vulgar Latin was spread partly by the Roman
army, which adopted a fair number of Gaulish words and phrases. So we have the have the
league, a unit of length, which came from leuga Gallica the Latin word for this Gaulish unit of
length. The modern French word for this is lieu. There were other words of Gaulish origin,
which also made it into other Romance languages. For example, embassade (Fr.) embajada (Sp.)
and embassy. French retained some other Gaulish words, such as "bruyere" briars, and "lande"
which means an empty, uncultivated area. This has nothing to do with our word "land." which
comes from the Germanic languages, and is attested in other Germanic languages, from Gothic
onwards.
Another interesting point: some French researchers used computer algorithms to discover
other influences. What they found was that the gender of Latin words was changed in early
French to what the Gaulish gender had been. For example: "Mare (sea), had a neutral gender in
Latin, but in French it is feminine "LA mer."
What I think has happened is that a lot of French vocabulary is of Latin origin, but with
some Gaulish influence. The number of Gaulish words would have been greater in medieval
times, because a higher proportion of those Gaulish words that survived pertained to agriculture,
flora and fauna, etc.
Curiously enough, our own dear English language is Germanic. However, it has been
influenced by both French and Latin. Thus, there was a slight Gaulish influence on English too.
The fact is that the Gaulish language had some influence on French. The Gauls, from
whom many French people are descended, spoke a Celtic language. It was probably a P-Celtic
language, like Welsh, and not a Q-Celtic language like Irish. During my school years, my French
teacher actually told me that the very odd French way of counting the numbers 70 to 99 is based
on the old Celtic way of counting by twenties-counting by the score. So "quatre-vingts" equals
80. All France still uses this system, as do the former colonies, but Belgium no longer does.
Gauls and the Celtic language
However, it's not just that. The Gauls started out using a Celtic language that was distinct
from Latin, yet with some correspondences between the two. According to "Empires of the
Word: A Language History of the World" by Nicholas Ostler, the form of Celtic spoken in Gaul
was grammatically closer to Latin than that spoken in Britain. The Ancient Britons spoke a
Celtic language that was already more distinct. So, when Gaul was a Roman province, the thing
to do was to learn Latin, if you wanted to be educated or important. This did not preclude a use
of Gaulish as well, but the fact was that Latin began to seem too useful, too important to avoid,
and people began to make the fatal mistake of thinking their own language was worthless, or
shameful. But the author says, or implies, that Latin would not seem too outlandish or difficult.
The Gauls would "get" Latin, whereas the Britons resisted assimilation. It was easier for the
Gauls to see Latin as their language. Meanwhile, if educated, the Ancient Britons could learn to
speak Latin amazingly well, with perfect grammar even after the Romans left Britain. But they
did not lose their own tongues. On the other hand, as late antiquity turned into the Dark Ages,
people on the continent trying to write classical Latin made silly mistakes, because the rough
version of Vulgar Latin that they spoke interfered with it. By this time, of course, Gaulish would
have become Vulgar Latin, albeit with some Gaulish vocabulary added. I will come back to this
later.
Vulgar Latin
But what of Vulgar Latin itself? Another author, whose books I read about the Ancient
Celts, said that a number of Celtic words made their way into Latin itself. I can think of bracciae,
the Latin word for trousers/pants (bragas in Spanish, although there it means stockings or lady's
tights). That came from Gaulish, in classical times. Vulgar Latin was spread partly by the Roman
army, which adopted a fair number of Gaulish words and phrases. So we have the have the
league, a unit of length, which came from leuga Gallica the Latin word for this Gaulish unit of
length. The modern French word for this is lieu. There were other words of Gaulish origin,
which also made it into other Romance languages. For example, embassade (Fr.) embajada (Sp.)
and embassy. French retained some other Gaulish words, such as "bruyere" briars, and "lande"
which means an empty, uncultivated area. This has nothing to do with our word "land." which
comes from the Germanic languages, and is attested in other Germanic languages, from Gothic
onwards.
Another interesting point: some French researchers used computer algorithms to discover
other influences. What they found was that the gender of Latin words was changed in early
French to what the Gaulish gender had been. For example: "Mare (sea), had a neutral gender in
Latin, but in French it is feminine "LA mer."
What I think has happened is that a lot of French vocabulary is of Latin origin, but with
some Gaulish influence. The number of Gaulish words would have been greater in medieval
times, because a higher proportion of those Gaulish words that survived pertained to agriculture,
flora and fauna, etc.
Curiously enough, our own dear English language is Germanic. However, it has been
influenced by both French and Latin. Thus, there was a slight Gaulish influence on English too.
The fact is that the Gaulish language had some influence on French. The Gauls, from
whom many French people are descended, spoke a Celtic language. It was probably a P-Celtic
language, like Welsh, and not a Q-Celtic language like Irish. During my school years, my French
teacher actually told me that the very odd French way of counting the numbers 70 to 99 is based
on the old Celtic way of counting by twenties-counting by the score. So "quatre-vingts" equals
80. All France still uses this system, as do the former colonies, but Belgium no longer does.
Gauls and the Celtic language
However, it's not just that. The Gauls started out using a Celtic language that was distinct
from Latin, yet with some correspondences between the two. According to "Empires of the
Word: A Language History of the World" by Nicholas Ostler, the form of Celtic spoken in Gaul
was grammatically closer to Latin than that spoken in Britain. The Ancient Britons spoke a
Celtic language that was already more distinct. So, when Gaul was a Roman province, the thing
to do was to learn Latin, if you wanted to be educated or important. This did not preclude a use
of Gaulish as well, but the fact was that Latin began to seem too useful, too important to avoid,
and people began to make the fatal mistake of thinking their own language was worthless, or
shameful. But the author says, or implies, that Latin would not seem too outlandish or difficult.
The Gauls would "get" Latin, whereas the Britons resisted assimilation. It was easier for the
Gauls to see Latin as their language. Meanwhile, if educated, the Ancient Britons could learn to
speak Latin amazingly well, with perfect grammar even after the Romans left Britain. But they
did not lose their own tongues. On the other hand, as late antiquity turned into the Dark Ages,
people on the continent trying to write classical Latin made silly mistakes, because the rough
version of Vulgar Latin that they spoke interfered with it. By this time, of course, Gaulish would
have become Vulgar Latin, albeit with some Gaulish vocabulary added. I will come back to this
later.
Vulgar Latin
But what of Vulgar Latin itself? Another author, whose books I read about the Ancient
Celts, said that a number of Celtic words made their way into Latin itself. I can think of bracciae,
the Latin word for trousers/pants (bragas in Spanish, although there it means stockings or lady's
tights). That came from Gaulish, in classical times. Vulgar Latin was spread partly by the Roman
army, which adopted a fair number of Gaulish words and phrases. So we have the have the
league, a unit of length, which came from leuga Gallica the Latin word for this Gaulish unit of
length. The modern French word for this is lieu. There were other words of Gaulish origin,
which also made it into other Romance languages. For example, embassade (Fr.) embajada (Sp.)
and embassy. French retained some other Gaulish words, such as "bruyere" briars, and "lande"
which means an empty, uncultivated area. This has nothing to do with our word "land." which
comes from the Germanic languages, and is attested in other Germanic languages, from Gothic
onwards.
Another interesting point: some French researchers used computer algorithms to discover
other influences. What they found was that the gender of Latin words was changed in early
French to what the Gaulish gender had been. For example: "Mare (sea), had a neutral gender in
Latin, but in French it is feminine "LA mer."
What I think has happened is that a lot of French vocabulary is of Latin origin, but with
some Gaulish influence. The number of Gaulish words would have been greater in medieval
times, because a higher proportion of those Gaulish words that survived pertained to agriculture,
flora and fauna, etc.
Curiously enough, our own dear English language is Germanic. However, it has been
influenced by both French and Latin. Thus, there was a slight Gaulish influence on English too.
The fact is that the Gaulish language had some influence on French. The Gauls, from
whom many French people are descended, spoke a Celtic language. It was probably a P-Celtic
language, like Welsh, and not a Q-Celtic language like Irish. During my school years, my French
teacher actually told me that the very odd French way of counting the numbers 70 to 99 is based
on the old Celtic way of counting by twenties-counting by the score. So "quatre-vingts" equals
80. All France still uses this system, as do the former colonies, but Belgium no longer does.
Gauls and the Celtic language
However, it's not just that. The Gauls started out using a Celtic language that was distinct
from Latin, yet with some correspondences between the two. According to "Empires of the
Word: A Language History of the World" by Nicholas Ostler, the form of Celtic spoken in Gaul
was grammatically closer to Latin than that spoken in Britain. The Ancient Britons spoke a
Celtic language that was already more distinct. So, when Gaul was a Roman province, the thing
to do was to learn Latin, if you wanted to be educated or important. This did not preclude a use
of Gaulish as well, but the fact was that Latin began to seem too useful, too important to avoid,
and people began to make the fatal mistake of thinking their own language was worthless, or
shameful. But the author says, or implies, that Latin would not seem too outlandish or difficult.
The Gauls would "get" Latin, whereas the Britons resisted assimilation. It was easier for the
Gauls to see Latin as their language. Meanwhile, if educated, the Ancient Britons could learn to
speak Latin amazingly well, with perfect grammar even after the Romans left Britain. But they
did not lose their own tongues. On the other hand, as late antiquity turned into the Dark Ages,
people on the continent trying to write classical Latin made silly mistakes, because the rough
version of Vulgar Latin that they spoke interfered with it. By this time, of course, Gaulish would
have become Vulgar Latin, albeit with some Gaulish vocabulary added. I will come back to this
later.
Vulgar Latin
But what of Vulgar Latin itself? Another author, whose books I read about the Ancient
Celts, said that a number of Celtic words made their way into Latin itself. I can think of bracciae,
the Latin word for trousers/pants (bragas in Spanish, although there it means stockings or lady's
tights). That came from Gaulish, in classical times. Vulgar Latin was spread partly by the Roman
army, which adopted a fair number of Gaulish words and phrases. So we have the have the
league, a unit of length, which came from leuga Gallica the Latin word for this Gaulish unit of
length. The modern French word for this is lieu. There were other words of Gaulish origin,
which also made it into other Romance languages. For example, embassade (Fr.) embajada (Sp.)
and embassy. French retained some other Gaulish words, such as "bruyere" briars, and "lande"
which means an empty, uncultivated area. This has nothing to do with our word "land." which
comes from the Germanic languages, and is attested in other Germanic languages, from Gothic
onwards.
Another interesting point: some French researchers used computer algorithms to discover
other influences. What they found was that the gender of Latin words was changed in early
French to what the Gaulish gender had been. For example: "Mare (sea), had a neutral gender in
Latin, but in French it is feminine "LA mer."
What I think has happened is that a lot of French vocabulary is of Latin origin, but with
some Gaulish influence. The number of Gaulish words would have been greater in medieval
times, because a higher proportion of those Gaulish words that survived pertained to agriculture,
flora and fauna, etc.
Curiously enough, our own dear English language is Germanic. However, it has been
influenced by both French and Latin. Thus, there was a slight Gaulish influence on English too.
The fact is that the Gaulish language had some influence on French. The Gauls, from
whom many French people are descended, spoke a Celtic language. It was probably a P-Celtic
language, like Welsh, and not a Q-Celtic language like Irish. During my school years, my French
teacher actually told me that the very odd French way of counting the numbers 70 to 99 is based
on the old Celtic way of counting by twenties-counting by the score. So "quatre-vingts" equals
80. All France still uses this system, as do the former colonies, but Belgium no longer does.
Gauls and the Celtic language
However, it's not just that. The Gauls started out using a Celtic language that was distinct
from Latin, yet with some correspondences between the two. According to "Empires of the
Word: A Language History of the World" by Nicholas Ostler, the form of Celtic spoken in Gaul
was grammatically closer to Latin than that spoken in Britain. The Ancient Britons spoke a
Celtic language that was already more distinct. So, when Gaul was a Roman province, the thing
to do was to learn Latin, if you wanted to be educated or important. This did not preclude a use
of Gaulish as well, but the fact was that Latin began to seem too useful, too important to avoid,
and people began to make the fatal mistake of thinking their own language was worthless, or
shameful. But the author says, or implies, that Latin would not seem too outlandish or difficult.
The Gauls would "get" Latin, whereas the Britons resisted assimilation. It was easier for the
Gauls to see Latin as their language. Meanwhile, if educated, the Ancient Britons could learn to
speak Latin amazingly well, with perfect grammar even after the Romans left Britain. But they
did not lose their own tongues. On the other hand, as late antiquity turned into the Dark Ages,
people on the continent trying to write classical Latin made silly mistakes, because the rough
version of Vulgar Latin that they spoke interfered with it. By this time, of course, Gaulish would
have become Vulgar Latin, albeit with some Gaulish vocabulary added. I will come back to this
later.
Vulgar Latin
But what of Vulgar Latin itself? Another author, whose books I read about the Ancient
Celts, said that a number of Celtic words made their way into Latin itself. I can think of bracciae,
the Latin word for trousers/pants (bragas in Spanish, although there it means stockings or lady's
tights). That came from Gaulish, in classical times. Vulgar Latin was spread partly by the Roman
army, which adopted a fair number of Gaulish words and phrases. So we have the have the
league, a unit of length, which came from leuga Gallica the Latin word for this Gaulish unit of
length. The modern French word for this is lieu. There were other words of Gaulish origin,
which also made it into other Romance languages. For example, embassade (Fr.) embajada (Sp.)
and embassy. French retained some other Gaulish words, such as "bruyere" briars, and "lande"
which means an empty, uncultivated area. This has nothing to do with our word "land." which
comes from the Germanic languages, and is attested in other Germanic languages, from Gothic
onwards.
Another interesting point: some French researchers used computer algorithms to discover
other influences. What they found was that the gender of Latin words was changed in early
French to what the Gaulish gender had been. For example: "Mare (sea), had a neutral gender in
Latin, but in French it is feminine "LA mer."
What I think has happened is that a lot of French vocabulary is of Latin origin, but with
some Gaulish influence. The number of Gaulish words would have been greater in medieval
times, because a higher proportion of those Gaulish words that survived pertained to agriculture,
flora and fauna, etc.
Curiously enough, our own dear English language is Germanic. However, it has been
influenced by both French and Latin. Thus, there was a slight Gaulish influence on English too.
The fact is that the Gaulish language had some influence on French. The Gauls, from
whom many French people are descended, spoke a Celtic language. It was probably a P-Celtic
language, like Welsh, and not a Q-Celtic language like Irish. During my school years, my French
teacher actually told me that the very odd French way of counting the numbers 70 to 99 is based
on the old Celtic way of counting by twenties-counting by the score. So "quatre-vingts" equals
80. All France still uses this system, as do the former colonies, but Belgium no longer does.
Gauls and the Celtic language
However, it's not just that. The Gauls started out using a Celtic language that was distinct
from Latin, yet with some correspondences between the two. According to "Empires of the
Word: A Language History of the World" by Nicholas Ostler, the form of Celtic spoken in Gaul
was grammatically closer to Latin than that spoken in Britain. The Ancient Britons spoke a
Celtic language that was already more distinct. So, when Gaul was a Roman province, the thing
to do was to learn Latin, if you wanted to be educated or important. This did not preclude a use
of Gaulish as well, but the fact was that Latin began to seem too useful, too important to avoid,
and people began to make the fatal mistake of thinking their own language was worthless, or
shameful. But the author says, or implies, that Latin would not seem too outlandish or difficult.
The Gauls would "get" Latin, whereas the Britons resisted assimilation. It was easier for the
Gauls to see Latin as their language. Meanwhile, if educated, the Ancient Britons could learn to
speak Latin amazingly well, with perfect grammar even after the Romans left Britain. But they
did not lose their own tongues. On the other hand, as late antiquity turned into the Dark Ages,
people on the continent trying to write classical Latin made silly mistakes, because the rough
version of Vulgar Latin that they spoke interfered with it. By this time, of course, Gaulish would
have become Vulgar Latin, albeit with some Gaulish vocabulary added. I will come back to this
later.
Vulgar Latin
But what of Vulgar Latin itself? Another author, whose books I read about the Ancient
Celts, said that a number of Celtic words made their way into Latin itself. I can think of bracciae,
the Latin word for trousers/pants (bragas in Spanish, although there it means stockings or lady's
tights). That came from Gaulish, in classical times. Vulgar Latin was spread partly by the Roman
army, which adopted a fair number of Gaulish words and phrases. So we have the have the
league, a unit of length, which came from leuga Gallica the Latin word for this Gaulish unit of
length. The modern French word for this is lieu. There were other words of Gaulish origin,
which also made it into other Romance languages. For example, embassade (Fr.) embajada (Sp.)
and embassy. French retained some other Gaulish words, such as "bruyere" briars, and "lande"
which means an empty, uncultivated area. This has nothing to do with our word "land." which
comes from the Germanic languages, and is attested in other Germanic languages, from Gothic
onwards.
Another interesting point: some French researchers used computer algorithms to discover
other influences. What they found was that the gender of Latin words was changed in early
French to what the Gaulish gender had been. For example: "Mare (sea), had a neutral gender in
Latin, but in French it is feminine "LA mer."
What I think has happened is that a lot of French vocabulary is of Latin origin, but with
some Gaulish influence. The number of Gaulish words would have been greater in medieval
times, because a higher proportion of those Gaulish words that survived pertained to agriculture,
flora and fauna, etc.
Curiously enough, our own dear English language is Germanic. However, it has been
influenced by both French and Latin. Thus, there was a slight Gaulish influence on English too.
The fact is that the Gaulish language had some influence on French. The Gauls, from
whom many French people are descended, spoke a Celtic language. It was probably a P-Celtic
language, like Welsh, and not a Q-Celtic language like Irish. During my school years, my French
teacher actually told me that the very odd French way of counting the numbers 70 to 99 is based
on the old Celtic way of counting by twenties-counting by the score. So "quatre-vingts" equals
80. All France still uses this system, as do the former colonies, but Belgium no longer does.
Gauls and the Celtic language
However, it's not just that. The Gauls started out using a Celtic language that was distinct
from Latin, yet with some correspondences between the two. According to "Empires of the
Word: A Language History of the World" by Nicholas Ostler, the form of Celtic spoken in Gaul
was grammatically closer to Latin than that spoken in Britain. The Ancient Britons spoke a
Celtic language that was already more distinct. So, when Gaul was a Roman province, the thing
to do was to learn Latin, if you wanted to be educated or important. This did not preclude a use
of Gaulish as well, but the fact was that Latin began to seem too useful, too important to avoid,
and people began to make the fatal mistake of thinking their own language was worthless, or
shameful. But the author says, or implies, that Latin would not seem too outlandish or difficult.
The Gauls would "get" Latin, whereas the Britons resisted assimilation. It was easier for the
Gauls to see Latin as their language. Meanwhile, if educated, the Ancient Britons could learn to
speak Latin amazingly well, with perfect grammar even after the Romans left Britain. But they
did not lose their own tongues. On the other hand, as late antiquity turned into the Dark Ages,
people on the continent trying to write classical Latin made silly mistakes, because the rough
version of Vulgar Latin that they spoke interfered with it. By this time, of course, Gaulish would
have become Vulgar Latin, albeit with some Gaulish vocabulary added. I will come back to this
later.
Vulgar Latin
But what of Vulgar Latin itself? Another author, whose books I read about the Ancient
Celts, said that a number of Celtic words made their way into Latin itself. I can think of bracciae,
the Latin word for trousers/pants (bragas in Spanish, although there it means stockings or lady's
tights). That came from Gaulish, in classical times. Vulgar Latin was spread partly by the Roman
army, which adopted a fair number of Gaulish words and phrases. So we have the have the
league, a unit of length, which came from leuga Gallica the Latin word for this Gaulish unit of
length. The modern French word for this is lieu. There were other words of Gaulish origin,
which also made it into other Romance languages. For example, embassade (Fr.) embajada (Sp.)
and embassy. French retained some other Gaulish words, such as "bruyere" briars, and "lande"
which means an empty, uncultivated area. This has nothing to do with our word "land." which
comes from the Germanic languages, and is attested in other Germanic languages, from Gothic
onwards.
Another interesting point: some French researchers used computer algorithms to discover
other influences. What they found was that the gender of Latin words was changed in early
French to what the Gaulish gender had been. For example: "Mare (sea), had a neutral gender in
Latin, but in French it is feminine "LA mer."
What I think has happened is that a lot of French vocabulary is of Latin origin, but with
some Gaulish influence. The number of Gaulish words would have been greater in medieval
times, because a higher proportion of those Gaulish words that survived pertained to agriculture,
flora and fauna, etc.
Curiously enough, our own dear English language is Germanic. However, it has been
influenced by both French and Latin. Thus, there was a slight Gaulish influence on English too.
The fact is that the Gaulish language had some influence on French. The Gauls, from
whom many French people are descended, spoke a Celtic language. It was probably a P-Celtic
language, like Welsh, and not a Q-Celtic language like Irish. During my school years, my French
teacher actually told me that the very odd French way of counting the numbers 70 to 99 is based
on the old Celtic way of counting by twenties-counting by the score. So "quatre-vingts" equals
80. All France still uses this system, as do the former colonies, but Belgium no longer does.
Gauls and the Celtic language
However, it's not just that. The Gauls started out using a Celtic language that was distinct
from Latin, yet with some correspondences between the two. According to "Empires of the
Word: A Language History of the World" by Nicholas Ostler, the form of Celtic spoken in Gaul
was grammatically closer to Latin than that spoken in Britain. The Ancient Britons spoke a
Celtic language that was already more distinct. So, when Gaul was a Roman province, the thing
to do was to learn Latin, if you wanted to be educated or important. This did not preclude a use
of Gaulish as well, but the fact was that Latin began to seem too useful, too important to avoid,
and people began to make the fatal mistake of thinking their own language was worthless, or
shameful. But the author says, or implies, that Latin would not seem too outlandish or difficult.
The Gauls would "get" Latin, whereas the Britons resisted assimilation. It was easier for the
Gauls to see Latin as their language. Meanwhile, if educated, the Ancient Britons could learn to
speak Latin amazingly well, with perfect grammar even after the Romans left Britain. But they
did not lose their own tongues. On the other hand, as late antiquity turned into the Dark Ages,
people on the continent trying to write classical Latin made silly mistakes, because the rough
version of Vulgar Latin that they spoke interfered with it. By this time, of course, Gaulish would
have become Vulgar Latin, albeit with some Gaulish vocabulary added. I will come back to this
later.
Vulgar Latin
But what of Vulgar Latin itself? Another author, whose books I read about the Ancient
Celts, said that a number of Celtic words made their way into Latin itself. I can think of bracciae,
the Latin word for trousers/pants (bragas in Spanish, although there it means stockings or lady's
tights). That came from Gaulish, in classical times. Vulgar Latin was spread partly by the Roman
army, which adopted a fair number of Gaulish words and phrases. So we have the have the
league, a unit of length, which came from leuga Gallica the Latin word for this Gaulish unit of
length. The modern French word for this is lieu. There were other words of Gaulish origin,
which also made it into other Romance languages. For example, embassade (Fr.) embajada (Sp.)
and embassy. French retained some other Gaulish words, such as "bruyere" briars, and "lande"
which means an empty, uncultivated area. This has nothing to do with our word "land." which
comes from the Germanic languages, and is attested in other Germanic languages, from Gothic
onwards.
Another interesting point: some French researchers used computer algorithms to discover
other influences. What they found was that the gender of Latin words was changed in early
French to what the Gaulish gender had been. For example: "Mare (sea), had a neutral gender in
Latin, but in French it is feminine "LA mer."
What I think has happened is that a lot of French vocabulary is of Latin origin, but with
some Gaulish influence. The number of Gaulish words would have been greater in medieval
times, because a higher proportion of those Gaulish words that survived pertained to agriculture,
flora and fauna, etc.
Curiously enough, our own dear English language is Germanic. However, it has been
influenced by both French and Latin. Thus, there was a slight Gaulish influence on English too.
The fact is that the Gaulish language had some influence on French. The Gauls, from
whom many French people are descended, spoke a Celtic language. It was probably a P-Celtic
language, like Welsh, and not a Q-Celtic language like Irish. During my school years, my French
teacher actually told me that the very odd French way of counting the numbers 70 to 99 is based
on the old Celtic way of counting by twenties-counting by the score. So "quatre-vingts" equals
80. All France still uses this system, as do the former colonies, but Belgium no longer does.
Gauls and the Celtic language
However, it's not just that. The Gauls started out using a Celtic language that was distinct
from Latin, yet with some correspondences between the two. According to "Empires of the
Word: A Language History of the World" by Nicholas Ostler, the form of Celtic spoken in Gaul
was grammatically closer to Latin than that spoken in Britain. The Ancient Britons spoke a
Celtic language that was already more distinct. So, when Gaul was a Roman province, the thing
to do was to learn Latin, if you wanted to be educated or important. This did not preclude a use
of Gaulish as well, but the fact was that Latin began to seem too useful, too important to avoid,
and people began to make the fatal mistake of thinking their own language was worthless, or
shameful. But the author says, or implies, that Latin would not seem too outlandish or difficult.
The Gauls would "get" Latin, whereas the Britons resisted assimilation. It was easier for the
Gauls to see Latin as their language. Meanwhile, if educated, the Ancient Britons could learn to
speak Latin amazingly well, with perfect grammar even after the Romans left Britain. But they
did not lose their own tongues. On the other hand, as late antiquity turned into the Dark Ages,
people on the continent trying to write classical Latin made silly mistakes, because the rough
version of Vulgar Latin that they spoke interfered with it. By this time, of course, Gaulish would
have become Vulgar Latin, albeit with some Gaulish vocabulary added. I will come back to this
later.
Vulgar Latin
But what of Vulgar Latin itself? Another author, whose books I read about the Ancient
Celts, said that a number of Celtic words made their way into Latin itself. I can think of bracciae,
the Latin word for trousers/pants (bragas in Spanish, although there it means stockings or lady's
tights). That came from Gaulish, in classical times. Vulgar Latin was spread partly by the Roman
army, which adopted a fair number of Gaulish words and phrases. So we have the have the
league, a unit of length, which came from leuga Gallica the Latin word for this Gaulish unit of
length. The modern French word for this is lieu. There were other words of Gaulish origin,
which also made it into other Romance languages. For example, embassade (Fr.) embajada (Sp.)
and embassy. French retained some other Gaulish words, such as "bruyere" briars, and "lande"
which means an empty, uncultivated area. This has nothing to do with our word "land." which
comes from the Germanic languages, and is attested in other Germanic languages, from Gothic
onwards.
Another interesting point: some French researchers used computer algorithms to discover
other influences. What they found was that the gender of Latin words was changed in early
French to what the Gaulish gender had been. For example: "Mare (sea), had a neutral gender in
Latin, but in French it is feminine "LA mer."
What I think has happened is that a lot of French vocabulary is of Latin origin, but with
some Gaulish influence. The number of Gaulish words would have been greater in medieval
times, because a higher proportion of those Gaulish words that survived pertained to agriculture,
flora and fauna, etc.
Curiously enough, our own dear English language is Germanic. However, it has been
influenced by both French and Latin. Thus, there was a slight Gaulish influence on English too.
The fact is that the Gaulish language had some influence on French. The Gauls, from
whom many French people are descended, spoke a Celtic language. It was probably a P-Celtic
language, like Welsh, and not a Q-Celtic language like Irish. During my school years, my French
teacher actually told me that the very odd French way of counting the numbers 70 to 99 is based
on the old Celtic way of counting by twenties-counting by the score. So "quatre-vingts" equals
80. All France still uses this system, as do the former colonies, but Belgium no longer does.
Gauls and the Celtic language
However, it's not just that. The Gauls started out using a Celtic language that was distinct
from Latin, yet with some correspondences between the two. According to "Empires of the
Word: A Language History of the World" by Nicholas Ostler, the form of Celtic spoken in Gaul
was grammatically closer to Latin than that spoken in Britain. The Ancient Britons spoke a
Celtic language that was already more distinct. So, when Gaul was a Roman province, the thing
to do was to learn Latin, if you wanted to be educated or important. This did not preclude a use
of Gaulish as well, but the fact was that Latin began to seem too useful, too important to avoid,
and people began to make the fatal mistake of thinking their own language was worthless, or
shameful. But the author says, or implies, that Latin would not seem too outlandish or difficult.
The Gauls would "get" Latin, whereas the Britons resisted assimilation. It was easier for the
Gauls to see Latin as their language. Meanwhile, if educated, the Ancient Britons could learn to
speak Latin amazingly well, with perfect grammar even after the Romans left Britain. But they
did not lose their own tongues. On the other hand, as late antiquity turned into the Dark Ages,
people on the continent trying to write classical Latin made silly mistakes, because the rough
version of Vulgar Latin that they spoke interfered with it. By this time, of course, Gaulish would
have become Vulgar Latin, albeit with some Gaulish vocabulary added. I will come back to this
later.
Vulgar Latin
But what of Vulgar Latin itself? Another author, whose books I read about the Ancient
Celts, said that a number of Celtic words made their way into Latin itself. I can think of bracciae,
the Latin word for trousers/pants (bragas in Spanish, although there it means stockings or lady's
tights). That came from Gaulish, in classical times. Vulgar Latin was spread partly by the Roman
army, which adopted a fair number of Gaulish words and phrases. So we have the have the
league, a unit of length, which came from leuga Gallica the Latin word for this Gaulish unit of
length. The modern French word for this is lieu. There were other words of Gaulish origin,
which also made it into other Romance languages. For example, embassade (Fr.) embajada (Sp.)
and embassy. French retained some other Gaulish words, such as "bruyere" briars, and "lande"
which means an empty, uncultivated area. This has nothing to do with our word "land." which
comes from the Germanic languages, and is attested in other Germanic languages, from Gothic
onwards.
Another interesting point: some French researchers used computer algorithms to discover
other influences. What they found was that the gender of Latin words was changed in early
French to what the Gaulish gender had been. For example: "Mare (sea), had a neutral gender in
Latin, but in French it is feminine "LA mer."
What I think has happened is that a lot of French vocabulary is of Latin origin, but with
some Gaulish influence. The number of Gaulish words would have been greater in medieval
times, because a higher proportion of those Gaulish words that survived pertained to agriculture,
flora and fauna, etc.
Curiously enough, our own dear English language is Germanic. However, it has been
influenced by both French and Latin. Thus, there was a slight Gaulish influence on English too.
The fact is that the Gaulish language had some influence on French. The Gauls, from
whom many French people are descended, spoke a Celtic language. It was probably a P-Celtic
language, like Welsh, and not a Q-Celtic language like Irish. During my school years, my French
teacher actually told me that the very odd French way of counting the numbers 70 to 99 is based
on the old Celtic way of counting by twenties-counting by the score. So "quatre-vingts" equals
80. All France still uses this system, as do the former colonies, but Belgium no longer does.
Gauls and the Celtic language
However, it's not just that. The Gauls started out using a Celtic language that was distinct
from Latin, yet with some correspondences between the two. According to "Empires of the
Word: A Language History of the World" by Nicholas Ostler, the form of Celtic spoken in Gaul
was grammatically closer to Latin than that spoken in Britain. The Ancient Britons spoke a
Celtic language that was already more distinct. So, when Gaul was a Roman province, the thing
to do was to learn Latin, if you wanted to be educated or important. This did not preclude a use
of Gaulish as well, but the fact was that Latin began to seem too useful, too important to avoid,
and people began to make the fatal mistake of thinking their own language was worthless, or
shameful. But the author says, or implies, that Latin would not seem too outlandish or difficult.
The Gauls would "get" Latin, whereas the Britons resisted assimilation. It was easier for the
Gauls to see Latin as their language. Meanwhile, if educated, the Ancient Britons could learn to
speak Latin amazingly well, with perfect grammar even after the Romans left Britain. But they
did not lose their own tongues. On the other hand, as late antiquity turned into the Dark Ages,
people on the continent trying to write classical Latin made silly mistakes, because the rough
version of Vulgar Latin that they spoke interfered with it. By this time, of course, Gaulish would
have become Vulgar Latin, albeit with some Gaulish vocabulary added. I will come back to this
later.
Vulgar Latin
But what of Vulgar Latin itself? Another author, whose books I read about the Ancient
Celts, said that a number of Celtic words made their way into Latin itself. I can think of bracciae,
the Latin word for trousers/pants (bragas in Spanish, although there it means stockings or lady's
tights). That came from Gaulish, in classical times. Vulgar Latin was spread partly by the Roman
army, which adopted a fair number of Gaulish words and phrases. So we have the have the
league, a unit of length, which came from leuga Gallica the Latin word for this Gaulish unit of
length. The modern French word for this is lieu. There were other words of Gaulish origin,
which also made it into other Romance languages. For example, embassade (Fr.) embajada (Sp.)
and embassy. French retained some other Gaulish words, such as "bruyere" briars, and "lande"
which means an empty, uncultivated area. This has nothing to do with our word "land." which
comes from the Germanic languages, and is attested in other Germanic languages, from Gothic
onwards.
Another interesting point: some French researchers used computer algorithms to discover
other influences. What they found was that the gender of Latin words was changed in early
French to what the Gaulish gender had been. For example: "Mare (sea), had a neutral gender in
Latin, but in French it is feminine "LA mer."
What I think has happened is that a lot of French vocabulary is of Latin origin, but with
some Gaulish influence. The number of Gaulish words would have been greater in medieval
times, because a higher proportion of those Gaulish words that survived pertained to agriculture,
flora and fauna, etc.
Curiously enough, our own dear English language is Germanic. However, it has been
influenced by both French and Latin. Thus, there was a slight Gaulish influence on English too.
