Gaulish language  

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The Gaulish (also Gallic) language is an extinct Celtic language that was spoken by the Gauls, a people who inhabited the region known as Gaul (Cisalpine and Transalpine) from the Iron Age through the Roman period. It was historically spoken through what are now France, Switzerland, eastern Belgium, Luxembourg and western Germany before being supplanted by Vulgar Latin and various German languages from around the 4th century AD onwards. Gaulish is paraphyletically grouped with Celtiberian, Lepontic, and Galatian as Continental Celtic languages. The Lepontic language is sometimes considered to be a dialect of Gaulish.

Gaulish is a P-Celtic language, though some inscriptions (e.g. the Coligny Calendar) potentially show Q-Celtic characteristics (however, this is a matter of debate among Celticists). Gaulish has a very close relationship to Insular Celtic (Goidelic and Brythonic), and many forms are identical in the two. Epigraphical remains have been uncovered across all of what used to be Roman Gaul, which covered modern France, as well as parts of Switzerland, Italy, Germany, and Belgium.



Unless indicated otherwise, the text in this article is either based on Wikipedia article "Gaulish language" or another language Wikipedia page thereof used under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License; or on research by Jahsonic and friends. See Art and Popular Culture's copyright notice.

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