This dictionary is a project that stems from many places. The reason for making it is to give the Nouiogalatis (Neo-Gaulish) — commonly abbreviated as “Galatis” community a collection of attested and reconstructed words as well as neologisms to use in order for us to have our own language and be able to use it. While it isn’t meant to be an academic source, the works of various academics were used in the construction of this dictionary. As we, the author, are not an academic, the full accuracy of words cannot be promised. Fortunately, as the dictionary retains a digital format, edits are fairly easy to make, allowing this dictionary to improve over time.
We strongly encourage readers to acquire the sources that will be listed at the end of this document. The authors of those works are academics and can provide the background knowledge to a real understanding of how linguistics works, as well as have detailed explanations as to where attested words come from and how they’re formed.
It is undoubtedly ambitious, in the line of those before who have and some who continue still to work on (re)constructing forms of Gaulish. However, it is a great source of pride for us Galatîs to develop our own language. The words within are not reflective of a particular dialect that existed before. Doubtlessly, it also contains influences from other languages to make up for words we simply do not have. Be assured, however, that attested Gaulish receives the highest priority.
As such, it is meant to be a language for the Galatis community. It neither needs nor asks for recognition anywhere else. Though anyone is welcome to use it. It is a contemporary language that while based in historical Gaulish, much like the religious and cultural mores we have developed, is not to be taken as a survival of the old language.
It does not grant “entry” into contemporary Celtic cultures. You will not “become a Celt” through learning these words or really, participation in Galatis culture at all. Consider supporting contemporary Celtic languages by supporting or learning one. Especially if you live in a country where they’re spoken.
This particular dictionary is, in a sense, a second edition of Uoxtlosernis Galatis by Iuomâros Cunouellauni. As it was, that work that was the basis for this.
This dictionary was started by us, but it has evolved to where many people outside of BNG have helped contribute to it.
How To Use The Dictionary
Use of the dictionary is fairly straightforward. An example entry is as follows for nouns.
riganî ~ riganâ, –iâs fa.: queen [Gaul. rigani, rigana]
- In bold are the nominative form(s) of the word.
- If a word has “~” between two words it means both forms of the word are usable.
- The “–” precedes the ending that puts the word in genitive. For consonant stems, the whole genitive form appears following a comma “,”.
- After that, an m,f,n denotes masculine, feminine, or neutral.
- The second part denotes the stem of the word: a,i,o,u,t,r, etc.
- The definition is then provided.
- In parentheses, is a word that is attested or reconstructed along with one of the languages of origin.
- The reference word(s) are in italics.
For verbs, it’s a little more complicated. An example entry follows:
datiet, dede, dassos BII; datus, –ous mu.: to put, place, give [Gaul. dede]
- The very last verbal form given is the verbal noun
The first word is the third person singular in the present tense. The second word is the preterite, the completed past tense. The third word is the participle. After that is the verb class in this case based off Rudolph Thurneysen’s classifications of verbs in Old Irish. So AI-II and BI-V. Full verbal conjugations are beyond the scope of this dictionary.
Adjectives are simpler. They’re set up similar to nouns. Like a nominal stem, it simply states the theme of the adjective. They’re usually o/a or u. With o/a stems the masculine, feminine, and neutral forms are included. An example is below.
riios, –â, –on o/a-adj.: free [Gaul. riios]
Sources
Please consider supporting the following works. As all had influence or provided information to make this dictionary possible.
- Les Noms Gaulois – Delamarre, Xavier
- Dictionnaire de la Langue Gauloise – Delamarre, Xavier
- Iextis Galation – Cunouellauni, Iuomâros
- Uoxtlosernis Galatis – Cunouellauni, Iuomâros
- Yextis Keltika – Piquerron, Olivier (version en Français)
- Yextis Keltika (Unofficial English Translation) – Tegos Skribbatous
- Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Celtic – Matasovic, Ranko
- Etymological Dictionary of Latin and Other Italic Languages – DeVaan, Michael
- Gaulish : Language, Writing, Epigraphy – Mullen, Alex and Ruiz-Darasse, Coline
- La Langue Gauloise – Yves-Lambert, Pierre
- Gaulish Inscriptions – Meid, Wolfgang
- The Oxford Introduction to Proto Indo-European – J.P. Mallory and D.Q. Adams
- Wékwos 3: Revue d’études indo-européennes – Delamarre, Xavier; Garnier, Romain
- Wékwos 4: Revue d’études indo-européennes – Delamarre, Xavier; Garnier, Romain
- Gaulish Language – Blažek, Václav
- Celto-Germanic – Koch, John
This is a living Document Ueposlougos Nouiogalaticos, Enjoy..
Bessus Nouiogalation 