There is a list of Gaulish influence in French anywhere
from 180 words to 400 - depending on the analysis. Most of these words
relate to terms common in the countryside amongst the peasant class (the last
speakers of Gaulish). The largest influence came in the form of Celtic
sound-shift and mutation, but some maintain that there is some grammatical
influence - like aveugle "blind" being fromed from a Gallo-Latin *ab-oculus
perhaps in translation of Gaulish exsops ("blind" from
*eghs-okw-s).
Some Gaulish words in french include:
Ambassade
Berret
Bruyere
Cervoise
Change
Charpente (also our English word Carpenter)
Chemin
Flanelle
Javelot
Mouton
Palefroi
Petit
Quai
Truand
Vassal
----- Original Message -----From: Marc VerhaegenSent: Tuesday, January 18, 2000 3:36 PMSubject: [cybalist] Re: Submerged LanguagesAre there clear examples of Celtic influence in French? It's often stated, but I doubt it. --MarcThe standard term is "substratum" or "substrate". A substrate language is what you are describing as a "submerged language". A substratum language is spoken of when a population has undergone language replacement. In ancient France, Romance replaced the Celtic language of the Gauls, but left certain remains, both in vocabulary, and in phonology. In other circumstances, even a few grammatical elements are passed on to the successor language.
eGroups.com Home: http://www.egroups.com/group/cybalist
www.egroups.com - Simplifying group communications
