The Gallaic Revival website is dedicated as a free resource to the aid the revival of the Gallaic language, the Celtic language of Galicia (Galiza), Asturias, Portugal, Spain and the Celtic civilisation of Tartessos (Tarshish). Tartessian (Old Gallaic) is now classified as an Indo-European Celtic language by the official LINGUIST List Multitree Digital Library of Language Relationships alongside Celtiberian (Old East Gallaic) and other Celtic languages. Read the debate on the Old Gallaic language of the South-West inscriptions of the Iberian peninsula here. Refer to the new website Atlantic Europe in the Metal Ages for the latest research particularly the work of Professor John T. Koch and Dr Catriona Gibson. In particular, read two of Professor Kochs 2013 papers in Spanish there: La fórmula epigráfica tartesia a la luz de los descubrimientos de la necrópolis de Medellín and Las inscripciones del suroeste y el Tarteso de la arqueología y de la historia. Here is an interesting review of Celtic from the West (Koch and Wodtko 2010) and interesting papers by Professor Koch: Tartessian as Celtic and Celtic from the West and Referring back to the Bronze Age from the dawn of Palaeohispanic literacy: the South-Western inscriptions interpreted as nativismnother paper with more recent insights. The Gallaic language, also known as Gallaecian or Callaecian, is also called Hispano-Celtic in a broader sense. Evidence shows occurrences in various scripts, time and space of what appears to be the same language from Douro River Oghamic and southern Tartessian to northern Callaecian (Celti and Celtici dialects - Primitive, Old and Middle Gallaic) with continuity of dialects with Lusitanian and Vettonian (Middle Central Gallaic) and shared innovations and development with Celtiberian (Old and Middle Eastern Gallaic). It was spoken and at times written by Celts in the Iberian Peninsula encompassing both Spain and Portugal. Galiza together with Asturias, Cantabria, north Portugal and hinterland parts of Brazil have been the pioneers in efforts to revive a Celtic identity in the Iberian peninsula and South America. Other regions of Portugal, Spain and the Americas are interested in joining this revival too because they consider it part of their Celtic heritage. This heritage is particularly important in Galicia, Asturias, Cantabria and northern Portugal which have maintained links with other Celtic nations over the ages. In this way they have gained increasing recognition as truly Celtic nations. Examples of such recognition are the Interceltic Festival of Lorient, the Celtic Council of Australia and the Australian Celtic Festival. Photo shows Galician representative on the Management Committee of the Celtic Council of Australia, Mercedes de Sanchez Williams, with Asturian friends at the Celtic Council of Australia tent at the Australia Day Celtic Festival 2014 with their flags ready for the parade of Celtic nations (see flag on left including Galicia and Asturia): The following epitaph, consisting of 2 sentences in the Celtic Tartessian language, comes from a tombstone from Alcala del Rio in Seville at the heart of the fabled kingdom of Tartessos. It was carved in the period 750-500 BC. More than 95 such inscriptions have been found around this with no substantial inscriptions of this period found there in any other language. The words on these inscriptions have been matched so closely with the Gallaic words preserved in later Roman inscriptions from Galicia and Asturias that we can say that they are representing the same language. This shows that the main language of the Tartessian civilisation was in fact Old Gallaic and we can now rename the Celtic words in the Roman-era inscriptions as Middle Gallaic. The important Alcala del Rio epitaph for a Minster of State in the Tartessian civilisation reads: Co tu-wa-ráte tumitesaman oramá sedá. Lágenti Raha cassedanná Corbeo bárle. This has been translated as: To the most fortunate goddess-place, the ancestral highest resting place, she has been carried away safely. Raha, the Minister of Bronze, daughter of Korbos, is now lain down here. Note that in the Ogam insciptions of Ireland and western Britain in Primitive Irish there is a similar name to Rahas father, Korbos: AVI CORBBI. This breakthrough in the revival of the Gallaic language was made by Professor John T. Koch starting in the winter of 2006/2007 and reaching the full translation stage in mid-2011 followed by acceptance by most of the major researchers into Tartessian in late 2011 especially Tartessian expert Professor Francisco Villar Liébana who in 2004 had noticed the similarities of Tartessian with the Gaulish language. In 2012, other linguistic researchers such as Dr. Christopher Guy Yocum have used the Old Gallaic in the Tartessian inscriptions to gain insights into the development of other Indo-European languages, especially other Celtic languages such as Irish. This breakthrough has also been hailed in the 2012 edition of The Celts - the authoritative 2 volume encylopedia on the Celts, by the contributor of the Celtic languages section, Stefan Zimmer: Evidence has been adduced for a Celtic language in the Tartessian inscriptions of south Portugal and southwest Spain (dating 7th-5th centuries BC). The Robert Maynard Hutchins Distinguished Service Professor Emeritus at the University of Chicago, Eric P. Hamp, in August 2012 decisively included Tartessian (Old Gallaic) as a Celtic language alongside Celtiberian (Old East Gallaic) and other Celtic languages in the his latest tree of the Indo-European languages. We have reconstructed Modern Gallaic from the Gallaic, Celtic Oghamic, Tartessian, Lusitanian and Celtiberian inscriptions of the peninsula along with the Celtic words embedded in Latin inscriptions and used in the Portuguese, Galego, Asturianu and Spanish languages developed from Latin. Since Gaelic (Irish) and Brittonic (Breton-Welsh) were used on the peninsula possibly as late as 900 AD, these languages have been used as further sources where there are gaps in the record for the peninsula. Irish Gaelic in particular has been used because we found that there was a close match with basic Gallaic vocabulary and with the Gallaic inscription carved on a buttress of a Galician church, Santiago’s Church, built in Betanzos in the 14th century. Conversational free lessons are now available in Modern Gallaic. Lesson 1 Past, Present and Future revised edition is now available by email. These lessons are practical so you can get up to speed in some conversation almost immediately. Lessons are in English though Galego, Portuguese, Spanish, Gaeilge and Cymraeg version are available on request. These lessons will not be available on the website and progress is dependent on homework exercises being completed satisfactorily to ensure comprehension. Join the people now using Modern Gallaic ! We currently have students in Brazil, Portugal, Spain, Australia, USA and Cymru. We commend the Gaelaico Project for further information on Gallaic language survival.
Posted on: Mon, 01 Sep 2014 21:44:40 +0000