Ancient languages ​​reveal Celtic origins

Although the Roman conquest caused Gaulish language to disappear 2,000 years ago, some of the remaining Gaulish / Latin bilingual editions still allow scholars to trace Celtic origins and many languages. Other Europe.

One of the rare Gaulish inscriptions.

According to their research, Celtic is divided into two branches from an Indian mother tongue from 3,200 BC. A version - Gaulish, also known as Continental Celtic, is used in continental Europe. The second version, English, also called Insular Celtic, comes straight to England.

In England, Celtic was once again divided into Brythonic (Welsh or Breton Celtic) and Goidelic, known as Irish and Scottish Gaelic.

This single wave of travel to England went against a previous theory that Celtic came to England through two events and one of those events brought Celtic straight to Ireland. The researchers also determined the time when the native Indian mother tongue, now disappearing, was around 8,100 BC.

To confirm this, Peter Forster at Cambridge University, England, applied DNA analysis to study the inscriptions and the corresponding words of classical Greek, ancient Irish and modern versions. of Irish, Welsh, Breton, French, Spanish .

Most words of the languages ​​are relatively similar. For example, the word mother in Gaulish is matir, Latin for mater. These similarities are linked to changes in genetic genes. Another group of words is completely different. For example, the word daughter in Gaulish is duxtir, hija in Spanish. These differences are likened to new genes that appear instead. This allows researchers to find out the time of language appearance, just as it is to find out the origin of a new species based on DNA.

" The search results confirmed our language was brought to Europe and the British Isles by the first farmers in the early stages of the Neolithic period. These farmers may come from the Near East. , going through Turkey , "Forster said.

Experts hope that many ancient languages ​​besides Gaulish and Latin, such as Hittite, can also be used to study Celtic origins and many other European languages.

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