The Celtic Cisalpine Gaulish inscriptions are frequently combined with the

Lepontic Lepontic is an ancient Alpine Celtic languageJohn T. Koch (ed.) ''Celtic culture: a historical encyclopedia'' ABC-CLIO (2005) that was spoken in parts of Rhaetia and Cisalpine Gaul (now Northern Italy) between 550 and 100 BC. Lepontic is att ...

inscriptions under the term ''Celtic language remains in northern Italy''. While it is possible that the Lepontii were autochthonous to

Northern Italy Northern Italy ( it, Italia settentrionale, it, Nord Italia, label=none, it, Alta Italia, label=none or just it, Nord, label=none) is a geographical and cultural region in the northern part of Italy. It consists of eight administrative region ...

since the end of the 2nd millennium BC, it is known from ancient sources that the Gauls invaded the regions north of the river Po in several waves since the 5th century BC. They apparently took over the art of writing from the Lepontii, including some of the orthographic peculiarities. There are 20 Cisalpine Gaulish inscriptions, five of them longer than just one or two words. The inscriptions stem largely from the area south of the Lepontians. There is ongoing debate whether Cisalpine Gaulish is a dialect of

Gaulish Gaulish was an ancient Celtic language spoken in parts of Continental Europe before and during the period of the Roman Empire. In the narrow sense, Gaulish was the language of the Celts of Gaul (now France, Luxembourg, Belgium, most of Switze ...

(e.g. Schumacher 2004), or a historical or dialectical continuation of

(e.g. Eska 2010). In the latter case, the term Cisalpine Celtic refers to the two together, contrasting with ''Transalpine Celtic'' (traditionally ''Transalpine Gaulish'') for the Celtic language on the other side of the Alps.

Lepontic compared to Cisalpine Gaulish

Common features (not in Transalpine Gaulish)

* ''nn'' rather than Transalpine Gaulish ''*nd'': *ande- > -ane-, *and(e)-are- > an-are-, ?*and-o-kom- > ano-Ko- * ''ⁿt'' rather than Transalpine Gaulish ''*nt'': *kom-bog(i)yos > -Ko-PoKios, Quintus → KuiTos, *arganto- > arKaTo-, *longam > loKan * ''s(s)'' rather than Transalpine Gaulish ''*χs'': *eχs > es in es-aneKoti, es-oPnos

Differences between Cisalpine Gaulish and Lepontic

* Endings in *-m# instead of Gaulish -n#: TeuoχTonion, loKan vs. Lep. Pruiam, Palam, uinom naśom (but also Cisalpine-Gaulish PoiKam, aTom r: atoś? and the varying use of *-m# and *-n# throughout the history of Gaulish). * word formation: ending of 3rd person sg./pl.

preterite The preterite or preterit (; abbreviated or ) is a grammatical tense or verb form serving to denote events that took place or were completed in the past; in some languages, such as Spanish, French, and English, it is equivalent to the simple ...

in -u, cp. ''karnitu(s)'' (Gaulish ''karnitou''), versus Lepontic ''KariTe, KaliTe'' (but also Transalpine Gaulish ''dede'') * Gaulish

patronymic A patronymic, or patronym, is a component of a personal name based on the given name of one's father, grandfather (avonymic), or an earlier male ancestor. Patronymics are still in use, including mandatory use, in many countries worldwide, alt ...

suffix is typically ''-ikno/a'' vs. Lepontic -alo-, -ala-, -al (but also mixed in Late (?) Lepontic)

References

Bibliography

* Stifter, D. 2020. ''Cisalpine Celtic. Language, Writing, Epigraphy''. Aelaw Booklet 8. Zaragoza: Prensas de la Universidad de Zaragoza. * Stifter, D. 2020.
Cisalpine Celtic
�, Palaeohispanica 20: 335-365.

External links