Gallo, a Celtic Romance Language? 

Thank you so much for making a video about Gallo, my language ! Actually not really my language because unfortunately Gallo was really frowned upon, being a called a "patois" and just bad French spoken by ignorant peasants. My grand-parents tried their best to speak standard French but luckily they often failed, so I kind of got a little bit of knowledge of Gallo. I'm not sure though about the influence of Breton, but it's probably because I come from Coglais, the most eastern part of Brittany close to Normandy so the farthest from the Breton speaking area. Oh! and for the pedant note, it's actually called "la langue gallèse" and not "la langue gallo" ;-)

I speak French (natively, since I'm French from Brittany) and speak Breton (intermediate level). The word "Goémon" exists in French too, alongside with "algue". "Goémon" is commonly used for the algae that is picked on the beach or at sea on the coasts of Brittany, to be used as fertilizer. The word "algue" is more general. The boats that pick "Goémon" at sea are called "Goémoniers".

Thank you Ben for tackling such an interesting topic. I have finally seen that this channel does not look at Keltic languages in a scholarly way and so I will leave this channel to its RU-vid interest. Thank you.

Very interesting! You could talk about lesser known romance languages in Iberia, like astur-leonese, aragonese and mozarabic

Nice representation. Important correction. Gallo-Romance extends from Valencia to Belgium. It is more extensive than it seems. Thank you

Thank you for these fascinating insights into Gallo, a legitimate regional language! Although I'm more affectionaly connected to the Celtic languages, my mother tongue itself is Brazilian Portuguese. However, after some years, I started to realize how important the romance languages in the region are for the fight against centralizing, hegemonic cultural policies of certain governments, not to mention their intrinsic value in terms of the linguistic diversity they actually embody. Some people may not realize but the less linguistic variety we have, the harder it is to fight other forms of social injustice, for the endorsement of supremacist cultures inherent in the linguistic homogeneization by cultural supremacisms. Kudos for the incredible craft in making this video and especially for your charming way of speaking, it's both captivating and mesmerizing. Diolch yn fawr, meur ras, trugarez mad deoc'h for this delightful journey into history and comparative, diachronic philology, one of my favorite subjects. I've certainly subscribed and given the due thumbs-up and, thanks to the affordable fee you ask, I could also join the channel, despite my limited budget as a retiree here in Brazil, a country whose currency is way below the Euro and the dollar!

It sounds as an very interesting language, the celtic influence is highley interesting, the words you showed looked unique compared to french, I espechially liked the gallo sentence for the dance, greetings from mallorca! 👋

Gallo = Breton French Breton = French Cornish

Thank you Ben,I am from Saint Malo.

Gallo is the Celtic-society substrate of French.

Friend and partner, I had already seen this video, I consider it one of the deepest and most beautiful on your channel, so far the most beautiful and top. And I learned a lot from him, I also went to do my polls. The Gallo, Gallois or Gallese language is modern Gaulish we can say because it is based on its linguistic history and Naedievak and ancient base on Old Gaulish and Galician Celtic Galician. But the language evolves, the Gallois language today has a lot of contact with Welsh, Breton and Cornish very deep and intimate these Celtic languages ​​are all brothers. Another language that Gallo/Gallese loves is Frankic, which is a low German based on Flemish, African, Dutch and Luxembourgish. This language is Germanic and influences Gallese. Many Germans love the Gallo language for this. Gallo respects and repels French and Latin because they are from the Latin family, normally Gallo and Celtic are called French Breton by their speakers. Gallo as well as Breton gave, donated slang and words to French, French in linguistic policy tries to destroy the Gallo and Breton language, denounce this to the European Union, OECD and UN and NATO, France and Spain do violate rights linguistics from minorities, Italy too friend, I've been digging and probing I don't speak because the internet allows worldwide censorship, it rolls on social media and it's horrible.

With most of the examples you showed us, I would thinl Gallo is more than a dialect. It seems more a fusion of the regions.with probably more French influence. Even the grammar is different in some instances. That would be an interesting to get into. As to Gaulish, I seem to remember comments that three of the four Breton dialects are very close, but the fourth had such differences that there is speculation that dialect contains more remnants from Gaulisn.

This is very good! I am impressed that you looked into the case of Gallo. I am from Britany, I know (some) Breton although I am not fluent, I speak French and I have lived in the USA for over 30 years. At this point American English has become my dominant language. One thing, the subtitles are completely misleading. They have little to do with what you actually say.

Québec French uses the question word "tu" in informal registers, e.g. "tu veux-tu danser avec moi?" "Vous allez-tu faire du magasinage ce soir?" I've only seen this particle in Québec French until now ... Apparently Gallo has it in the form of "ti" also!

Interesting points....What you have described as Gallo seems to have reached North America as it is spoken in Quebec and other French speaking areas of North America. The immigration of settlers from the Gallo speaking part of Eastern Brittany from St.Malo or Nante no doubt.

I'm a fluent Breton speaker. I speak the Southern Dialect of Breton which shares a lot of phonology with Gallo. And living in Brittany I'm familiar with Gallo. There are some words in Gallo that come from Breton like "morgate" (MORGAD in Breton = cuttlefish or squid, literally SEA-HARE) and there are some words in Breton that come from Gallo. But that's all. The Gallo language is a Romance language. Only a handfull of grammatical features of the Gallo language "could" be related to Breton. But Gallo is not a Celtic language. Breton is. Gallo has been in close contact with the Breton language since the 6th/7th century. But the two languages are very distinct one from the other. And Romance languages in France have kept a few words from the Gaulish language that cand still be found in Breton. Thank you for your video.

Is it more influenced by Celtic languages than Scots?

No mention of Syagrius? Gosh darn it. Gosh darn it to heck!

"all the way from Catalonia to northern France..." Belgium (Walloonia to be exact) left the chat lol

Have to say, I can't take all the various French/German/Italian dialects seriously as languages. I understand the "a language is a dialect with a war ship", I understand that Macedonian and Bulgarian are essentially the same language but because of politics they're recognised as two different language, and I understand tha French is basically Paris dialect. But, today, in the C21st if a dialect/language doesn't have a corpus of literature, tv, modern music, official (or deep campaign for official recognition), corpus of education with terms in that language across a wide range of subjects (not just linguistics or literature), geogrpahic and/or social domains where the language is spoken, then, to all effects it's not a language. It's difficult for a language like Welsh to survive and for Breton, but at least these languages have all those attributes. Also, whilst yes, maybe until early C19th (at very latest) a 'dialect' could become a 'language' independent from it's old language continuum by now it's just not going to happen. A language like Catalan which was very well developed at all social strate in Middle Ages, and then revived in status again in C20th, can benefit to one respect from being related to it's majority language (that is, makes it easier for the second language speaker to learn the language - one could imagine that the same is true today in Ukraine as people turn away from Russian and Ukrainian isn't too difficult to learn). But, if you're 'language' is still in the state of a dialect, but without the territory, then I just can't see how it's revived. It's impossible to revive an accent or dialect, I just don't see that the dialect/language community has enough strength or depth to accomplish it, unless, maybe if it's far from the metropole. As a speaker of a minoritised language, let me just say, it's shit, who wants to be part of a minoritised language. Breton is a distinct, modern language (despite French opposition) it's different enough to make worth fighting for, but a dialect/language on the French contiuum, well, I can't see enough people in the age of the internet will be mobilised enough.

Even more interesting than usual, since I am now living between Nates and Rennes---surrounded by Gallo! or at least its remains.....

Hello Ben . I live on the precise center point of Britanny . On the frontier of both languages. I was born and and have spent all my live here ( I am 67 ) . I stay on the breton speaking area . Ten kilometres further , my grandparents ( mother side ) were living on the gallo area . I don’t think Gallo has celtic connections. My wife’s grandparents, who were living in east of France ( Burgondy) had words and expressions closer to Gallo . What I red is that the Breton , coming from Prydain ( Breizh Veur) , settled in all the country, in the neigburhood of Gallo roman populations . In the east as well as in the West. And this would be the reason why quite many villages have a breton name on the today Gallo speaking area. Nowadays, but may be for a long time , our Breton identity is the "addition "of those two cultures ( my grandparents, born in 1900, were different in terms of behaviour, humour, etc..I remember that precisely) . In fact I think it was the Breton traditionnel culture, traditions, way of thinking the world, wich was unique. The Gallos ( prononced " galliao") were not so different from Normands, Poitevins, etc.., BUT feeling hardly Bretons. In the seventies I discovered my breton identity , listening every sunday a emission of radio titled " Bretagne, miroir à deux faces " ( Britanny, two faces mirror) . We have to fight to keep "brezhoneg " alive but we must accept the fact that most part of Britanny ( B5, the whole Britanny) , did never speak breton . And we have to go on with that. ( for myself l choosed, I learned and l can speak "breton/ llydaweg/brezhoneg) . Hwyl/kenavo . .

About minute 18 in the video the words for seaweed don't mention the french word 'goemon' which is in current usage. With the help of a local expert on gallo (author of 'Parlons Gallo', lHarmattan press 2007) I have done some research. The four languages of english, french, breton and gallo have a different word for the vegetation in the sea and that washed up on the shore. Respectively seaweed/wrack; algue/goemon; felu/goumon; algue/bouamon. Does welsh have two words? According to my Roparz Hemon dictionnary 'bezhin' is colloquial for goemon (ie wrack). We have drawn a blank on 'dou goui' though the 'Petit Mateo' french/gallo dictionary lists 'goui' as one of several rarely used words for seaweed. I wonder whether it is what the english call 'dulse' (from gaelic 'duileasg' which may have the same root as breton 'tellesk'), a word which has migrated recently into the french language.

As poorly translated or old fashioned as they are, the written accounts of Tacitus, Pliny, and J. Caesar cannot be completely dismissed as they remain the best and most complete and accurate textual account that modernity possesses for the ancient Celtic World.

I live in Josselin, Brittany. It's right on the line between Breton and Gallo. My native friends say that the people of Ploermel, just to my east are Gallo whilst Josselin and west are Breton. They also say that the nature of the Gallo people is more introverted and difficult to know whereas the Bretons more outgoing and sociable. I'm not commenting on my limited experience though 😁

Channle island languages have similer roots like mixes of Gallo, Norman and Breton

Plusieurs mots gallo m’ont semblé familiers, étant Québécois. Aussi, goémon est le nom de variétés d’algues en français.

The word for seaweed in Gallo- bouaman is close to the Irish - dulaman.

I'd just like to add that, though I do want Gallo to be preserved for the future generations as the cultural treasure that it is, I pray all Bretons also speak Breton as it would be a real pity of they continue to neglect that beautiful, much older Celtic tongue which is their original ancestral language!

Interesting

4:05 pour mois vôtre sous-titre ne marche pas pour moi

What you call palatisation of e.g. 'new', in 'British English' or what some call 'yod', is a feature it seems of educated London English. Overtime it has become slurred to a 'ch'. Regional dialects in the Westcountry or the east midlands/east Anglia lack it. So for instance (using modern english spellings), new is noo, few is foo, beautiful is bootiful, Tuesday is Toosdy, dew and due are doo, tube is toob, etc. Westcountry and East Anglian settlers took that lack of the 'yod' to America, so that supposed American feature is actually core English!

Celtic people have a paradoxical relation to their neighbors - Gauls are Gaels, Galls are “Celtic Mercenaries.”

Breton is an immigrant language from Cornwall, it is not a nativist relic of ancient Gaulish.

j'étais en Tunisie là-bas tout le monde parle français il faut peindre la Tunisie en jaune

Is that a flag of Ukraine at 17:00? If so then I definitely see the subliminal message you’re trying to convey in this section of video

Blah

I live in the small village of Noyal sous Bazouges which to french speaking people is pronounced with the first vowel like 'noix' or 'quoi' (the sound doesn't exist in English). But local gallo speakers pronounce it as in 'pool' or 'cool' and the gallo spelling is 'Nouya'. So in about 2006 the council doubled the roadsigns in the village with 'NOUYA'. In 2013 these signs were discretely taken down because locals are not proud of what they think is patois. The problem seems to be that it is too close to french. When I first moved here from England I knew enough french to follow most of what gallo speakers were saying because a lot of words appear to be simply deformed french. For example the gallo for knife ('couteau' in french) sounds like 'coot-i-ow' so when I hear them saying 'vi-ow' I know they're talking about a calf ('veau' in french). Some gallo speakers will speak gallo amongst themselves but french to the doctor or banker, (or to me) and I'm not sure they are concious of changing language. But even then some gallo words ('brou' for example) creep into their french. Listening to the elderly speaking gallo is fascinating; they roll their 'r's and seem to swallow half of the words. For reasons that I can't explain I personally have no wish to learn to speak gallo, despite a growing movement among the younger generation to encourage gallo. Somehow there seems to be more pride in speaking Breton but you have to go a lot further west into Britanny to hear that.

Nice presentation, very detailed, thank you for sharing this.

Nothing celtic with the gallo that is not a language. It's just bad french.