The Dialects of Ancient Gaul: Prolegomena and Records of the Dialects

Inevitably evidence other than direct non-Latin epigraphic testimony had to be admitted. But I have neither repeated the task begun, if not quite completed, by Holder, of collecting the glosses and ancient proper names of Gaul, and all the ancient references to them — in fact every scrap of ancient writing that bears, however remotely, upon Gaul; nor copied his collections except by way of relevant citation. For the testimonia, not as a rule quoted by me, recourse must still be had to Holder's Altceltischer Sprachschatz. What I have done, in using Holder's work, has been to put into their proper geographical location, whenever that was possible, selected pertinent items — that is, items which give some clue to the local pre-Latin dialect — taken from the medley which in Holder has no arrangement at all other than the conventional, and therefore readily consulted, but not illuminating, merely alphabetical order. (The few relevant items that have come to light since Holder was at work I have of course gathered in.) The selection of all this matter, however, has been made most rigorous, especially in those areas in which we can avail ourselves of at least two dialect inscriptions; elsewhere more liberal, for, without such inscriptions, glosses and nomenclature are now the only available evidence.