Gallo (French patois)

[ruusukaali]

Been randomly fascinated with Gallo for some time now and keep coming back to it, but can never find any resources and end up walking off with my tail between my legs every time.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gallo_language
http://www.celticcountries.com/magazine ... -language/

So it's an Oïl language considered to be badly spoken French ( ) and has no official census and no page on Ethnologue. I'm guessing that's not a good sign, ha. People are apparently making music in it though. But I wouldn't be surprised if the younger generation is either abandoning it or is experiencing dialect leveling.

Anyone know anything about this language? :O Would love to just have some more materials to read about it, don't necessarily intend on learning it considering I don't speak a lick of French.

English / Gallo / French
afternoon / vêpré / après-midi
apple tree / pommieu / pommier
bee / avètt / abeille
cider / cit / cidre
chair / chaérr / chaise
cheese / fórmaij / fromage
exit / desort / sortie
to fall / cheir / tomber (archaic: choir)
goat / biq / chèvre (slang: bique)
him / li / lui
house / ostèu / maison (archaic: hostel)
kid / garsaille / gosse
lip / lip / lèvre
maybe / vantiet / peut-être
mouth / góll / bouche (gueule = jaw)
now / astour / maintenant
number / limerot / numéro
pear / peirr / poire
school / escoll / école
squirrel / chat-de-boéz (lit. "woods cat") / écureuil
star / esteill / étoile
timetable / orier / horaire
to smoke / betunae / fumer (archaic: pétuner)
today / anoet / aujourd'hui (archaic: hui)
to whistle / sublae / siffler
with / ô or côteu / avec

I love the word for "with" ôôôôôôôôôôôô

[melski]

Gallo is (was?) the language spoken in my region ! I can't speak a word of it, but I love its sound and its expressions, especially the inversion of r
Bretagne >> Bertaeyn
mercredi >> méquerdi

+ the i in words that end in au in French : l'eau >> l'iao, le chapeau >> le chapiao

Although it is a severely endangered language, there are some materials on the internet, unfortunately all written in French
Mon canepin de galo (my Gallo handbook) is a list of thematic vocabulary (French/Gallo)

Some websites :
http://pays-gallo.net/pub/
http://www.cndp.fr/crdp-rennes/crdp/crd ... ccueil.htm (a presentation of Gallo, in French, with some traditionnal literature + a method to learn Gallo
You can read here some stories and tales written by a Gallo native speaker

Online media in Gallo

I really recommend 7seizh.info for anyone interested in Galo: this website produces short articles always with a French-Gallo vocabulary to help beginners. Some articles deal with local Britanny/French politics, other are about sports... I really like it.

Plum FM is a local radio that broadcasts in Gallo. You can listen to the podcasts here. They seem to have a lot of content in Gallo (you'll find long interviews, news, debates, etc all in Gallo)

You can even read Asterix in Gallo ! Asterix à l'école dertour :

[Lauren]

+ the i in words that end in au in French : l'eau >> l'iao, le chapeau >> le chapiao

That's really interesting, actually, considering that the sequence "eau" was a triphthong in Old French.

[melski]

I don't know if it's specific to the eau diphtong, since sabot (clog) translates to sabiao in Gallo

[linguoboy]

I don't know if it's specific to the eau diphtong, since sabot (clog) translates to sabiao in Gallo

Couldn't that be by analogy, though? IIRC, it's a relatively late borrowing into French.

The name of the language is "Gallo", after all, and not *"Galliao". See also limerot for StFr numéro.

[melski]

You might be right Linguoboy - after all I know almost nothing on Gallo. It seems that the au diphtong "translates" to ao in Gallo: chevaux >> chevao, causer >> caoser, chauffer >> chaofer

Besides, this Wikipedia page is full of very good information regarding Gallo phonology, regional variants, etc.

Here is the 1st article of the Declaration of Human Rights in Gallo:

Le monde vienent su la térre librs tertous e s'ent'valent en drets e dignitë. Il lou apartient d'avaer de la réson e de la conscience e il ont de s'ent'enchevi conme feraen dés freres.

And if you want to read a story in Gallo, click here (la Fey Margot) (French version here)

[linguoboy]

I find it interesting that the reflex of earlier tonic /e/ is [ə], at least in central dialects. You find the same development in Catalan. Interestingly, it remains in Balearic Catalan whereas the rest of Eastern Catalan has replaced it with [ɛ], also a development found in Gallo.

I also like the preservation of the /e/ vs /eː/ contrast. IIRC, Walloon has that, too.