Gallicization In Rome: A Study of Lexical Borrowing as Evidence for Gallo-Roman Cultural Diffusion

Abstract

Following in the footsteps of Karl Schmidt’s 1967 article, Keltisches Wortgut im Lateinischen, and J.P. Wild’s 1970, Borrowed Names for Borrowed Things?, this thesis examines a total of twenty-one Gallic lexical items that were borrowed by the Latin language during the period of Roman hegemony over the whole of Gaul and, from that point, discusses whether the borrowing of these terms is proof of corresponding instances of cultural diffusion. In an effort to examine lexical and cultural integration in tandem, this study has selected terms from three semantic categories of material culture, specifically ‘food and drink’, ‘clothing’, and ‘wheeled vehicles’, and uses contextual evidence from the literary record to gauge the integration levels of the terms within both the Latin language and Roman culture. As a result, this thesis not only reveals much valuable information pertaining to both lexical and cultural integration, but also the effect which factors like perceived social status and the search of prestige had on the entire process. Furthermore, as a form of linguistic archaeology, this study succeeds in reconstructing certain aspects of Celtic culture which may have otherwise been lost to the passage of time.