Hispano-Celtic languages

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Hispano-Celtic
Geographic
distribution
Iberian Peninsula
Linguistic classification Indo-European
Subdivisions
Language codes
The Celtiberian Penalba de Villastar rock inscription says "...TO LVGVEI ARAIANOM..." meaning "...for noble Lug..." PenalbaDeVillastar.jpg
The Celtiberian Peñalba de Villastar rock inscription says "...TO LVGVEI ARAIANOM..." meaning "...for noble Lug..."
Votive inscription to the Lugoves in Gallaecia: LUCOUBU ARQUIEN(obu) SILONIUS SILO EX VOTO cf. Lucoubu arquien.jpg
Votive inscription to the Lugoves in Gallaecia: LUCOUBU ARQUIEN(obu) SILONIUS SILO EX VOTO cf.

Hispano-Celtic is a term for all forms of Celtic spoken in the Iberian Peninsula before the arrival of the Romans (c. 218 BC, during the Second Punic War). [3] [4] In particular, it includes:

Contents

Western Hispano-Celtic continuum hypothesis

Western Hispano-Celtic is a term that has been proposed for a dialect continuum on the western side of the Iberian Peninsula, including Gallaecian in the north, Tartessian in the south (according to Koch, and others in between such as Lusitanian [7] (which has sometimes been labelled "para-Celtic"), west of an imaginary line running north–south between Oviedo and Mérida. [3] [8] According to Koch, the Western Celtic varieties of the Iberian Peninsula share with Celtiberian a sufficient core of distinctive features to justify Hispano-Celtic as a term for a linguistic subfamily, as opposed to a purely-geographical classification. [2] :292 In Naturalis Historia 3.13 (written 77–79 CE), Pliny the Elder says the Celtici of Baetica (now western Andalusia) descended from the Celtiberians of Lusitania since they shared common religions, languages and names for their fortified settlements. [9]

Vettonian-Lusitanian sound changes

As part of the effort to prove the existence of a western Iberian Hispano-Celtic dialect continuum, there have been attempts to differentiate the Vettonian dialect from the neighboring Lusitanian language using the personal names of the Vettones to describe the following sound changes (Proto-Indo-European to Proto-Celtic): [8] :351

  1. *perkʷ-u- > ergʷ- in Erguena (see above).
  2. *plab- > lab- in Laboina.
  3. *uper- > ur- in Uralus and Urocius.

Rejection of the Western Hispano-Celtic continuum hypothesis

The Western-Hispano Celtic continuum hypothesis received little support from linguists, who have widely rejected the Celtic interpretation of the Tartessian inscriptions and who generally have regarded Lusitanian as a non-celtic language. [11] [12] The more generally accepted non-celtic conclusion of Lusitanian studies has been confirmed by analysis of more recently discovered Lusitanian inscriptions, that clearly show that Lusitanian cannot be a celtic language and in fact approaches the Italic languages. [13] [14]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Celtic languages</span> Language family

The Celtic languages are a branch of the Indo-European language family, descended from Proto-Celtic. The term "Celtic" was first used to describe this language group by Edward Lhuyd in 1707, following Paul-Yves Pezron, who made the explicit link between the Celts described by classical writers and the Welsh and Breton languages.

Lusitanian mythology is the mythology of the Lusitanians, an Indo-European speaking people of western Iberia, in what was then known as Lusitania. In present times, the territory comprises the central part of Portugal and small parts of Extremadura and Salamanca.

The Lusitanians were an Indo-European-speaking people living in the far west of the Iberian Peninsula, in present-day central Portugal and Extremadura and Castilla y Leon of Spain. After its conquest by the Romans, the land was subsequently incorporated as a Roman province named after them (Lusitania).

Runesocesius was a deity whose name appears on an inscription from the region of Évora, the Roman Ebora in modern Portugal in the area inhabited by the Celtici in Lusitania. He has generally been thought of as a Lusitanian god.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Iberian scripts</span> Writing systems

The Iberian scripts are the Paleohispanic scripts that were used to represent the extinct Iberian language. Most of them are typologically unusual in that they are semi-syllabic rather than purely alphabetic. The oldest Iberian inscriptions date to the 4th or possibly the 5th century BCE, and the latest from end of the 1st century BCE or possibly the beginning of the 1st century CE.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Celtiberian language</span> Extinct Celtic language of Iberia

Celtiberian or Northeastern Hispano-Celtic is an extinct Indo-European language of the Celtic branch spoken by the Celtiberians in an area of the Iberian Peninsula between the headwaters of the Douro, Tagus, Júcar and Turia rivers and the Ebro river. This language is directly attested in nearly 200 inscriptions dated from the 2nd century BC to the 1st century AD, mainly in Celtiberian script, a direct adaptation of the northeastern Iberian script, but also in the Latin alphabet. The longest extant Celtiberian inscriptions are those on three Botorrita plaques, bronze plaques from Botorrita near Zaragoza, dating to the early 1st century BC, labeled Botorrita I, III and IV. Shorter and more fragmentary is the Novallas bronze tablet.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Botorrita plaque</span> Four Celtiberian bronze plaques from 2nd-century-BC Spain

The Botorrita plaques are four bronze plaques discovered in Botorrita, near Zaragoza, Spain, dating to the late 2nd century BC, known as Botorrita I, II, III and IV.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lusitanian language</span> Extinct Indo-European language of Iberia

Lusitanian was an Indo-European Paleohispanic language. There has been support for either a connection with the ancient Italic languages or Celtic languages. It is known from only six sizeable inscriptions, dated from c. 1 CE, and numerous names of places (toponyms) and of gods (theonyms). The language was spoken in the territory inhabited by Lusitanian tribes, from the Douro to the Tagus rivers, territory that today falls in central Portugal and western Spain.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Vettones</span> Ancient people of Spain

The Vettones were an Iron Age pre-Roman people of the Iberian Peninsula.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cynetes</span> Pre-Roman people of the Iberian Peninsula

The Cynetes or Conii were one of the pre-Roman peoples of the Iberian Peninsula, living in today's Algarve and Lower Alentejo regions of southern Portugal, and the southern part of Badajoz and the northwestern portions of Córdoba and Ciudad Real provinces in Spain before the 6th century BC. According to Justin's epitome, the mythical Gargoris and Habis were their founding kings.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Celtici</span> Celtic tribe or group of tribes of the Iberian Peninsula

The Celtici were a Celtic tribe or group of tribes of the Iberian Peninsula, inhabiting three definite areas: in what today are the regions of Alentejo and the Algarve in Portugal; in the Province of Badajoz and north of Province of Huelva in Spain, in the ancient Baeturia; and along the coastal areas of Galicia. Classical authors give various accounts of the Celtici's relationships with the Gallaeci, Celtiberians and Turdetani.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Continental Celtic languages</span> Language family

The Continental Celtic languages are the now-extinct group of the Celtic languages that were spoken on the continent of Europe and in central Anatolia, as distinguished from the Insular Celtic languages of the British Isles and Brittany. Continental Celtic is a geographic, rather than linguistic, grouping of the ancient Celtic languages.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tartessian language</span> Extinct unclassified language of southwest Iberia

Tartessian is an extinct Paleo-Hispanic language found in the Southwestern inscriptions of the Iberian Peninsula, mainly located in the south of Portugal, and the southwest of Spain. There are 95 such inscriptions, the longest having 82 readable signs. Around one third of them were found in Early Iron Age necropolises or other Iron Age burial sites associated with rich complex burials. It is usual to date them to the 7th century BC and to consider the southwestern script to be the most ancient Paleo-Hispanic script, with characters most closely resembling specific Phoenician letter forms found in inscriptions dated to c. 825 BC. Five of the inscriptions occur on stelae that have been interpreted as Late Bronze Age carved warrior gear from the Urnfield culture.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gallaeci</span> Historical Celtic tribal complex in Northwest Iberia

The Gallaeci were a Celtic tribal complex who inhabited Gallaecia, the north-western corner of Iberia, a region roughly corresponding to what is now the Norte Region in northern Portugal, and the Spanish regions of Galicia, western Asturias and western León before and during the Roman period. They spoke a Q-Celtic language related to Northeastern Hispano-Celtic, called Gallaecian or Northwestern Hispano-Celtic. The region was annexed by the Romans in the time of Caesar Augustus during the Cantabrian Wars, a war which initiated the assimilation of the Gallaeci into Latin culture.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Southwest Paleohispanic script</span> Paleohispanic script

The Southwest Script, also known as Southwestern Script, Tartessian, South Lusitanian, and Conii script, is a Paleohispanic script used to write an unknown language typically identified as Tartessian. Southwest inscriptions have been found primarily in the southwestern quadrant of the Iberian Peninsula, mostly in the south of Portugal, but also in Spain.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Paleohispanic languages</span> Pre-Roman indigenous languages of Iberia

The paleo-Hispanic languages are the languages of the Pre-Roman peoples of the Iberian Peninsula, excluding languages of foreign colonies, such as Greek in Emporion and Phoenician in Qart Hadast. After the Roman conquest of Hispania the Paleohispanic languages, with the exception of Proto-Basque, were replaced by Latin, the ancestor of the modern Iberian Romance languages.

John Thomas Koch is an American academic, historian, and linguist who specializes in Celtic studies, especially prehistory, and the early Middle Ages. He is the editor of the five-volume Celtic Culture: A Historical Encyclopedia. He is perhaps best known as the leading proponent of the Celtic from the West hypothesis.

Gallaecian or Northwestern Hispano-Celtic is an extinct Celtic language of the Hispano-Celtic group. It was spoken by the Gallaeci in the northwest of the Iberian Peninsula around the start of the 1st millennium. The region became the Roman province of Gallaecia, which is now divided between the Spanish regions of Galicia, western Asturias, the west of the Province of León, and Northern Portugal.

References

  1. Meid, W. Celtiberian Inscriptions (1994). Budapest: Archaeolingua Alapítvány.
  2. 1 2 3 4 Koch, John T. (2010). "Chapter 9: Paradigm Shift? Interpreting Tartessian as Celtic". In Cunliffe, Barry; Koch, John T. (eds.). Celtic from the West: Alternative Perspectives from Archaeology, Genetics, Language and Literature. Celtic Studies Publications. Oxford: Oxbow Books. pp. 292–293. ISBN   978-1-84217-410-4. Reissued in 2012 in softcover as ISBN   978-1-84217-475-3.
  3. 1 2 3 4 Jordán Cólera, Carlos (16 March 2007). "The Celts in the Iberian Peninsula:Celtiberian" (PDF). E-Keltoi. 6: 749–750. Archived from the original (PDF) on 24 June 2011. Retrieved 16 June 2010.
  4. Koch, John T. (2005). Celtic Culture: A Historical Encyclopedia. ABC-CLIO. p. 481. ISBN   978-1-85109-440-0.
  5. "In the northwest of the Iberian Peninsula, and more specifically between the west and north Atlantic coasts and an imaginary line running north-south linking Oviedo and Merida, there is a corpus of Latin inscriptions with particular characteristics of its own. This corpus contains some linguistic features that are clearly Celtic, and others that in our opinion are not Celtic. The former we shall group, for the moment, under the label northwestern Hispano-Celtic. The latter are the same features found in well-documented contemporary inscriptions in the region occupied by the Lusitanians, and therefore belonging to the variety known as LUSITANIAN, or more broadly as GALLO-LUSITANIAN. As we have already said, we do not consider this variety to belong to the Celtic language family." Jordán Cólera, Carlos (16 March 2007). The Celts in the Iberian Peninsula:Celtiberian (PDF). e-Keltoi 6: 749–750' Archived 24 June 2011 at the Wayback Machine
  6. Prósper, Blanca María (2002). Lenguas y religiones prerromanas del occidente de la península ibérica. Ediciones Universidad de Salamanca. pp. 422–427. ISBN   84-7800-818-7.
  7. Koch, John T. (2009). "Tartessian: Celtic from the South-west at the Dawn of History" (PDF). Acta Palaeohispanica. 9. Zaragosa, Spain: Institución Fernando el Católico: 339–351. ISSN   1578-5386 . Retrieved 17 May 2010.. Journal renamed to Palaeohispanica: Revista sobre lenguas y culturas de la Hispania Antigua. This particular work has also been published in book form, and revised: Koch, John T. (2013) [2009]. Tartessian: Celtic from the South-west at the Dawn of History. Celtic Studies. Vol. 13 (2nd ed.). Aberystwyth: David Brown Publishing.
  8. 1 2 Wodtko, Dagmar S. (2010). "Chapter 11: The Problem of Lusitanian". In Cunliffe, Barry; Koch, John T. (eds.). Celtic from the West: Alternative Perspectives from Archaeology, Genetics, Language and Literature. Celtic Studies Publications. Oxford: Oxbow Books. ISBN   978-1-84217-410-4.:360–361 Reissued in 2012 in softcover as ISBN   978-1-84217-475-3.
  9. Pliny the Elder. "3.13". Naturalis Historia . Celticos a Celtiberis ex Lusitania advenisse manifestum est sacris, lingua, oppidorum vocabulis, quae cognominibus in Baetica distinguntur. Written 77–79 CE. Quoted in Koch (2010), pp. 292–293. The text is also found in online sources: , .
  10. Lujan, E. (2007). Lambert, P.-Y.; Pinault, G.-J. (eds.). "L'onomastique des Vettons: analyse linguistique". Gaulois et Celtique Continental (in French). Geneva: Librairie Droz.: 245–275.
  11. Hoz, J. de (28 February 2019), "Method and methods", Palaeohispanic Languages and Epigraphies, Oxford University Press, pp. 1–24, doi:10.1093/oso/9780198790822.003.0001, ISBN   978-0-19-879082-2 , retrieved 29 May 2021
  12. Alejandro G. Sinner (ed.), Javier Velaza (ed.), Palaeohispanic Languages and Epigraphies, OUP, 2019: Chapter 11, p.304
  13. Blanca Maria Prósper, The Lusitanian oblique cases revisted: New light on the dative endings, 2021
  14. Eustaquio Sánchez Salor, Julio Esteban Ortega, Un testimonio del dios Labbo en una inscripción lusitana de Plasencia, Cáceres. ¿Labbo también en Cabeço das Fráguas?, 2021

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