Southwest Paleohispanic script

Last updated
Southwestern script in the context of paleohispanic scripts Mapa escriptures paleohispaniques-ang.jpg
Southwestern script in the context of paleohispanic scripts
Sound values of the Southwestern script proposed by Valerio (2008) Southwest Iberian script (Valerio 2008).png
Sound values of the Southwestern script proposed by Valerio (2008)
Sound values proposed by Rodriguez Ramos (2000) Un signari sudoccidental (Rodrigez Ramos 2000).jpg
Sound values proposed by Rodríguez Ramos (2000)
Fonte Velha (Bensafrim, Lagos) I tarteso.jpg
Fonte Velha (Bensafrim, Lagos)
Herdade da Abobada (Almodovar) Beja48.jpg
Herdade da Abobada (Almodôvar)

The Southwest Script or Southwestern Script, also known as Tartessian , South Lusitanian and Conii script is a Paleohispanic script used to write an unknown language usually identified as Tartessian. Southwest inscriptions have been found mainly in the southwestern quadrant of the Iberian Peninsula, mostly in the south of Portugal (Algarve and southern Alentejo), but also in Spain (in southern Extremadura and western Andalusia).

Contents

Name of the script

The name of this script is controversial. [1] The more neutral name is southwestern, because it refers only to the geographic location. [1] Some ethnolinguistic names given to this script include:

Deciphering strategies

Unlike the northeastern Iberian script, the deciphering of the southwestern script is not yet closed (as is the case with the southeastern Iberian script). [1] The two main approaches to deciphering the phonetic value of the letters have consisted of: [1]

If the two approaches coincide, then the letter is considered to be deciphered and if not, then it is considered to be hypothetical. [1] As of 2014, 20 letters are considered to be consensual (all 5 vowels, 10 stops and 5 non-stops), while all others (10+) are still hypothetical. [1] The three main hypotheses are Correa (2009), de Hoz (2010), and Ramos (2002). [1]

Because the phonetic deciphering stage is not finished, it is difficult to establish what language the script is used to represent. [1] Some have suggested a Celtic origin, but this idea is not consensual. [1] [2] If this hypothesis is correct, though, the Southwest script language would be the first Celtic language to be written. [2] The other main hypotheses are that the language is Iberian (or at any point non-Indo-European) and that the language has Celt influence, but an Iberian origin. [2]

Writing system

Excepting the Greco-Iberian alphabet, and to a lesser extent this script, paleoiberian scripts shared a distinctive typology: they behaved as a syllabary for the stop consonants and as an alphabet for the remaining consonants and vowels. This unique writing system has been called a semi-syllabary.

There is no agreement about how the paleohispanic semi-syllabaries originated; it is typically agreed that their origin is linked to the Phoenician abjad, [1] but some believe the Greek alphabet had influence. In the southwest script, though the letter used to write a stop consonant was determined by the following vowel, as in a full semi-syllabary, the following vowel was also written, as in an alphabet. A similar convention is found in Etruscan for /k/, which was written KA CE CI QU depending on the following vowel. Some scholars treat Tartessian as a redundant semi-syllabary, others treat it as a redundant alphabet.

The southwest script is very similar to the southeastern Iberian script, both considering the shape of the signs and their value. The main difference is that the southeast Iberian script doesn't show the vocalic redundancy of the syllabic signs. [1] This characteristic was discovered by Ulrich Schmoll and allows the classification of a great part of the southwestern signs into vowels, consonants and syllabic signs.

Inscriptions

This script is almost exclusively found in almost a hundred large stones (steles), of which 10 were lost as of 2014. [1] Most were found in modern-day Portugal, particularly from Baixo Alentejo, but some have been found in Spain. [1] Sixteen of these steles can be seen in the Southwest Script Museum (Museu da Escrita do Sudoeste, in Portuguese), in Almodôvar (Portugal), where a stele with a total of 86 characters (the longest inscription found so far) discovered in 2008 is also on display. [3] [4] [5]

The inscriptions probably had a funerary purpose, even though the lack of well-recorded archeological contexts of the findings makes it hard to be certain. [1] This same factor does not permit fixing a precise chronology, but it is placed within the Iron Age, in a range around 8th to 6th Century BCE. [1] It is usual considering that the southwestern script is the most ancient paleohispanic script. The direction of the writing is usually right to left, but it can also be a boustrophedon or spiral.

See also

Notes

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 Valério, Miguel (2014). "The Interpretative Limits of the Southwestern Script". The Journal of Indo-European Studies. 42 (3/4): 439–467. ProQuest   1628229756.
  2. 1 2 3 Koch, John T. (2014). "On the Debate over the Classification of the Language of the South-Western (SW) Inscriptions, also known as Tartessian". The Journal of Indo-European Studies. 42 (3/4): 335–427. ProQuest   1628230270.
  3. Dias, Carlos (15 September 2008). "Descoberta perto de Almodôvar a mais extensa inscrição em escrita do sudoeste" [Discovery near Almodôvar the most extensive inscription in script in the southwest]. Público (in Portuguese).
  4. "Experts trying to decipher ancient language" . Retrieved 14 August 2016.
  5. "Experts aim to decipher ancient script 2,500-year-old writing found on stone tablets in Portugal". NBC News . March 2009. Retrieved 14 August 2016.

Related Research Articles

An abjad is a writing system in which only consonants are represented, leaving vowel sounds to be inferred by the reader. This contrasts with alphabets, which provide graphemes for both consonants and vowels. The term was introduced in 1990 by Peter T. Daniels. Other terms for the same concept include: partial phonemic script, segmentally linear defective phonographic script, consonantary, consonant writing, and consonantal alphabet.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tartessos</span> Semi-mythical harbor city and the surrounding culture on the south coast of the Iberian Peninsula

Tartessos is, as defined by archaeological discoveries, a historical civilization settled in the southern Iberian Peninsula characterized by its mixture of local Paleohispanic and Phoenician traits. It had a writing system, identified as Tartessian, that includes some 97 inscriptions in a Tartessian language.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Phoenician alphabet</span> Oldest verified alphabet

The Phoenician alphabet is an alphabet known in modern times from the Canaanite and Aramaic inscriptions found across the Mediterranean region. The name comes from the Phoenician civilization.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Iberians</span> Historical ethnic group from southwestern Europe

The Iberians were an ancient people settled in the eastern and southern coasts of the Iberian peninsula, at least from the 6th century BC. They are described in Greek and Roman sources. Roman sources also use the term Hispani to refer to the Iberians.

<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 script</span> Ancient writing system from the Iberian peninsula

The Celtiberian script is a Paleohispanic script that was the main writing system of the Celtiberian language, an extinct Continental Celtic language, which was also occasionally written using the Latin alphabet. This script is a direct adaptation of the northeastern Iberian script, the most frequently used of the Iberian scripts.

<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">Hispano-Celtic languages</span> Extinct Celtic languages of Iberia

Hispano-Celtic is a term for all forms of Celtic spoken in the Iberian Peninsula before the arrival of the Romans. In particular, it includes:

<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">Byblos syllabary</span>

The Byblos script, also known as the Byblos syllabary, Pseudo-hieroglyphic script, Proto-Byblian, Proto-Byblic, or Byblic, is an undeciphered writing system, known from ten inscriptions found in Byblos, a coastal city in Lebanon. The inscriptions are engraved on bronze plates and spatulas, and carved in stone. They were excavated by Maurice Dunand, from 1928 to 1932, and published in 1945 in his monograph Byblia Grammata. The inscriptions are conventionally dated to the second millennium BC, probably between the 18th and 15th centuries BC.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Prehistoric Iberia</span> Aspect of history of Spain and Portugal

Prehistory in the Iberian peninsula begins with the arrival of the first Homo genus representatives from Africa, which may range from c. 1.5 million years (Ma) ago to c. 1.25 Ma ago, depending on the dating technique employed, so it is set at c. 1.3 Ma ago for convenience. The end of Iberian prehistory coincides with the first entrance of the Roman army into the peninsula, in 218 before Christ (BC), which led to the progressive dissolution of pre-Roman peoples in Roman culture. This end date is also conventional, since pre-Roman writing systems can be traced to as early as 5th century BC.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Paleohispanic scripts</span> Writing systems used before the Latin alphabet in Iberia

The Paleohispanic scripts are the writing systems created in the Iberian Peninsula before the Latin alphabet became the main script. Most of them are unusual in that they are semi-syllabic rather than purely alphabetic, despite having supposedly developed, in part, from the Phoenician alphabet.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Northeastern Iberian script</span> Writing system

The northeastern Iberian script, also known as Levantine Iberian or Iberian, was the main means of written expression of the Iberian language, but has also been used to write Proto-Basque as seen in the Hand of Irulegi. The Iberian language is also expressed by the southeastern Iberian script and the Greco-Iberian alphabet. To understand the relationship between northeastern Iberian and southeastern Iberian scripts, one should point out that they are two different scripts with different values for the same signs. However, it is clear they have a common origin and the most accepted hypothesis is that northeastern Iberian script was derived from the southeastern Iberian script. Some researchers have concluded that it is linked to the Phoenician alphabet alone, but others believe the Greek alphabet also had a role.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Southeastern Iberian script</span> Writing system

The southeastern Iberian script, also known as Meridional Iberian, was one of the means of written expression of the Iberian language, which was written mainly in the northeastern Iberian script and residually by the Greco-Iberian alphabet. About the relation between northeastern Iberian and southeastern Iberian scripts, it is necessary to point out that they are two different scripts with different values for the same signs; however it is clear that they had a common origin and the most accepted hypothesis is that northeastern Iberian script derives from southeastern Iberian script. In fact, the southeastern Iberian script is very similar, both considering the shape of the signs or their values, to the Southwestern script used to represent an unknown language usually named Tartessian. The main difference is that southeastern Iberian script does not show the vocalic redundancy of the syllabic signs. Unlike the northeastern Iberian script the decipherment of the southeastern Iberian script is not yet complete, because there are a significant number of signs on which scholars have not yet reached a consensus. Although it is believed that the southeastern Iberian script does not show any system to differentiate between voiced and unvoiced occlusives, unlike the northeastern Iberian script, a recent paper defends the existence of a dual system also in the southeastern Iberian script.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Greco-Iberian alphabet</span>

The Greco-Iberian alphabet is a direct adaptation of an Ionic variant of a Greek alphabet to the specifics of the Iberian language, thus this script is an alphabet and lacks the distinctive characteristic of the paleohispanic scripts that present signs with syllabic value, for the occlusives and signs with monophonemic value for the rest of consonants and vowels.

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

The Espanca script is the first signary known of the Paleohispanic scripts. It is inscribed on a piece of slate, 48×28×2 cm. This alphabet consists of 27 letters written double. The 27 letters in the outer line are written in a better hand than those of the inner line, from which it has been inferred that the slate was a teaching exercise in which a master wrote the alphabet and a student copied it.

<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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Semi-syllabary</span> Writing system that behaves partly as an alphabet and partly as a syllabary

A semi-syllabary is a writing system that behaves partly as an alphabet and partly as a syllabary. The main group of semi-syllabic writing are the Paleohispanic scripts of ancient Spain, a group of semi-syllabaries that transform redundant plosive consonants of the Phoenician alphabet into syllabograms.

This section of the timeline of Iberian history concerns events from before the Carthaginian conquests.

References