Vasconic languages

This article is about the contemporary language group. For the proposal by Theo Vennemann, see Vasconic substratum theory.

Vasconic
Geographic distribution	France, Spain
Subdivisions	Aquitanian † Basque ? Iberian †
Language codes
ISO 639-5	euq
ISO 639-3	–
Glottolog	(not evaluated)
Notes	† denotes an extinct language

The Vasconic languages (from Latin vasco 'Basque'), also called Euskarian or Basque-Aquitanian, ^{[1] [2]} are a putative language family that includes Basque and the extinct Aquitanian language. The extinct Iberian language is sometimes tentatively included, although this remains controversial.

Classification

The consensus among scholars is that Aquitanian was a Paleo-European language genetically related to Basque, though there is debate over the exact nature of their relationship. Some linguists, like R. L. Trask, argue that Basque descends "more or less directly" from Aquitanian, while others, including Lyle Campbell, suggest that it may have been a close relative of Basque rather than its direct ancestor. ^[3] According to scholar Koldo Ulibarri, evidence is so scarce that it is impossible to prove either theory. ^[4]

The reconstructed stages of the Basque language are Common Basque (5th–6th centuries AD), the common language from which all historical Basque dialects diverged, and Proto-Basque (1st centuries BC), an earlier stage preceding contacts with Latin. Some scholars further divide Proto-Basque into sub-phases, such as Joseba Lakarra's subdivision between Pre-Proto-Basque and Old Proto-Basque. ^[5]

According to linguist José Ignacio Hualde, since Aquitanian was spoken over a vast area (some names of Aquitanian origin have been found as far south as Soria in Castile), it likely featured several dialects. He suggests that Basque may have evolved from one of these dialects, though it remains unclear which Aquitanian names belong to Basque's direct ancestor and which come from a related sister dialect. Hualde refers to the reconstructed common ancestor of Proto-Basque and the other Aquitanian dialects as 'Proto-Basque-Aquitanian'. ^[6] Conversely, Lyle Campbell contends that the differences between Aquitanian and Basque are significant enough that they may be sister languages, each representing a branch of an original proto-language. ^[7]

The following trees present the concurring scenarios: Aquitanian as an old phase of Basque, one Aquitanian dialect as the ancestor of Basque, or Aquitanian as a sister language of Basque:

Proto-Basque as equivalent to Aquitanian (Trask) Proto-Basque (Aquitanian) Common Basque Modern Basque dialects

Proto-Basque as an Aquitanian dialect (Hualde) Proto-Basque-Aquitanian Proto-Basque (one of the Aquitanian dialects) Common Basque Modern Basque dialects Other Aquitanian dialects (extinct)

Proto-Basque and Aquitanian as sister languages (Campbell) Proto-Basque-Aquitanian Proto-Basque Common Basque Modern Basque dialects Aquitanian language (extinct)

Relationship with other languages

Iberian

Writing in the 1st century AD, Strabo mentions that "the Aquitanians differ from the Gallic nation in their bodily build and in their language, being more similar to the Iberians." ^[8] However, the idea that Basque and Iberian are related lost favour in the 20th century, following key decipherments of Iberian scripts by Manual Gómez Moreno in 1949 and critical re-examinations of earlier work. ^{[9] [10] [11]} Although some recent researchers, such as Eduardo Orduña and Joan Ferrer i Jané, have revisited the connection in the early 21st century (focusing primarily on numerals and some lexical items), the theory that Basque and Iberian are genetically related remains controversial among linguists. ^[11]

According to Mikel Martínez Areta, the Iberian inscriptions potentially linked to Basque are extremely limited and questionable. Some of the similarities might be explained by borrowings or areal influence. Moreover, it is unclear whether Iberian was a unified language across the entire eastern Iberian Peninsula or restricted to a limited area (perhaps that of the Contestani). In regions closer to the Basque-speaking area, Iberian inscriptions may simply indicate that the language was used as a lingua franca, as proposed by Javier de Hoz. ^[11]

Other language families

Various attempts have been made to tie Basque to other languages or language families, such as Indo-European, Minoan, Pictish, or Caucasian. None of these theories have been able to provide convincing data, and they are rejected by most mainstream linguists. ^[12]

Linguist Theo Vennemann (2003) has also proposed a Vasconic substratum hypothesis, suggesting that the ancestors of the Basque language spread across Europe at the end of the Last Glacial Period, when Cro-Magnon populations entered the continent and left traces in modern European languages. However, like other theories linking Basque to languages around the world, this hypothesis is widely rejected by historical linguists. ^[13]

Spread of farming from Southwest Asia to Europe and Northwest Africa, between 9600 and 4000 BC.

Blasco Ferrer (2016) has interpreted several Sardinian toponyms as aligning with the roots that Joseba Lakarra identifies as 'Pre-Proto-Basque-Aquitanian'. However, critics contend that the meanings attributed to these hypothetical paleo-Sardinian morphemes are based solely on toponymic evidence, and that the time depth separating Basque and paleo-Sardinian would be too great to allow for meaningful comparison. Recent paleogenetic research shows that the spread of agriculture from Anatolia about 10,000 years ago involved significant human genetic replacement. Although it is possible that both Paleo-Sardinian and Basque derive from the languages of these early European farmers, Hualde argues that it is unlikely the ancestral language remained unchanged over such a long period. ^[14]

According to Hualde, standard reconstruction methods allow linguists to trace pre-Proto-Basque-Aquitanian only a short distance back in time. Without significant new evidence, it is unlikely that scholars will ever be able to convincingly demonstrate a close genetic relationship between Basque-Aquitanian and any other language. ^[15]

See also

• Paleohispanic languages
• Paleohispanic scripts
• Prehistoric Iberia
• Pre-Roman peoples of the Iberian Peninsula
• Proto-language
• Vasconic substrate hypothesis

References

1. Gorrochategui 1995, p. 54: "... linguistic strata: Indo-European, Iberian and Euskarian (Basque-Aquitanian)."
2. Hualde 2021, pp. 31–32.
3. • Trask 1997 , p. 402: "Aquitanian is so closely related to Basque that we can, for practical purposes, regard it as being the more-or-less direct ancestor of Basque. It follows that an ancestral form of Basque was spoken in a large area of southwestern Gaul, as well as throughout the greater part of the Pyrenees and, most likely, in at least the east and north of the modern Basque Country."
   • Campbell 2010 , p. 18: "Although these attestations are sufficiently detailed to confirm that modern Basque and Aquitanian are related, they also show sufficient differences from Basque to suggest the possibility not of a direct ancestor, but as a relative, that possibly Aquitanian and Basque are sister languages representing two branches of the original proto-language."
   • Ulibarri 2013 , p. 92: "When analyzing the relationship between Aquitanian and the current Basque language, we have two possibilities: to consider Aquitanian to be an old phase of Basque, or to think of it as a sister language of archaic Basque (the mother of all Basque historical dialects), from which Common Basque would descend. Since evidence is extremely scarce, it is impossible to prove either theory."
   • Hualde 2021 , p. 21: "The Aquitanian(-Vasconic) names show an evident relation to Basque, but what the exact nature of this relation is remains uncertain. The language of the Aquitanian names may be either the direct ancestor of [Proto-Basque] or a close relative."
   • Gorrochategui 2022 , p. 106: "Research in the second half of the twentieth century (Michelena 1954; Caro Baroja 1954; Gorrochategui 1984) has demonstrated convincingly that Aquitanian was genetically related to the Basque language, in a much stronger and clearer way than with any other language"
4. Ulibarri 2013, p. 92.
5. Areta 2013, p. 9.
6. Hualde 2021, pp. 21, 31–32.
7. Campbell 2010, p. 18.
8. Gorrochategui 1995, pp. 38–39.
9. Gorrochategui 1995, p. 53.
10. Trask 1997, p. 380.
11. Areta 2013, p. 5.
12. Trask 1997, pp. 358–415.
13. "Review: Europa Vasconica-Europa Semitica Theo Vennemann, Gen. Nierfeld, in: Patrizia Noel Aziz Hanna (Ed.), Trends in Linguistics, Studies and Monographs 138, Mouton de Gruyter, Berlin, 2003, pp. xxii + 977" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on June 9, 2010. Retrieved July 11, 2009.
14. Hualde 2021, p. 35.
15. Hualde 2021, p. 42.

Bibliography

• Areta, Mikel Martínez (2013). Basque and Proto-basque: Language-internal and Typological Approaches to Linguistic Reconstruction. Peter Lang. ISBN   978-3-631-62649-8.
• Campbell, Lyle (2010). "Language Isolates and Their History". Annual Meeting of the Berkeley Linguistics Society: 16–31. doi:10.3765/bls.v36i1.3900. ISSN   2377-1666.
• Hualde, José Ignacio (2021). "On the comparative method, internal reconstruction, and other analytical tools for the reconstruction of the evolution of the Basque language: An assessment". Anuario del Seminario de Filología Vasca "Julio de Urquijo". 54 (1–2): 19–52. doi: 10.1387/asju.23021 . ISSN   2444-2992.
• Gorrochategui, Joaquín (1995). "The Basque language and its neighbors in Antiquity". In Hualde, José Ignacio; Lakarra, Joseba; Trask, Robert Lawrence (eds.). Towards a History of the Basque Language. John Benjamins Publishing. ISBN   978-90-272-3634-0.
• Gorrochategui, Joaquín (2020). Aquitanian-Vasconic: Language, Writing, Epigraphy. Prensas de la Universidad de Zaragoza. ISBN   978-84-1340-194-2.
• Gorrochategui, Joaquín (2022). "The Relationship between Aquitanian and Basque: Achievements and Challenges of the Comparative Method in a Context of Poor Documentation". In Chacon, Thiago Costa (ed.). Language Change and Linguistic Diversity: Studies in Honour of Lyle Campbell. Edinburgh University Press. pp. 105–129. doi:10.1515/9781474488143-010. ISBN   978-1-4744-8814-3.
• Ulibarri, Koldo (2013). "External History. Sources for historical research". In Areta, Mikel Martínez (ed.). Basque and Proto-basque: Language-internal and Typological Approaches to Linguistic Reconstruction. Peter Lang. ISBN   978-3-631-62649-8.
• Trask, R. L. (1997). The History of Basque. Routledge. ISBN   978-1-136-16763-8.