Ancient Belgian is a hypothetical extinct

Indo-European The Indo-European languages are a language family native to the overwhelming majority of Europe, the Iranian plateau, and the northern Indian subcontinent. Some European languages of this family, English, French, Portuguese, Russian, Dutc ...

language, spoken in Belgica (northern

Gaul Gaul ( la, Gallia) was a region of Western Europe first described by the Romans. It was inhabited by Celtic and Aquitani tribes, encompassing present-day France, Belgium, Luxembourg, most of Switzerland, parts of Northern Italy (only during ...

) in late

prehistory Prehistory, also known as pre-literary history, is the period of human history between the use of the first stone tools by hominins 3.3 million years ago and the beginning of recorded history with the invention of writing systems. The use ...

. It is often identified with the hypothetical

Nordwestblock The Nordwestblock (German, "Northwest Block") is a hypothetical Northwestern European cultural region that some scholars propose as a prehistoric culture in the present-day Netherlands, Belgium, northern France, and northwestern Germany, in an a ...

. While it remains a matter of controversy, the linguist

Maurits Gysseling Maurits Gysseling (Oudenburg, 7 September 1919 – Ghent, 24 November 1997) was an influential Belgian researcher into historical linguistics and paleography. He was especially well known for his editions and studies of old texts relevant to the h ...

, who attributed the term to SJ De Laet, hypothesised a Belgian that was distinct from the later

Celtic Celtic, Celtics or Keltic may refer to: Language and ethnicity *pertaining to Celts, a collection of Indo-European peoples in Europe and Anatolia **Celts (modern) *Celtic languages **Proto-Celtic language * Celtic music *Celtic nations Sports Fo ...

and

Germanic languages The Germanic languages are a branch of the Indo-European language family spoken natively by a population of about 515 million people mainly in Europe, North America, Oceania and Southern Africa. The most widely spoken Germanic language, E ...

. According to the theory, which was further elaborated by Hans Kuhn and others, traces of Belgian can be found in certain

toponym Toponymy, toponymics, or toponomastics is the study of '' toponyms'' (proper names of places, also known as place names and geographic names), including their origins, meanings, usage and types. Toponym is the general term for a proper name of ...

s such as South-East-Flemish Bevere,

Eine EINE and ZWEI are two discontinued Emacs-like text editors developed by Daniel Weinreb and Mike McMahon for Lisp machines in the 1970s and 1980s. History EINE was a text editor developed in the late 1970s. In terms of features, its goal was to ...

, Mater and

Melden Melden is a village belonging partly to the municipality of Oudenaarde and partly to the municipality of Kluisbergen. It is located in the Flemish Ardennes, the hilly southern part of the province of East Flanders, Belgium. History The village is ...

Overview

The borders of the Belgian

Sprachraum In linguistics, a sprachraum (; , "language area", plural sprachräume) is a geographical region where a common first language (mother tongue), with dialect varieties, or group of languages is spoken. Characteristics Many sprachräume are separ ...

are made up by the

Canche The river Canche (; nl, Kwinte) is one of the rivers that flow from the plateau of southern Boulonnais and Picardy, into the English Channel, of which the Somme is the largest example. It is long. The basin of the Canche extends to and lies i ...

and the Authie in the south-west, the

Weser The Weser () is a river of Lower Saxony in north-west Germany. It begins at Hannoversch Münden through the confluence of the Werra and Fulda. It passes through the Hanseatic city of Bremen. Its mouth is further north against the ports o ...

and the

Aller Aller may refer to: Places Rivers * Aller (Germany), a major river in North Germany *Aller (Asturian river), a river in Asturias, Spain *River Aller, a small river on Exmoor in Somerset, England Inhabited places in the United Kingdom *Aller, Devo ...

in the east, and the Ardennes and the German

Mittelgebirge A ''Mittelgebirge'' (German: ''Mittel'', "middle/medium"; ''Gebirge'', "mountain range") is a type of relatively low mountain range or highland area typical of the geography of central Europe, especially central and southern Germany; it refers to ...

in the south-east. It has been hypothetically associated with the

, more specifically with the

Hilversum culture The Hilversum culture is a prehistoric material culture found in middle Bronze Age in the region of the southern Netherlands and northern Belgium. It has been associated with the Wessex culture from the same period in southern England, and is on ...

. The use of the name ''Belgian'' for the language is to some extent supported by

Julius Caesar Gaius Julius Caesar (; ; 12 July 100 BC – 15 March 44 BC), was a Roman general and statesman. A member of the First Triumvirate, Caesar led the Roman armies in the Gallic Wars before defeating his political rival Pompey in a civil war, ...

's ''

De Bello Gallico ''Commentarii de Bello Gallico'' (; en, Commentaries on the Gallic War, italic=yes), also ''Bellum Gallicum'' ( en, Gallic War, italic=yes), is Julius Caesar's firsthand account of the Gallic Wars, written as a third-person narrative. In it Ca ...

''. He mentions that the Belgae and the

Galli A ''gallus'' (pl. ''galli'') was a eunuch priest of the Phrygian goddess Cybele (Magna Mater in Rome) and her consort Attis, whose worship was incorporated into the state religious practices of ancient Rome. Origins Cybele's cult may have ori ...

spoke different languages. It is furthermore supported by toponyms in present-day

Belgium Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to th ...

, which, according to Kuhn, point at the existence of an Indo-European language, distinct from Celtic and Germanic languages. Hans Kuhn also noted certain connections (

suffixes In linguistics, a suffix is an affix which is placed after the stem of a word. Common examples are case endings, which indicate the grammatical case of nouns, adjectives, and verb endings, which form the conjugation of verbs. Suffixes can carry g ...

ethnonyms An ethnonym () is a name applied to a given ethnic group. Ethnonyms can be divided into two categories: exonyms (whose name of the ethnic group has been created by another group of people) and autonyms, or endonyms (whose name is created and u ...

toponyms Toponymy, toponymics, or toponomastics is the study of '' toponyms'' (proper names of places, also known as place names and geographic names), including their origins, meanings, usage and types. Toponym is the general term for a proper name of ...

anthroponyms Anthroponymy (also anthroponymics or anthroponomastics, from Ancient Greek ἄνθρωπος ''anthrōpos'' / 'human', and ὄνομα ''onoma'' / 'name') is the study of ''anthroponyms'', the proper names of human beings, both individual and co ...

) between this language and the

Indo-European languages The Indo-European languages are a language family native to the overwhelming majority of Europe, the Iranian plateau, and the northern Indian subcontinent. Some European languages of this family, English, French, Portuguese, Russian, Dutc ...

southern Europe Southern Europe is the southern region of Europe. It is also known as Mediterranean Europe, as its geography is essentially marked by the Mediterranean Sea. Definitions of Southern Europe include some or all of these countries and regions: Alba ...

, in particular with the Italic languages. Before their migration to the south, the

Italics In typography, italic type is a cursive font based on a stylised form of calligraphic handwriting. Owing to the influence from calligraphy, italics normally slant slightly to the right. Italics are a way to emphasise key points in a printed ...

must have resided in

central Europe Central Europe is an area of Europe between Western Europe and Eastern Europe, based on a common historical, social and cultural identity. The Thirty Years' War (1618–1648) between Catholicism and Protestantism significantly shaped the a ...

, in the vicinity of the

Germans , native_name_lang = de , region1 = , pop1 = 72,650,269 , region2 = , pop2 = 534,000 , region3 = , pop3 = 157,000 3,322,405 , region4 = , pop4 = ...

and the Slavs, as shown by the large vocabulary common to these groups. Some of them may have migrated to the northwest, while the others headed for the Italian peninsula, hence the connection that has been made between the

Umbrians The Umbri were an Italic people of ancient Italy. A region called Umbria still exists and is now occupied by Italian speakers. It is somewhat smaller than the ancient Umbria. Most ancient Umbrian cities were settled in the 9th-4th centuries BC on ...

and the

Ambrones The Ambrones ( grc, Ἄμβρωνες) were an ancient tribe mentioned by Roman authors. They are generally believed to have been a Germanic tribe from Jutland. In the late 2nd century BC, along with the fellow Cimbri and Teutons, the Ambrones ...

of the shores of the North Sea.F. Ribezzo, ''Revue Internationale d'Onomastique'', II, 1948 sq. et III 1949, sq., M.Almagro dans ''RSLig'', XVI, 1950, sq, P.Laviosa Zambotti, l.c. Proponents of the Belgian language hypothesis also suggest that it was influenced by Germanic languages during a first, early Germanicisation in the 3rd century BC, as distinct from the

Frankish Frankish may refer to: * Franks, a Germanic tribe and their culture ** Frankish language or its modern descendants, Franconian languages * Francia, a post-Roman state in France and Germany * East Francia, the successor state to Francia in Germany ...

colonization in the 5th to the 8th centuries AD. For example, the Germanic sound shifts (p → f, t → th, k → h, ŏ → ă) have affected toponyms that supposedly have a Belgian-language origin. Characteristics of Belgian are said to include the retention of ''p'' after the sound shifts, a trait that it shared with the

Lusitanian language Lusitanian (so named after the Lusitani or Lusitanians) 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 inscri ...

. Names of bodies of water ending in -''ara'', as in the name for the

Dender The Dender (Dutch language, Dutch, ) or Dendre (French language, French, ) is a 65-kilometre (40 mi) long river in Belgium, the right tributary of the river Scheldt. The confluence of the two rivers is in the Belgian town of Dendermonde. The Weste ...

; -''ănā'' or -''ŏnā'', as in ''Matrŏnā'' (

Marne River The Marne () is a river in France, an eastern tributary of the Seine in the area east and southeast of Paris. It is long. The river gave its name to the departments of Haute-Marne, Marne, Seine-et-Marne, and Val-de-Marne. The Marne starts in t ...

and also the current Mater) and settlement names ending in -''iŏm'' are supposedly typically Belgian as well. According to Gysseling, traces of Belgian are still visible. The diminutive suffix -''ika'', the feminizing suffixes -''agjōn'' and -''astrjō'' and the collective suffix -''itja'' have been incorporated in

Dutch Dutch commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands * Dutch people () * Dutch language () Dutch may also refer to: Places * Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States * Pennsylvania Dutch Country People E ...

, sometimes very productively. In toponymy, ''apa'', ''poel'', ''broek'', ''gaver'', ''drecht'', ''laar'' and ''ham'' are retained as Belgian loanwords.

References

Sources

* M. Gysseling, "Enkele Belgische leenwoorden in de toponymie", in ''Naamkunde'' 7 (1975), pp. 1–6. *

J. Molemans ''J. The Jewish News of Northern California'', formerly known as ''Jweekly'', is a weekly print newspaper in Northern California, with its online edition updated daily. It is owned and operated by San Francisco Jewish Community Publications In ...

, "Profiel van de Kempische toponymie", in ''Naamkunde'' 9 (1977), pp
1–50
{{Germanic languages Unclassified Indo-European languages Extinct languages of Europe Linguistic strata

Overview

See also

References

Sources