Ancient Belgian is a hypothetical

extinct Extinction is the termination of a kind of organism or of a group of kinds (taxon), usually a species. The moment of extinction is generally considered to be the death of the last individual of the species, although the capacity to breed and ...

Indo-European language, spoken in

Belgica Gallia Belgica ("Belgic Gaul") was a Roman province, province of the Roman Empire located in the north-eastern part of Roman Gaul, in what is today primarily northern France, Belgium, and Luxembourg, along with parts of the Netherlands and German ...

(northern Gaul) in late prehistory. It is often identified with the hypothetical Nordwestblock. While it remains a matter of controversy, the linguist Maurits Gysseling, 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. According to the theory, which was further elaborated by Hans Kuhn and others, traces of Belgian can be found in certain toponyms such as South-East-Flemish Bevere, Eine,

Mater Mater is a formal Latin term for mother and may refer to: Places *Mater, Belgium, a village near Oudenaarde Health care Australia *Mater Health Services, Brisbane, Australia * Mater Health Services North Queensland, which incorporates: ** Mate ...

and Melden.

Overview

The borders of the Belgian Sprachraum are made up by the Canche and the Authie in the south-west, the Weser 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 The Ardennes (french: Ardenne ; nl, Ardennen ; german: Ardennen; wa, Årdene ; lb, Ardennen ), also known as the Ardennes Forest or Forest of Ardennes, is a region of extensive forests, rough terrain, rolling hills and ridges primarily in Be ...

and the German Mittelgebirge in the south-east. It has been hypothetically associated with the Nordwestblock, more specifically with the Hilversum culture. 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, and ...

's '' De Bello Gallico''. He mentions that the

Belgae The Belgae () were a large confederation of tribes living in northern Gaul, between the English Channel, the west bank of the Rhine, and the northern bank of the river Seine, from at least the third century BC. They were discussed in depth by Ju ...

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 orig ...

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

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 used ...

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) between this language and the Indo-European languages of southern Europe, in particular with the

Italic languages The Italic languages form a branch of the Indo-European language family, whose earliest known members were spoken on the Italian Peninsula in the first millennium BC. The most important of the ancient languages was Latin, the official languag ...

. Before their migration to the south, the Italics must have resided in central Europe, in the vicinity of the Germans and the

Slavs Slavs are the largest European ethnolinguistic group. They speak the various Slavic languages, belonging to the larger Balto-Slavic branch of the Indo-European languages. Slavs are geographically distributed throughout northern Eurasia, main ...

, 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 and 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 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. Names of bodies of water ending in -''ara'', as in the name for the Dender; -''ănā'' or -''ŏnā'', as in ''Matrŏnā'' ( Marne River and also the current

) and settlement names ending in -''iŏm'' are supposedly typically Belgian as well. According to Gysseling, traces of Belgian are still visible. The

diminutive A diminutive is a root word that has been modified to convey a slighter degree of its root meaning, either to convey the smallness of the object or quality named, or to convey a sense of intimacy or endearment. A (abbreviated ) is a word-formati ...

suffix 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 ...

-''ika'', the feminizing suffixes -''agjōn'' and -''astrjō'' and the

collective A collective is a group of entities that share or are motivated by at least one common issue or interest, or work together to achieve a common objective. Collectives can differ from cooperatives in that they are not necessarily focused upon an ...

suffix -''itja'' have been incorporated in Dutch, sometimes very productively. In toponymy, ''apa'', ''poel'', ''broek'', ''gaver'', ''drecht'', ''laar'' and ''ham'' are retained as Belgian

loanwords A loanword (also loan word or loan-word) is a word at least partly assimilated from one language (the donor language) into another language. This is in contrast to cognates, which are words in two or more languages that are similar because the ...

References

Sources

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