The paleo-Hispanic languages were the languages of the
Pre-Roman peoples of the Iberian Peninsula
This is a list of the pre- Roman people of the Iberian Peninsula (the Roman Hispania, i. e., modern Portugal, Spain and Andorra). Some closely fit the concept of a people, ethnic group or tribe. Others are confederations or even unions of t ...
, excluding languages of foreign colonies, such as
Greek
Greek may refer to:
Greece
Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe:
*Greeks, an ethnic group.
*Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family.
**Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...
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
Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...
, the ancestor of the modern
Iberian Romance languages.
Languages
Some of these languages were documented directly through inscriptions, mainly in
Paleohispanic scripts
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 su ...
, that date for sure between the 5th century BC, maybe from the 7th century in the opinion of some researchers, until the end of the 1st century BC or the beginning of the 1st century AD.
*
Vasconic languages
**
Proto-Basque — Unattested, partially
reconstructed through
internal analysis of
modern Basque. Proto-Basque is also the ancestor or sibling of the Aquitanian language (see below).
**
Aquitanian — Close relative of modern
Basque
Basque may refer to:
* Basques, an ethnic group of Spain and France
* Basque language, their language
Places
* Basque Country (greater region), the homeland of the Basque people with parts in both Spain and France
* Basque Country (autonomous co ...
. Some scholars characterise Aquitanian as an ancestor of Basque, while others describe Aquitanian and Basque as siblings both descended from Proto-Basque.
*
Unclassified language
An unclassified language is a language whose genetic affiliation to other languages has not been established. Languages can be unclassified for a variety of reasons, mostly due to a lack of reliable data but sometimes due to the confounding inf ...
s
**
Iberian — Shares many obvious similarities with the Vasconic languages. However, lack of data has thus far
prevented scholars from determining whether these similarities arose from
convergence
Convergence may refer to:
Arts and media Literature
*''Convergence'' (book series), edited by Ruth Nanda Anshen
*Convergence (comics), "Convergence" (comics), two separate story lines published by DC Comics:
**A four-part crossover storyline that ...
due to
intense contact, or whether Iberian does in fact possess a
genetic relationship to the Vasconic languages.
**
Tartessian — Scholarly opinion places Tartessian definitely outside of the
Indo-European family
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 ...
, but
further classification remains uncertain. Tartessian seems to have borrowed many
place names
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 ...
from some
Celtic and/or other
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 ...
languages; but its syllable structure is totally incompatible with the phonology of any Indo-European language, and much more compatible with the phonology of the Vasconic languages and Iberian. Despite this phonological compatibility, a lack of data has thus far made it impossible to clarify any relationship with the
Vasconic languages or Iberian.
*
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 ...
**
Celtic languages
The Celtic languages ( usually , but sometimes ) are a group of related languages descended from Proto-Celtic. They form a branch of the Indo-European language family. The term "Celtic" was first used to describe this language group by Edwar ...
***
Celtiberian
***
Gallaecian
** (Internally unclassified languages)
***
Lusitanian — Definitely an Indo-European language. Possibly
Celtic or Italic, but a lack of data has prevented scholars from determining exactly where Lusitanian fits within the Indo-European family.
*** (from Greek σορός ''sorós'' 'funerary urn' and θαπτός ''thaptós'' 'buried') is a hypothetical pre-Celtic language.
Joan Coromines
Joan Coromines i Vigneaux (; also frequently spelled ''Joan Corominas''; Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, by Joan Corominas icand José Antonio Pascual, Editorial Gredos, 1989, Madrid, . Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain 1 ...
identified problematic words in Catalan with inscriptions on lead tablets, from ca. 2nd century CE, found at
Amélie-les-Bains on the Catalan–French border. The inscriptions include some Latin but also a non-Latin and non-Celtic component that Coromines identifies with the
Urnfield culture
The Urnfield culture ( 1300 BC – 750 BC) was a late Bronze Age culture of Central Europe, often divided into several local cultures within a broader Urnfield tradition. The name comes from the custom of cremating the dead and p ...
from a millennium earlier, claiming to have found such "Sorothaptic" place names across Europe. Like the better-known
Vasconic substrate hypothesis, Coromines' Sorothaptic hypothesis has not been well received.
Other Paleohispanic languages can only be identified indirectly through
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,
anthroponyms or
theonym
A theonym (from Greek ''theos'' (Θεός), " god"'','' attached to ''onoma'' (ὄνομα), "name") is the proper name of a deity.
Theonymy, the study of divine proper names, is a branch of onomastics (the study of the etymology, history, and ...
s cited by
Roman
Roman or Romans most often refers to:
*Rome, the capital city of Italy
*Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD
*Roman people, the people of ancient Rome
*'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lette ...
and
Greek
Greek may refer to:
Greece
Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe:
*Greeks, an ethnic group.
*Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family.
**Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...
sources.
Classification
Of these languages, Celtiberian, Gallaecian, Lusitanian, and presumably Sorothaptic were
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 ...
; Celtiberian and Gallaecian were
Celtic languages
The Celtic languages ( usually , but sometimes ) are a group of related languages descended from Proto-Celtic. They form a branch of the Indo-European language family. The term "Celtic" was first used to describe this language group by Edwar ...
, and Lusitanian may also have been, but the hypothetical Sorothaptic was not. Aquitanian was a precursor of
Basque
Basque may refer to:
* Basques, an ethnic group of Spain and France
* Basque language, their language
Places
* Basque Country (greater region), the homeland of the Basque people with parts in both Spain and France
* Basque Country (autonomous co ...
, while Tartessian and Iberian remain
unclassified.
See also
*
Iberian languages
*
Languages of Spain
The languages of Spain ( es, lenguas de España), or Spanish languages ( es, lenguas españolas, link=no), are the languages spoken in Spain.
Most languages spoken in Spain belong to the Romance languages, Romance language family, of which Sp ...
*
Languages of Portugal
The languages of Portugal are Portuguese, Mirandese and Portuguese Sign Language.
Historically, Celtic and Lusitanian were spoken in what is now Portugal.
Modern
Portuguese is practically universal in Portugal, but there are some specificities ...
*
Hispano-Celtic languages
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). In particular, it includes:
* A northeastern inland language attested at a relative ...
*
Vasconic substrate hypothesis
*
Paleo-European languages
The Paleo-European languages, or Old European languages, are the mostly unknown languages that were spoken in Europe prior to the spread of the Indo-European and Uralic families caused by the Bronze Age invasion from the Eurasian steppe of pastor ...
*
Pre-Indo-European languages
References
Further reading
* COROMINES, JOAN. "Les Plombs Sorothaptiques d'Arles". In: ''Zeitschrift für romanische Philologie (ZrP)'' 91, no. 1-2 (1975): 1-53. https://doi.org/10.1515/zrph.1975.91.1-2.1
* Correa, José Antonio (1994): «La lengua ibérica», ''Revista española de lingüística'' 24, 2, pp. 263–287.
* Jordán, Carlos (2004): ''Celtibérico'', Zaragoza.
* Hoz, Javier de (1995): «Tartesio, fenicio y céltico, 25 años después», ''Tartessos 25 años después'', pp. 591–607.
* de Hoz Bravo, Jesús Javier; Churruca, Joaquín Gorrochategui Churruca. "Paleohispánica y Filología Clásica". In: ''Conuentus Classicorum: temas y formas del Mundo Clásico''. Coord. por Jesús de la Villa, Emma Falque Rey, José Francisco González Castro, María José Muñoz Jiménez, Vol. 1, 2017, pp. 119-150.
* Rodríguez Ramos, Jesús (2005): «Introducció a l'estudi de les inscripcions ibèriques», ''Revista de la Fundació Privada Catalana per l'Arqueologia ibèrica'', 1, pp. 13–144.
* Untermann, Jürgen : Monumenta Linguarum Hispanicarum, Wiesbaden. (1975): I Die Münzlegenden. (1980): ''II Die iberischen Inschriften aus Sudfrankreicht''. (1990): ''III Die iberischen Inschriften aus Spanien''. (1997): ''IV Die tartessischen, keltiberischen und lusitanischen Inschriften''.
* Vallejo Ruiz, J. M. (2021). "Lengua lusitana y onomástica de Lusitania. 25 años después". In: ''Palaeohispanica. Revista Sobre Lenguas Y Culturas De La Hispania Antigua'', 21, 369-395. https://doi.org/10.36707/palaeohispanica.v21i0.409
* Velaza, Javier (1996): ''Epigrafía y lengua ibéricas'', Barcelona.
External links
Pre-Roman languages and writing systems from Spain and Portugal – Jesús Rodríguez RamosDetailed map of the Pre-Roman Peoples of Iberia (around 200 BC)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Paleohispanic Languages
Extinct languages of Europe
Pre-Indo-Europeans
Extinct languages of Spain