The Iberian language was the language of an indigenous western European people identified by Greek and

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 lett ...

sources who lived in the eastern and southeastern regions of the

Iberian Peninsula The Iberian Peninsula (), ** * Aragonese and Occitan: ''Peninsula Iberica'' ** ** * french: Péninsule Ibérique * mwl, Península Eibérica * eu, Iberiar penintsula also known as Iberia, is a peninsula in southwestern Europe, def ...

in the pre- Migration Era (before about 375 AD). The ancient

Iberians The Iberians ( la, Hibērī, from el, Ἴβηρες, ''Iberes'') 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 (amon ...

can be identified as a rather nebulous local culture between the 7th and 1st century BC. The Iberian language, like all the other

Paleohispanic languages The paleo-Hispanic languages were 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 Pale ...

except Basque, became

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 ...

by the 1st to 2nd centuries AD, after being gradually replaced by

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, 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 ...

due to the

Roman conquest of the Iberian Peninsula The Roman conquest of the Iberian Peninsula was a process by which the Roman Republic seized territories in the Iberian Peninsula that were previously under the control of native Celtic, Iberian, Celtiberian and Aquitanian tribes and the C ...

. Iberian is

unclassified Classified information is material that a government body deems to be sensitive information that must be protected. Access is restricted by law or regulation to particular groups of people with the necessary security clearance and need to know, ...

: while the scripts used to write it have been deciphered to various extents, the language itself remains largely unknown. Links with other languages have been suggested, especially the Basque language, based largely on the observed similarities between the numerical systems of the two. In contrast, the

Punic language The Punic language, also called Phoenicio-Punic or Carthaginian, is an extinct variety of the Phoenician language, a Canaanite language of the Northwest Semitic branch of the Semitic languages. An offshoot of the Phoenician language of coastal ...

of Carthaginian settlers was Semitic, while

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, D ...

of the peninsula during the

Iron Age The Iron Age is the final epoch of the three-age division of the prehistory and protohistory of humanity. It was preceded by the Stone Age ( Paleolithic, Mesolithic, Neolithic) and the Bronze Age ( Chalcolithic). The concept has been mostly ...

include the now extinct Celtiberian language, Ionic Greek, and

, which formed the basis for modern Iberian Romance languages.

Geographic distribution

Iberian inscriptions are found along the Mediterranean coast of the Iberian Peninsula, reaching up to the river

Hérault Hérault (; oc, Erau, ) is a department of the region of Occitania, Southern France. Named after the Hérault River, its prefecture is Montpellier. It had a population of 1,175,623 in 2019.Ensérune, between Narbonne and Béziers in France, in an with mixed Iberian and Celtic elements. The southern limit would be Porcuna, in Jaén (

Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = '' Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , ...

), where splendid sculptures of Iberian riders have been found. Further inland the exact distribution of the Iberian language inscriptions is uncertain. It seems that the culture reached the interior through the

Ebro , name_etymology = , image = Zaragoza shel.JPG , image_size = , image_caption = The Ebro River in Zaragoza , map = SpainEbroBasin.png , map_size = , map_caption = The Ebro ...

river ( in Latin) as far as Salduie (Zaragoza) but no further. Among the pre-Roman peoples of the Iberian Peninsula the following might have spoken the Iberian language: Ausetani (northeastern

Catalonia Catalonia (; ca, Catalunya ; Aranese Occitan: ''Catalonha'' ; es, Cataluña ) is an autonomous community of Spain, designated as a '' nationality'' by its Statute of Autonomy. Most of the territory (except the Val d'Aran) lies on the no ...

), Ilergetes ( Lleida and Huesca up to the Pyrenees), Indigetes (coast of

Girona Girona (officially and in Catalan , Spanish: ''Gerona'' ) is a city in northern Catalonia, Spain, at the confluence of the Ter, Onyar, Galligants, and Güell rivers. The city had an official population of 103,369 in 2020. Girona is the capit ...

), Laietani (

Barcelona Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within c ...

), Cassetani ( Tarragona),

Ilercavones The Ilercavones were an ancient Iberian (Pre-Roman) people of the Iberian peninsula (the Roman Hispania). They are believed to have spoken an Iberian language. History The name Ilercavonia to refer to the territory occupied by this Iberian tri ...

( Murcia and Levante up to Tarragona),

Edetani The Edetani were an ancient Iberian (Pre-Roman) people of the Iberian peninsula (the Roman Hispania). They are believed to have spoken a form of the Iberian language. See also * Iberians * Edeta *Pre-Roman peoples of the Iberian Peninsula Th ...

(

Valencia Valencia ( va, València) is the capital of the autonomous community of Valencia and the third-most populated municipality in Spain, with 791,413 inhabitants. It is also the capital of the province of the same name. The wider urban area al ...

, Castellón and Teruel), Contestani (Valencia,

Alicante Alicante ( ca-valencia, Alacant) is a city and municipality in the Valencian Community, Spain. It is the capital of the province of Alicante and a historic Mediterranean port. The population of the city was 337,482 , the second-largest in ...

, Cartagena and

Albacete Albacete (, also , ; ar, ﭐَلبَسِيط, Al-Basīṭ) is a city and municipality in the Spanish autonomous community of Castilla–La Mancha, and capital of the province of Albacete. Lying in the south-east of the Iberian Peninsula, t ...

Bastetani The Bastetani or Bastuli were an ancient Iberian (pre-Roman) people of the Iberian peninsula (the Roman Hispania). They are believed to have spoken the Iberian language. The relationship between the Iberian Bastetani and the Tartessian Mastien ...

( Granada,

Almería Almería (, , ) is a city and municipality of Spain, located in Andalusia. It is the capital of the province of the same name. It lies on southeastern Iberia on the Mediterranean Sea. Caliph Abd al-Rahman III founded the city in 955. The city g ...

and Murcia) and Oretani (Jaén,

Ciudad Real Ciudad Real (, ; en, "Royal City") is a municipality of Spain located in the autonomous community of Castile–La Mancha, capital of the province of Ciudad Real. It is the 5th most populated municipality in the region. History It was founded ...

, Albacete and Cuenca). Turduli and

Turdetani The Turdetani were an ancient pre-Roman people of the Iberian Peninsula, living in the valley of the Guadalquivir (the river that the Turdetani called by two names: ''Kertis'' and ''Rérkēs'' (Ῥέρκης); Romans would call the river by t ...

are believed to be of Tartessian language. For some scholars, such as Velaza (2006), Iberian could have been the language spoken by the autochthonous population of these territories, while for others, such as De Hoz (1993), Iberian could have been more of a '' lingua franca''.

History

The origin of the language is unknown. Although Iberian ceased to be written in the 1st century AD, it may have survived in some areas until the Visigothic period (ca. 500s to 700s), according to Menéndez Pidal. There are several theories about the geographical origin of Iberian. According to the ''Catalan theory'', the Iberian language originated in northern Catalonia, where the earliest Iberian inscriptions are documented (600 BC) ( Ullastret). Its expansion towards the north and south would have been due to broad population movements in times not long before the first written documents, from the 11th to the 10th century BC, given that the Iberian language appears homogeneous in Iberian texts and, if it were of greater antiquity, dialectalization should be evident. The presence of non-interpretable elements such as Iberian anthroponyms amongst inscriptions in this area is not considered statistically significant.

Writing

The oldest Iberian inscriptions date to the 6th century BC or maybe the 5th century BC and the latest ones date from the end of the 1st century BC or maybe the beginning of the 1st century AD. More than two thousand Iberian inscriptions are currently known. Most are short texts on

ceramic A ceramic is any of the various hard, brittle, heat-resistant and corrosion-resistant materials made by shaping and then firing an inorganic, nonmetallic material, such as clay, at a high temperature. Common examples are earthenware, porcelain, ...

with personal names, which are usually interpreted as ownership marks. Many coins minted by Iberian communities during the Roman Republic have legends in Iberian. The longest Iberian texts were made on

lead Lead is a chemical element with the symbol Pb (from the Latin ) and atomic number 82. It is a heavy metal that is denser than most common materials. Lead is soft and malleable, and also has a relatively low melting point. When freshly cut, ...

plaques; the most extensive is from

Yátova Yátova is a municipality in the ''comarca'' of Hoya de Buñol in the Valencian Community The Valencian Community ( ca-valencia, Comunitat Valenciana, es, Comunidad Valenciana) is an autonomous community of Spain. It is the fourth most pop ...

(

) with more than six hundred signs. Three different scripts have remained for the Iberian language: * Northeastern Iberian script ** Dual variant (4th century BC and 3rd century BC) ** Non-dual variant (2nd century BC and 1st century BC) *

Southeastern Iberian script 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. Ab ...

* Greco-Iberian alphabet (most of the aforementioned ''Leads of La Serreta'' are written in this version).

Northeastern (or Levantine) Iberian script

The northeastern Iberian script is also known as the Iberian script, because it is the Iberian script most frequently used (95% of the extant texts (Untermann 1990)). The northeastern Iberian inscriptions have been found mainly in the northeastern quadrant of the

: chiefly on the coast from Languedoc-Roussillon to

, but with a deep penetration into the Ebro valley. This script is almost completely deciphered. All the paleohispanic scripts, with the exception of the Greco-Iberian alphabet, share a common distinctive typological characteristic: they use signs with syllabic value for the occlusives and signs with monophonematic value for the remaining consonants and for vowels. From a

writing systems A writing system is a method of visually representing verbal communication, based on a script and a set of rules regulating its use. While both writing and speech are useful in conveying messages, writing differs in also being a reliable f ...

point of view they are neither alphabets nor

syllabaries In the linguistic study of written languages, a syllabary is a set of written symbols that represent the syllables or (more frequently) moras which make up words. A symbol in a syllabary, called a syllabogram, typically represents an (optiona ...

; rather, they are mixed scripts that are normally identified as

semi-syllabaries 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 plosi ...

. Regarding their origin there is no agreement among researchers; for some they are linked only to the

Phoenician alphabet The Phoenician alphabet is an alphabet (more specifically, an abjad) known in modern times from the Canaanite and Aramaic inscriptions found across the Mediterranean region. The name comes from the Phoenician civilization. The Phoenician al ...

, while for others the

Greek alphabet The Greek alphabet has been used to write the Greek language since the late 9th or early 8th century BCE. It is derived from the earlier Phoenician alphabet, and was the earliest known alphabetic script to have distinct letters for vowels as ...

played a part.

Southeastern (or Meridional) Iberian script

The

southeastern Iberian script 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. Ab ...

is a semi-syllabary too, but it is more similar to the Tartessian script than to the northeastern Iberian script. The southeastern Iberian inscriptions have been found mainly in the southeastern quadrant of the

: eastern

Andalusia Andalusia (, ; es, Andalucía ) is the southernmost autonomous community in Peninsular Spain. It is the most populous and the second-largest autonomous community in the country. It is officially recognised as a "historical nationality". The ...

, Murcia,

and

. This script is not completely deciphered.

Greco-Iberian alphabet

The Greco-Iberian

alphabet An alphabet is a standardized set of basic written graphemes (called letters) that represent the phonemes of certain spoken languages. Not all writing systems represent language in this way; in a syllabary, each character represents a syllab ...

is a direct adaptation of an Ionic variant of a

to the specificities of the Iberian language. The inscriptions that use the Greco-Iberian alphabet have been found mainly in

and Murcia.

Description

Current extent of linguistic knowledge

Very little is known for certain about Iberian. The investigation of the language is past its initial phase of transcription and compiling of material, and is currently in the phase of identifying grammatical elements in the texts. The hypotheses currently proposed are unconfirmed, and are likely to remain so unless the discovery of a bilingual text allows linguists to confirm their deductions.

Phonology

Vowels

Iberian appears to have five vowels commonly transcribed as . Some other languages on the peninsula such as Basque and modern Spanish also have such systems. Although five-vowel systems are extremely common all over the world, it has been suggested that this may point to a Sprachbund amongst the ancient languages of the Iberian peninsula. Trask, R.L. ''The History of Basque'' Routledge: 1997 The unrounded vowels (in frequency order: ) appear more frequently than the rounded vowels (). Although there are indications of a nasal vowel (), this is thought to be an

allophone In phonology, an allophone (; from the Greek , , 'other' and , , 'voice, sound') is a set of multiple possible spoken soundsor ''phones''or signs used to pronounce a single phoneme in a particular language. For example, in English, (as in '' ...

. Judging by Greek transcriptions, it seems that there were no vowel length distinctions; if this is correct then Iberian uses the long ( el, ἦτα, translit=êta) as opposed to the short epsilon ( el, ἒ ψιλόν, translit=ѐ psilón).

Diphthongs

It seems that the second element of diphthongs was always a closed vowel, as in (), (), and (). Untermann observed that the diphthong could only be found in the first cluster.

Semivowels

It is possible that Iberian had the semivowels (in words such as or ) and (only in loanwords such as from

Gaulish Gaulish was an ancient Celtic language spoken in parts of Continental Europe before and during the period of the Roman Empire. In the narrow sense, Gaulish was the language of the Celts of Gaul (now France, Luxembourg, Belgium, most of Switze ...

). The fact that is lacking in native words casts doubt on whether semivowels really existed in Iberian outside of foreign borrowings and diphthongs.

Consonants

* Vibrants: There are two vibrants and . Iberian specialists do not agree about the phonetic values assigned to either vibrant. Correa (1994) hypothesized that was an alveolar flap and was a "compound vibrant", that is, a trill . Later, Rodríguez Ramos (2004) suggested that was an alveolar flap and is a retroflex flap in line with Ballester (2001) who thought that represents a uvular

fricative A fricative is a consonant produced by forcing air through a narrow channel made by placing two articulators close together. These may be the lower lip against the upper teeth, in the case of ; the back of the tongue against the soft palate in ...

. However, Ballester (2005) later changed his hypothesis and took for an alveolar flap and for the alveolar trill . Neither nor occurs word-initially, which is also the case in Basque. * Sibilants: There are two sibilants and . The distinction is unclear, and there are multiple proposals. Ballester (2001) theorizes that was an alveolar and was an alveolo-palatal . Rodríguez Ramos (2004) proposes that was alveolar and was an affricate, either dental or palatal (like English "ch"). This proposal coincides with the observation by Correa on adaptations of Gallic names in Iberian texts. * Laterals: The lateral is normally interpreted as . It is extremely rare in final position and it could be that the distribution is on occasion complementary with : ~ . * Nasals: **The was probably alveolar . **: Researchers studying Iberian do not agree on the kind of nasal represented by this letter. The letter rarely occurs word-initially. Velaza (1996) hypothesizes it could be an allophone of medial , as shown in the example of . José A. Correa (1999) suggests it may be a geminate or strong nasal. Ballester (2001) considers it to be a labialized nasal in Iberian and in Celtiberian. Rodríguez Ramos (2004) mentions that it could be an allophone of where it nasalizes the preceding vowel. **There is some controversy over the sign transcribed as . While it is thought to be some type of nasal, there is no certainty as to its phonetic value. Several linguists agree on the value , based on similarities with texts written in the Greek alphabet, as there are similarities between the suffixes / , and in the onomastic elements / . Another part of this theory seems to contradict itself with the transcription of into Latin as . Correa (1999) proposes that it was a labialized nasal. It is not even clear that the sign is always pronounced in the same form. Rodríguez Ramos (2004) considers it a nasalized vowel, produced by progressive nasalization. *

Plosives In phonetics, a plosive, also known as an occlusive or simply a stop, is a pulmonic consonant in which the vocal tract is blocked so that all airflow ceases. The occlusion may be made with the tongue tip or blade (, ), tongue body (, ), li ...

: There are five plosives. :The evidence indicates the non-existence of a phoneme as it is not documented either in the Greek alphabet or in the dual Iberian systems. It is only found in Latin inscriptions naming native Iberians and is thought to be an allophone of . :It has been suggested that the phoneme would on occasions have been pronounced similar to (this would be explained by the frequency of the sign ), and as such it could have had a nasalized pronunciation.

Morphology

There are a number of known

affix In linguistics, an affix is a morpheme that is attached to a word stem to form a new word or word form. Affixes may be derivational, like English ''-ness'' and ''pre-'', or inflectional, like English plural ''-s'' and past tense ''-ed''. They ...

es, especially applied to last names. For the Iberian language these seem to be postpositional, and apparently more

agglutinative In linguistics, agglutination is a morphological process in which words are formed by stringing together morphemes, each of which corresponds to a single syntactic feature. Languages that use agglutination widely are called agglutinative l ...

than fusional. The best-known are the following: :: applied to proper names to mark possession. :: of a similar or identical use to . :: seems to indicate the person who receives something. :: seems to indicate the ergative. :: seems to indicate the ablative. Possibly related to the Basque local genitive . : / : usually understood as genitive plural because of its use on coins in ethnical names (with parallels on Latin and Greek coins). :: has been proposed on occasions to mark the plural. is a plural marker in Basque.

Lexicon

There are some words for which there has been surmised a more or less probable meaning: * as akin to the Latin formula ("here he is") (Untermann 1990, 194) because of a bilingual inscription from Tarragona C.18.6 * and as equivalent to the Latin ("he cared o be done) in tombstones (Untermann 1990, 194), because of a bilingual inscription from

Sagunto Sagunto ( ca-valencia, Sagunt) is a municipality of Spain, located in the province of Valencia, Valencian Community. It belongs to the modern fertile ''comarca'' of Camp de Morvedre. It is located c. 30 km north of the city of Valencia, ...

F.11.8 * and as typical Iberian toponyms for city names, meaning something like "city" / "town" *: verb or verbal noun with a meaning like "to do" / "to make" compared with the Basque verb (Beltrán 1942; Correa 1994, 284). with a meaning akin to "made by Likinos of Osicerda" (Correa 1994, 282) * and as meaning something like "tomb" on tombstones (Untermann 1990, 194). * as meaning something like "money" / "coin", because of its use in coins (as ) and its use in lead plaque inscriptions besides numbers and quantities (Untermann 1990, 191).

Personal names

Thanks to the Latin Inscription of the plaque of Ascoli, which includes a list of Iberian cavalry soldiers in the Roman army (the

Turma A ''turma'' ( Latin for "swarm, squadron", plural ''turmae''), ( Greek: τούρμα) was a cavalry unit in the Roman army of the Republic and Empire. In the Byzantine Empire, it became applied to the larger, regiment-sized military-administrati ...

Salluitana attested in the Bronze of Ascoli), the forms of Iberian proper names have been unraveled. Iberian names are formed mainly by two interchangeable elements, each usually formed of two syllables, which are written together (Untermann 1998). For example, the element "iltiŕ" can be found in the following names: , , , , or . This discovery was a giant step: from this moment it was possible to identify with some kind of confidence the names of persons in the texts. Nevertheless, the list of components of Iberian names varies between researchers. The basic list comes from Untermann (1990) and was recently updated by Rodríguez Ramos (2002b); complementary data and criteria can be found in the Faria papers (the last two: 2007a and 2007b). The following list includes some of the elements proposed as components of Iberian names: ''abaŕ'', ''aibe'', ''aile'', ''ain'', ''aitu'', ''aiun'', ''aker'', ''albe'', ''aloŕ'', ''an'', ''anaŕ'', ''aŕbi'', ''aŕki'', ''aŕs'', ''asai'', ''aster'', ''ata'', ''atin'', ''atun'', ''aunin'', ''auŕ'', ''austin'', ''baiser'', ''balaŕ'', ''balke'', ''bartaś'', ''baś'', ''bastok'', ''bekon'', ''belauŕ'', ''beleś'', ''bels'', ''bene'', ''beŕ'', ''beri'', ''beŕon'', ''betan'', ''betin'', ''bikir'', ''bilos'', ''bin'', ''bir'', ''bitu'', ''biuŕ'', ''bolai'', ''boŕ'', ''boś'', ''boton'', ''ekes'', ''ekaŕ'', ''eler'', ''ena'', ''esto'', ''eten'', ''eter'', ''iar'', ''iaun'', ''ibeś'', ''ibeis'', ''ike'', ''ikoŕ'', ''iltiŕ'', ''iltur'', ''inte'', ''iskeŕ'', ''istan'', ''iunstir'', ''iur'', ''kaisur'', ''kakeŕ'', ''kaltuŕ'', ''kani'', ''kaŕes'', ''kaŕko'', ''katu'', ''keŕe'', ''kibaś'', ''kine'', ''kitaŕ'', ''kon'', ''koŕo'', ''koŕś'', ''kuleś'', ''kurtar'', ''lako'', ''lauŕ'', ''leis'', ''lor'', ''lusban'', ''nalbe'', ''neitin'', ''neŕse'', ''nes'', ''niś'', ''nios'', ''oŕtin'', ''sakaŕ'', ''sakin'', ''saltu'', ''śani'', ''śar'', ''seken'', ''selki'', ''sike'', ''sili'', ''sine'', ''sir'', ''situ'', ''soket'', ''sor'', ''sosin'', ''suise'', ''taker'', ''talsku'', ''tan'', ''tanek'', ''taneś'', ''taŕ'', ''tarban'', ''taŕtin'', ''taś'', ''tautin'', ''teita'', ''tekeŕ'', ''tibaś'', ''tikeŕ'', ''tikirs'', ''tikis'', ''tileis'', ''tolor'', ''tuitui'', ''tumar'', ''tuŕś'', ''turkir'', ''tortin'', ''ulti'', ''unin'', ''uŕke'', ''ustain'', ''ḿbaŕ'', ''nḿkei''. In some cases, linguists have encountered simple names, with only one element for a suffix: , and are in the plaque of Ascoli, in Ullastret and , or in other Iberian texts. More rarely there have been indications of an infix, which can be , or (Untermann used in front of or with ). In rare cases Untermann also encountered an element or prefacing a proper name (; ; ). In the elements that formed Iberian names it is common to encounter patterns of variation, as in with the same variations as in //; / as /; or // and //). Some Iberian onomastic elements have look-alikes in Aquitanian or Basque. This has been explained by Vascologists like MitxelenaMichelena, Luis (1977), pp. 547–548: " ..cada vez soy más escéptico en cuanto a un parentesco lingüístico ibero-vasco. En el terreno de la onomástica, y en particular de la antroponimia, hay, sin embargo, coincidencias innegables entre ibérico y aquitano y, por consiguiente, entre ibérico y vasco. Como ya he señalado en otros lugares, parece haber habido una especie de ''pool onomástico'', del que varias lenguas, desde el aquitano hasta el idioma de las inscripciones hispánicas en escritura meridional, podían tomar componentes de nombre propios." as an "onomastic pool". However, since the meaning of most Iberian words remains opaque to date, the connection remains speculative except in a very small number of cases. An ancient sprachbund involving these two languages is deemed likely by some linguists. But as Trask notes, Trask, R.L. (1995): «Origin and relatives of the Basque Language: Review of the evidence», ''Towards a History of the Basque Language,'' p. 388. Basque has been of no help in translating Iberian inscriptions.

Influences on other languages

External relations

Iberian and Basque

Whether Iberian and Basque are two languages of the same language family is still a much-debated question. Many experts on Iberian suspect that there is a relationship of some sort between Iberian and Aquitanian, a precursor of the Basque language. But there is not enough evidence to date to ascertain whether the two languages belong to the same language family or whether the relationship is due to linguistic borrowing. Lexical and onomastic coincidences could be due to borrowing, while the similarities in the phonological structures of the two languages could be due to linguistic areal phenomena (cf. the similarities between Basque and Old Spanish in spite of being languages of two different families). More scientific studies on Iberian language are needed to shed light on this question. From a historical perspective, the first features where a relationship between Basque and Iberian was claimed were: *the suffixes / on Iberian coins (which were compared to the genitive plural on similar ancient coins) with the Basque plural (-k) and genitive (-en) endings *Iberian town names containing (particularly ), where parallels were drawn with Basque ("town") and ("new"). Although other pairs have been proposed (such as , , , ), the meanings of these Iberian morphs are still controversial. The main arguments today which relate to coinciding surface forms between Basque and Iberian are: *Phonetics:

Proto-Basque Proto-Basque ( eu, aitzineuskara; es, protoeuskera, protovasco; french: proto-basque), or Pre-Basque, is the reconstructed predecessor of the Basque language before the Roman conquests in the Western Pyrenees. Background The first linguist w ...

phonology, first proposed by Michelena, appears to be very similar to what is known about the Iberian phonological system. It has been claimed that the lack of /m/, common to both Proto-Basque and Iberian, is especially significant). *Onomastics: Aquitanian-Latin inscriptions contain personal and deity names which can clearly be related to modern Basque words, but also show structural and lexical resemblances with Iberian personal names. But Iberian influence on the Aquitanian name system, rather than a genetic link, cannot be dismissed either. *In Iberian and , is read "city". Modern Basque , "city", is derived from the very similar Proto-Basque root * *The Iberian genitive ending and maybe the genitive plural , compared to the Basque genitive and the Basque genitive plural * as reconstructed by Michelena. But Michelena himself was sceptical about this comparison. *An Iberian formula which frequently appears on tombstones, , with variants such as , which on a bilingual inscription from Tarragona may be equivalent to the Latin ("here is"), as proposed by

Hübner __NOTOC__ Hübner is a Germanic surname, sometimes spelled Huebner or Hubner. The name means an agricultural worker, a farmer, possibly and specifically one who worked a "hube", which was a piece of land roughly equivalent to the English measuremen ...

. This was compared by Schuchardt (1907) with Basque “there is/stays”. *The Iberian word , explained as something akin to “he made”, proposed to be linked with the Basque verb "make" *The Iberian word explained as “money”, “coin” or “value”, proposed to be linked to Basque word (probably Proto-Basque *) meaning “value”, “payment”, “reward”.Michelena, L. (1990) p. 318; quoted in Rodríguez, J. (2000)
"La Lengua Íbera: en Busca del Paradigma Perdido"
''Revista Internacional d'Humanitats'' 3 . 10 http://www.webpersonal.net/jrr/archivos/PDIGMA.pdf /ref>

Numerals

In 2005 Eduardo Orduña published a study showing some Iberian compounds that according to contextual data would appear to be Iberian numerals and show striking similarities with Basque numerals. The study was expanded upon by Joan Ferrer (2007 and 2009) based on terms found on coins, stating their value, and with new combinatorial and contextual data. The comparison proposes the following: The basis of this theory is better understood if we compare some of the attested Iberian compounds with Basque complex numbers (the dots denote morpheme boundaries and are not normally written in Basque; also note that the final in numbers 3 and 4 also occurs in bound forms in Basque i.e. and ): Even so, Orduña does not claim this comparison to be a proof of a family relation between Iberian and Basque, but rather owing to Iberian loanwords in the Basque language. In contrast, Ferrer believes that the similarities could be caused due to both the genetic relationship or the loan, but indicates that the loan of the entire system of numerals is rare (but has known to occur such as the case of

Middle Chinese Middle Chinese (formerly known as Ancient Chinese) or the Qieyun system (QYS) is the historical variety of Chinese recorded in the '' Qieyun'', a rime dictionary first published in 601 and followed by several revised and expanded editions. The ...

numeral being borrowed wholesale into Vietnamese, Japanese, Korean and Thai). Joseba Lakarra (2010) has rejected both hypotheses: loan or genetic relationship. Lakarra’s arguments focus almost exclusively on the field of Basque historical grammar, but also arguments, following de Hoz (1993) hypothesis, that the hypothesis of the borrowing has already turned out implausible due to the limited and remote extension of the territory where Iberian was spoken as first language in South-East Spain. Javier de Hoz (2011, pp. 196–198) considers plausible the internal contextual and combinatorial arguments that would support the hypothesis that these Iberian elements could be interpreted as numerals. In fact, concerning the specific values, he considers valid the proposed equivalences between Iberian with 'one' and between Iberian with 'half', according to the marks of value found in coins, while he considers that the rest of the proposed equivalences are a working hypothesis. Regarding the equivalence between the possible Iberian numerals and the Basque numerals, he agrees with Lakarra (2010) that the shape of the documented Iberian forms does not fit the expected Proto-Basque forms. Finally, he considers that the greatest difficulty in accepting this hypothesis is, paradoxically, its extent and systematic nature, because if it was correct, it would result in a close relationship between Iberian and Basque, which should allow the identification of other relationships between Iberian and Basque subsystems, as clearly as this one, relationships that no investigator using reasonable linguistic arguments has been able to identify. Eduardo Orduña (2011) insists that the Iberian elements proposed as numerals are not only similar to the Basque numerals, but also combine as numerals and appear in contexts where numerals are expected. He observes Lakarra (2010) not dispute these arguments either does de Hoz (2010) As regards the de Hoz hypothesis about considering the Iberian language as a lingua franca, Orduña remarks its hypothetical character, although Lakarra presents that hypothesis as an established fact. The problems of this hypothesis have been collected by Ferrer (2013) in a later work. Regarding the phonetic difficulties indicated by Lakarra, Orduña argues that its proposals are compatible with the Proto-Basque reconstructed of Michelena, which is for chronology and security the reconstruction that an iberist has to consider, while the hypothesis of internal Basque reconstruction of Lakarra has a vague chronology and a much lower degree of security. Finally, contrary to his first opinion in favor of the loan, concludes that the most economical hypothesis to explain the similarities between the Iberian numeral system and the Basque numeral system is the genetic relationship. Francisco Villar (2014, 259) notes that the similarities between Iberian numerals and Basque numerals are of the same order as those documented among Indo-European languages and consequently argues that the only sustainable hypothesis at this point is the genetic relationship between Iberian and Basque. Villar also believes that if the reconstruction of Proto-Basque proposed by Lakarra (2010) is incompatible with the evidence derived from the numerals, the reconstruction must be corrected, as like all reconstructions, is hypothetical and perfectible.

Notes

Bibliography

General works

* Anderson, James, M. (1988) ''Ancient Languages of the Hispanic Peninsula'', University Press of America, New York, * Ballester, Xaverio (2005
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Revista de Estudios Ibéricos 3, pp. 127–151. :(2001) ''Hacia una tipología del ibérico'', Religión, lengua y cultura preromanas de Hispania, pp. 335–362. :(2011) ''Historia lingüística de la Península Ibérica en la Antigüedad II. El mundo ibérico prerromano y la indoeuropeización'', Madrid, . * Panosa Domingo, Mª. Isabel (1999) ''La escritura ibérica en Cataluña y su contexto socioeconómico (siglos V-I a. C.)'', Argitalpen Zerbitzua, Euskal Herriko Unibertsitatea, Vitoria-Gasteiz, . * Rodríguez Ramos, Jesús (2004) ''Análisis de Epigrafía Íbera'', Vitoria-Gasteiz, . * Untermann, Jürgen :(1980) ''Monumenta Linguarum Hispanicarum II: Die Inschriften in iberischer Schrift in Südfrankreich'', Reichert Verlag, Wiesbaden, . :(1990) ''Monumenta Linguarum Hispanicarum. III Die iberischen Inschriften aus Spanien'', Reichert Verlag, Wiesbaden, . :(1996) ''Los plomos ibéricos: estado actual de su interpretación'', Estudios de lenguas y epigrafía antiguas – ELEA 2, pp. 75–108. :(2001) ''Die vorrömischen Sprachen der iberischen Halbinsel. Wege und Aporien bei ihrer Entzifferung'', Westdeutscher Verlag, Wiesbaden, . :(2005) ''La lengua ibérica en el sur de Francia'' in Oriol Mercadal Fernández (coord) ''Món ibèric : als Països Catalans : XIII Col•loqui Internacional d'Arqueologia de Puigcerdà : homenatge a Josep Barberà i Farràs : Puigcerdà, 14 i 15 de novembre de 2003'' Vol. 2, , pp. 1083–1100. * Valladolid Moya, Juana (1997) ''La epigrafía ibérica: estado actual de los estudios'', Tempus. Revista de Actualización Científica, 17, pp. 5–53. * Velaza, Javier (1996) ''Epigrafía y lengua ibéricas'', Barcelona.

Iberian writing

* Correa Rodríguez, José Antonio (2004) ''Los semisilabarios ibéricos: algunas cuestiones'', Estudios de lenguas y epigrafía Antiguas – ELEA 5, 75-98. * de Hoz Bravo, Javier :(1985–86) ''La escritura greco-ibérica'' , Veleia 2-3, pp. 285–298 :(1989) ''El desarrollo de la escritura y las lenguas de la zona meridional'', Tartessos: Arqueología protohistórica del bajo Guadalquivir, pp. 523–587. * Ferrer i Jané, Joan (2005
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Lexicon, phonology and grammar

* Ballester, Xaverio :(2001) ''Fono(tipo)logía de las (con)sonantes (celt)ibéricas'', Religión, lengua y cultura prerromanas de Hispania, 287-303, Salamanca. :(2003) ''El acento en la reconstrucción lingüística: el caso ibérico'', Palaeohispánica 3, pp. 43–57 * Correa Rodríguez, José Antonio :(1994) ''La transcripción de las vibrantes en la escriptura paleohispanica'', Archivo de Prehistoria Levantina 21, pp. 337–341. :(1999) ''Las nasales en ibérico'', Pueblos, lenguas y escrituras en la Hispania preromana, pp. 375–396, Salamanca. :(2001) ''Las silbantes en ibérico'', in Francisco Villar, María Pilar Fernández Alvárez (coords) ''Religión, lengua y cultura prerromanas de Hispania'' , pp. 305–318. * de Hoz Bravo, Javier :(1981) ''Algunas precisiones sobre textos metrológicos ibéricos'', Archivo de Prehitoria Levantina 40, pp. 475–486. :(2002) ''El complejo sufijal -(e)sken de la lengua ibérica'', Palaeohispánica 2, pp. 159–168 :(2003) ''Las sibilantes ibéricas'', in S. Marchesini & P. Poccetti (eds) ''Linguistica è storia. Sprachwissenschaft ist Geschichte. Scritti in onore di Carlo de Simone'', Pisa, 85-97. * Faria António M. de :(2007
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* Ferrer i Jané, Joan. :(2006
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''Sistemes de marques de valor lèxiques sobre monedes ibèriques''
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* Lakarra Joseba (2010) ''Haches, diptongos y otros detalles de alguna importancia: notas sobre numerales (proto)vascos y comparación vasco-ibérica (con un apéndice sobre hiri y otro sobre bat-bi)'', Veleia 27, pp. 191–238. * Luján Martínez, Eugenio Ramón (2005
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doctoral dissertation, UB-Barcelona. * Orduña Aznar, Eduardo :(2005
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''Segmentación de textos ibéricos y distribución de los segmentos''
doctoral dissertation, UNED-Madrid (unpublished doctoral dissertation). :(2008
''Ergatividad en ibérico''
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', Cypsela 14, pp. 251–275. :(2002b)
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''Sobre los fonemas sibilantes de la lengua íbera''
Habis 35, pp. 135–150 * Siles Ruiz, Jaime (1985) ''Léxico de inscripciones ibéricas'', Ministerio de Cultura, Dirección General de Bellas Artes y Archivos, Madrid, . * Silgo Gauche, Luis :(1994) ''Léxico Ibérico'', Estudios de Lenguas y Epigrafía Antiguas – ELEA, ISSN 1135-5026, Nº. 1, pages 1–271. :(2007
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* Untermann, Jürgen :(1984) ''Inscripciones sepulcrales ibéricas'', Cuadernos de prehistoria y arqueología Castellonenses 10, pp. 111–120 :(1985–1986) ''Las gramática de los plomos ibéricos'', Veleia 2-3, pp. 35–56. :(1998
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''Über den Umgang mit iberischen Bilinguen''
in E. Seebold, W. Schindler & J. Untermann ''Grippe, Kamm und Eulenspiegel: Festschrift für Elmar Seebold zum 65. Geburtstag'' , pp. 349–358. * Velaza Frías, Javier :(1991) ''Léxico de inscripciones ibéricas: (1976–1989)'', Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, . :(1994
''Iberisch EBAN TEBAN''
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''Tras las huellas del femenino en ibérico: una hipótesis de trabajo''
''Palaeohispánica 6'', pp. 247–254

Origins and relationships

* Ballester, Xaverio (2001) ''Las adfinitas de las lenguas aquitania e ibérica'' Palaeohispánica 1, 2001 , pp. 21–33. * Ferrer i Jané, Joan (2013
''Los problemas de la hipótesis de la lengua ibérica como lengua vehicular''
''E.L.E.A''. 13, 115-157. * de Hoz Bravo, Javier (1993) ''La lengua y la escritura ibéricas y las lenguas de los iberos, Lengua y cultura en Hispania prerromana : actas del V Coloquio sobre lenguas y culturas de la Península Ibérica : (Colonia 25-28 de Noviembre de 1989)'' (Francisco Villar and Jürgen Untermann, eds.), , Salamanca, pp. 635–666. * Gorrochategui Churruca, Joaquín (1993) ''La onomástica aquitana y su relación con la ibérica'', Lengua y cultura en Hispania prerromana : actas del V Coloquio sobre lenguas y culturas de la Península Ibérica : (Colonia 25-28 de Noviembre de 1989) (Francisco Villar and Jürgen Untermann, eds.), , Salamanca, pp. 609–634. * Rodríguez Ramos, Jesús :(2001
''La cultura ibérica desde la perspectiva de la epigrafía: un ensayo de síntesis''
Iberia: Revista de la Antigüedad 4, pp. 17–38. :(2002
''La hipótesis del vascoiberismo desde el punto de vista de la epigrafía íbera''
Fontes linguae vasconum: Studia et documenta, 90, pp. 197–218, ISSN 0046-435X. * Velaza Frías, Javier (2006
''Lengua vs. cultura material: el (viejo) problema de la lengua indígena de Cataluña''
Actes de la III Reunió Internacional d'Arqueologia de Calafell (Calafell, 25 al 27 de novembre de 2004), Arqueo Mediterrània 9, 273-280. * Villar, Francisco (2014)
''Indoeuropeos, iberos, vascos y sus parientes, Estratigrafía y cronología de las poblaciones prehistóricas''
Universidad de Salamanca, Estudios Filológicos.

External links

* ttps://www.academia.edu/6248151/La_lengua_y_las_escrituras_ib%C3%A9ricas ''La lengua y las escrituras ibéricas'' a self-published book by Francisco Castillo Pina 009, Valencia,
Interesting reproductions of many different inscriptions and its transcription. Iberian alphabets. In Spanish
{{DEFAULTSORT:Iberian Language Paleohispanic languages Pre-Indo-Europeans Unclassified languages of Europe Extinct languages of Europe Languages extinct in the 1st century Extinct languages of Spain