The southeastern Iberian script, also known as Meridional Iberian, was one of the means of written expression for the

Iberian language The Iberian language is the language of an indigenous western European people identified by Ancient Greece, Greek and ancient Rome, Roman sources who lived in the eastern and southeastern regions of the Iberian Peninsula in the pre-Migration Era ...

, which was primarily written in the northeastern Iberian script and, to a lesser extent, by the Greco-Iberian alphabet. In understanding the relationship between the northeastern and southeastern Iberian scripts, some note that they are two distinct scripts with different values assigned to the same signs. However, they share a common origin, and the most widely accepted hypothesis is that the northeastern Iberian script was derived from the southeastern Iberian script. In fact, the southeastern Iberian script is very similar to the

Southwestern script The Southwest Script, also known as Southwestern Script, Tartessian, South Lusitanian, and Conii script, is a Paleohispanic script used to write an unknown language typically identified as Tartessian. Southwest inscriptions have been found p ...

, which is used to represent an unknown language typically referred to as Tartessian, both in terms of the shape of the signs and their values. The main difference is that the southeastern Iberian script does not exhibit the vocalic redundancy found in the syllabic signs of the northeastern Iberian script. Unlike the northeastern Iberian script, the decipherment of the southeastern Iberian script is not yet complete, as there are a significant number of signs on which scholars have not yet reached a consensus. Although it is believed that the southeastern Iberian script does not have a system to differentiate between

voiced Voice or voicing is a term used in phonetics and phonology to characterize speech sounds (usually consonants). Speech sounds can be described as either voiceless (otherwise known as ''unvoiced'') or voiced. The term, however, is used to refe ...

and

unvoiced In linguistics, voicelessness is the property of sounds being pronounced without the larynx vibrating. Phonologically, it is a type of phonation, which contrasts with other states of the larynx, but some object that the word phonation implies vo ...

occlusives, a recent paper (Ferrer i Jané 2010) argues for the existence of a dual system in the southeastern Iberian script as well.

Typology and variants

All the

Paleohispanic scripts The Paleohispanic scripts are the writing systems created in the Iberian Peninsula before the Latin alphabet became the dominant script. They derive from the Phoenician alphabet, with the exception of the Greco-Iberian alphabet, which is ...

, with the exception of the Greco-Iberian alphabet, share a common distinctive typological characteristic: they represent syllabic values for the occlusives and monophonemic values for the other

consonants In articulatory phonetics, a consonant is a speech sound that is articulated with complete or partial closure of the vocal tract, except for the h sound, which is pronounced without any stricture in the vocal tract. Examples are and pronou ...

and

vowels A vowel is a speech sound pronounced without any stricture in the vocal tract, forming the nucleus of a syllable. Vowels are one of the two principal classes of speech sounds, the other being the consonant. Vowels vary in quality, in loudness a ...

. From the perspective of

writing systems A writing system comprises a set of symbols, called a ''script'', as well as the rules by which the script represents a particular language. The earliest writing appeared during the late 4th millennium BC. Throughout history, each independe ...

, they are neither

alphabets An alphabet is a standard set of letter (alphabet), letters written to represent particular sounds in a spoken language. Specifically, letters largely correspond to phonemes as the smallest sound segments that can distinguish one word from a ...

nor

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

; rather, they are mixed scripts that are typically identified as semi-syllabaries. There is no consensus on how the

originated; some researchers conclude that their origin is linked solely to the

Phoenician alphabet The Phoenician alphabet is an abjad (consonantal alphabet) used across the Mediterranean civilization of Phoenicia for most of the 1st millennium BC. It was one of the first alphabets, attested in Canaanite and Aramaic inscriptions fo ...

, while others believe that the

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

also exerted some influence.

Location of findings

The inscriptions that use the southeastern Iberian script have been found primarily in the southeastern quadrant of the

Iberian Peninsula The Iberian Peninsula ( ), also known as Iberia, is a peninsula in south-western Europe. Mostly separated from the rest of the European landmass by the Pyrenees, it includes the territories of peninsular Spain and Continental Portugal, comprisin ...

, including eastern

Andalusia Andalusia ( , ; , ) is the southernmost autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community in Peninsular Spain, located in the south of the Iberian Peninsula, in southwestern Europe. It is the most populous and the second-largest autonomou ...

Murcia Murcia ( , , ) is a city in south-eastern Spain, the Capital (political), capital and most populous city of the autonomous community of the Region of Murcia, and the Ranked lists of Spanish municipalities#By population, seventh largest city i ...

Albacete Albacete ( , , ) 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, the area around the city is known as Los Llan ...

Alicante Alicante (, , ; ; ; officially: ''/'' ) is a city and municipalities of Spain, municipality in the Valencian Community, Spain. It is the capital of the province of Alicante and a historic Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean port. The population ...

, and

Valencia Valencia ( , ), formally València (), is the capital of the Province of Valencia, province and Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Valencian Community, the same name in Spain. It is located on the banks of the Turia (r ...

. These inscriptions were made on various types of objects, such as

silver Silver is a chemical element; it has Symbol (chemistry), symbol Ag () and atomic number 47. A soft, whitish-gray, lustrous transition metal, it exhibits the highest electrical conductivity, thermal conductivity, and reflectivity of any metal. ...

and

bronze Bronze is an alloy consisting primarily of copper, commonly with about 12–12.5% tin and often with the addition of other metals (including aluminium, manganese, nickel, or zinc) and sometimes non-metals (such as phosphorus) or metalloid ...

coins, silver and

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, porcela ...

vessels,

lead Lead () is a chemical element; it has Chemical symbol, symbol Pb (from Latin ) and atomic number 82. It is a Heavy metal (elements), heavy metal that is density, denser than most common materials. Lead is Mohs scale, soft and Ductility, malleabl ...

plaques, stones, and more. However, they number around 50, representing only about 2% of the total finds. Among them are the lead plaque from Gador (

Almería Almería (, , ) is a city and municipalities in Spain, municipality of Spain, located in Andalusia. It is the capital of the province of Almería, province of the same name. It lies in southeastern Iberian Peninsula, Iberia on the Mediterranean S ...

) and the lead plaque from La Bastida de les Alcuses ( Moixent,

). The inscriptions in this script almost always follow a right-to-left direction of writing. The oldest inscriptions in the southeastern Iberian script date to the 4th century BCE, while the most recent ones date from the end of the 2nd century BCE.

Notes

Bibliography

* Correa, José Antonio (2004): «Los semisilabarios ibéricos: algunas cuestiones», ''ELEA'' 4, pp. 75–98. * Ferrer i Jané, Joan (2010)
«El sistema dual de l'escriptura ibèrica sud-oriental»
''Veleia'' 27, pp. 69–113. * Hoz, Javier de (1989): «El desarrollo de la escritura y las lenguas de la zona meridional», ''Tartessos'', pp. 523–587. * Rodríguez Ramos, Jesús (2002): «La escritura ibérica meridional», ''Zephyrus'' 55, pp. 231–245. * Untermann, Jürgen (1990): '' Monumenta Linguarum Hispanicarum. III Die iberischen Inschriften aus Spanien'', Wiesbaden. * Velaza, Javier (1996): ''Epigrafía y lengua ibéricas'', Barcelona.

External links

The meridional Iberian writing - Jesús Rodríguez Ramos
{{list of writing systems Writing systems Culture of Spain Iberian writing no:Iberisk alfabet ru:Иберское письмо

Typology and variants

Location of findings

See also

Notes

Bibliography

External links