Hispano-Celtic language
Encyclopedia
Hispano-Celtic is a hypernym
to include all the linguistic varieties of Celtic spoken in the Iberian Peninsula before the arrival of the Romans (in c. 218 BC, during the Second Punic War):
The Western Celtic varieties of the Iberian Peninsula share with Celtiberian a sufficient core of distinctive and probably innovative features to justify Hispano-Celtic as a term for a linguistic sub-family as opposed to a purely geographical classification. In Naturalis Historia 3.13 Pliny states that the Celtici
(of south-west Hispania) and Celtiberians
shared common religions, languages, and names for their fortified settlements: Celticos a Celtiberia...aduenisse manifestum est sacris, lingua, oppidum uocubilis.... However, the Celtic of the western coastal Iberia, especially in those areas under Phoenician influence, appear to have participated at an early date in linguistic innovations taking part in various parts of the wider Celtic-speaking world as a result of the rapid economic and social development of the 10th-6th centuries BC. Such a situation favored the mixing of dialects and acceptance of some innovative features within the resulting lingua-franca.
As part of the effort to establish an Hispano-Celtic dialect continuum, Lujan (2007) attempted to differentiate the Vettonian Hispano-Celtic dialect from the neighboring Lusitanian language using the personal names of the Vettones
to describe the following Celtic sound changes (Proto-Indo-European to Proto-Celtic):
Hypernym
In linguistics, a hyponym is a word or phrase whose semantic field is included within that of another word, its hypernym . In simpler terms, a hyponym shares a type-of relationship with its hypernym...
to include all the linguistic varieties of Celtic spoken in the Iberian Peninsula before the arrival of the Romans (in c. 218 BC, during the Second Punic War):
- a more easterly, inland language attested at a relatively late date in the extensive corpus of CeltiberianCeltiberian languageCeltiberian is an extinct Indo-European language of the Celtic branch spoken by the Celtiberians in an area of the Iberian Peninsula lyingbetween the headwaters of the Duero, Tajo, Júcar and Turia rivers and the Ebro river...
. This variety, which Cólera proposed to name northeastern Hispano-Celtic, has long been synonymous with the term Hispano-Celtic and is universally accepted as a Celtic language.
- a more westerly variety of the Atlantic zone (to the west of an imaginary line running north-south and linking Oviedo and Mérida), where there is a corpus of Latin inscriptions containing some linguistic features that are clearly Celtic (GallaecianGallaecian languageThe Northwestern Hispano-Celtic, Gallaecian or Gallaic, is classified as a Q-Celtic language under the P-Q system and was closely related to Celtiberian...
). To this more meagrely attested variety, which Cólera proposed to name northwestern Hispano-Celtic, could possibly be added earlier inscriptions on stelae from the southwest of the Peninsula which some researchers believe represent a Celtic language (TartessianTartessian languageThe Tartessian language is the extinct Paleohispanic language of inscriptions in the Southwestern script found in the southwest of the Iberian Peninsula: mainly in the south of Portugal , but also in Spain . There are 95 of these inscriptions with the longest having 82 readable signs...
). This widespread material is likely to represent more than one dialect, for example, numerous examples of genitives plural in -um and -on, as well as -un, and there is at least one inscription with the datives plural in -bor. Western Hispano-Celtic is a term now used to group this western Atlantic-side spectrum of dialects.
The Western Celtic varieties of the Iberian Peninsula share with Celtiberian a sufficient core of distinctive and probably innovative features to justify Hispano-Celtic as a term for a linguistic sub-family as opposed to a purely geographical classification. In Naturalis Historia 3.13 Pliny states that the Celtici
Celtici
]The Celtici were a Celtic tribe or group of tribes of the Iberian peninsula, inhabiting three definite areas: in what today are the provinces of Alentejo and the Algarve in Portugal; in the Province of Badajoz and north of Province of Huelva in Spain, in the ancient Baeturia; and along the...
(of south-west Hispania) and Celtiberians
Celtiberians
The Celtiberians were Celtic-speaking people of the Iberian Peninsula in the final centuries BC. The group used the Celtic Celtiberian language.Archaeologically, the Celtiberians participated in the Hallstatt culture in what is now north-central Spain...
shared common religions, languages, and names for their fortified settlements: Celticos a Celtiberia...aduenisse manifestum est sacris, lingua, oppidum uocubilis.... However, the Celtic of the western coastal Iberia, especially in those areas under Phoenician influence, appear to have participated at an early date in linguistic innovations taking part in various parts of the wider Celtic-speaking world as a result of the rapid economic and social development of the 10th-6th centuries BC. Such a situation favored the mixing of dialects and acceptance of some innovative features within the resulting lingua-franca.
As part of the effort to establish an Hispano-Celtic dialect continuum, Lujan (2007) attempted to differentiate the Vettonian Hispano-Celtic dialect from the neighboring Lusitanian language using the personal names of the Vettones
Vettones
The Vettones were one of the pre-Roman Celtic peoples of the Iberian Peninsula .- Origins :...
to describe the following Celtic sound changes (Proto-Indo-European to Proto-Celtic):
- * to occurs in Enimarus, which is Celtic.
- * to in final syllables is indicated by the suffix of e.g. Abrunus, Caurunius.
- * to is attested in genitive singular Riuei.
- * to an appears in Argantonius.
- * to am in names with Amb-.
- * to b is attested in names like Bouius, derived from *ow- meaning 'cow'.
- * in PIE *peros meaning 'oak' appears in a lenited form in the name Erguena.
- * to is attested in:
- *peros to er- in Erguena (see previous).
- *plab- to lab- in Laboina.
- *uper- to ur- in Uralus and Urocius.
- However * is preserved in Cupiena, a Vettonian name not attested in Lusitania, also in names like Pinara while *-pl- probably developed into -bl- in names like Ableca.
See also
- Celtiberian languageCeltiberian languageCeltiberian is an extinct Indo-European language of the Celtic branch spoken by the Celtiberians in an area of the Iberian Peninsula lyingbetween the headwaters of the Duero, Tajo, Júcar and Turia rivers and the Ebro river...
- Gallaecian languageGallaecian languageThe Northwestern Hispano-Celtic, Gallaecian or Gallaic, is classified as a Q-Celtic language under the P-Q system and was closely related to Celtiberian...
- List of Galician words of Celtic origin
- Tartessian languageTartessian languageThe Tartessian language is the extinct Paleohispanic language of inscriptions in the Southwestern script found in the southwest of the Iberian Peninsula: mainly in the south of Portugal , but also in Spain . There are 95 of these inscriptions with the longest having 82 readable signs...
- Continental Celtic languagesContinental Celtic languagesThe Continental Celtic languages are the Celtic languages, now extinct, that were spoken on the continent of Europe, as distinguished from the Insular Celtic languages of Britain and Ireland. The Continental Celtic languages were spoken by the people known to Roman and Greek writers as Keltoi,...
- Celtic languagesCeltic languagesThe Celtic languages are descended from Proto-Celtic, or "Common Celtic"; a branch of the greater Indo-European language family...
- Paleohispanic languagesPaleohispanic languagesThe Paleohispanic 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...