Paleohispanic languages

Paleohispanic languages according to inscriptions (except Aquitanian – according to anthroponyms and theonyms used in Latin inscriptions).

Pre-Roman languages of Iberia by 300 BCE [1].

The 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. After the Roman conquest of Hispania the Paleohispanic languages, with the exception of Proto-Basque, were replaced by Latin, the ancestor of the modern Iberian Romance languages.

Languages

Some of these languages were documented directly through inscriptions, mainly in Paleohispanic scripts, 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.

• Iberian language
• Celtiberian
• Gallaecian
• Tartessian
• Lusitanian
• Aquitanian
• Sorothaptic

Other Paleohispanic languages can only be identified indirectly through toponyms, anthroponyms or theonyms cited by Roman and Greek sources.

Classification

Of these languages, Celtiberian, Gallaecian, Lusitanian, and presumably Sorothaptic were Indo-European languages; Celtiberian and Gallaecian were Celtic languages, and Lusitanian might have been, but the hypothetical Sorothaptic was not. Aquitanian was a precursor of Basque, while Tartessian and Iberian remain unclassified.

See also

• Iberian languages
• Languages of Spain
• Languages of Portugal
• Hispano-Celtic languages
• Vasconic substratum theory

Further reading

• 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.
• 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.
• Velaza, Javier (1996): Epigrafía y lengua ibéricas, Barcelona.

External links

• Pre-roman languages and writing systems from Spain and Portugal – Jesús Rodríguez Ramos
• Detailed map of the Pre-Roman Peoples of Iberia (around 200 BC)