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Extinct Celtic language of Iberia From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Celtiberian or Northeastern Hispano-Celtic is an extinct Indo-European language of the Celtic branch spoken by the Celtiberians in an area of the Iberian Peninsula between the headwaters of the Douro, Tagus, Júcar and Turia rivers and the Ebro river. This language is directly attested in nearly 200 inscriptions dated from the 2nd century BC to the 1st century AD, mainly in Celtiberian script, a direct adaptation of the northeastern Iberian script, but also in the Latin alphabet. The longest extant Celtiberian inscriptions are those on three Botorrita plaques, bronze plaques from Botorrita near Zaragoza, dating to the early 1st century BC, labeled Botorrita I, III and IV (Botorrita II is in Latin). Shorter and more fragmentary is the Novallas bronze tablet.[2]
| Celtiberian | |
|---|---|
| Northeastern Hispano-Celtic | |
| Native to | Iberian Peninsula |
| Ethnicity | Celtiberians |
| Extinct | attested 2nd century BC – 1st century AD[1] |
| Celtiberian script | |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | xce |
xce | |
| Glottolog | celt1247 |
 | |
Under the P/Q Celtic hypothesis, and like its Iberian relative Gallaecian, Celtiberian is classified as a Q Celtic language, putting it in the same category as Goidelic and not P-Celtic like Gaulish or Brittonic.[3]
Under the Insular/Continental Celtic hypothesis, Celtiberian and Gaulish are grouped together as Continental Celtic languages but this grouping is paraphyletic: no evidence suggests the two shared any common innovation separately from Insular Celtic. According to Ranko Matasovic in the introduction to his 2009 Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Celtic : "Celtiberian...is almost certainly an independent branch on the Celtic genealogical tree, one that became separated from the others very early."[4]
Celtiberian has a fully inflected relative pronoun ios (as does, for instance, Ancient Greek), an ancient feature that was not preserved by the other Celtic languages, and the particles -kue 'and' < *kʷe (cf. Latin -que, Attic Greek τε te), nekue 'nor' < *ne-kʷe (cf. Latin neque), ekue 'also, as well' < *h₂et(i)-kʷe (cf. Lat. atque, Gaulish ate, OIr. aith 'again'), ve "or" (cf. Latin enclitic -ve and Attic Greek ἤ ē < Proto-Greek *ē-we). As in Welsh, there is an s-subjunctive, gabiseti "he shall take" (Old Irish gabid), robiseti, auseti. Compare Umbrian ferest "he/she/it shall make" or Ancient Greek δείξῃ deiksēi (aorist subj.) / δείξει deiksei (future ind.) "(that) he/she/it shall show".
 | This section needs additional citations for verification. (May 2020) |
Celtiberian was a Celtic language that shows the characteristic sound changes of Celtic languages such as:[5]
Final *-m is preserved in Celtiberian (and Lepontic), a further indication of these dialects' conservatism. It is generally fronted to -n in Gaulish (exceptional cases, for instance on the Larzac tablet, are probably due to influence from Latin): boustom "stable."[10]
| Case | Singular | Plural | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ā-stem | o-stem | i-stem | u-stem | r-stem | ā-stem | o-stem | i-stem | u-stem | r-stem | ||
| Nominative | *arznā | *veizos / *vamos (n. *-om) | *gentis | *loutus | duater | *arznās / *arznī | *veizoi (n *-a) | *gentis | *loutoves | *duateres | |
| Accusative | *arznām | *veizom | *gentim | *loutum | *duaterem | *arznās < -*ams | *veizus < *-ōs < -*oms | *gentīs < -*ims | *loutūs < -*ums | *duaterēs < -*ems | |
| Genitive | *arznās | *veizo | *gentes[15] | ? | *duateros | *arznaum | *veizum < *weidʰ-y-ōm | *gentizum < *isōm | *loutoum < *ewōm | ? | |
| Dative | *arznāi | *veizūi < *weidʰ-y-ōi | *gentei | *loutuei[16] | ? | ? | *veizubos | ? | ? | ? | |
| Ablative | *arznaz[17] | *veizuz < *weidʰ-y-ōd / *vamuz < *up-m̥ōd | *gentiz | *loutuez | *duaterez < -*ed | ? | *veizubos | ? | ? | ? | |
| Locative | *arznai | *veizei | *gentei | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | |
An -n- stem can be seen in melmu nom.sg. < *-ōn, melmunos gen. sg. (from Botorrita III, probably a name).
It is notable that the genitive singular -o- stem ends in -o in Celtiberian, unlike the rest of Celtic (and Italic) where this ending is -ī [20][21]
There is also a potential Vocative case, however this is very poorly attested, with only an ambiguous -e ending for o-stem nouns being cited in literature.
| Case | Singular | Plural | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| masculine | feminine | neuter | masculine | feminine | neuter | ||
| Nominative | *so: so viros 'this man' | *sa: sa duater 'this daughter' | *soz: soz bezom < *so-d *bʰedʰ-yom 'this mine'. | *sos < *so-s ? | *sas < *sa-s ? | *soizos < so-syos < *so-sy-os ? | |
| Accusative | *som: 'to this' | *sam: 'to this' | *sozom < *so-sy-om? | *sus < *sōs < *so-ms | *sās < *sa-ms | *soizus < so-syōs < *so-sy-oms ?? | |
| Genitive | ? | ? | ? | soum < *so-ōm 'of these' | saum < *sa-ōm 'of these' | soizum < *so-sy-ōm 'of these' | |
| Dative | somui < *so-sm-ōi 'for this' | somai < *so-sm-ai 'for this' | ? | ? | ? | ? | |
| Locative | somei < *so-sm-ei 'from this' | samei < *sa-sm-ei 'from this' | ? | ? | ? | ? | |
Forms of the masculine singular relative pronoun *yo- can be found in the first Botorrita plaque: The form io-s in line 10 is the nominative singular masculine of the relative pronoun from Proto-Indo-European *yo- (Sanskrit ya-, Greek hos), which shows up in Old Irish only as the aspiration[clarification needed] for leniting relative verb forms. Line 7 has the accusative singular io-m and the dative singular io-mui of the same root.[23]
The Indo-European third person verbal ending system seems to be evident, though the exact meaning of many verbs remains unclear: primary singular active *-ti in ambitise-ti (Botorrita I, A.5), '(that someone) builds around > encloses' from *h₂m̥bhi-dʰingʰ-s-e-ti, and auzeti, secondary *-t > /θ/ written <z> in terbere-z (SP.02.08, B-4) and perhaps kombalke-z; primary plural active *-nti in ara-nti (Z.09.24, A-4) and zizonti "they sow" (or perhaps "they give" with assimilation of the initial do the medial <z>),[24] secondary *-nt perhaps in atibio-n (Z.09.24, A-5), middle voice *-nto in auzanto (Z.09.03, 01) and perhaps esianto (SP.02.08 A-2).[25]
A third person imperative *-tо̄d > -tuz perhaps is seen in da-tuz "he must give" (Bronze plaque of Torrijo del Campo), usabituz, bize-tuz (Botorrita I A.5) and dinbituz 'he must build' < *dʰingʰ-bī-tōd.
A possible third person singular subjunctive -a-ti may be asekati, and another in -e-ti may be seen in auzeti < *aw-dhh1-e-ti "he may bestow."[26]
From the same root, we may have a truncated form of an athematic active third person singular aorist if auz is from *auzaz < *aw-dh h1-t.[27]
Also from the same root, an example of the genitive plural of the present active participle ending -nt-om may be found on the Novallas bronze tablet in audintum < *awdheh1-nt-ōm.[28]
Possible infinitive form -u-nei perhaps from *-mn-ei may be seen in ambi-tinko-unei (Botorrita I A.5), and in ta-unei ‘to give’,[29][30] a reduplicated infinitive form in ti-za-unei if from *dhi-dhh1-mn-ei "to place."[31]
Celtiberian syntax is considered to have the basic order subject–object–verb.[32] Another archaic Indo-European feature is the use of the relative pronoun jos and the repetition of enclitised conjunctions such as kwe.
One of four bronze plaques found in Botorrita, this text was written in eastern Celtiberian script. The other side consists of a list of names. (K.01.01.A)
An inscription in the Latin alphabet in the Celtiberian sanctuary of Peñalba de Villastar, in the current municipality of Villastar, Teruel province. (K.03.03) Other translations, which differ dramatically from this and from each other, may be found in P. Sims-Williams' treatment of the Celtic languages in The Indo-European Languages.[35]
A bronze plaque found in Torrijo del Campo, Teruel province in 1996, using the eastern Celtiberian script.
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