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 .
47-534: 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 . Under the Insular/Continental Celtic hypothesis , Celtiberian and Gaulish are grouped together as Continental Celtic languages but this grouping is paraphyletic : no evidence suggests
94-499: A Latin legal concept whereby the space of two and a half feet must be left by every property owner on each side of any boundary, totalling five feet (the quantity mentioned in the Twelve Tables —see above). In line 7, Jordán Cólera proposes that the form CABINT is a third person plural present indicative or possibly optative form of a verb related to Old Irish gabaid "take." And he takes SAM BEDAM to be 'this mine' or some such, with
141-614: A branch of the Indo-European language family , descended from Proto-Celtic . The term "Celtic" was first used to describe this language group by Edward Lhuyd in 1707, following Paul-Yves Pezron , who made the explicit link between the Celts described by classical writers and the Welsh and Breton languages. During the first millennium BC, Celtic languages were spoken across much of Europe and central Anatolia . Today, they are restricted to
188-466: A common Italo-Celtic subfamily. This hypothesis fell somewhat out of favour after reexamination by American linguist Calvert Watkins in 1966. Irrespectively, some scholars such as Ringe, Warnow and Taylor and many others have argued in favour of an Italo-Celtic grouping in 21st century theses. Although there are many differences between the individual Celtic languages, they do show many family resemblances. Examples: The lexical similarity between
235-722: 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 . A bronze plaque found in Torrijo del Campo, Teruel province in 1996, using
282-491: A reduplicated infinitive form in ti-za-unei if from * di-dh 1 -mn-ei "to place." Celtiberian syntax is considered to have the basic order subject–object–verb . Another archaic Indo-European feature is the use of the relative pronoun jos and the repetition of enclitised conjunctions such as ke . One of four bronze plaques found in Botorrita , this text was written in eastern Celtiberian script . The other side consists of
329-481: A rich literary tradition . The earliest specimens of written Celtic are Lepontic inscriptions from the 6th century BC in the Alps. Early Continental inscriptions used Italic and Paleohispanic scripts. Between the 4th and 8th centuries, Irish and Pictish were occasionally written in an original script, Ogham , but Latin script came to be used for all Celtic languages. Welsh has had a continuous literary tradition from
376-460: A third." But it is more likely that these numbers refer to measurements of space (see below). This is comparable to the first line of the seventh table (dealing with land use) of the Latin Law of Twelve Tables : "...ownership within a 5-foot strip shall not be acquired by long usage." Following these apparent numerals IIS in line three is the phrase DVNDOM LITANOM (probably both masculine accusative)
423-474: Is almost certainly an independent branch on the Celtic genealogical tree, one that became separated from the others very early." The Breton language is Brittonic, not Gaulish, though there may be some input from the latter, having been introduced from Southwestern regions of Britain in the post-Roman era and having evolved into Breton. In the P/Q classification schema, the first language to split off from Proto-Celtic
470-403: 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". Celtiberian was a Celtic language that shows the characteristic sound changes of Celtic languages such as: Final *-m
517-562: Is an official language of Ireland and of the European Union . Welsh is the only Celtic language not classified as endangered by UNESCO . The Cornish and Manx languages became extinct in modern times but have been revived. Each now has several hundred second-language speakers. Irish, Manx and Scottish Gaelic form the Goidelic languages , while Welsh, Cornish and Breton are Brittonic . All of these are Insular Celtic languages , since Breton,
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#1732883506739564-406: Is not actually recorded until medieval times. Line 4: "The sequence II ECQVE S could also be borrowed from Latin, if II and S can be understood as a numeral and the abbreviation of semis ." So if ECQUE reflects L. etque "and" this could mean "two and a half." This along with IIS in line 3 directly above could be referring to the Latin sestertius which originally meant "two asses (coins) and half of
611-560: 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." 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
658-591: Is still quite contested, and the main argument for Insular Celtic is connected with the development of verbal morphology and the syntax in Irish and British Celtic, which Schumacher regards as convincing, while he considers the P-Celtic/Q-Celtic division unimportant and treats Gallo-Brittonic as an outdated theory. Stifter affirms that the Gallo-Brittonic view is "out of favour" in the scholarly community as of 2008 and
705-537: The 2000s led to the reemergence of native speakers for both languages following their adoption by adults and children. By the 21st century, there were roughly one million total speakers of Celtic languages, increasing to 1.4 million speakers by 2010. Gaelainn / Gaeilig / Gaeilic Celtic is divided into various branches: Scholarly handling of Celtic languages has been contentious owing to scarceness of primary source data. Some scholars (such as Cowgill 1975; McCone 1991, 1992; and Schrijver 1995) posit that
752-581: The 6th century AD. SIL Ethnologue lists six living Celtic languages, of which four have retained a substantial number of native speakers. These are: the Goidelic languages ( Irish and Scottish Gaelic , both descended from Middle Irish ) and the Brittonic languages ( Welsh and Breton , descended from Common Brittonic ). The other two, Cornish (Brittonic) and Manx (Goidelic), died out in modern times with their presumed last native speakers in 1777 and 1974 respectively. Revitalisation movements in
799-550: The Gallic and Brittonic languages are P-Celtic, while the Goidelic and Hispano-Celtic (or Celtiberian) languages are Q-Celtic. The P-Celtic languages (also called Gallo-Brittonic ) are sometimes seen (for example by Koch 1992) as a central innovating area as opposed to the more conservative peripheral Q-Celtic languages. According to Ranko Matasovic in the introduction to his 2009 Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Celtic : "Celtiberian ...
846-485: The Insular Celtic hypothesis "widely accepted". When referring only to the modern Celtic languages, since no Continental Celtic language has living descendants, "Q-Celtic" is equivalent to "Goidelic" and "P-Celtic" is equivalent to "Brittonic". How the family tree of the Celtic languages is ordered depends on which hypothesis is used: " Insular Celtic hypothesis " " P/Q-Celtic hypothesis " Eska evaluates
893-461: The Insular Celtic languages were probably not in great enough contact for those innovations to spread as part of a sprachbund . However, if they have another explanation (such as an SOV substratum language), then it is possible that P-Celtic is a valid clade, and the top branching would be: Within the Indo-European family, the Celtic languages have sometimes been placed with the Italic languages in
940-487: The Larzac piece of lead (1983), the analysis of which reveals another common phonetical innovation -nm- > -nu (Gaelic ainm / Gaulish anuana , Old Welsh enuein 'names'), that is less accidental than only one. The discovery of a third common innovation would allow the specialists to come to the conclusion of a Gallo-Brittonic dialect (Schmidt 1986; Fleuriot 1986). The interpretation of this and further evidence
987-454: The P-/Q-Celtic hypothesis. Proponents of each schema dispute the accuracy and usefulness of the other's categories. However, since the 1970s the division into Insular and Continental Celtic has become the more widely held view (Cowgill 1975; McCone 1991, 1992; Schrijver 1995), but in the middle of the 1980s, the P-/Q-Celtic theory found new supporters (Lambert 1994), because of the inscription on
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#17328835067391034-477: The Proto-Indo-European root * h 2 ew-d eh 1 - / * h 2 ew-d h 1 -o "grant, bestow, donate," specifically from the genitive plural of the present active participle of this verb: * h 2 ew-d eh 1 -nt-ōm "of the donating ones." Line 6. For BEDAS see below. Stifter claims MEDOM may be compared with Old Irish med ‘measure, balance’ and Welsh medd ‘authority’. In line 7, Jordán Cólera proposes that
1081-474: The announcement is to be made came in the lost part of the text before what we have legible to us. Lines 2, 3, 5, and 10: PUBL(ICUS), in lines two and five, apparently part of a full phrase ODUS PUBL(ICUS). The latter would seem to reflect the Latin phrase pedes publicos , 'feet of the people(?)' (with loss of p- as expected in Celtic, a loss not evidenced, though, in the following word!), presumably an official 'public' measurement, except that this Latin phrase
1128-674: The aspiration for leniting relative verb forms. Line 7 has the accusative singular io-m and the dative singular io-mui of the same root. 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 *h₂m̥bi-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
1175-530: The break-up much earlier at 3200 BC ± 1500 years. They support the Insular Celtic hypothesis. The early Celts were commonly associated with the archaeological Urnfield culture , the Hallstatt culture , and the La Tène culture , though the earlier assumption of association between language and culture is now considered to be less strong. There are legitimate scholarly arguments for both the Insular Celtic hypothesis and
1222-451: The different Celtic languages is apparent in their core vocabulary , especially in terms of actual pronunciation . Moreover, the phonetic differences between languages are often the product of regular sound change (i.e. lenition of /b/ into /v/ or Ø). Novallas bronze tablet The Novallas bronze tablet dates to the late first century BCE and is the longest known Celtiberian text in Latin orthography. Though fragmentary,
1269-560: The eastern Celtiberian script. Celtic languages#Classification Pontic Steppe Caucasus East Asia Eastern Europe Northern Europe Pontic Steppe Northern/Eastern Steppe Europe South Asia Steppe Europe Caucasus India Indo-Aryans Iranians East Asia Europe East Asia Europe Indo-Aryan Iranian Indo-Aryan Iranian Others European The Celtic languages ( / ˈ k ɛ l t ɪ k / KEL -tik ) are
1316-474: The evidence as supporting the following tree, based on shared innovations , though it is not always clear that the innovations are not areal features . It seems likely that Celtiberian split off before Cisalpine Celtic, but the evidence for this is not robust. On the other hand, the unity of Gaulish, Goidelic, and Brittonic is reasonably secure. Schumacher (2004, p. 86) had already cautiously considered this grouping to be likely genetic, based, among others, on
1363-406: The first form of which could either be again a Latin gerundive "thing to be given" (but it could also be Celtiberian, from the same root) apparently in agreement with the following Celtiberian form that could mean 'wide,' whatever that combination is supposed to mean. And following [--OD]AS II ECQVE S in line 4 is the phrase VAMVŚ LITANAṂ the first form of which seems to be a Celtiberian ablative of
1410-450: The form CABINT is a third person plural present indicative or possibly optitive form of a verb related to Old Irish gabaid "take." And he takes SAM BEDAM to be 'this mine' or some such, with the first form a feminine accusative singular of the Celtiberian (and Common Celtic) demonstrative, and the next form, agreeing with it, from PIE * bhedh - ‘dig,’ from which Lat. fodio, fossa , Breton béz ‘grave, pit’... n line 8, Stifter claims that
1457-414: The fragmentary DERNV- may be compared with words for ‘hand’ or ‘palm’ in other Celtic languages. Those that can be identified with some confidence include: Line 1: CASCA- probably refers to the ancient city of Cascantum, identified with the modern town of Cascante. Line 2: TERGAŚ is perhaps the ablative of the name of a town (so "from Terga") referred to on late 2nd century bce coins as terkakom ("of
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1504-445: The fragmentary nature of the text and our limited knowledge of Celtiberian, anything close to a full translation is impossible. But various place names and phrases can be recognized, with varying degrees of certainty. In line 2, the form DOIBIM is explained by Stifter as a dative dual * dou̯ibim ‘to the two.’ On DVNDOM LITANOM and VAMVŚ LITANAṂ on lines 3 and 4, see below. In line 5, for AVDITUM Jordán Cólera suggests an origin from
1551-598: The initial do the medial <z>), 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). 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-dh 1 -e-ti "he may bestow." From
1598-455: The northwestern fringe of Europe and a few diaspora communities . There are six living languages: the four continuously living languages Breton , Irish , Scottish Gaelic and Welsh , and the two revived languages Cornish and Manx . All are minority languages in their respective countries, though there are continuing efforts at revitalisation . Welsh is an official language in Wales and Irish
1645-407: The only living Celtic language spoken in continental Europe, is descended from the language of settlers from Britain. There are a number of extinct but attested continental Celtic languages , such as Celtiberian , Galatian and Gaulish . Beyond that there is no agreement on the subdivisions of the Celtic language family. They may be divided into P-Celtic and Q-Celtic . The Celtic languages have
1692-631: The people of Terga) perhaps equivalent to the modern municipality of Tierga. Line 6: CONTREBAC[OM?] is probably connected to kontebakom, a form attested in Palaeohispanic script. It looks to be adjective formed by the common suffix -āko-, "from a substantive contrebia, the etymology of which seems clear: kom- (“together”) + *treb- (“to live, habitation”) + *-yā collective suffix." So something like 'where [people] live together.' "We know three Celtiberian cities called Contrebia: Contrebia Belaisca,28 Contrebia Carbica,29 and Contrebia Leucada." The last of these
1739-461: The primary distinction is between Continental Celtic and Insular Celtic , arguing that the differences between the Goidelic and Brittonic languages arose after these split off from the Continental Celtic languages. Other scholars (such as Schmidt 1988) make the primary distinction between P-Celtic and Q-Celtic languages based on the replacement of initial Q by initial P in some words. Most of
1786-558: The rest of Celtic (and Italic) where this ending is -ī 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. 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
1833-536: The same root, we may have a truncated form of an athematic active third person singular aorist if auz is from * auzaz < * aw-d h 1 - t . 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 < *awdeh 1 -nt-ōm. 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’,
1880-487: The shared reformation of the sentence-initial, fully inflecting relative pronoun *i̯os, *i̯ā, *i̯od into an uninflected enclitic particle. Eska sees Cisalpine Gaulish as more akin to Lepontic than to Transalpine Gaulish. Eska considers a division of Transalpine–Goidelic–Brittonic into Transalpine and Insular Celtic to be most probable because of the greater number of innovations in Insular Celtic than in P-Celtic, and because
1927-457: The superlative of "high", so "from the highest," while the second form looks to be the feminine equivalent of the term from the preceding line "wide." If this is a stipulation of how far apart two buildings can be, this may indicate that the walls of two buildings must be two and a half feet apart from each other measuring from the highest point on the external wall. Beltrán Lloris et alia speculate that these phrases could be somehow connected to
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1974-427: The text seems to discuss agreements between different cities in the region for how wide spaces between buildings and fields should be, presumably for purposes of right of way. The fragmentary tablet measures 18.1 centimeter high at its longest, 22.5 cm. at its widest, and .2 cm thick. A small square hole at what seems to be the top would suggest that the plaque was nailed to a wall or some other structure, as
2021-448: 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." Celtiberian has a fully inflected relative pronoun ios (as does, for instance, Ancient Greek), an ancient feature that
2068-711: Was Gaelic. It has characteristics that some scholars see as archaic, but others see as also being in the Brittonic languages (see Schmidt). In the Insular/Continental classification schema, the split of the former into Gaelic and Brittonic is seen as being late. The distinction of Celtic into these four sub-families most likely occurred about 900 BC according to Gray & Atkinson but, because of estimation uncertainty, it could be any time between 1200 and 800 BC. However, they only considered Gaelic and Brythonic. A controversial paper by Forster & Toth included Gaulish and put
2115-767: Was common with official notices. The carefully incised Latin capitals are between 0.7 and 0.9 cm high. The Novallas Bronze was discovered by chance at the Chicharroya III site, which is in the district of Novallas (Zaragoza), Spain, in the early 21st century. [---]OQVENDI ⋅ ANDO ⋅ BEDAM ⋅ DV ⋅ CASCA [--V]TICAŚ ⋅ TERGAŚ ⋅ DOIBIM ⋅ ODAS ⋅ PVBLI- [---]VS ⋅ IIS ⋅ DVNDOM ⋅ LITANOM ⋅ PVBLIC+[-1-] ̣ [-OD]+AS ⋅ II ⋅ ECQVE ⋅ S ⋅ VAMVŚ ⋅ LITANAṂ [-1-2?-] 5 [---]ẠM ⋅ AVDINTVM ⋅ ODAS PVBLICVS [-2-] [---] ⋅ BEDAS ⋅ MEDOM ⋅ CONTREBAC[-2-3-] [---]+ẸIS ⋅ CABINT ⋅ SAM ⋅ BEDAM ⋅ T[IE?-] [---]++GAM ⋅ DERNV[-2-3-] [---]ẸTAM ⋅ CA+[-2-3-] 10 [---]S ⋅ PVBL[-1-2-] ̣ [---]ẠD[-1-2?-] Given
2162-430: 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
2209-593: Was quite near Novalla, but the term could well have been an adjective attached to many settlement, not necessarily any of these mentioned. Line 1: (-?)L]OQUENDI, presumably from the gerundive of Latin loquor "to speak" or a compound thereof. So probably "(These things) are to be announced (publicly) (at such and such time(s) and place(s)," the rest of the legible text presumably being the 'these things' to be announced, especially given that monetary units or spacial measurements seem to be mentioned in lines 3 and 4 (see below). This would mean that any indication of when and where
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