Iberian language

For other uses, see Languages of Iberia.

through the Ebro river (Iberus in Latin) as far as Salduie

(Zaragoza) but not farther.

The Iberian language was the language of a people identied by Greek and Roman sources who lived in the eastern and southeastern regions of the Iberian Peninsula.
The ancient Iberians can be identied as a rather nebulous local culture between the 7th and 1st century BC.
The Iberian language, like all the other Paleohispanic languages except Basque, became extinct by the 1st to 2nd
centuries AD, after being gradually replaced by Latin.
Iberian is speculated to be a language isolate, but while its
dierent scripts have been deciphered to various extents,
the language itself remains largely unknown.

Among the pre-Roman peoples of the Iberian Peninsula the following might have spoken the Iberian language: Ausetani (northeastern Catalonia), Ilergetes
(Lleida and Huesca up to the Pyrenees), Indigetes (coast
of Girona), Laietani (Barcelona), Cassetani (Tarragona),
Ilercavones (Murcia and Levante up to Tarragona),
Edetani (Valencia, Castelln and Teruel), Contestani
(Valencia, Alicante, Cartagena and Albacete), Bastetani
(Granada, Almera and Murcia) and Oretani (Jan,
Ciudad Real, Albacete and Cuenca). Turduli and
Turdetani are believed to be of Tartessian language.

Links with other languages have been claimed, espe- For some scholars, such as Velaza (2006), Iberian could
cially the Basque language, but they have not been clearly have been the language spoken by the autochthonous popdemonstrated to the satisfaction of modern scholarship.[2] ulation of these territories, while for others, such as De
Hoz (1993), Iberian could have been more of a lingua
franca.

Geographic distribution

2 History

Iberian language in the context of paleohispanic languages

The Iberian language was widely spoken along the

Mediterranean coast of the Iberian Peninsula.
In the north, the Iberian language inscriptions reached
the south of France up to the Hrault river. Important
written remains have been found in Ensrune, between
Narbonne and Bziers in France, in an oppidum with
mixed Iberian and Celtic elements. The southern limit
would be Porcuna, in Jan (Spain), where splendid sculptures of Iberian riders have been found. Towards inland
the exact distribution of the Iberian language inscriptions
is uncertain. It seems that the culture reached the interior

Iberian scripts in the context of paleohispanic scripts

The origin of the language is unknown. Although Iberian

ceased to be written in the 1st century AD, it may have
survived in some areas until the Visigothic period, according to Menndez Pidal.[3]
1

3 WRITING
The northeastern Iberian script is also known as the
Iberian script, because it is the Iberian script most frequently used (95% of the extant texts (Untermann 1990)).
The northeastern Iberian inscriptions have been found
mainly in the northeastern quadrant of the Iberian Peninsula: chiey on the coast from Languedoc-Roussillon to
Alicante, but with a deep penetration into the Ebro valley.
This script is almost completely deciphered.

Lead plaque from Ullastret using the dual variant of the

northeastern Iberian script.

Writing

Main article: Iberian scripts

All the paleohispanic scripts, with the exception of the

Greco-Iberian alphabet, share a common distinctive typological characteristic: they use signs with syllabic value
for the occlusives and signs with monophonematic value
for the remaining consonants and for vowels. From a
writing systems point of view they are neither alphabets
nor syllabaries; rather, they are mixed scripts that are normally identied as semi-syllabaries. Regarding their origin there is no agreement among researchers; for some
they are linked only to the Phoenician alphabet, while for
others the Greek alphabet played a part.

The oldest Iberian inscriptions date to the 4th century BC

or maybe the 5th century BC and the latest ones date from
3.2
the end of the 1st century BC or maybe the beginning
of the 1st century AD. More than two thousand Iberian
inscriptions are currently known. Most are short texts
on ceramic with personal names, which are usually interpreted as ownership marks. The longest Iberian texts
were made on lead plaques; the most extensive is from
Ytova (Valencia) with more than six hundred signs.

Southeastern (or Meridional) Iberian

script

Three dierent scripts have remained for the Iberian language:

Northeastern Iberian script

Lead plaque from la Serreta (Alcoy) using the Greco-Iberian alphabet.

Dual variant (4th century BC and 3rd century

The southeastern Iberian script is a semi-syllabary too,
BC)
but it is more similar to the Tartessian script than to the
Non-dual variant (2nd century BC and 1st cennortheastern Iberian script. The southeastern Iberian intury BC)
scriptions have been found mainly in the southeastern
quadrant of the Iberian Peninsula: eastern Andalusia,
Southeastern Iberian script
Murcia, Albacete, Alicante and Valencia. This script is
not completely deciphered.
Greco-Iberian alphabet (most of the aforementioned
Leads of La Serreta are written in this version).

3.3 Greco-Iberian alphabet

3.1

Northeastern (or Levantine) Iberian

script

Lead plaque from La Bastida de les Alcuses (Mogente) using the

southeastern Iberian script.

Lead plaque from Castellet de Bernab, Valencia

4.2

Phonology

The Greco-Iberian alphabet is a direct adaptation of an 4.2.4 Consonants

Ionic variant of a Greek alphabet to the specicities of
the Iberian language. The inscriptions that use the Greco Vibrants: There are two vibrants r and . Iberian
Iberian alphabet have been found mainly in Alicante and
specialists do not agree about the phonetic values
Murcia.
assigned to either vibrant. Correa (1994) hypothesized that was an alveolar ap [] and r was a
compound vibrant, that is, a trill [r]. Later, Rodrguez Ramos (2004) suggested that was an alve4 Description
olar ap [] and r is a retroex ap [] in line with
Ballester (2001) who thought that r represents a
uvular fricative []. However, Ballester (2005) later
4.1 Current extent of linguistic knowledge
changed his hypothesis and took r for an alveolar
ap [] and for the alveolar trill [r]. Neither r
Very little is known for certain about Iberian. The invesnor occurs word-initially, which is also the case
tigation of the language is past its initial phase of tranin Basque.
scription and compiling of material, and is currently in the
phase of identifying grammatical elements in the texts.
Sibilants: There are two sibilants s and . The disThe hypotheses currently proposed are unconrmed, and
tinction is unclear, and there are multiple proposals.
are likely to remain so unless the discovery of a bilingual
Ballester (2001) theorizes that s was an alveolar [s]
text allows linguists to conrm their deductions.
and was an alveolo-palatal []. Rodrguez Ramos
(2004) proposes that was alveolar [s] and s was an
aricate, either dental [ts] or palatal [t] (like English ch). This proposal coincides with the obser4.2 Phonology
vation by Correa on adaptations of Gallic names in
Iberian texts.
4.2.1 Vowels
Iberian appears to have 5 vowels commonly transcribed
as a e i o u. Other modern languages on the peninsula
such as Basque and Spanish also have such systems. Although ve-vowel systems are extremely common all over
the world, it has been suggested that this may point to a
Sprachbund amongst the ancient languages of the Iberian
peninsula.[2]
The front vowels (a, e, i) appear more frequently than the
back vowels. Although there are indications of a nasal
vowel (), this is thought to be an allophone. Judging by
Greek transcriptions, it seems that there were no vowel
length distinctions; if this is correct then Iberian uses the
long (Greek ta) as opposed to the short epsilon
(Greek psiln).

4.2.2

Diphthongs

It seems that the second element of diphthongs was always a closed vowel, as in ai (aitabi), ei (neitin), and au
(lau). Untermann observed that the diphthong ui could
only be found in the rst cluster.

4.2.3

Semivowels

It is possible that Iberian had the semivowels /j/ (in words

such as aiun or iunstir) and /w/ (only in loanwords such as
diui from Gaulish). The fact that /w/ is lacking in native
words casts doubt on whether semivowels really existed
in Iberian outside of foreign borrowings and diphthongs.

Laterals: The lateral l is normally interpreted as [l].

It is extremely rare in nal position and it could be
that the distribution is on occasion complementary
with : aikal-er ~ aika-bi.
Nasals:
The n was probably alveolar [n].
m: Researchers studying Iberian do not agree
on the kind of nasal represented by this letter. The letter m rarely occurs word-initially.
Velaza (1996) hypothesizes it could be an allophone of medial n, as shown in the example of
iumstir/iunstir. Jos A. Correa (1999) suggests
it may be a geminate or strong nasal. Ballester
(2001) considers it to be a labialized nasal in
Iberian and in Celtiberian. Rodrguez Ramos
(2004) mentions that it could be an allophone
of n where it nasalizes the preceding vowel.
There is some controversy over the sound .
While its thought to be some type of nasal,
there is no certainty as to its value. Several
linguists agree on the value [na], based on similarities with texts written in the Greek alphabet, as there are similarities between the sufxes -i / -nai, and in the onomastic elements
-bar- / -nabar-. Another part of this theory seems to contradict itself with the transcription of bar-bele into Latin as VMARBELES. Correa (1999) proposes that it was a
labialized nasal. It is not even clear that the
sign is always pronounced in the same form.

4
Rodrguez Ramos (2004) considers it a nasalized vowel, produced by progressive nasalization.
Plosives: There are ve plosives.
The evidence indicates the non-existence of a
phoneme p as it is not documented either in the
Greek alphabet or in the dual Iberian systems.
It is only found in Latin inscriptions naming native Iberians and is thought to be an allophone
of b.
It has been suggested that the phoneme b would
on occasions have been pronounced similar to
w (this would be explained by the frequency of
the sign bu), and as such it could have had a
nasalized pronunciation.

4.3

Morphology

DESCRIPTION

ilti and iltun as typical Iberian toponyms for city

names, meaning something like city / town [6]
ekiar: verb or verbal noun with a meaning like to
do / to make compared with the Basque verb egin
(Beltrn 1942;[7] Correa 1994, 284). likine-te ekiar
usekerte-ku with a meaning akin to made by Likinos of Osicerda (Correa 1994, 282)
seltar and siltar as meaning something like tomb
on tombstones (Untermann 1990, 194).[8]
alir as meaning something like money / coin,
because of its use in coins (as iltita-alir-ban) and
its use in lead plaque inscriptions besides numbers
and quantities (Untermann 1990, 191).[9]

4.5 Personal names

Thanks to the Latin Inscription of the plaque of Ascoli,

There are a number of known axes, especially applied
which includes a list of Iberian cavalry soldiers in the Roto last names. For the Iberian language these seem to
man army (the Turma Salluitana), the forms of Iberian
be postpositional, and apparently more agglutinative than
proper names have been unraveled. Iberian names are
fusional.
formed mainly by two interchangeable elements, each
The best-known are the following.
usually formed of two syllables, which are written together (Untermann 1998). For example, the element
ilti" can be found in the following names: iltiaker,
-ar: applied to proper names to mark possesiltiba, iltitike, tursilti, baiseilti or bekonilti. This dission.
covery was a giant step: from this moment it was possi-en: of a similar or identical use to -ar.
ble to identify with some kind of condence the names of
-ka: seems to indicate the person who receives
persons in the texts. Nevertheless, the list of components
something
of Iberian names varies between researchers. The basic
list comes from Untermann (1990) and was recently up-te: seems to indicate the ergative
dated by Rodrguez Ramos (2002b); complementary data
-ku: seems to indicate the ablative [4] Possibly
and criteria can be found in the Faria papers (the last two:
related to the Basque local genitive -ko.
2007a and 2007b).
-ken / -sken: usually understood as genitive pluThe following list includes some of the elements proposed
ral because of its use on coins in ethnical names
as components of Iberian names: aba, aibe, aile, ain,
(with parallels on Latin and Greek coins).
aitu, aiun, aker, albe, alo, an, ana, abi, aki, as, asai,
-k: has been proposed on occasions to mark the
plural. -k is a plural marker in Basque.

aster, ata, atin, atun, aunin, au, austin, baiser, bala,

balke, barta, ba, bastok, bekon, belau, bele, bels, bene,
be, beri, beon, betan, betin, bikir, bilos, bin, bir, bitu,
biu, bolai, bo, bo, boton, ekes, eka, eler, ena, esto, eten,
4.4 Lexicon
eter, iar, iaun, ibe, ibeis, ike, iko, ilti, iltur, inte, iske,
istan, iunstir, iur, kaisur, kake, kaltu, kani, kaes, kako,
There are some words for which there has been surmised katu, kee, kiba, kine, kita, kon, koo, ko, kule, kura more or less probable meaning:[5]
tar, lako, lau, leis, lor, lusban, nalbe, neitin, nese, nes,
ni, nios, otin, saka, sakin, saltu, ani, ar, seken, selki,
ae take as akin to the Latin formula hic est situs sike, sili, sine, sir, situ, soket, sor, sosin, suise, taker, tal(here he is) (Untermann 1990, 194) because of sku, tan, tanek, tane, ta, tarban, tatin, ta, tautin, teita,
teke, tiba, tike, tikirs, tikis, tileis, tolor, tuitui, tumar, tu,
a bilingual inscription from Tarragona C.18.6
turkir, tortin, ulti, unin, uke, ustain, ba, nkei.
eban and ebanen as equivalent to the Latin coeravit
(he cared [to be done]") in tombstones (Untermann
1990, 194), because of a bilingual inscription from
Sagunto F.11.8

In some cases linguists have encountered simple names,

with only one element for a sux: BELES, AGER-DO
and BIVR-NO are in the plaque of Ascoli, neitin in Ullastret and lau-to, bartas-ko or ani-ko in other Iberian

4.6

Iberian and Basque

texts. More rarely there have been indications of an inx,

which can be -i-, -ke- or -ta- (Untermann used oto-ilti in
front of oto-ke-ilti or with AEN-I-BELES). In rare cases
Untermann also encountered an element is- or o- prefacing a proper name (is-betartiker; o-tikiteke; O-ASAI).

known about the Iberian phonological system. It has

been claimed that the lack of /m/, common to both
Proto-Basque and Iberian, is especially signicant
[15]
).

In the elements that formed Iberian names it is common to encounter patterns of variation, as in eter/eten/ete
with the same variations as in iltur/iltun/iltu; kere/keres as
lako/lakos; or alos/alor/alo and bikis/bikir/biki).

Onomastics: Aquitanian-Latin inscriptions contain

personal and deity names which can clearly be related to modern Basque words, but also show structural and lexical resemblances with Iberian personal
names.[16] But Iberian inuence on the Aquitanian
name system, rather than a genetic link, cannot be
dismissed either.

Some Iberian onomastic elements have look-alikes in

Aquitanian or Basque. This has been explained by Vascologists like Mitxelena[10] as an onomastic pool. However, since the meaning of most Iberian words remains
opaque to date, the connection remains speculative except in a very small number of cases.[11] An ancient
sprachbund involving these two languages is deemed
likely by some linguists.[2] But as Trask [2] notes, Basque
has been of no help in translating Iberian inscriptions.

4.6

Iberian and Basque

Whether Iberian and Basque are two languages of the

same language family is still a much debated question.
Many experts on Iberian suspect that there is a relationship of some sort between Iberian and Aquitanian, a precursor of the Basque language. But there is not enough
evidence to date to ascertain whether the two languages
belong to the same language family or whether the relationship is due to linguistic borrowing.[12] Lexical and
onomastic coincidences could be due to borrowing, while
the similarities in the phonological structures of the two
languages could be due to linguistic areal phenomena (cf.
the similarities between Basque and Old Spanish in spite
of their being languages of two dierent families). More
scientic studies on Iberian language are needed to shed
light on this question.
From a historical perspective, the rst features where
a relationship between Basque and Iberian was claimed
were:

In Iberian ilti and iltur, ili is read city.[17] Modern

Basque hiri, city, is derived from the very similar
Proto-Basque root *ili[18]
The Iberian genitive ending -en and maybe the genitive plural-(s)ken, compared to the Basque genitive
-en and the Basque genitive plural *ag-en as reconstructed by Michelena.[19] But Michelena himself
was sceptical about this comparison.
An Iberian formula which frequently appears on
tombstones, ae take, with variants such as ae teike,
which on a bilingual inscription from Tarragona may
be equivalent to the Latin hic situs est (here is),
as proposed by Hbner.[20] This was compared by
Schuchardt (1907) [21] with Basque "(h)ara dago
there is/stays.
The Iberian word ekiar, explained as something akin
to he made,[22] proposed to be linked with the
Basque verb egin make[23]
The Iberian word alir explained as money,
coin or value, proposed to be linked to Basque
word sari (probably Proto-Basque *sali) meaning
value, payment, reward.[24]

In 2005 Eduardo Ordua published a study showing some

Iberian compounds that according to contextual data
would appear to be Iberian numerals and show striking
similarities with Basque numerals. The study was expanded upon by Joan Ferrer (2007 and 2009) based on
Iberian town names containing ili (particularly terms found on coins, stating their value, and with new
iliberri), where parallels were drawn with Basque combinatorial and contextual data. The comparison prohiri (town) and berri (new).[14]
poses the following:
the suxes -sken / -ken on Iberian coins (which were
compared to the genitive plural on similar ancient
coins) with the Basque plural (-k) and genitive (-en)
endings[13]

Although other pairs have been proposed (such as eban,

ars, -ka, -te), the meanings of these Iberian morphs are
still controversial. The main arguments today which relate to coinciding surface forms between Basque and
Iberian are:

The basis of this theory is better understood if we compare some of the attested Iberian compounds with Basque
complex numbers (the dots denote morpheme boundaries
and are not normally written in Basque; also note that the
nal -r in numbers 3 and 4 also occurs in bound forms in
Basque i.e. hirur- and laur-):

Phonetics: Proto-Basque phonology, rst proposed Even so, Ordua does not claim this comparison to be a
by Michelena, appears to be very similar to what is proof of a family relation between Iberian and Basque,

6
but rather owing to Iberian loanwords in the Basque language. In contrast, Ferrer believes that the similarities
could be caused due to both the genetic relationship or
the loan, but indicates that the loan of the entire system
of numerals is rare (but has known to occur such as the
case of Middle Chinese numeral being borrowed wholesale into Vietnamese, Japanese, Korean and Thai).
Joseba Lakarra (2010) has rejected both hypotheses: loan
or genetic relationship. Lakarras arguments focus almost
exclusively on the eld of Basque historical grammar, but
also arguments, following de Hoz (1993) hypothesis, that
the hypothesis of the borrowing have already turned out
implausible due to the limited and remote extension of
the territory where Iberian was spoken as rst language
in South-East Spain.

6 BIBLIOGRAPHY
lationship.
Francisco Villar (2014, 259) notes that the similarities
between Iberian numerals and Basque numerals are of the
same order as those documented among Indo-European
languages and consequently argues that the only sustainable hypothesis at this point is the genetic relationship
between Iberian and Basque. Villar also believes that if
the reconstruction of Proto-Basque proposed by Lakarra
(2010) is incompatible with the evidence derived from
the numerals, the reconstruction must be corrected, as
like all reconstructions, is hypothetical and perfectible.

5 See also

Paleohispanic languages
Javier de Hoz (2011, pp. 196198) considers plausible the internal contextual and combinatorial arguments
Iberians
that would support the hypothesis that these Iberian elements could be interpreted as numerals. In fact, concern Iberian scripts
ing the specic values, he considers valid the proposed
Paleohispanic scripts
equivalences between Iberian ban with 'one' and between
Iberian erder with 'half', according to the marks of value
Celtiberian language
found in coins, while he considers that the rest of the pro Iberian Romance languages
posed equivalences are a working hypothesis. Regarding
the equivalence between the possible Iberian numerals
and the Basque numerals, he agrees with Lakarra (2010)
that the shape of the documented Iberian forms does not 6 Bibliography
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ship between Iberian and Basque, which should allow the
the Hispanic Peninsula, University Press of Ameridentication of other relationships between Iberian and
ica, New-York, ISBN 978-0-8191-6731-6.
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Eduardo Ordua (2011) insists that the Iberian elements
proposed as numerals are not only similar to the Basque
numerals, but also they combine as numerals and appear
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[neither does de Hoz (2010)]. As regards the de Hoz
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lingua franca, Ordua remarks its hypothetical character, although Lakarra presents that hypothesis as an established fact. The problems of this hypothesis have been
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37, pp. 5373.

Ferrer i Jan, Joan (2005) Novetats sobre el sistema

dual de diferenciaci grca de les oclusives sordes i
sonores, Palaeohispanica 5, pp. 957982.
Rodrguez Ramos, Jess (2002) La escritura ibrica
meridional, Zephyrus: Revista de prehistoria y arqueologa 55, pp. 231245.

(2009) El sistema de numerales ibrico:

avances en su conocimiento, Palaeohispanica
9, pp. 451479.
Ferrer i Jan, Joan & Giral Royo, Francesc (2007)
A propsito de un semis de Ildida con leyenda erder.
Marcas de valor lxicas sobre monedas ibricas,
Palaeohispanica 7, pp. 8389.

6 BIBLIOGRAPHY
Lakarra Joseba (2010) Haches, diptongos y otros detalles de alguna importancia: notas sobre numerales
(proto)vascos y comparacin vasco-ibrica (con un
apndice sobre hiri y otro sobre bat-bi), Veleia 27,
pp. 191238.

Silgo Gauche, Luis (1994) Lxico Ibrico Estudios

de lenguas y epigrafa Antiguas ELEA, ISSN
1135-5026, N. 1, pages 1271.
Untermann, Jrgen

Lujn Martnez, Eugenio Ramn (2005) Los topnimos en las inscripciones ibricas, Palaeohispanica 5,
pp. 471490.

(1984) Inscripciones sepulcrales ibricas,

Cuadernos de prehistoria y arqueologa
Castellonenses 10, pp. 111120

Moncunill Mart, Noem (2007) Lxic d'inscripcions

ibriques (19912006), doctoral dissertation, UBBarcelona.

(19851986) Las gramtica de los plomos

ibricos, Veleia 2-3, pp. 3556.

Ordua Aznar, Eduardo

(2005) Sobre algunos posibles numerales en textos ibricos, Palaeohispanica 5, pp. 491506.
(2006) Segmentacin de textos ibricos y distribucin de los segmentos, doctoral dissertation, UNED-Madrid (unpublished doctoral
dissertation).
(2008) Ergatividad en ibrico Emerita Vol. 76,
N 2, pp. 275302
(2011) Los numerales ibricos y el protovasco,
Veleia 28, pp. 125-139.
Prez Orozco, Santiago (2009) Construcciones posesivas en ibrico, Estudios de lenguas y epigrafa antiguas ELEA 9, pp. 561578
Quintanilla Nio, Alberto
(1998) Estudios de Fonologa Ibrica, VitoriaGasteiz, ISBN 84-8373-041-3.
(2005) Palabras de contenido verbal en ibrico,
Palaeohispanica 5, pp. 507520.
Rodrguez Ramos, Jess
(2000b) Vocales y consonantes nasales en la
lengua bera, Faventia 22, Fasc. 2, pp. 2537.
(2002) ndice crtico de formantes de compuesto de tipo onomstico en la lengua bera,
Cypsela 14, pp. 251275.
(2002b) Problemas y cuestiones metodolgicas
en la identicacin de los compuestos de tipo
onomstico de la lengua bera, Arse N 36, pp.
1550.
(2004) Sobre los fonemas sibilantes de la lengua
bera, Habis 35, pp. 135150
Siles Ruiz, Jaime (1985) Lxico de inscripciones
ibricas, Ministerio de Cultura, Direccin General
de Bellas Artes y Archivos, Madrid, ISBN 978-84505-1735-4.

(1998) La onomstica ibrica, Iberia 1, pp. 73

85.
(1999) ber den Umgang mit ibersichen
Bilinguen in E. Seebold, W. Schindler & J.
Untermann Grippe, Kamm und Eulenspiegel:
Festschrift fr Elmar Seebold zum 65. Geburtstag ISBN 978-3-11-015617-1, pp. 349358.
Velaza Fras, Javier
(1991) Lxico de inscripciones ibricas: (1976
1989), Universitat Autnoma de Barcelona,
ISBN 84-7875-556-X.
(1994) Iberisch EBAN TEBAN Zeitschrift fr
Papyrologie und Epigraphik 104, 142-150.
(2004) Eban, teban, diez aos despus, Estudios de lenguas y epigrafa antiguas ELEA 5,
pp. 199210.
(2002) Ibrico-te, Palaeohispnica 2, pp. 271
275.
(2006) Tras las huellas del femenino en ibrico:
una hiptesis de trabajo, Palaeohispnica 6, pp.
247254

6.4 Origins and relationships

Ballester, Xaverio (2001) Las adnitas de las
lenguas aquitania e ibrica Palaeohispnica 1, 2001
, pp. 2133.
Ferrer i Jan, Joan (2013):Los problemas de la
hiptesis de la lengua ibrica como lengua vehicular, E.L.E.A. 13, 115-157.
de Hoz Bravo, Javier (1993) La lengua y la escritura
ibricas y las lenguas de los iberos, Lengua y cultura
en Hispania prerromana : actas del V Coloquio sobre
lenguas y culturas de la Pennsula Ibrica : (Colonia 25-28 de Noviembre de 1989) (Francisco Villar
and Jrgen Untermann, eds.), ISBN 84-7481-736-6,
Salamanca, pp. 635666.
Gorrochategui Churruca, Joaqun (1993) La
onomstica aquitana y su relacin con la ibrica,
Lengua y cultura en Hispania prerromana : actas del

9
V Coloquio sobre lenguas y culturas de la Pennsula
Ibrica : (Colonia 25-28 de Noviembre de 1989)
(Francisco Villar and Jrgen Untermann, eds.),
ISBN 84-7481-736-6, Salamanca, pp. 609634.
Rodrguez Ramos, Jess
(2001) La cultura ibrica desde la perspectiva
de la epigrafa: un ensayo de sntesis, Iberia:
Revista de la Antigedad 4, pp. 1738.
(2002) La hiptesis del vascoiberismo desde el
punto de vista de la epigrafa bera, Fontes linguae vasconum: Studia et documenta, 90, pp.
197218, ISSN 0046-435X.
Velaza Fras, Javier (2006) Lengua vs. cultura material: el (viejo) problema de la lengua indgena
de Catalua, Actes de la III Reuni Internacional
d'Arqueologia de Calafell (Calafell, 25 al 27 de
novembre de 2004), Arqueo Mediterrnia 9, 273280.

imposibles: por ejemplo de las palabras seltar, tal vez

tumba, alir, tal vez dinero (de plata)", iltir y biur,
tal vez ciudad, comunidad, ekiar ha fabricado o es
obra de (un artesano)".
[6] 'Stadt' / 'Burg' / 'Gemeinde' (Untermann 1990 p. 187)
[7] Beltrn Villagrasa, P. (1942) Sobre un interesante vaso escrito de San Miguel de Liria, Valencia, p. 51
[8] Correa 1994, 283: tumba / estela"; Michelena 1979,
36: doit signier 'stle, tombeau', ou quelque chose dans
ce genre-l"
[9] Correa 1994, 283: dinero / moneda. Michelena 1979,
36 quotes Tovar 1951: 'valor' / 'moneda'.
[10] Michelena, Luis (1977), pp. 547548: "[...] cada vez
soy ms escptico en cuanto a un parentesco lingstico
ibero-vasco. En el terreno de la onomstica, y en particular de la antroponimia, hay, sin embargo, coincidencias innegables entre ibrico y aquitano y, por consiguiente, entre ibrico y vasco. Como ya he sealado en otros lugares,
parece haber habido una especie de pool onomstico, del
que varias lenguas, desde el aquitano hasta el idioma de las
inscripciones hispnicas en escritura meridional, podan
tomar componentes de nombre propios.

Villar, Francisco (2014): Indoeuropeos, iberos, vascos y sus parientes, Estratigrafa y cronologa de
las poblaciones prehistricas, Universidad de Sala- [11] Gorrochategui, J. (1984)
manca, Estudios lolgicos.

Notes

[1] Nordho, Sebastian; Hammarstrm, Harald; Forkel,

Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds. (2013). Iberian.
Glottolog 2.2. Leipzig: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology.
[2] Trask, R.L. The History of Basque Routledge: 1997 ISBN
0-415-13116-2
[3] Garatea Grau, Carlos (2005) El problema del cambio
lingstico en Ramn Menndez Pidal, Munich, p.167
[4] Partiendo de resultados sucientemente seguros de esta
ndole se ofrece la identicacin de un cierto nmero de
sujos con funciones morfolgicas: -en, -ar y -i, que indican pertenencia y posesividad, -te como seal de ergativo, -ku junto con topnimos como sujo de ablativo
Jrgen Untermann (2005) La lengua ibrica en el Pas
Valenciano in XIII Colloqui Internacional d'Arqueologia
de Puigcerd. Mn Ibric als Pasos Catalans ISBN 84933111-2-X pp. 11351150, Puigcerd, p. 1148.
[5] see also Jrgen Untermann (2005) La lengua ibrica
en el Pas Valenciano in XIII Colloqui Internacional
d'Arqueologia de Puigcerd. Mn Ibric als Pasos Catalans ISBN 84-933111-2-X pp. 11351150, Puigcerd,
p. 1148: hay que mencionar los monumentos bilinges,
muy pocos y muy breves..."los nicos que aseguran la
traduccin exacta de dos palabras ibricas: tebanen curavit y aretake hic situs est. La aparicin de ciertas
palabras en ciertos tipos de soportes nos permite contar
con signicados por cierto poco precisos, pero no del todo

[12] Correa, J.A. (1994) pp. 284; Untermann, J. (1996) concludes: ya est fuera de duda el que la lengua ibrica tiene
algo que ver con la lengua vasca, y aumentan cada vez
ms los indicios positivos en favor de ello, pero todava no
son sucientes para permitirnos aplicar los mtodos acreditados de la lingstica comparativa e histrica (quoted in
Rodrguez 2002, p. 197)
[13] Caro Baroja, J. (1951) "Le problme ibrique la lumire des dernires recherches" Jahrbuch fr kleinasiatiche Forschung p. 248263 (p. 685 in the edition of
the link)
[14] Humboldt, W. (1821) Prfung der Untersuchungen ber
die Urbewohner Hispaniens vermittelst der vaskischen
Sprache, chapter 14. Ortnamen, die von iria abstammen,
especially p. 24, Noch unverkennbarer Vaskisch sind die
Namen, die von iria herkommen, welches, Stadt und, nach
dem handschriftlichen Wrterbuch, auch Ort, Gegend bedeutet and p. 29 (Iliberi = Neustadt)
[15] Rodrguez (2002) p. 201
[16] Untermann, J. (1998) pp. 82f: por su forma exterior muestran un grado tan alto de semejanza con los elementos de
la toponimia y antroponimia ibrica que es imposible imputarla a la casualidad
[17] Untermann (1998) 7.5
[18] Schuchardt, H. (1907) La declinacin ibrica RIEV p.
557.
[19] Michelena 1979, 34
[20] Monumenta Linguae Ibericae, Berlin, 1893, p. 145; Untermann, J. (1990) p. 194

10

[21] Followed by Bhr (1947) and Tovar (1954) (Silgo Gauche,

L. Lxico ibrico, 1994, Valencia, in ELEA 1 ISSN 11355026)
[22] Correa (1994) 5.3.3
[23] Gmez Moreno, M. (1949) Miscelneas. Historia, Arte,
Arqueologa. Madrid. p. 279; Vicente Redn, J.D. et alii
(1989) "El mosaico romano con inscripcin ibrica de La
Caridad (Caminreal, Teruel)" Xiloca 3, pp. 927, p. 15
footnote 28
[24] Michelena, L. (1990) p. 318; quoted in Rodrguez, J.
(2000) La Lengua bera: en Busca del Paradigma Perdido Revista Internacional d'Humanitats 3 [p. 10 http:
//www.webpersonal.net/jrr/archivos/PDIGMA.pdf]

External links
Iberian Epigraphy by Jess Rodrguez Ramos
Searcher of regular expressions in Iberian texts by
Eduardo Ordua Aznar
La lengua y las escrituras ibricas, a self-published
book by Francisco Castillo Pina [2009, Valencia,
ISBN 978-84-931683-4-6].
Interesting reproductions of many dierent inscriptions and its transcription. Iberian alphabets. In
Spanish
Map of the Pre-Roman Peoples and Languages of
Iberia (around 200 BC) by Luis Fraga da Silva

EXTERNAL LINKS

11

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