Aquitanian language
| Aquitanian | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Native to | France, Spain |
| Region | Western/Central Pyrenees, Gascony |
| Extinct | by the Early Middle Ages |
| Iberian | |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | xaq |
xaq | |
| Glottolog | None |
The Aquitanian language was the language of the ancient Aquitani, a people living in Roman times between the Pyrenees, the Garonne river and the Atlantic Ocean.[1] Epigraphic evidence for this language has also been found south of the Pyrenees, in Navarre and Castile.[2]
There is no surviving text written in Aquitanian. The only evidence come from onomastic data (roughly 200 personal names and about 60 deity names) that have survived indirectly in Latin inscriptions from the Roman imperial period, primarily between the 1st and 3rd centuries AD, with a few possibly dating to the 4th or 5th centuries.[1]
Relationship to Basque
[edit]The consensus among scholars is that Aquitanian was a Paleo-European language genetically related to Basque, though there is debate over the exact nature of their relationship. Some linguists, like R. L. Trask, argue that it was a near-direct ancestor of Basque, while others, including Lyle Campbell, suggest that it may have been a close relative of Basque rather than its direct ancestor.[3]
Aquitanian is attested only in the form of proper names, and we lack enough data to determine their exact meanings. For instance, the Aquitanian words andere, umme, and sahar are interpreted as 'woman, lady', 'child', and 'old', respectively, by comparison with the Basque words andere, ume, and zahar.[4][2]
Because Aquitanian was spoken over a large area (some names of Aquitanian type have been found as far south as Soria, in Castile), it likely had several dialects. According to José Ignacio Hualde, Proto-Basque would be a direct continuation of one of these Aquitanian dialects, athough we do not know which Aquitanian names may belong to a direct ancestor of Basque and which may belong to a close relative. He proposes the term "Proto-Basque-Aquitanian" for the reconstructed common ancestor of Proto-Basque and the other Aquitanian dialects.[5]
Geographical extent
[edit]
Drawing on linguistic evidence, Joaquín Gorrochategui concludes that the Aquitanian language was spoken in ancient times (from at least the 1st century BC until end of the Roman Empire) across a region stretching from Biscay in the west to the Aran Valley in the east, and from the Aquitanian Plain in the north down to the Ebro river in the south.[6]
The Aquitanian language came into contact with Gaulish around Tolosa (Toulouse) and the Garonne river, and with Celtiberian further west and around the Ebro river. Both of these languages penetrated Aquitanian-speaking territory, leaving evidence in personal names and place names.[6]
Lexicon
[edit]Most Aquitanian onomastic elements are clearly identifiable from a Basque perspective, matching closely the forms reconstructed by the linguist Koldo Mitxelena for Proto-Basque:
| Aquitanian | Proto-Basque | Basque | Basque meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| adin | *adiN | adin | age, judgment |
| andere, er(h)e | *andere | andre | lady, woman |
| andos(s), andox | *andoś | lord | |
| arix | *aris | aritz | oak |
| artahe, artehe | *artehe | arte | holm oak |
| atta | *aTa | aita | father |
| belex | ?*beLe | bele | crow |
| bels | *bels | beltz | black |
| bihox, bihos | *bihos | bihotz | heart |
| bon, -pon | *boN | on | good |
| bors | *bors | bost | five |
| cis(s)on, gison | *gisoN | gizon | man |
| -c(c)o | *-Ko | -ko | diminutive suffix |
| corri, gorri | *goRi | gorri | red |
| hals- | *hals | haltza | alder |
| han(n)a | ?*aNane | anaia | brother |
| har-, -ar | *aR | ar | male |
| hars- | *hars | hartz | bear |
| heraus- | *herauś | herauts | boar |
| il(l)un, ilur | *iLun | il(h)un | dark |
| leher | *leheR | leher | pine |
| nescato | *neśka | neska, neskato | girl, young woman |
| ombe, umme | *unbe | ume | child |
| oxson, osson | *otso | otso | wolf |
| sahar | *sahaR | zahar | old |
| sembe | *senbe | seme | son |
| seni | *śeni | sein | boy |
| -ten | *-teN | -ten | diminutive suffix (fossilized) |
| -t(t)o | *-To | -t(t)o | diminutive suffix |
| -x(s)o | *-tso | -txo, -txu | diminutive suffix |
See also
[edit]
References
[edit]- ^ a b Gorrochategui 2022, p. 105.
- ^ a b Hualde 2021, p. 21.
- ^
- Trask 1997, p. 411: "probably all Basque scholars now accept that Basque descended more or less directly from Aquitanian"
- Campbell 2010, p. 18: "Although these attestations are sufficiently detailed to confirm that modern Basque and Aquitanian are related, they also show sufficient differences from Basque to suggest the possibility not of a direct ancestor, but as a relative, that possibly Aquitanian and Basque are sister languages representing two branches of the original proto-language."
- Hualde 2021, p. 21: "The Aquitanian(-Vasconic) names show an evident relation to Basque, but what the exact nature of this relation is remains uncertain. The language of the Aquitanian names may be either the direct ancestor of [Proto-Basque] or a close relative."
- Gorrochategui 2022, p. 106: "Research in the second half of the twentieth century (Michelena 1954; Caro Baroja 1954; Gorrochategui 1984) has demonstrated convincingly that Aquitanian was genetically related to the Basque language, in a much stronger and clearer way than with any other language"
- ^ Gorrochategui 1995, pp. 40–41.
- ^ a b Hualde 2021, pp. 21, 31–32.
- ^ a b c Gorrochategui 1995, p. 57.
Bibliography
[edit]- Campbell, Lyle (2010). "Language Isolates and Their History". Annual Meeting of the Berkeley Linguistics Society: 16–31. doi:10.3765/bls.v36i1.3900. ISSN 2377-1666.
- Hualde, José Ignacio (2021). "On the comparative method, internal reconstruction, and other analytical tools for the reconstruction of the evolution of the Basque language: An assessment". Anuario del Seminario de Filología Vasca "Julio de Urquijo". 54 (1–2): 19–52. doi:10.1387/asju.23021. ISSN 2444-2992.
- Gorrochategui, Joaquín (1995). "The Basque language and its neighbors in Antiquity". In Hualde, José Ignacio; Lakarra, Joseba; Trask, Robert Lawrence (eds.). Towards a History of the Basque Language. John Benjamins Publishing. ISBN 978-90-272-3634-0.
- Gorrochategui, Joaquín (2020). Aquitanian-Vasconic: Language, Writing, Epigraphy. Prensas de la Universidad de Zaragoza. ISBN 978-84-1340-194-2.
- Gorrochategui, Joaquín (2022). "The Relationship between Aquitanian and Basque: Achievements and Challenges of the Comparative Method in a Context of Poor Documentation". In Chacon, Thiago Costa (ed.). Language Change and Linguistic Diversity: Studies in Honour of Lyle Campbell. Edinburgh University Press. pp. 105–129. doi:10.1515/9781474488143-010. ISBN 978-1-4744-8814-3.
- Trask, R. L. (1997). The History of Basque. Routledge. ISBN 978-1-136-16763-8.
Further reading
[edit]- Ballester, Xaverio (2001): "La adfinitas de las lenguas aquitana e ibérica", Palaeohispanica 1, pp. 21–33.
- Gorrochategui, Joaquín (1984): Onomástica indígena de Aquitania, Bilbao.
- Gorrochategui, Joaquín (1993): La onomástica aquitana y su relación con la ibérica, Lengua y cultura en Hispania prerromana : actas del V Coloquio sobre lenguas y culturas de la Península Ibérica : (Colonia 25–28 de Noviembre de 1989) (Francisco Villar and Jürgen Untermann, eds.), ISBN 84-7481-736-6, pp. 609–34
- Gorrochategui Churruca, Joaquín (2020). "Aquitano Y Vascónico". In: Palaeohispanica: Revista Sobre Lenguas Y Culturas De La Hispania Antigua, n.º 20 (noviembre). pp. 721-48. https://doi.org/10.36707/palaeohispanica.v0i20.405.
- Hoz, Javier de (1995): "El poblamiento antiguo de los Pirineos desde el punto de vista lingüístico", Muntanyes i Població. El passat dels Pirineus des d'una perspectiva multidisciplinària, pp. 271–97.
- Michelena, Luis (1954): "De onomástica aquitana", Pirineos 10, pp. 409–58.
- Michelena, Luis (1977): Fonética histórica vasca, San Sebastián.
- Núñez, Luis (2003): El Euskera arcaico. Extensión y parentescos Archived 2012-02-09 at the Wayback Machine, Tafalla.
- Orduña Aznar, Eduardo (2021). "Onomástica Ibérica Y Vasco-Aquitana: Nuevos Planteamientos". In: Palaeohispanica: Revista Sobre Lenguas Y Culturas De La Hispania Antigua 21 (diciembre). pp. 467-94. https://doi.org/10.36707/palaeohispanica.v21i0.414.
- Rodríguez Ramos, Jesús (2002): "La hipótesis del vascoiberismo desde el punto de vista de la epigrafía íbera", Fontes Linguae Vasconum 90, pp. 197–219.
- Rodríguez Ramos, Jesús (2002): "Índice crítico de formantes de compuesto de tipo onomástico en la lengua íbera", Cypsela 14, pp. 251–75.
- Trask, L.R. (1995): "Origin and relatives of the Basque Language: Review of the evidence", Towards a History of the Basque Language, pp. 65–99.
- Trask, L.R. (2008): "Etymological Dictionary of Basque" (PDF). (edited for web publication by Max Wheeler), University of Sussex
- Velaza, Javier (1995): "Epigrafía y dominios lingüísticos en territorio de los vascones", Roma y el nacimiento de la cultura epigráfica en occidente, pp. 209–18.
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