The Iberian language is the language or family of languages of an indigenous western European people (the Iberians), identified by Greek and Roman sources, who lived in the eastern and southeastern regions of the Iberian Peninsula in the pre-Migration Era (before about AD 375). An ancient Iberian culture can be identified as existing between the 7th and 1st centuries BC, at least.
Iberian, like all the other Paleohispanic languages except Basque, was extinct by the 1st to 2nd centuries AD. It had been replaced gradually by Latin, following the Roman conquest of the Iberian Peninsula.
The Iberian language is unclassified: while the scripts used to write it have been deciphered to various extents, the language itself remains largely unknown. Links with other languages have been suggested, especially the Basque language, based largely on the observed similarities between the numerical systems of the two. In contrast, the Punic language of Carthaginian settlers was Semitic, while Indo-European languages of the peninsula during the Iron Age include the now extinct Hispano-Celtic and Lusitanian languages, Ionic Greek, and Latin, which formed the basis for modern Iberian Romance languages, but none of these were related to the Iberian language.
Geographic distribution
Iberian inscriptions are found along the Mediterranean coast of the Iberian Peninsula, reaching up to the river Hérault in the south of France. Important written remains have been found in Ensérune, between Narbonne and Béziers in France, in an with mixed Iberian and Celtic elements. The southern limit would be Porcuna, in Jaén (Spain), where splendid sculptures of Iberian riders have been found. Further inland, the exact distribution of the Iberian language inscriptions is uncertain. It seems that the culture reached the interior through the Ebro river ( in Latin) as far as Salduie, but no further.
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), Cessetani (Tarragona), Ilercavones (Murcia and Levante up to Tarragona), Edetani (Valencia, Castellón and Teruel), Contestani (Valencia, Alicante, Cartagena and Albacete), Bastetani (Granada, Almería and Murcia) and Oretani (Jaén, Ciudad Real, Albacete and Cuenca). Turduli and Turdetani are believed to be of the Tartessian language group.
For some scholars, such as Velaza (2006), Iberian could have been the language spoken by the autochthonous population of these territories, while for others, such as De Hoz (1993), Iberian could have been more of a lingua franca.
History
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 (ca. 500s to 700s), according to Ramón Menéndez Pidal.Garatea Grau, Carlos (2005) El problema del cambio lingüístico en Ramón Menéndez Pidal, Munich, p.167
There are several theories about the geographical origin of Iberian. According to the Catalan theory,Velaza, Javier (2006) Lengua vs. cultura material: el (viejo) problema de la lengua indígena de Cataluña, Actes de la III Reunió Internacional d'Arqueologia de Calafell (Calafell, 25 to 27 November 2004), Arqueo Mediterrània 9, pp. 273-280 the Iberian language originated in northern Catalonia, where the earliest Iberian inscriptions are documented (600 BC in Ullastret). Its expansion towards the north and south would have been due to broad population movements in times shortly before the first written documents, from the 11th to the 10th century BC, given that the Iberian language appears homogeneous in Iberian texts and, if it were of greater antiquity, the development of dialects should be evident. The presence of non-interpretable elements, such as Iberian anthroponyms amongst inscriptions in this area has not been considered statistically significant.
Writing
The oldest Iberian inscriptions date to the 6th century BC or maybe the 5th century BC and the latest ones date from 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. Many coins minted by Iberian communities during the Roman Republic have legends in Iberian. The longest Iberian texts were made on lead plaques; the most extensive is from Yátova (Valencia) with more than six hundred signs.
Three different scripts have remained for the Iberian language: Northeastern Iberian script Dual variant (4th century BC and 3rd century BC) Non-dual variant (2nd century BC and 1st century BC) Southeastern Iberian script Greco-Iberian alphabet (most of the aforementioned Leads of La Serreta are written in this version).
Northeastern (or Levantine) Iberian script
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: chiefly on the coast from Languedoc-Roussillon to Alicante, but with a deep penetration into the Ebro valley. This script is almost completely deciphered.
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 identified as semi-syllabaries. Regarding their origin, there is no agreement among researchers; for some linguists, they are linked only to the Phoenician alphabet, while others see the Greek alphabet as playing a part.
Southeastern (or Meridional) Iberian script The southeastern Iberian script is a semi-syllabary too, but it is more similar to the Tartessian script than to the northeastern Iberian script. The southeastern Iberian inscriptions have been found mainly in the southeastern quadrant of the Iberian Peninsula: eastern Andalusia, Murcia, Albacete, Alicante and Valencia. This script is not completely deciphered.
Greco-Iberian alphabet The Greco-Iberian alphabet is a direct adaptation of an Ionic variant of a Greek alphabet to the specificities of the Iberian language. The inscriptions that use the Greco-Iberian alphabet have been found mainly in Alicante and Murcia.
Phonology Very little is known for certain about Iberian. The investigation of the language is past its initial phase of transcription and compiling material, and is currently in the phase of identifying grammatical elements in the texts. The hypotheses currently proposed are unconfirmed, and are likely to remain so unless the discovery of a bilingual text allows linguists to confirm their deductions.
Vowels Iberian appears to have five vowels commonly transcribed as . Some other languages on the peninsula such as Basque and modern Spanish also have such systems. Although five-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.Trask, R.L. The History of Basque Routledge: 1997
The unrounded vowels (in frequency order: ) appear more frequently than the rounded 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 () as opposed to the short epsilon .
Vowels Front Central Backunrounded rounded Close Mid Open
Diphthongs It seems that the second element of diphthongs was always a closed vowel, as in (), (), and (). Untermann observed that the diphthong could only be found in the first cluster.
Semivowels It is possible that Iberian had the semivowels (in words such as or ) and (only in loanwords such as from Gaulish). The fact that is lacking in native words casts doubt on whether semivowels really existed in Iberian outside of foreign borrowings and diphthongs.
Consonants +Consonants Labial Coronal Dorsal Nasal Plosive ~ ~ Affricate or fricative~~⟨s⟩Fricative~⟨ś⟩ Lateral Rhotic Flap⟨ŕ⟩Trill⟨r⟩
Rhotics: There are two rhotics and . Iberian specialists do not agree about the phonetic values assigned to either rhotic. Correa (1994) hypothesized that was an alveolar flap and was a "compound vibrant", that is, a trill . Later, Rodríguez Ramos (2004) suggested that was an alveolar flap and is a retroflex flap in line with Ballester (2001) who thought that represents a uvular fricative . However, Ballester (2005) later changed his hypothesis and took for an alveolar flap and for the alveolar trill . Neither nor occurs word-initially, which is also the case in Basque. Sibilants: There are two sibilants and . The distinction is unclear, and there are multiple proposals. Ballester (2001) theorizes that was an alveolar and was an alveolo-palatal . Rodríguez Ramos (2004) proposes that was alveolar and was an affricate, either dental/alveolar or palatal (like English "ch"). This proposal coincides with the observation by Correa on adaptations of Gallic names in Iberian texts. Basque also has two alveolar sibilants: the lamino-alveolar z (/s̻/) and the apico-alveolar s (/s̺/), which could correspond to s and ś. Basque also has the postalveolar x (/ʃ/). Laterals: The lateral is normally interpreted as . It is extremely rare in final position and it could be that the distribution is on occasion complementary with : ~ . Nasals: The was probably alveolar . : Researchers studying Iberian do not agree on the kind of nasal represented by this letter. The letter rarely occurs word-initially. Velaza (1996) hypothesizes it could be an allophone of medial , as shown in the example of . José 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. Rodríguez Ramos (2004) mentions that it could be an allophone of where it nasalizes the preceding vowel. There is some controversy over the sign transcribed as . While it is thought to be some type of nasal, there is no certainty as to its phonetic value. Several linguists agree on the value , based on similarities with texts written in the Greek alphabet, as there are similarities between the suffixes / , and in the onomastic elements / . Another part of this theory seems to contradict itself with the transcription of into Latin as . Correa (1999) proposes that it was a labialized nasal. It is not even clear that the sign is always pronounced in the same form. Rodríguez Ramos (2004) considers it a nasalized vowel, produced by progressive nasalization. Plosives: There are five plosives.
voicedunvoicedlabialcoronaldorsal
While some scripts appear to distinguish between and , as well as and , others do not. This could be due to several factors; it is possible there was a degree of allophony between voiced and unvoiced plosives; or perhaps there were not, and the lack of orthographic distinction was an idiosyncrasy, possibly resulting from the Iberians having adapted their writing system from a language that did not have voicing distinctions (such as Etruscan, or the as-of-yet undeciphered Tartessian language). The evidence indicates the non-existence of a phoneme 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 .