 | This article includes alist of references,related reading, orexternal links,but its sources remain unclear because it lacksinline citations. Please helpimprove this article byintroducing more precise citations.(March 2014) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
TheCeltiberian script is aPaleohispanic script that was the mainwriting system of theCeltiberian language, an extinctContinental Celtic language, which was also occasionally written using theLatin alphabet. This script is a direct adaptation of thenortheastern Iberian script, the most frequently used of theIberian scripts.
All thePaleohispanic scripts, with the exception of theGreco-Iberian alphabet, share a common distinctive typological characteristic: they represent syllabic values for thestop consonants, and monophonemic values for the rest ofconsonants andvowels. They are thus to be classed as neitheralphabets norsyllabaries; rather, they are mixed scripts normally identified assemi-syllabaries. There is no agreement about how thePaleohispanic semi-syllabaries originated; some researchers conclude that they derive only from thePhoenician alphabet, while others believe theGreek alphabet was also involved.
The basic Celtiberian signary contains 26signs rather than the 28 signs of the original model; theCeltiberians omitted one of the tworhotic and one of the threenasals of thenortheastern Iberian script. The remaining 26 signs comprised 5vowels, 15 syllabic signs and 6 consonants (onelateral, twosibilants, one rhotic and two nasals). The sign equivalent to Iberians is transcribed asz in Celtiberian, because it is assumed that it sometimes expresses the fricative result of an ancient dental stop (d), while the Iberian signś is transcribed ass. As for the use of the nasal signs, there are two variants of the Celtiberian script: In the eastern variant, the excluded nasal sign was the Iberian signḿ, while in the western variant, the excluded nasal sign was the Iberian signm. This is interpreted as evidence of a double origin of the Celtiberian script. Like one variant of thenortheastern Iberian script, the western variant of Celtiberian shows evidence[which?] of having allowed thevoicedstopsg andd to be differentiated from their respectivevoiceless counterparts,k andt, by adding a stroke to the voiceless signs. This is known as the ‘dual system’ in Paleohispanic scripts, which otherwise do not distinguish between pairs of voiceless and voiced stops (p:b, t:d andk:g).
The Celtiberian inscriptions have been found mainly in theEbro valley and near the sources of theTagus andDouro rivers, whereRoman andGreek sources place the Celtiberian people. The Celtiberian inscriptions were made on different types of objects (silver andbronzecoins,ceramic receptacles,bronze plaques andtesseras,amphores, stones,spindle-whorls, etc.). There are just under two hundred surviving inscriptions, one of which is exceptionally long: the thirdBotorrita bronze plaque (Zaragoza) with more than three thousand signs containing a census of nearly 250 people. Almost always the direction of the writing is left to right. The fact that nearly all the Celtiberian inscriptions were found out of archaeological context does not allow a precise chronology to be established, but it seems that the earliest inscriptions in the Celtiberian script date from the 2nd century BCE while the latest ones date from the 1st century BCE.
.jpg)
.jpg)
