Aquitanian language

Aquitanian
Native to	France, Spain
Region	Western/Central Pyrenees, Gascony
Extinct	by the Early Middle Ages; (except in the Northern Basque Country)
Language family	an early form of Basque (language isolate)
Language codes
ISO 639-3	xaq
Linguist List	xaq
Glottolog	None

The Aquitanian language was spoken on both sides of the western Pyrenees in ancient Aquitaine (approximately between the Pyrenees and the Garonne, in the region later known as Gascony) and in the areas south of the Pyrenees in the valleys of the Basque Country before the Roman conquest.[1] It probably survived in Aquitania north of the Pyrenees until the Early Middle Ages.

Geographical traces of the Basque language. Blue dots: place names; red dots: epigraphic traces (gravestones, etc) in Roman times; blue patch: maximum extension.

Archaeological, toponymical, and historical evidence shows that it was a language or group of languages that represent a precursor of the Basque language.[2][3] The most important pieces of evidence are a series of votive and funerary texts in Latin which contain about 400 personal names and 70 names of gods.

History

Aquitanian (in red) c. 200 BC including the area north of the Pyrenees

Aquitanian and its related descendant, Basque, are commonly thought to be Pre-Indo-European languages, a remnant of the languages spoken in Western Europe before the arrival of Indo-European speakers. It may be possible to trace the Aquitanians more or less directly back to the Chalcolithic culture of Artenac, but the age of the Aquitanian language, and of the Basque language, is uncertain. Some contend that Basque dates to the age of metal;[4] others, claiming the derivation of words for "knife" (aizto), "ax" (aizkora) and "hoe" (aitzur) from the word for "stone" (haitz), conclude that the language dates to the Stone Age or Neolithic period, when those tools were made of stone.[5][6] This derivation, however, has been called into question: see the aizkora controversy.

Persons' names and gods' names

Almost all of the Aquitanian inscriptions that have been found north of the Pyrenees are in the territory that Greek and Roman sources assigned to Aquitanians.

Anthroponyms: Belexeia, Lavrco, Borsei, Andereseni, Nescato, Cissonbonnis, Sembecconi, Gerexo, Bihossi, Talsconis, Halscotarris etc.
Theonyms: Baigorixo, Ilunno, Arixoni, Artahe, Ilurberrixo, Astoiluno, Haravsoni, Leherenno etc.

Some inscriptions have also been found south of the Pyrenees in the territory that Greek and Roman sources assigned to Vascones:

Anthroponyms: Ummesahar, Ederetta, Serhuhoris, Dusanharis, Abisunhar etc.
Theonyms: Larrahe, Loxae / Losae, Lacubegi, Selatse / Stelaitse, Helasse, Errensae.

Relations with other languages

Most Aquitanian onomastic elements are clearly identifiable from a Basque perspective, matching closely the forms reconstructed by the vascologist Koldo (Luis) 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	bortz	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

The vascologist Joaquín Gorrochategui, who has written several works on Aquitanian,[7] and Mitxelena have pointed out the similarities of some Iberian onomastic elements with Aquitanian. In particular, Mitxelena spoke about an onomastic pool[8] from which both Aquitanian and Iberian would have drawn:

Iberian	Aquitanian
atin	adin
ata	atta
baiser	baese-, bais-
beleś	belex
bels	bels
boś	box
lauŕ	laur
talsku	talsco[9] / HALSCO
taŕ	t(h)ar [10] / HAR
tautin	tautinn / hauten
tetel	tetel[11]
uŕke	urcha [11]

For other more marginal theories see Basque language: Hypotheses on connections with other languages.

Geographical extent

In red the pre-Indo-European tribes that might have spoken Aquitanian, Basque or other possibly related languages in the 1st century

Since ancient times there have been indications of a relationship between present Southwestern France and the Basques. During the Roman conquest of Gaul by Julius Caesar, Aquitania was the territory between the Garonne and the Pyrenees. It was inhabited by tribes of horsemen who Caesar said were very distinct in customs and language from the Celts of Gaul. During the Middle Ages, this territory was named Gascony, derived from Vasconia and cognate with the word Basque.

There are many clues that indicate that Aquitanian was spoken in the Pyrenees at least as far east as Val d'Aran. Place-names that end in ‑os, ‑osse, ‑ons, ‑ost and ‑oz are considered to be of Aquitanian origin, such as the place-name Biscarrosse, which is directly related to the city of Biscarrués (note the Navarro-Aragonese phonetic change) south of the Pyrenees. "Biscar" (modern Basque spelling: "bizkar") means "ridge-line". Such suffixes in place-names are ubiquitous in the east of Navarre and in Aragon, with the classical medieval ‑os > ‑ues occurring in stressed syllables, pointing to a language continuum on both sides of the Pyrenees. This strong formal element can be traced on either side of the mountain range as far west as an imaginary line roughly stretching from Pamplona to Bayonne (compare Bardos/Bardoze, Ossès/Ortzaize, Briscous/Beskoitze), where it ceases to appear.

Other than place-names and a little written evidence, the picture is not very clear in the west of the Basque Country, as the historical record is scant. The territory was inhabited by the Caristii, Varduli, and Autrigones, and has been claimed as either Basque or Celtic depending on the author, since Indo-European lexical elements have been found underlying or intertwined in the names given to natural features, such as rivers or mountains (Butron, Nervion, Deba/Deva, suffix ‑ika etc.) in an otherwise generally Basque linguistic landscape, or Spanish, especially in Álava.

Archaeological findings in Iruña-Veleia in 2006 were initially claimed as evidence of the antiquity of Basque in the south but were subsequently dismissed as a forgery.[12]

The Cantabrians are also mentioned as relatives or allies of the Aquitanians: they sent troops to fight on their side against the Romans.

The Vascones who occupied modern Navarra are usually identified with the Basques (Vascos in Spanish), their name being one of the most important pieces of evidence. In 1960, a stele with Aquitanian names was found in Lerga, which could reinforce the idea that Basques and Aquitanians were related. The ethnic and linguistic kinship is confirmed by Julio Caro Baroja, who considers the Aquitanian-Basque relationship an ancient and medieval stage ahead of the well-attested territorial shrinking process undergone by the Basque language during the Modern Age.

References

See late Basquisation.
Trask, L. The History of Basque Routledge: 1997 ISBN 0-415-13116-2
Lakarra, Joseba A. (2017). "Basque and the Reconstruction of Isolated Languages". In Campbell, Lyle (ed.). Language Isolates. London: Routledge.
S.F. Pushkariova, Primario e secundario en los nombres vascos de los metales, Fontes linguae vasconum: Studia et documenta, vol. 30, no.79 (1998), pp. 417-428.
Journal of the Manchester Geographical Society, volumes 52-56 (1942), page 90
Kelly Lipscomb, Spain (2005), page 457
Gorrochategui (1984, 1993)
Michelena (1977), pp. 547–48: "...cada vez soy más escéptico en cuanto a un parentesco lingüístico ibero-vasco. En el terreno de la onomástica, y en particular de la antroponimia, hay, sin embargo, coincidencias innegables entre ibérico y aquitano y, por consiguiente, entre ibérico y vasco. Como ya he señalado en otros lugares, parece haber habido una especie de pool onomástico, del que varias lenguas, desde el aquitano hasta el idioma de las inscripciones hispánicas en escritura meridional, podían tomar componentes de nombre propios."
Trask (1997), p. 182
Trask (2008) thinks this could be related to the Basque ethnonym suffix -(t)ar, but this is unlikely because the personal names where it appears (sometimes as the first element, as in Tarbeles) don't look at all like ethnonyms.
For Gorrochategui (1984), the personal name Urchatetelli (#381) is "clearly Iberian."
Tremlett, Giles (November 24, 2008). "Finds that made Basques proud are fake, say experts". The Guardian. Retrieved 2008-12-02.