Re: Lepontic

From: Piotr Gasiorowski
Message: 99
Date: 1999-10-25

 
----- Original Message -----
From: Gwydionash@...
To: cybalist@egroups.com
Sent: Friday, October 22, 1999 11:52 PM
Subject: [cybalist] Lepontic

Dear list members,

I have read that there is some controversy about the placement of Lepontic in 
relation to Gaulish, whether it was a variant of Gaulish or a separate 
dialect of Celtic, although I have never seen specifics given of either 
opinion.  I was wondering if anyone on this list would be able to provide 
further information about the possible differences between Lepontic and 
Gaulish (as specific as possible) and could provide suggestions for further 
reading on the subject.

Thanks,

Chad Brown
Dear Chad,
 
I once attended a fascinating seminar on the minor Indo-European languages of ancient Italy, run by Prof. Anna Morpurgo Davies of Oxford University and her collaborators -- one of the best teams on earth. One of the seminar papers was on Lepontic, and included a detailed linguistic analysis of the extant monuments of the language. Unfortunately, it was ten years ago and my notes and handouts are all gone. I remember, though, that Lepontic was found to differ quite a lot from the rest of Celtic (including Ibero-Celtic and Gaulish), and its Celticity in general seemed rather doubtful. It certainly wasn't a dialect of Gaulish! I'm writing this at work, with no reference books on Celtic at my elbow, but I know where to look for more information and will elaborate on this stop-gap comment soon.
 
Piotr Gasiorowski