From: Piotr Gasiorowski
Message: 3449
Date: 2000-08-29
----- Original Message -----From: ARKURGAL@...Sent: Tuesday, August 29, 2000 4:44 AMSubject: [tied] Re: LusitaniansIt has been claimed (I can't say how reliably -- I haven't examined the data myself) that IE *bH is reflected as *f in Lusitanian. If it were true, then, given its generally non-Celtic features, Lusitanian was perhaps closer to Italic than to Celtic. But it's all extremely speculative, seeing how limited the Lusitanian material is. I wouldn't swear on the Bible that Lusitanian was Italo-Celtic at all. One can only hope that sooner or later a few more inscriptions will be unearthed and further clarification will become possible.Celtiberian (or "Hispano-Celtic") is a branch of Celtic known from Iberia, and while some Iberian linguistic influence on it is likely, the "-iberian" part should be understood as a purely geographic designation. Thracian, Illyrian and Hellenic languages were spoken close to one another but don't seem to have had much in Common. The poorly known Messapic language (usually thought to be Illyrian) shows areal affinities with Greek, but in many respects is closer to the "Western" languages (Italo-Celtic, Germanic). Thracian (even less known from direct evidence than Messapic or Lusitanian) was at any rate a satem language, unlike Greek or Illyrian. As for the wheel, I can't speak for Cyril, but I presume it's a visual allusion to the "wheel/wagon/horse" cultural package which is thought by many to be characteristically Indo-European.PiotrI think that according more recent theories the Lusitanians are not
even included amongst the Celtiberians(who, by the way, were,
according new studies, Celts in Iberia, not necessarily the result of
a mix between the Celts and the Iberians)they probably belonged to
the southern group of the western indo-european languages, close-
related to Thracian, Illyrian and Hellenic.
About the eight-armed wheel, what is the meaning of it within the
indo-european tradition?