On Thu, 27 Feb 2003 18:49:25 GMT,
lookwhoscross-eyednow@...
wrote:
> Thanks, that was helpful. Regarding the Lusitanians, it is possible then that they were Indo-Europeans, not speaking an Iberian dialect? Are Indo-European as well as native non-Indo-European (Iberian or Tartessian?) elements attested among the Lusitanians?
Lusitanian is known from a handful of inscriptions in the Latin
script. The only sizeable ones are the one from Lamas de Moledo (Pt):
RVFINVS ET TIRO SCRIPSERVNT (Latin)
VEAMINICORI DOENTI ANGOM LAMATICOM CROUCEAI MACA
REAICOI PETRANIOI RADOM PORGOM IOUEA[s]
CAEILOBROGOI
and the one from Cabeço das Fraguas (Pt):
OILAM TREBOPALA INDI PORCOM LAEBO
COMMAIAM ICCONA LOIMINNA
OILAM VSSEAM TREBARVNE INDI TAVROM IFADEM REVE
The language is not Celtic, because it has preserved *p- (PORCOM
"pig"), and *bh > f if TAVROM IFADEM means "stud bull" (Villar "Los
indoeuropeos y los orígenes de Europa" says the etymology is plausible
but not secure, but doesn't mention what the proposed etymology is. I
would guess some derivative of *eibh-/*yebh- "to fuck")
>Besides this, are any possible non-Celtic Indo-European elements seen any where
>else in the Iberian Peninsula besides among the Lusitanians?
There are surpringly few recognizably Celtic words in Basque
(presumably most of the Celtic loans were later replaced by equivalent
Latin/Romance ones). A rare example is <mando> "mule". Another one
might be the suffix -egi/-tegi "house" (as in ardotegi "wine-house",
etc.), from which the normal word for house <etxe> may perhaps be a
diminutive ([t]egi-xe > et-xe). If there are hidden pre- or
para-Celtic borrowings in Basque, they are very difficult to recognize
(as the -egi example shows, Basque did not only lose initial *p-, as
Celtic did, but initial *t- and *k- as well).
As to Arganthonios, the word for "silver" in Celtiberian is not
*argant- or something similar, but $ilabur (Botorrita A-3). Basque
has zilar, zidar or zildar. I've always suspected a connection with
Greek sida:ros "iron", besides the obvious one with Germanic silver,
Baltic sidabras ~ sirablas ~ sidrabas, Slavic sUrebro.
=======================
Miguel Carrasquer Vidal
mcv@...