On Sun, 2 Mar 2003 12:23:52 -0800, Michael J Smith
<
lookwhoscross-eyednow@...> wrote:
> Hey Miguel,
>regarding your response:
>1. Actually made a mistake, I meant to say that I thought that Ligurian,
>not Lusitanian, is thought to be related to Auquitanian. Actually
>weren't their two Ligurian languages, one Indo-European, and one
>non-Indo-European?
>2. Do we know if the Cynetes referred to by Herodotus as the most
>Westerly people in Europe were a Lusitanian tribe, or who they were?
>3. Is anything known about Tartessian/Turdetanian languages, and if
>they're either a language isolate or have a possible relation to any
>other languages?
I'm afraid none of these questions can be answered. Ligurian may have
been non-IE, or IE with a non-IE substrate, or simply a Celtic
dialect. We know nothing about the language of the Cynetes
(possibilities are: Celtic, para-Celtic [à la Lusitanian],
Tartessian-like, Iberian-like, or something completely different).
>4. I mentioned that Iberian and Basque were unrelated, I wasn't saying
>they were related to each other. I've read before that some see a
>possible relation to certain Caucasian languages (I thought it was
>Kartvellian).
There are several reason why linking Basque (and/or Iberian) to the
Caucasian languages has proved irresistible: the circumstance that the
name "Iberia" occurs in both regions, the fact that Basque and the
Caucasian languages are the only extant isolates in the general
European area, and typological similarities such as the ergative
grammar of Basque and some Caucasian languages. In the first half of
the 20th century a Vascologist like René Lafon attempted to link
Basque with Kartvelian (Georgian), the best documented of the
Caucasian languages. More recently, the attempts (e.g. Bengtson) have
been directed more towards a link between Basque and North Caucasian
(Abkhaz-Adyghe and Daghestanian-Nakh). Personally, I'm not convinced
that a case has been made.
>I've even heard that some think some form of
>non-Phoenician Semitic was spoken in Iberia, but I don't know what the
>basis is for this.
Perhaps you're referring to Vennemann's theories about an "Atlantic"
Semitoid language, which would have left traces in Basque and Celtic
(the latter possibility had been already been the object of study by
Julius Pokorny of the IEW). Again, I'm afraid I'm skeptical.
=======================
Miguel Carrasquer Vidal
mcv@...