The Lusitanian language (or Lusitani language) was a paleo-Iberian Indo-European language known by five inscription and numerous toponyms and theonyms. The language was spoken in historical Lusitania, that is, in the territory inhabited by Lusitanian tribes that spaned from Douro to the Tagus rivers in Portugal.

History

The lusitanians were the most numerous people in the western area of the Iberian peninsula, and there are those who consider they came from the Alps; others believe the Lusitanians were a native Iberian tribe. Meanwhile, it is known they established in the area circa the 6th century BC.

Circa 150 BC, Lusitania was conquered by the Roman Empire. And, has all other Iberian languages, except for the Basque language, the Lusitanian language succumb to the pressure and prestige of Latin.

Classification and related languages

Probably, Lusitanian was an Indo-European language with particular characteristics, different from the languages spoken in the centre of the Iberian Peninsula. It would more archaic than the Celtiberian language.

The filiation of the Lusitanian language is still in debate, there are those who endorce that it is a Celtic language. This theory is based upon historical facts in which the only Indo-European tribes that we know were the Celts. Meanwhile, a bigger weight had the obvious "celticity" of most of the lexicon, over all the anthroponyms and toponyms.

There is a substantial problem in that theory: the initial conservation of the /p/, has can be seen in PORCOM. The Celtic languages had lost that initial /p/ in their evolution: comparing with athir / orc (Gaelic) and pater / porcum (Latin) meaning "father" and "pig", respectively. The presence of this /p/ could be explained has Lusitanian being a very ancient language, therefore before the lost of the initial /p/.

A second theory, defended by Francisco Villar and Rosa Pedrero , relats Lusitanian with the Italic languages. The theory bases itself on paraleslism on the name of deities (Consus latin / Cossue Lusitanian, Seia Latin / Segia Lusitanian, Iovia marrucino / Iovea(i) Lusitanian) and other lexicon (gomia umbrian / comaiam Lusitanian) with some other gramatical elements.

Finally, Ulrich Schmoll proposed a new branch to which he called the "Galician-Lusitanian".

Meanwhile, we don't have the knowlegde of text with sufficient size to decide one or the other direction.

Geographical Distribution

There were found inscrition in Arroyo de la Luz (in Caceres), Cabeço das Fraguas (in Guarda) and in Moledo (Viseu). And, having in account the information given by the different theonyms, anthroponyms and toponyms, the extention understands the modern northestern Portugal and adjacent areas in Spain, with the centre in Serra da Estrela.

There are fundamented suspictions that the area of the Gallaecian tribes (North of Portugal and Galicia), Asturian and, probably, Vetonian; that is, all the northwestern area of the Iberian peninsula, spoke related languages with the Lusitanian and not with Celtic language, has it is commonly believed.

Writing system

The most famous inscriptions are those from Cabeço de Fraguas and Lamas de Moledo in Portugal. All the known inscritions are writen in Latin alphabet.

Lamas de Moledo:

RUFUS ET
TIRO SCRIP
SERUNT
VEAMINICORI
DOENTI
ANGOM
LAMATICOM
CROUCEAO
MACA
REAICOI PETRANOI R(?)
ADOM PORCOM IOUEAS(?)
CAELOBRICOI

Cabeço das Fraguas:

OLIAM TREBOPALA
INDO PORCOM LAEBO
COMAIAM ICONA LOIM
INNA OILAM USSEAM
TREBARUNE INDI TAUROM
IFADEM REUE...

External links

• Lusitanian in LINGVÆ·IMPERII (Spanish)