The sibilant sounds of Hispano-Celtic: phonetics, phonology and orthography

Abstract

[EN] On the strength of both recent discoveries concerning the use of the Latin alphabet in different places of Central Hispania to write official documents in Celtiberian and the new readings of indigenous names on inscriptions belonging to Latin, not Celtiberian, epigraphy, some novel reflections on Celtiberian phonology are in order. Epigraphic and linguistic considerations in turn lead to a refinement in the delimitation of Hispano-Celtic regions. These attend to dialectal differences and to the emergence and stabilisation of scribal habits. New etymologies for some hitherto uninterpreted or even misinterpreted personal names are put forward. Some of these have the comparative advantage of matching inherited Celtic forms surviving in Insular Celtic and Gaulish. Finally, three new readings are proposed: BVGANSONIS, CLOVSOCVM and AISAE, possibly also VXSEISVS