Some of these languages were documented directly through inscriptions, mainly in
Paleohispanic scripts, that date for sure between the 5th century BC, maybe from the 7th century in the opinion of some researchers, until the end of the 1st century BC or the beginning of the 1st century AD. •
Vasconic languages •
Proto-Basque — Unattested, partially
reconstructed through
internal analysis of
modern Basque. Proto-Basque is also the ancestor or sibling of the Aquitanian language (see below). •
Aquitanian — Close relative of modern
Basque. Some scholars characterise Aquitanian as an ancestor of Basque, while others describe Aquitanian and Basque as siblings both descended from Proto-Basque. •
Unclassified languages •
Iberian — Shares many obvious similarities with the Vasconic languages. However, lack of data has thus far
prevented scholars from determining whether these similarities arose from
convergence due to
intense contact, or whether Iberian does in fact possess a
genetic relationship to the Vasconic languages. •
Tartessian — Scholarly opinion places Tartessian definitely outside of the
Indo-European family, but
further classification remains uncertain. Tartessian seems to have borrowed many
place names from some
Celtic and/or other
Indo-European languages; but its syllable structure is totally incompatible with the phonology of any Indo-European language, and much more compatible with the phonology of the Vasconic languages and Iberian. Despite this phonological compatibility, a lack of data has thus far made it impossible to clarify any relationship with the
Vasconic languages or Iberian. •
Indo-European languages •
Celtic languages •
Celtiberian •
Gallaecian •
(Internally unclassified languages) •
Lusitanian — Definitely an Indo-European language. Possibly
Celtic or Italic, but a lack of data has prevented scholars from determining exactly where Lusitanian fits within the Indo-European family. • ''''
(from Greek σορός sorós'' 'funerary urn' and θαπτός
thaptós 'buried') is a hypothetical pre-Celtic language.
Joan Coromines identified problematic words in Catalan with inscriptions on lead tablets, from ca. 2nd century CE, found at
Amélie-les-Bains on the Catalan–French border. The inscriptions include some Latin but also a non-Latin and non-Celtic component that Coromines identifies with the
Urnfield culture from a millennium earlier, claiming to have found such "Sorothaptic" place names across Europe. Like the better-known
Vasconic substrate hypothesis, Coromines' Sorothaptic hypothesis has not been well received. == Classification ==