Ligurian language (ancient)

Ligurian
Ligurian
Native to	Liguria
Region	Northern Mediterranean Coast straddling South-east French and North-west Italian coasts, including Northern Tuscany and Corsica.
Era	300 BCE (?) – 100 CE
Language family	Unclassified (probably Indo-European, possibly Celtic or para-Celtic)
Language codes
ISO 639-3	xlg
Linguist List	xlg
Glottolog	anci1248

The Ligurian language was an ancient tongue spoken by the Ligures, an indigenous people inhabiting regions of northwestern Italy and southeastern France during pre-Roman and Roman times. Because Ligurian is so sparsely attested, its classification and relationship to neighbouring languages has proven difficult, prompting debate among linguists for much of the 20th century.^[3]^[4]

The current scholarly consensus is that Ligurian was likely an Indo-European language or language family, possibly Celtic, or at least influenced by or related to Celtic languages.^[2]^{[note 1]} However, this hypothesis is primarily based on toponymy and onomastics, and on a few glosses given by ancient Graeco-Roman writers (since no Ligurian texts have survived), and thus remains partly speculative due to the scarcity of data.^[4] Because of that, some scholars have even cast doubt on the existence of a Ligurian language itself,^{[note 2]} since it can remain problematic to postulate that all the non-Celtic and non-Italic forms found across the region come from a single language instead of several ancient dialects.^[4]

Influenced by the work of Henri d'Arbois de Jubainville, some 20th-century scholars have attempted to identify Ligurian as a remnant of a Pre-Indo-European or Indo-European substratum. These theories, particularly those attempting to establish additional connections with data from other European regions, have faced increasing criticism in recent scholarship.^[3]^[4]

Ancient sources

Ethnicity

Writing in the early 1st century AD, Greek geographer Strabo mentions that:

As for the Alps ... many tribes (éthnê) occupy these mountains, all Celtic (keltikà) except the Ligurians; but while these Ligurians belong to a different people (heteroethneis), still they are similar to the Celts in their modes of life (bíois)
— Strabo 1923, Geōgraphiká, 2.5.28.

While earlier writers called the Salyes 'Ligurian', Strabo used the denomination 'Celto-ligurian' in the early 1st century AD. According to scholars, this suggests that their culture gradually came under the influence of a Celtic-speaking elite, as evidenced by the Celtic name of their rulers and towns, and the Celtic influence on their religion.^[5]^[6]

Similarly, the Segobriges were identified as Ligurians by the oldest texts about the foundation of Massalia, but their ethnonym and the names of their chiefs are undoubtedly Celtic.^[7] It is possible that ancient authors such as Hecataeus of Miletus (6th c. BC) and Apollonios Rhodios (3rd c. BC) used 'Ligurian' as a generic term for such distant and partially known tribes, or merely as a geographic reference that had no relevance to their ethnicity.^[8] By the middle of the 2nd century BC, Polybius travelled to the region and wrote that the tribes dwelling in the Provençal inlands were Celtic.^[8]

Ligurian lexicon

Some glosses appear in the text of ancient writers. Greek historian Herodotus, while discussing the name of the people known as the Sigynnae (Greek: Sigúnnai), a nomadic tribe from Central Europe, noted that the term sigynnae was also used by the Ligurians living "up beyond Marseille" to refer to traders.^[4] The Ligurian name of the River Po, recorded as Bodincus, is said by Pliny to mean "of unmeasured depth" in Ligurian, which can be compared to Sanskrit budhná- ('bottom, ground, base, depth'), Latin fundus and Middle Irish bond ('sole of the shoe').^[9]

Many of the other proposed Ligurian glosses remain uncertain. The term lebērís (λεβηρίς), recorded by Strabo as a Massiliote word for 'rabbit', is believed to have been borrowed into Latin as lepus. Pliny the Elder mentions langa or langurus as a type of lizard inhabiting the banks of the Po River, which Johannes Hubschmid linked to the Latin longus ('long'). The term asia, meaning 'rye' and recorded by Pliny, could be amended to sasia and connected to the Sanskrit sasya- ('corn, grain, fruit, crop') and Welsh haidd ('barley'), though these connections remain unsure.^[9]

Classification

Most experts on the ancient languages of the region, including Patrizia de Bernardo Stempel, Xavier Delamarre, Jürgen Untermann, Javier de Hoz, Franceso Rubat Borel, and Bernard Mees, agree that Ligurian was part of the Indo-European language family.^[2]

However, there is debate regarding the relationship with Celtic, as Ligurian exhibits both similarities and differences with neighbouring Celtic languages (i.e. Gaulish and Lepontic).^[10] Rubat Borel, Untermann and Mees argue that Ligurian was a separate Indo-European language or language family, either related to or influenced by Celtic.^[10] Conversely, de Bernardo Stempel has proposed that Ligurian might represent an archaic Celtic dialect that was influenced by a non-Celtic substratum to account for these differences.^[11]^[10] Similarly, Delamarre believes "that the term 'Ligurian' refers to the population involved in the first Celtic invasions into southern Europe".^[12]

There is also debate about the geographical range of linguistic elements that can be attributed to the Ligurian language.^[3]^[4] Javier de Hoz has proposed distinguishing between the Ligurians of the Roman regio Liguria, "whose cultural personality is well defined and probably included the use of an Indo-European language of which we know very little" (referred to as 'restricted Ligurian'), and the "culturally related but probably not homogenous peoples, perhaps speakers of various languages, who occupied the territory from the Arno as far as to the west of the Rhône, perhaps even down to the north-east of Spain" (referred to as 'broad Ligurian').^[13]

Relationship with Celtic

Linguists Patrizia de Bernardo Stempel and Xavier Delamarre have argued that many names of tribes described by ancient scholars as "Ligurian" can be explained as Celtic. This includes the Ingauni (Celt. *Pingāmnī), Salyes (< *Sḷwes), Ligauni (Celt. līg- or liga-), Intimilii (Celt. uindi-), Maricii (Celt. maro-), and Oxybii (Celt. oxso- or uxso-),^[14] as well as the Iemerii (Celt. iemur-), Orobii (Celt. orbi-), Segobrigii (Celt. sego-) and Reii (Celt. *riio-).^[15] Furthermore, de Bernardo Stempel notes that some lexical items appear to be common to Ligurian and Celtic, such as cotto- (Alpes Cottiae), gando- (Gandovera), ambi- (pago Ambitrebio), ebu- (Eburelia), medu- (Medutio), seg- (Segesta Tigulliorum), catu- (Catucianum), and roud- (Roudelium).^[16]

Arguing for a connection between Ligurian and Celtic languages, de Bernardo Stempel has listed the following isoglosses as common traits shared by both language groups:^[16]

IE *b^h > b, as shown by Comberanea rivus and Badiennon, from the Celtic badius ('shiny ; yellow, blond')
loss of initial p-, as in Ingauni < *ping-amn-ī
*ḷ > al before resonant, as in *Sḷwes > Salues
lenition of voiced consonants, as in Ligauni < *ligamni
unstressed *-yo- > -ye-, as shown by Nitielium and Berigiema
o > u before labials, as in Leucumellus and Latumarui
assibilation, as shown by Mezu and Meśiolano
palatal anticipation, as in Airuno, Airasca, Airolo, and Eluveitie
epenthesis, as shown by Berigiema and Alebinna
suffixes *-enko- and *-asko-, as in Bodincos and Vinelasca (< *wind-el-askā)

Amongst Celtic subgroups, common innovations are only shared with Lepontic, including *ks > s, *nd > n(n), *st > z, VCyV > VyCV, the analogical acc. pl. *-aś > -eś after the nom. pl. -es (consonantal stems), gen. sg. -y-os & -ei-s → -ei -os (i-stems), gen. sg. *-osyo, 3rd sg. preterite in -te, patronymic -alo-, patronymic -ikno-, gamonymic -iknā, and monothematic personal names. Conversely, some innovations are shared between Ligurian and the Gaulish language of the early sources, such as gen. sg. *-ī, 3rd sg. preterite in -tu, and patronymic -ikno-.^[16]

Non-Celtic Indo-European forms

On the other hand, some Ligurian ethnonyms show a weaker or less evident connection to Celtic, such as the name Friniates, which can be hardly regarded as genuinely Celtic.^[17] Although Deciates seems to derive from the Proto-Indo-European (PIE) root *dek̑-, it does not appear to be Celtic. Consequently, Javier de Hoz suggests classifying the name as "restricted Ligurian", given the tribe's geographical location.^[18] The ethnic name Taurini, from the Indo-European *tauros ('bull'), does not follow the metathesized Celtic form taruos. According to Delamarre, this could be explained by the influence of Latin, or else by a preservation of the archaic form.^[19] Similarly, the Ligurian Bodincos ('of unmeasured depth'), from PIE *bʰudʰnós, does not display the metathesis of Italo-Celtic *bʰundʰós (Latin fundus, Gaulish *bunda).^[9] The ethnonym Eguiturii (< PIE *h₁éḱwos 'horse') also features an archaic preservation of labio-velar -kʷ-, in contrast to Gaulish epos (which can be compared to the Ligurian Epanterii).^[20]

The similarity between the ancient names of Genoa (Genua), in the ancient Ligurian region, and Geneva (Genaua), in Celtic-speaking territory, has been highlighted by scholars,^[12] but if both toponyms could derive from the Celtic *genu ('mouth'), the PIE stem *ǵónu- ('knee'), which is commonly found in other Indo-European language groups, may also be at the origin of the names.^[4]

Francesco Rubat Borel has highlighted unusual Ligurian phonological changes not seen in Celtic languages, such as *upo- > uea- and *o > a in unstressed syllables, the toponymic suffix -asc-, and the retained *p in Porcobera, which would make claims of Ligurian as a Celtic language problematic.^[21]^[22] According to Bernard Mees, Ligurian appears to share some phonological features with Celtic while differing significantly in morphology, suggesting it was a separate language with certain similarities to Celtic.^[10] He writes that "the Romans did not consider the Ligurians to be Celts, and although there are some evident parallels between Ligurian and Celtic names, these can all be understood as reflecting inherited Indo-European features, not distinctively Celtic traits."^[23] By analysing Ligurian personal names, Jürgen Untermann concluded that Ligurian is best considered a Indo-European language or language family separate from both Celtic and Italic.^[24]^[10]

Substrate theories

In the late 19th century, Henri d'Arbois de Jubainville proposed that the Ligurians constituted an early Indo-European substratum in Western Europe, separate from both Gaulish and Italic groups. Building on classical sources, he identified a range of place names and tribal names that did not fit neatly into known Celtic or Italic patterns. His theory, which came to be termed "Celto-Ligurian", influenced philological and archaeological approaches for the following decades. According to Bernard Mees, de Jubainville became "the intellectual grandfather to a genealogy of prehistorical and protohistorical substratum theories".^[3]

By the 1920s, scholars were using the "Celto-Ligurian" idea to explain problematic Indo-European toponyms and hydronyms across much of Europe. For instance, Paul Kretschmer argued that some inscriptions in Etruscan script (later identified as Lepontic Celtic) provided evidence for a Ligurian linguistic layer, but subsequent discoveries established these as clearly Celtic with only limited Etruscan influence. In the 1930s, Julius Pokorny adopted these insights for his pan-Illyrian (or "Illyro-Venetic") theory, linking it to the prehistoric Urnfield culture. Consequently, many difficult place-name etymologies were attributed to a hypothetical Illyrian layer, leading to broad, stratigraphical theories that traced Indo-European linguistic influences from Gaul all the way to the Balkans.^[3]

By the late 1950s, Pokorny's theories had lost its momentum following critical scrutiny. The underlying place-name elements championed by de Jubainville and Pokorny, however, were reworked by Hans Krahe into his "Old European" theory. Focusing on hydronyms, Krahe advanced a more refined approach, yet it remained conceptually indebted to de Jubainville's earlier "Celto-Ligurian" framework. Though Krahe proposed a more systematic argument than the earlier "Illyrian" or "Celto-Ligurian" frameworks, his theory still faced criticism for assuming that widespread, older Indo-European features belonged to one single language rather than several archaic dialects.^[3]

Linguist James Clackson has criticized these approaches by stating that "the label 'Ligurian' merely serves to conceal our ignorance" about the pre-Roman linguistic landscape in various regions of Europe.^[4]

References

^ Ligurian at MultiTree on the Linguist List
^ ^a ^b ^c de Hoz 2005, p. 175; Delamarre 2007, pp. 36–37; Untermann 2006, pp. 1762–1766; de Bernardo Stempel & Arenas Esteban 2011, pp. 129–130; Rubat Borel 2008; see Mees 2024, pp. 203–204, 209 for an overview of scholarly opinions on the classification of Ligurian.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f Mees 2003, pp. 16–18.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h Clackson 2015, pp. 3–5.
^ Dyson 1985, pp. 136–137.
^ de Hoz 2005, p. 182.
^ de Hoz 2005, p. 174.
^ ^a ^b Arnaud 2001.
^ ^a ^b ^c Mees 2024, p. 208.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e Mees 2024, pp. 203–204, 209.
^ de Bernardo Stempel & Arenas Esteban 2011.
^ ^a ^b Delamarre 2007, pp. 36–37.
^ de Hoz 2005, p. 175.
^ de Bernardo Stempel 2006; de Bernardo Stempel & Arenas Esteban 2011
^ Delamarre 2003.
^ ^a ^b ^c de Bernardo Stempel & Arenas Esteban 2011, pp. 129–130.
^ Mees 2024, p. 207.
^ de Hoz 2005, pp. 178, 181.
^ Delamarre 2003, p. 291.
^ Evans 1967, p. 200.
^ Rubat Borel 2008.
^ Mees 2024, p. 209.
^ Mees 2024, p. 220.
^ Untermann 2006, pp. 1762–1766.

Subnotes

^
- Clackson (2015), pp. 3–5: "Was Ligurian perhaps actually a Celtic language then? Further evidence to support this hypothesis may come from the striking similarity between the names of Genoa (ancient Genua) and Geneva (ancient Genaua). But toponomastic evidence can also support a conclusion that Ligurian was a member of the larger Indo-European language family (of which the Celtic languages form a subgroup), but not actually Celtic."
- Mallory, J. P.; Adams, Douglas Q. (1997). Encyclopedia of Indo-European Culture. Taylor & Francis. p. 315. ISBN 978-1-884964-98-5. The northern Italian languages comprise Ligurian in the northwest which has been variously regarded as influenced by Celtic if not actually a Celtic language
- Whatmough, Joshua (2015). The Foundations of Roman Italy. Routledge. ISBN 978-1-317-59324-9. Ligurian dialect properly so called is extremely slight, but the evidence, so far as it goes, indicates beyond all question, that it was Indo-European
- Klein, Jared; Joseph, Brian; Fritz, Matthias (2017). Handbook of Comparative and Historical Indo-European Linguistics: An International Handbook. Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG. ISBN 978-3-11-052175-7. Ligurian, spoken in Liguria, may have been an Indo-European language, perhaps belonging to the Celtic branch.
^
- Hodson, F. R.; Drinkwater, John Frederick (2016), "Ligurians", Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Classics, doi:10.1093/acrefore/9780199381135.013.3715, ISBN 978-0-19-938113-5, Despite claims that some words or place-names (e.g. those ending in -asco, like Giubasco) are diagnostically Ligurian, the existence of any Ligurian language is still hypothetical.
- Haeussler, Ralph (2013). Becoming Roman?: Diverging Identities and Experiences in Ancient Northwest Italy. Left Coast Press. p. 87. ISBN 978-1-61132-188-3. the existence of a Ligurian ethnos or culture is […] extremely doubtful

Primary sources

Strabo (1923). Geography. Loeb Classical Library. Translated by Jones, Horace L. Harvard University Press. ISBN 978-0674990562.

Bibliography

Arnaud, Pascal (2001). "Les ligures : la construction d'un concept géographique et ses étapes de l'époque archaïque à l'empire romain". In Fromentin, Valérie; Gotteland, Sophie (eds.). Origines gentium. Ausonius Éditions. p. 327–346. ISBN 978-2-35613-263-5.
Clackson, James (2015). Language and Society in the Greek and Roman Worlds. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-19235-4.
de Bernardo Stempel, Patrizia (2006). "From Ligury to Spain: Unaccented *yo > (y)e in Narbonensic votives ('gaulish' DEKANTEM), Hispanic coins ('iberian' -(sk)en) and some theonyms". Palaeohispanica. 6: 45–58. ISSN 1578-5386.
de Bernardo Stempel, Patrizia; Arenas Esteban, Jesús Alberto (2011). "Celtic Dialects and Cultural Contacts in Protohistory: the Italian and Iberian Peninsulae". Études celtiques. 37 (1): 119–139. doi:10.3406/ecelt.2011.2328.
de Hoz, Javier (2005). "Ptolemy and the linguistic history of the Narbonensis". In de Hoz, Javier; Luján, Eugenio R.; Sims-Williams, Patrick (eds.). New approaches to Celtic place-names in Ptolemy's Geography. Ediciones Clásicas. pp. 173–188. ISBN 978-8478825721.
Dyson, Stephen L. (1985). The Creation of the Roman Frontier. Princeton University Press. ISBN 978-1-4008-5489-9.
Delamarre, Xavier (2003). Dictionnaire de la langue gauloise: Une approche linguistique du vieux-celtique continental. Errance. ISBN 9782877723695.
Delamarre, Xavier (2007). "Gallo-Brittonica (suite: 11–21)". Zeitschrift für celtische Philologie. 55 (1). doi:10.1515/ZCPH.2007.29. ISSN 0084-5302.
Mees, Bernard (2003). "A genealogy of stratigraphy theories from the Indo-European west". In Andersen, Henning (ed.). Language Contacts in Prehistory: Studies in Stratigraphy. John Benjamins Publishing. ISBN 978-90-272-4751-3.
Mees, Bernard (2024). "Ligurian and Lepontic: the inscriptions from Lunigiana and the Prestino stone". In Salomon, Corinna; Stifte, David (eds.). Cisalpine Celtic literacy Proceedings of the international symposium Maynooth 23–24 June 2022. Curach Bhán.
Rubat Borel, Francesco (2008). "Gli studi sulla lingua degli antichi Liguri nel XIX secolo e agli inizi del XX". In De Pascale, Andrea; Del Lucchese, Angiolo; Raggio, Osvaldo (eds.). La nascita della Paletnologia in Liguria: personaggi, scoperte e collezioni tra XIX e XX secolo. Istituto internazionale di studi liguri. pp. 143–154. ISBN 978-88-86796-30-9.
Untermann, Jürgen (2006). "Ligurisches". In Bombi, Raffaella (ed.). Studi linguistici in onore di Roberto Gusmani. Ed. dell'Orso. pp. 1759–1769. ISBN 978-88-7694-888-6.