Writing and language in Celtiberia

Abstract

This chapter is composed of six sections: first of all, an introduction containing historical and historiographical aspects concerning the Celtiberians; this is followed by a detailed linguistic definition of Celtiberian and its position among other Indo-European and Celtic languages; the third section provides a description of the structure of the onomastic formulae found in inscriptions, this being one of the best-attested sources of information in Celtiberian; the following section offers an introduction to Celtiberian epigraphic culture, which arose from contact with the Iberians and Romans, while the penultimate section analyses the principal Celtiberian epigraphic genres; finally, a useful, up-to-date commentary of some selected Celtiberian inscriptions is offered.