Languages of the Iberian Peninsula

Abstract

AbstractWriting appeared in the Iberian Peninsula no later than the seventh century bce as an adaptation of Phoenician script, from which the Palaeohispanic scripts developed as a series of variants. These variants correspond to the linguistic and social particularities of diverse Palaeohispanic communities, notably the Tartessians, the Iberians, and the Celtiberians. The Roman occupation influenced the development of local inscriptions, some of which appeared for the first time at this moment, and in the case of the Lusitanians were only ever written in the Latin alphabet. Epigraphic evidence provides information about little understood aspects of indigenous literatures and cultures, in particular that of the Turdetanians, who followed on from the Tartessians. Limited data regarding Latin literature produced in Hispania (the Roman designation for the Iberian peninsula) by Hispanic peoples, in contrast to that of Hispanic writers active in Rome, do not allow for detailed assessment of the pre-Roman tradition.