Paleohispanic scripts

Paleohispanic scripts
Script type
Time period
c. 700 or 500–100 BC
RegionPaleohispanic languages according to inscriptions (except Aquitanian - according to anthroponyms and theonyms used in Latin inscriptions).
LanguagesAquitanian, Celtiberian, Gallaecian, Iberian, Lusitanian, Sorothaptic, Tartessian
Related scripts
Parent systems
Child systems
  • (Northern Palaeohispanic)

(Southern Palaeohispanic)

Sister systems
 This article contains phonetic transcriptions in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA. For the distinction between [ ], / / and ⟨ ⟩, see IPA § Brackets and transcription delimiters.
Simplified Paleohispanic Script
A possible southwestern signary (based on Rodríguez Ramos 2000).
Possible values of the southeastern Iberian signary (based on Correa 2004). Signs in red are the most debatable.
The proposed 'dual' variant of northeastern Iberian signary (based on Ferrer i Jané 2005).
A western Celtiberian signary (based on Ferrer i Jané 2005).
A northeastern Iberian signary (not dual).
An eastern Celtiberian signary.
The Greco-Iberian alphabet.

The Paleohispanic scripts are the writing systems created in the Iberian Peninsula before the Latin alphabet became the main script. They derive from the Phoenician alphabet, with the exception of the Greco-Iberian alphabet that is a direct adaptation of the Greek alphabet. Some researchers believe the Greek alphabet may also have had a role in the origin of the other Paleohispanic scripts. Most of them are unusual in that they are semi-syllabic rather than purely alphabetic.

Paleohispanic scripts are known to have been used from the 5th century BCE — possibly from the 7th century, in the opinion of some researchers — until the end of the 1st century BCE or the beginning of the 1st century CE, and were the main scripts used to write the Paleohispanic languages.

  1. ^ Himelfarb, Elizabeth J. "First Alphabet Found in Egypt", Archaeology 53, Issue 1 (January/February 2000): 21.

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