"Chapter 4. Palaeohispanic writing systems: classification, origin and development", Palaeohispanic Languages and Epigraphies, Oxford University Press, 2019. (original) (raw)
Related papers
This work is a preliminary proposal to encode the southern Palaeohispanic scripts in Unicode standard. Several scripts are grouped under the name of southern Palaeohispanic scripts: the south-eastern Iberian script, also known as southern or meridional Iberian script, the south-western script, also known as Tartessian or Sudlusitanian, and the Espanca abecedary. Despite their differences, these scripts show a similar degree of deciphering and the signs with comparable shapes have almost always the same value. The selection of characters for the Unicode standard of this script has been done taking into account an inventory of signs as large as possible, including all dual variants proposed for the south-eastern Iberian script. Nevertheless, the large set of hapax signs, especially in the south-western inscriptions, has not been usually taken into account in this proposal. One of the exceptions to this criterion are the exclusive signs attested in the Espanca abecedary, as their presence in an abecedary clearly justifies their autonomous existence. Following the usual criteria and main objectives of the Unicode standards, the multiple variants of each sign have not been included, but just the signs with different values.
This work is a preliminary attempt at the systematisation of the Palaeohispanic scripts into the Unicode standard, which have the goal to establish the basic set of meaningful signs in a script or a group of closely-related scripts. With regard to the number of character sets needed to encode all the Palaeohispanic scripts, our proposal is to classify them into two groups, the north-eastern Iberian, that includes the north-eastern Iberian script itself and the Celtiberian script, and the southern Palaeohispanic that includes the south-eastern Iberian script, the south-western script and the Espanca script. The basic set of signs for the north-eastern Iberian group is relatively easy to establish, as this script, attested in more than 2,000 inscriptions and nearly a dozen abecedaries, is almost fully deciphered. On the other hand, the selection of a basic set of signs for the southern Palaeohispanic group is a more difficult task, since only less than two hundred southern inscriptions are currently known, no other abecedary than the one from Espanca is attested, and more than a third of the southern signs are identified merely with a conventional code, since scholars disagree about their values, or they are simply unknown.
THE SOUTHWESTERN PALAEO-HISPANIC SCRIPT: STATE OF KNOWLEDGE, HYPOTHESES AND CONTROVERSIES
"The Southwestern Paleo-Hispanic script: state of knowledge, hypothesis and controversies" en S. Ferrara y M. Valerio (eds.) Paths into script Formation in the Ancient Mediterranean. SMEA NS Suppl. 1, Roma 2018, 129-144
This contribution focuses on the structure of the Southwestern Palaeo-Hispanic script and its underlying phonographic system, in order to assess whether it was inspired by a pre-existing indigenous model or whether it is the result of a direct transmission from a Phoenician template. In addition, the process of adaptation of this indigenous script, from the first experiments to its general conception, will be investigated in detail. The aim is to shed light on the motivations and purpose behind its creation, as well as its social context, and address the place of the Palaeo-Hispanic scripts in the history of writing.
Writings in network. The case of Palaeohispanic scripts
2019
An open-access on-line version of this book is available at: http://books.casematepublishing.com/ Understanding_relations_between_Scripts_II_Early_alphabets. The online work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported Licence. To view a copy of this license, visit http:// creativecommons.org/licenses/ by/3.0/ or send a letter to Creative Commons, 444 Castro Street, Suite 900, Mountain View, California, 94041, USA. This licence allows for copying any part of the online work for personal and commercial use, providing author attribution is clearly stated.
Journal of Language Relationship, № 19/3-4, 2021 - p.308-312, 2021
This book is a recent overview of the most important aspects of what we currently know about the ancient languages and epigraphic materials of the Iberian Peninsula and Southern France. These languages and texts received the denomination of ‘Palaeohispanic’ a few years ago and the name seems to have been generally accepted. The book, written by some of the most active and respected researchers in the field, is a collection of 14 essays covering all the regions as well as all the pertinent questions of the current state of our knowledge.