Editing Ligurian language (ancient) (section)

{{Short description|Extinct unclassified language of northwest Italy and southeast France}}
{{about|the prehistoric language of the Ligures|the modern Romance language|Ligurian language}}
{{Use dmy dates|cs1-dates=ll|date=July 2024}}
{{Infobox language
| name             = Ligurian
| region           = Northern Mediterranean Coast straddling South-east French and North-west Italian coasts.
| states           = [[Liguria]]
| era              = 300 BCE (?) – 100 CE
| ref              = linglist
| familycolor      = Unclassified
| family           = [[Unclassified language|Unclassified]] (probably [[Indo-European languages|Indo-European]], possibly [[Celtic languages|Celtic]] or para-[[Celtic languages|Celtic]])<ref name="consensus" />
| iso3             = xlg
| linglist         = xlg
| glotto           = anci1248
| glottorefname    = Ancient Ligurian
| map              = Iron Age Italy.svg
}}
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.{{sfn|Mees|2003|pp=16–18}}{{sfn|Clackson|2015|pp=3–5}}

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]].<ref name="consensus">{{harvnb|de Hoz|2005|p=175}}; {{harvnb|Delamarre|2007|pp=36–37}}; {{harvnb|Untermann|2006|pp=1762–1766}}; {{harvnb|de Bernardo Stempel|Arenas Esteban|2011|pp=129–130}}; {{harvnb|Rubat Borel|2008}}; see {{harvnb|Mees|2024|pp=203–204, 209}} for an overview of scholarly opinions on the classification of Ligurian.</ref>{{refn|group=note|
*{{harvp|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."
*{{Cite book |last=Mallory |first=J. P. |title=Encyclopedia of Indo-European Culture |last2=Adams |first2=Douglas Q. |publisher=Taylor & Francis |year=1997 |isbn=978-1-884964-98-5 |pages=315 |quote=The northern Italian languages comprise Ligurian in the northwest which has been variously regarded as influenced by Celtic if not actually a Celtic language}}
*{{Cite book |last=Whatmough |first=Joshua |title=The Foundations of Roman Italy |publisher=Routledge |year=2015 |isbn=978-1-317-59324-9 |quote=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}}
*{{Cite book |last=Klein |first=Jared |title=Handbook of Comparative and Historical Indo-European Linguistics: An International Handbook |last2=Joseph |first2=Brian |last3=Fritz |first3=Matthias |publisher=Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG |year=2017 |isbn=978-3-11-052175-7 |quote=Ligurian, spoken in Liguria, may have been an Indo-European language, perhaps belonging to the Celtic branch.}}}} However, this hypothesis is primarily based on [[toponymy]] and [[onomastics]], and on a few [[Gloss (annotation)|glosses]] given by ancient Graeco-Roman writers (since no Ligurian texts have survived), and thus remains partly speculative due to the scarcity of data.{{sfn|Clackson|2015|pp=3–5}} Because of that, some scholars have even cast doubt on the existence of a Ligurian language itself,{{refn|group=note|
*{{Citation |last=Hodson |first=F. R. |title=Ligurians |date=2016 |work=Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Classics |language=en |doi=10.1093/acrefore/9780199381135.013.3715 |isbn=978-0-19-938113-5 |quote=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. |last2=Drinkwater |first2=John Frederick}}
*{{Cite book |last=Haeussler |first=Ralph |title=Becoming Roman?: Diverging Identities and Experiences in Ancient Northwest Italy |date= |publisher=Left Coast Press |year=2013 |isbn=978-1-61132-188-3 |pages=87 |language=en |quote=the existence of a Ligurian ethnos or culture is […] extremely doubtful}}}} since it can remain problematic to postulate that all the non-Celtic and non-Italic forms found across the regions described as "Ligurian" by ancient sources come from a single language instead of several ancient dialects.{{sfn|Clackson|2015|pp=3–5}}

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 languages|Pre-Indo-European]] or [[Indo-European languages|Indo-European]] [[Substratum (linguistics)|substratum]]. These theories, particularly those attempting to establish additional connections with data from other European regions, have faced increasing criticism in recent scholarship.{{sfn|Mees|2003|pp=16–18}}{{sfn|Clackson|2015|pp=3–5}}