Lépontique

The Lépontique is a died Celtic Langue, the language of the Lepontii, which was spoken in part of the Gaulle Cisalpine of seventh century BC at third century BC. Sometimes called Celtic Cisalpin , he is regarded as being a dialect of the Gaulois and thus as a continental Celtic language (Eska 1998).

The language known only by some rare inscriptions is written to us in the alphabet of Lugano, one of the five principal varieties of old Italic alphabets, derived from the Etruscan Alphabet. These inscriptions were found in an area centered on Lugano, including the Lac of Like and the Lake Maggiore. Similar writing S were used to write the Rhétique () and the Vénète. The Runic alphabet of the Germanic Langues probably derived from an alphabet of this group.

The lépontique one was compared to the beginning with the Gallic, with the installation of Gallic people in the north of the Po, and then by Latin, after the Roman République taken the control of the Gaulle cisalpine at the end of the IIe front century J. - C. and during the Ier front century J. - C..

The regrouping of all these inscriptions in only one Celtic language is discussed, and some (including and especially oldest) are supposed to be a nonCeltic language related to the Ligure (Whatmough 1933, Pisani 1964). According to this theory, which prevailed until worms 1970, the lépontique one is the correct name for the nonCeltic language, while the Celtic language should be called Gallic cisalpin . Since Lejeune (1971), a consensus established that the lépontique one should be classified like a Celtic language, perhaps as divergent as Celtibère, and in all the cases distinct from the Gallic cisalpin. It is only in the recent years that a tendency appeared to identify the lépontique one with the Gallic cisalpin.

Although the language is named according to the people Lepontii , which occupied part of the Rhaetia (in the modern Suisse and the Italy), in the the Alps, in edge of Gaulle Cisalpine, the term is currently used by many celtisants to indicate all the Celtic dialects of old Italy. This use is discussed by those which continue to regard the Lepontii as one of the many indigenous tribes pre-Roman of the Alps, distinct from the Gaulois which invaded the plains of the north of Italy during the historical era.

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