Linguistic and genetic singularities in the Western Pyrenees: a review of the latest proposals about

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Linguistic and genetic singularities in the
Western Pyrenees a review of the latest
proposals about Basque

• B. Oyharçabal (CNRS, UMR 5478)
• HIPVAL (OHLL)
• Aussois, 22/09/2005

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• Linguistics
• Presence of a non IE language spoken in the
  Aquitanian-Iberian region since a remote period
• (Michelena 1964, Trask 1997)

• Anthropology
• Basques may be the most direct descendants of
  upper Paleolithics
• (Bernard Ruffié 1976, Cavalli-Sforza et al 1994)

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Presentations steps

• Basic background on the past of the Basque
  language and the Basque population
• Review of the Dene-Caucasian hypothesis
• Review of the Vasconic hypothesis
• Conclusion

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• I. Background

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What do we know about the past of the Basque
language?

• Spoken in Western Europe before
  Indo-Europeanisation occurred
• What Basque words looked like 2000 years ago
• Where Basque was spoken at this time.

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Basque preceded the spread of IE languages across
Western Europe

• Non-IE languages present in Western Europe 2000
  years ago (or before) are supposed to have
  preceded the spread of Indo-European languages
  (except Punic settlements) Basque, Iberian,
  Ligurian, Tartessian, ...
• Only indirect evidence, because first evidence of
  the presence of Basque is recent (2000 years
  ago).

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First mention of Basque languageJ. Caesars De
Bello Gallico

• Gaul is divided into three parts, one of which
  is inhabited by the Belgae, another by the
  Aquitani, and the third by those who in their own
  language are called Celts, in ours Gauls.
• All these differ from each other in language,
  customs and laws. The river Garonne separates the
  Gauls from the Aquitani.
• Aquitanian Proto-Basque
• (Luchaire, Lafon, Michelena, Gorrotxategi)

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First Basque words and texts

• Aquitanian anthroponyms and theonyms (1-3 c.)
• First Basque words (11th c. on) (onomastic
  lexicon)
• Connected texts (16th c.)

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What Basque words looked like 2000 years ago.

• Thanks to
• Aquitanian forms,
• Latin and Romance borrowings,
• Internal reconstruction,
• ? It was possible to reconstruct the phonology of
  Basque (major achievement of Michelena 1960/1976)

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The Basque speaking region 2000 years ago

• J. Caesars and Strabos indications,
• Geographical distribution of Aquitanian names,
• Basque was spoken between the Garonne and the
  Ebro, as far as the Central Pyrenees.
• However, it is not clear where Basque languages
  western limits were at this time.

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Histiographical background regarding genetic
studies on Basque population

• Genetic singularity of the Basque population was
  established a long time ago using data linked to
  classical polymorphisms, such as
• Rhesus Negative Blood Group frequency (Boyd
  Boyd 1937, Mourant 1947)
• O-Allele frequency (Bernard Ruffié 1976)

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Frequency map of theRh Negative Blood Group
factor(based on Mourant et al. 1976, from Sykes
Renfrew 2000)
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Rohlfs linguistic map (1935/1970)

• Red line Western limit of compact diffusion of
  toponyms with -an and -ac endings (early
  Romanisation)
• Orange points toponyms with the Aquitanian -os
  suffix.

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Rohlfs map and isogenic curves(after Bernard
Ruffié 1976)

• Thick lines isogenic curves
• O-allele frequency 0,70 (yellow)
• O-allele frequency 0,73 (green)

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Postglacial population expansion

• Late paleolithic population expansion as revealed
  by mtDNA analysis (Haplogroup V)
• From Torroni al 1998

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How linguists have linked their research work to
genetic studies

• Until a few years ago most linguists (contrary to
  anthropologists) didnt try to relate their work
  on the history of Basque to population history.
• However, more recently, two proposals have been
  made to establish remote relationships for Basque.

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More recent linguistic proposals for remote
relationships

• Dene-Caucasian hypothesis (Bengtson, Ruhlen)
• Vasconic hypothesis (Venneman)
• These linguists try to make their proposals
  coherent with geogenetic data

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Main proposals in search of Basques relatives
until 1990

• Iberian Humboldt (1821), Schuchardt (1908).
• Hamito-semitic Mukarovsky (1981)
• Pan-Caucasian Bouda (1951), Lafon (1968)

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Why the two major hypotheses were set aside

• Vasco-Iberian hypothesis
• abandoned when it became clear that despite some
  similarities Basque was of no help to understand
  Iberian texts, which can be read since the middle
  of the 20th century
• (contrary to what happens with Aquitanian names).

• Vasco-Caucasian hypothesis
• abandoned when it was noticed that the proposed
  comparisons had serious methological flaws,
  especially because all the Causasian languages
  (Karvelian Eastern and Western Northern
  Caucasian languages) were considered as forming
  one family.

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II. The Dene-Caucasian hypothesis (DCH)

• Bengtson (1991,1995, 2003),
• Macro Caucasian (MC)
• Basque Burushaski Northern Caucasian

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Dene-Caucasian macro-family(from
http//ehl.santafe.edu/maps5.htm)
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DCH and genetic studies

• No genetic correlation with the DC hypothesis
  (Basques are similar to other Europeans).
• ? Ruhlen (1994) argues that DC is so remote
  (prior to Eurasiatic) that genetic relationships
  between populations have been lost,
• only linguistic relationships would be traceable.

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Appraisal of the DCH

• Despite recents efforts by Bengtson (2003) to
  establish phonological correspondances with
  Proto-Caucasian,
• ? nothing convincing remains no specialist
  shares Bengtsons and Ruhlens view regarding
  Basques connection to DC.

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III. The Vasconic hypothesis (VH)

• T. Venneman (1994,1998, 2003)
• ? follows the tradition of
• substrate analyses

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Substrate analysis in North-Alpine Europe

• Non-IE features in IE languages can be explained
  by substrate features.
• There were only two language families in Europe
  before IE expansion some features can be traced
  because there are direct descendants of these
  proto-languages.

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Non-IE languages in Europe after last Ice-Age
(Venneman 2003)

• Semitidic

• Vasconic (VH)

Old European
Basque
Semitic
Atlantic
(Pictish)
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The VH and genetic studies showing post-glacial
colonisation of Europe(Torroni et al 1998, 2001)

• Vasconic expansion would have followed the
  repopulation of Europe by Vasconic people leaving
  the Aquitanian-Iberian refugium after the last
  ice-age
• (from Venneman 2003)

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Linguistic arguments for the VH

• Visegimal counting in some Romance, Celtic and
  Germanic languages.
• First syllable accent innovation in Germanic,
  Celtic and Italic languages.
• River-names of North-Alpine Europe with Vasconic
  roots (is-, ur-, aran-, -alde) and morphems (-a)
  agglutinative morphology.
• Etymologies of non-IE words found in IE languages.

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Negative appraisal of the VH

• Analysis of hydronyms criticised on several
  grounds
• eg. -a (suffixed det.) is lately derived from
  dem. har-
• No further confirmation of phonological
  proposals made in order to establish Vasconic
  etymologies.
• eg. lat. grandis, bq. handi or haundigt vc.grandi
  or graundi
• (Proto-Basque words admitted no initial
  consonant clusters)
• Unlikely late (medieval) borrowings
• eg. -ing. knife lt fr. canif / canibet lt bq.
  ganibet
• (von Wartburg o.frq. knif gt fr. canif /
  canibet).
• (Old Basque nouns had no final plosives)

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• IV. CONCLUSION

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Negative general balance

• The most recents attempts made to establish long
  distance relationships for Basque have failed,
• ? Despite the support of genetic studies on
  population, disappointing results of Vennemanns
  substrate analysis ...

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two reasons

• - inherent limits of substrate analysis,
  especially in the case of remote substitution
  (very little or no information at all regarding
  the substituted language)
• - the alleged linguistic homogeneity of W-Europe
  before IE-expansion may be wrong cf. Trasks
  patchwork pattern, which makes substrate analyses
  unavailable (because unrestricted).

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Moreover,

• During the same period, historical studies on
  Basque have progressed outside multilateralist
  studies (Gomez Sainz, Hualde, Igartua, Lakarra,
  Trask, etc.), which have been of no benefit at
  all to Basque historical studies
• ? Internal reconstruction is still the best tool
  to make our knowledge of the history of Basque
  advance.

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New orientations for interdisciplinary studies in
the W-Pyrenees

• As genetic studies are making progress, the
  correlation between isolated languages and
  population histories can be studied in a more
  effective way focussing on shorter periods of the
  past.

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Some questions to be adressed

• Is the genetic profile of Basques and W-Pyreneans
  the result of late neolithisation of W-Pyreneas?
• What kind of links did endogamic behaviour of
  populations have with language survival? Was
  there any cultural anthropological basis (family
  structure?) to such a behaviour (outside language
  itself)?
• If there was some late Basque language spread,
  did it occur into non Basque populations, or was
  it the result of population expansion?
• Is there any link between tribal limits and
  Basque dialects? In this case, how can we explain
  them?

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Some recent studies(Iriondo et al 2003)
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Work in progress(CHCB, CNRS, INSERM, Univ.
Bordeaux II, Univ. del País Vasco, Univ. Pompeu
Fabra)

• Population History and Linguistic Variation
• in the Western Pyrenees (HIPVAL) heterogeneity
  factors
• among Basque populations
• First results 2007

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Researchers

• Anthropologists
• B. Arveiler , F. Bauduer, P. Darlu, N. Izagirre
• Geneticists
• D. Comas, L. Quintana-Murci
• Linguists
• R. Etxepare, E. Montoya, B. Oyharçabal, J.
  Salaberria