On the linguistic classification of Venetic

Jadranka Gvozdanović (Slavisches Institut, Universität Heidelberg, jadranka.gvozdanovic@slav.uni-heidelberg.de)

Journal of Language Relationship, № 7, 2012 - p.33-46

Abstract: Venetic and its variants in prehistoric and early historic Europe are still enigmatic to historical linguists. Traditionally, it is assumed that Venetic of Armorica was probably Celtic, but Venetic of the Northern Adriatic, for which we have written evidence, is assumed to have constituted a separate branch of Indo-European. The least evidence is known for East European Venetic. This paper discusses the available evidence, particularly on Venetic of the Northern Adriatic, in the light of linguistic data on other branches of Indo-European, such as Celtic and Slavic. Special attention is paid to the relations between Venetic and Continental Celtic, revealing some new aspects.

Keywords: Venetic language, Celtic languages, Indo-European linguistics, areal linguistics

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