PECULIARITIES OF THE PRE-ROMAN LINGUISTIC AREA OF PYRENEES

Abstract

The Romanization of the Pyrenean region was neither a single event nor an instantaneous one. Different territories were integrated into the Roman state at different times, and the degree of Romanization depended on geographical location and the intensity of Roman administration; as the process gradually permeated the daily lives of the local population, indigenous languages were able to persist for a considerably longer time. The case of the Basque linguistic tradition is particularly illustrative, as it survived both the Romanization process and the Roman military presence.

The spread of the Latin language played a particularly important role. Latin was used in administration, the military, trade, and epigraphy, and it gradually penetrated the daily lives of the local population.

However, the Romanization did not entail the immediate and total disappearance of pre-Roman languages. This process (the presence of local languages, bilingualism, the progressive expansion of Latin, and the decline of certain indigenous languages) unfolded over a long period.

In the some areas, local languages persisted for much longer. The Basque linguistic tradition is a particularly notable example; it survived the Romanization process and has endured to the present day.

At the same time, pre-Roman languages left traces in the new linguistic landscape. Their influence could be seen in toponymy, anthroponymy, and vocabulary, and possibly even in certain phonetic or grammatical features of local Romance language varieties.

Romanization as linguistic contact. When investigating the pre-Roman linguistic area of the Pyrenees, it is particularly important to view Romanization as a process of linguistic contact rather than merely the replacement of pre-Roman languages by Latin. In this context, several interconnected processes can be distinguished: the penetration of Latin into the region; theemergence of a bilingual population; and the gradual expansion of social functions; the decline of certain pre-Roman languages; the preservation of specific pre-Roman elements; the formation of local varieties of Vulgar Latin; the subsequent development of the Romance languages of the Pyrenean region.

Thus, the Roman conquest represented not merely a political change, but a turning point in the history of the linguistic landscape of the Pyrenees.