Ligurian language (ancient)

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.
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. However, this hypothesis is primarily based on toponymy and onomastics, and on a few glosses given by ancient Graeco-Roman writers (since no Ligurian texts have survived), and thus remains partly speculative due to the scarcity of data. Because of that, some scholars have even cast doubt on the existence of a Ligurian language itself, 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.
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 or Indo-European substratum. These theories, particularly those attempting to establish additional connections with data from other European regions, have faced increasing criticism in recent scholarship.
Early Greek geographers, such as Hecataeus of Miletus (6th century BC) and Pseudo-Scylax (4th century BC), used the term Ligues as a broad label for the so-called barbarians of the distant West. They placed these peoples in a semi-mythical setting at the outer edges of the known world, comparable to other legendary groups like the Hyperboreans or Ethiopians, who were believed to inhabit the world's extreme boundaries. In these sources, Ligustica, the land of the Ligues, often aligned with Massalia's sphere of influence, stretching from Emporion in Catalonia to Antipolis (Antibes) in southeastern France. Classical Greek authors of this period do not mention any Ligures in Italy. Instead, they describe Ligurian territory as ending east around Antipolis or Monoikos (Monaco), beyond which began the domains of the Tyrrhenians (Etruscans) or Pelasgians.
Over time, as geographic knowledge improved and distinct groups like the Iberians and Gauls came into clearer focus, references to the Ligures became more concrete. Later Latin authors continued to echo elements of the older, semi-mythical tradition, yet the idea of Ligures as a general label for the distant West gradually gave way to a more localised concept, placing them in a specific region around Massalia (Marseille).
By the 3rd century BCE, Roman records (the Acta triumphalia Populi Romani of P. Lentulus Caudinus) began mentioning Ligures in Italy, north of the Magra River. This suggests that the Romans recognised a distinct people called 'Ligures' in the Italian Peninsula, separate from the older Greek tradition of 'Ligues' in southern Gaul. In the subsequent centuries, Roman military campaigns in the region (including one against the Ingauni in 185–180 BCE) gradually brought to light the existence of Ligures in northwestern Italy, culminating in the formal establishment of the Region IX Liguria under Augustus (27 BC – 14 AD). At that point, the Ligures occupied the westernmost part of the Italian peninsula and a portion of the nearby French coastline, extending from Album Intimilium (modern Ventimiglia) to Ameglia.
Early Greek authors such as Hecataeus of Miletus and Pseudo-Scylax probably used 'Ligure' a generic name for such distant and partially known tribes, or merely as a geographic reference that had no relevance to their ethnicity. To reconcile conflicting accounts, certain sources coined terms like 'Celto-Ligure' to suggest an ethnic intermingling. Latin historian Livy believed that the Ligures represented an older stratum predating the Gauls in northern Italy, while Strabo and others observed that many of the peoples previously described as 'Ligures' were actually Celts. In an attempt to resolve these inconsistencies, Strabo proposed that Celtic influence had effectively supplanted the original Ligures.
Writing in the early 1st century AD, Strabo noted that the Ligures living in the Alps were a people distinct from the Celts, even though they shared cultural similarities:
Regarding the tribes around Massalia, earlier writers called the Salyes 'Ligure', while Strabo used the denomination 'Celto-Ligure'. According to scholars, this suggests that their culture gradually came under the influence of a Celtic-speaking elite, as evidenced by the Celtic name of their rulers and towns, and the Celtic influence on their religion. Similarly, the Segobriges were identified as Ligures by the oldest texts about the foundation of Massalia, but their ethnonym and the names of their chiefs are undoubtedly Celtic.
Some glosses appear in the text of ancient writers. Greek historian Herodotus, while discussing the name of the people known as the Sigynnae (Greek: Sigúnnai), a nomadic tribe from Central Europe, noted that the term sigynnae was also used by the Ligures living "up beyond Marseille" to refer to traders. The Ligurian name of the River Po, recorded as Bodincus, is said by Pliny to mean "of unmeasured depth", which can be compared to Sanskrit budhná- ('bottom, ground, base, depth'), Latin fundus and Middle Irish bond ('sole of the shoe').
Many of the other proposed Ligurian glosses remain uncertain. The term lebērís (λεβηρίς), recorded by Strabo as a Massiliote word for 'rabbit', is believed to have been borrowed into Latin as lepus. Pliny the Elder mentions langa or langurus as a type of lizard inhabiting the banks of the Po River, which Johannes Hubschmid linked to the Latin longus ('long'). The term asia, meaning 'rye' and recorded by Pliny, could be amended to sasia and connected to the Sanskrit sasya- ('corn, grain, fruit, crop') and Welsh haidd ('barley'), though these connections remain unsure.
Most experts on the ancient languages of the region, including Patrizia de Bernardo Stempel, Xavier Delamarre, Jürgen Untermann, Javier de Hoz, Franceso Rubat Borel, and Bernard Mees, agree that Ligurian was part of the Indo-European language family.
However, there is debate regarding the relationship with Celtic, as Ligurian exhibits both similarities and differences with neighbouring Celtic languages (i.e. Gaulish and Lepontic). De Bernardo Stempel has proposed that Ligurian might represent an archaic Celtic dialect that was influenced by a non-Celtic substratum to account for these differences, and Delamarre believes "that the term 'Ligurian' refers to the population involved in the first Celtic invasions into southern Europe". Conversely, Rubat Borel, de Hoz, Untermann and Mees argue that Ligurian was a separate Indo-European language or language family, either related to or influenced by Celtic.
There is also debate about the geographical range of linguistic elements that can be attributed to the Ligurian language. Javier de Hoz has proposed distinguishing between the region inhabited by the 'Ligures' of the Roman regio Liguria (between Ventimiglia and Ameglia), and the area mentioned in early ancient sources as home to the 'Ligues' (from the Arno River to west of the Rhône, and possibly even as far as northeastern Spain). He refers to the language of the former as 'restricted Ligurian', noting that this group had a well-defined cultural identity and likely used an Indo-European language about which little is known. In contrast, the latter region, which he described as 'broad Ligurian', was inhabited by culturally related but likely diverse peoples who may have spoken various languages.
Linguists Patrizia de Bernardo Stempel and Xavier Delamarre have argued that many names of tribes described by ancient scholars as 'Ligurian' can be explained as Celtic. This includes the Ingauni (Celt. *Pingāmnī), Salyes (< *Sḷwes), Ligauni (Celt. līg- or liga-), Intimilii (Celt. uindi-), Maricii (Celt. maro-), and Oxybii (Celt. oxso- or uxso-), as well as the Iemerii (Celt. iemur-), Orobii (Celt. orbi-), Segobrigii (Celt. sego-) and Reii (Celt. *riio-).
According to de Bernardo Stempel, such linguistically Celtic tribal names suggest that a 'Celto-Ligurian' dialect played an important role among the languages spoken in ancient Ligury. Furthermore, she notes that some lexical items appear to be common to Ligurian and Celtic, such as cotto- (Alpes Cottiae), gando- (Gandovera), ambi- (pago Ambitrebio), ebu- (Eburelia), medu- (Medutio), seg- (Segesta Tigulliorum), catu- (Catucianum), and roud- (Roudelium).
Arguing for a connection between Ligurian and Celtic languages, de Bernardo Stempel has listed the following isoglosses as common traits shared by both language groups:
Amongst Celtic subgroups, common innovations are only shared with Lepontic, including *ks > s, *nd > n(n), *st > z, VCi̯V > VjCV, the analogical acc. pl. *-aś > -eś after the nom. pl. -es (consonantal stems), gen. sg. -j-os & -ei-s → -ei -os (i-stems), gen. sg. *-osjo, 3rd sg. preterite in -te, patronymic -alo-, patronymic -ikno-, gamonymic -iknā, and monothematic personal names. Conversely, some innovations are shared between Ligurian and the Gaulish language of the early sources, such as gen. sg. *-ī, 3rd sg. preterite in -tu, and patronymic -ikno-.
On the other hand, some Ligurian ethnonyms show a weaker or less evident connection to Celtic, such as the name Friniates, which can be hardly regarded as genuinely Celtic. Although Deciates seems to derive from the Proto-Indo-European (PIE) root *deḱ-, it does not appear to be Celtic. Consequently, Javier de Hoz suggests classifying the name as 'restricted Ligurian', given the tribe's geographical location. The ethnic name Taurini, from the Indo-European *tauros 'bull', does not follow the metathesized Celtic form taruos. According to Delamarre, this could be explained by the influence of Latin or the preservation of an archaic form.
Similarly, the Ligurian Bodincos 'of unmeasured depth', from PIE *bʰudʰnós, does not display the metathesis of Italo-Celtic *bʰundʰós (cf. Latin fundus, Middle Irish bond). The ethnonym Eguiturii (< PIE *h₁éḱwos 'horse') also features an archaic preservation of labio-velar -kʷ-, in contrast to Gaulish epos (which can be compared to the Ligurian Epanterii). The similarity between the ancient names of Genoa (Genua), in the ancient Ligurian region, and Geneva (Genaua), in Celtic-speaking territory, has been highlighted by scholars, but if both toponyms could derive from the Celtic *genu 'mouth', the PIE stem *ǵónu- 'knee', which is commonly found in other Indo-European language groups, may also be at the origin of the names.
Francesco Rubat Borel has highlighted unusual Ligurian phonological changes not seen in Celtic languages, such as *upo- > uea- and *o > a in unstressed syllables, the toponymic suffix -asc-, and the retained *p in Porcobera, which would make claims of Ligurian as a Celtic language problematic. According to Bernard Mees, Ligurian appears to share some phonological features with Celtic while differing significantly in morphology, suggesting it was a separate language with certain similarities to Celtic. He writes that "the Romans did not consider the Ligurians to be Celts, and although there are some evident parallels between Ligurian and Celtic names, these can all be understood as reflecting inherited Indo-European features, not distinctively Celtic traits." By analysing Ligurian personal names, Jürgen Untermann concluded that Ligurian is best considered an Indo-European language or language family separate from both Celtic and Italic.
In the late 19th century, Henri d'Arbois de Jubainville proposed that the Ligures constituted an early Indo-European substratum in Western Europe, separate from both Gaulish and Italic groups. Building on classical sources, he identified a range of place names and tribal names that did not fit neatly into known Celtic or Italic patterns. His theory, which came to be termed "Celto-Ligurian", influenced philological and archaeological approaches for the following decades. According to Bernard Mees, de Jubainville became "the intellectual grandfather to a genealogy of prehistorical and protohistorical substratum theories".
By the 1920s, scholars were using the "Celto-Ligurian" idea to explain problematic Indo-European toponyms and hydronyms across much of Europe. For instance, Paul Kretschmer argued that some inscriptions in Etruscan script (later identified as Lepontic Celtic) provided evidence for a Ligurian linguistic layer, but subsequent discoveries established these as clearly Celtic with only limited Etruscan influence. In the 1930s, Julius Pokorny adopted these insights for his pan-Illyrian (or "Illyro-Venetic") theory, linking it to the prehistoric Urnfield culture. Consequently, many difficult place-name etymologies were attributed to a hypothetical Illyrian layer, leading to broad, stratigraphical theories that traced Indo-European linguistic influences from Gaul all the way to the Balkans.
By the late 1950s, Pokorny's theories had lost its momentum following critical scrutiny. The underlying place-name elements championed by de Jubainville and Pokorny, however, were reworked by Hans Krahe into his "Old European" theory. Focusing on hydronyms, Krahe advanced a more refined approach, yet it remained conceptually indebted to de Jubainville's earlier "Celto-Ligurian" framework. Though Krahe proposed a more systematic argument than the earlier "Illyrian" or "Celto-Ligurian" frameworks, his theory still faced criticism for assuming that widespread, older Indo-European features belonged to one single language rather than several archaic dialects.
Linguist James Clackson has criticized these approaches by stating that "the label 'Ligurian' merely serves to conceal our ignorance" about the pre-Roman linguistic landscape in various regions of Europe.