LINGUISTIC CONNECTIONS

A Paleolithic Language
by R. Cedric Leonard

Linguists have believed for some time now that a language exists today which
can be traced back to the Stone Age. Just how far back is uncertain, but at
least as far back as the Neolithic Age (Renan, 1873; Ripley, 1899). Whether or
not it can be traced further back into the Paleolithic (Old Stone Age) remains
to be seen. The huge areas once covered by this language and its close relatives
are the very same areas which were occupied by Cro-Magnon Man of the
Paleolithic Age: a strong indicator that this language was that of Cro-Magnon
Man. Since we are looking at a Stone Age language which survived to the
present-day, in making our analysis of this remarkable phenomenon it will be
helpful to know where the Cro-Magnon people still live today. So, who were
the survivors of Atlantis?
THE SURVIVORS OF ATLANTIS
Generally, modern Cro-Magnon people can be found in certain parts of
Western Europe, North Africa and some of the Atlantic Islands today.
Physical anthropologists agree that Cro-Magnon is represented in modern
times by the Berber and Tuareg peoples of North Africa, the recently extinct
Guanches of the Canary Isles, the Basques of northern Spain, the Aquitanians
living in the Dordogne Valley and Brittany in France; and until lately, those
living on the Isle d'Oleron. (Howells, 1967; Lundman, 1977; Hiernaux, 1975,
et al.)—this indicated by obviously Cro-Magnoid skulls.
Except for some shrinkage of areas, this is the same distribution pattern for
Cro-Magnon as existed in Upper Paleolithic times. Many of these same
peoples are distinguished in calling themselves by names using the suffix
"tani," from the Mauritani of North Africa to the Bretani (thus also Brittany)
of the British Isles (Martins, 1930). (For the latest theory of the origin of the
Bretons click Here.)
Among the modern Berbers in northwest Africa, the lightest skin
pigmentation recorded is that of the Rifians, the most European-looking
Berbers. Ten percent have light brown or blond hair. The blonds tend to be
golden, or reddish; only rarely ash blond. (Coon, 1965) Concerning
"blondism" among the Tuaregs and Berbers, Dr. Jean Hiernaux, Director of
Research at the National Centre for Scientific Research in Paris, writes:
"The relatively high incidence of blondism in North Africa has raised much
speculation. Has it evolved locally, or does it represent an admixture of
European elements from an area where blondism has a high incidence? Both
views are tenable." (Hiernaux, 1975)
Although Hiernaux seems to favor possible genetic influence from northern
Europe, I believe the long-term evidence clearly demonstrates an innate
reluctance among Cro-Magnons to interact linguistically, culturally, or
sexually with their neighbors, especially in ancient times, as reiterated by
numerous ethnologists, linguists, and anthropologists.
The important thing in regard to their particular pattern of distribution is
that when the languages of these people are analyzed, it is apparent that they
speak languages that are related to each other, but not related to the other
languages spoken throughout Europe and the Near East. I have named this
family of languages the Berber-Ibero-Basque Complex. The languages
involved are very old, going back at least to the Neolithic Age, and possibly
dating back to the Paleolithic cultures of the Ice Age.
AQUITANIAN AND LUSITANIAN
Not much is known of these two languages—Aquitanian and Lusitanian
inscriptions are nonexistent in the original script. The Aquitanian and Basque
languages are presently believed to be remnants of an Ice Age Paleolithic
language spoken in Western Europe. Other than a few place and tribe names
transmitted by Greek and Latin writers, the main data come from Latin
inscriptions found mainly along the high basin of the Garonne in Aquitania.
(Gorrochategui, 2003)
With regard to the relations between it and the Iberian and Basque languages,
the Aquitanian language is a kind of missing link, but a very special one.
Aquitanian names resemble the Iberian personal names. Many, especially the
god names, are compounded in the same manner as the Iberian ones. The
Roman geographer Strabo (Geography, IV,1,1) states that their language and
physical appearance demonstrate their kinship to Iberians.
Archaeological, toponymical and historical evidence strongly suggest that
Aquitanian was a dialect of the Basque language. The evidence appears as
votive and funerary inscriptions found along the Rhine River (at Hagenbach),
inscribed in Latin characters, which contain some four hundred personal
names as well as numerous names of deities. Aquitanian has even been
suggested as the forerunner of Basque. (Trask, 1997)
As a matter of fact, the Aquitanian language is considered by many to be Old
Basque: this because of the coincidence between Aquitanian personal name
bases and the Basque lexicon (i.e., meanings of the names can be determined
using a Basque lexicon). According to Gorrochategui (1993), most Aquitanian
names have admissible interpretations by the Basque lexicon, especially the
names of Aquitanian deities.
Even less is known of another Iberian language spoken by the Lusitani of
western Iberia. The Lusitanians were the most numerous people in the
western area of the Iberian peninsula, and even though there are those who
point to the Alps as a possible origin, others believe they were an indigeneous
Iberian tribe. I concur with the latter as far as it goes, but their ultimate
origin, I believe, is Atlantis.
With the passage of time the Lusitanian language succumbed to the pressure
and prestige of Latin, and as a result has totally disappeared from usage. Due
to the brevity of ancient Lusitanian texts, and the fact that only a very small
number of Portuguese words seem to be derived from the Lusitanian language
(Zdravko Batzarov), the affiliation of Lusitanian remains in debate.
Portuguese is, of course, an Indo-European language.

The most famous Lusitanian inscriptions are those

from Cabeço de Fraguas and Lamas de Moledo in Portugal and
 Arroyo de la Luz in Spain (shown on the right). All known Lusitanian
inscriptions are written in the Latin alphabet.

Ulrich Schmoll (1959) proposed a language branch which he called "Galician-

Lusitanian". And there are fundamental suspicions that the area of the
Gallaecian tribes (North of Portugal and Galicia), that is, all the northwestern
area of the Iberian peninsula, spoke languages related to Lusitanian, rather
than the Keltic as once believed. All these issues are still being hotly debated
by professional linguists and philologists.

THE BERBER-IBERO-BASQUE LANGUAGE COMPLEX

What I will endeavor to show here is that the various dialects of what I believe
was the original language of the Atlanteans accompanied the Cro-Magnon
people as they swept into the western portions of Europe and Africa from
Atlantis. The remains of this phenomenon exist to this day in what I call the
Berber-Ibero-Basque Language Complex. This complex stretched from
Morocco in North Africa, across Gibraltar into the Iberian peninsula, on up
into the Dordogne Valley of France and Brittany, continuing northward to the
British Isles. (Click for Map) If such an Atlantic language did exist, we will
have identified the Atlantean language, at least provisionally. At the very
least, we can ask if such a unified, widespread language did not come from
Atlantis, from where did it come?
Professional anthropologists have already postulated, in a classic work on
European ethnology, that the modern day Basque people of the Pyrenees
Mountains (northern Spain/southern France) speak a language inherited
directly from Cro-Magnon Man (Ripley, 1899). To give a couple of illustrative
examples of the reasons for the above postulation, the Basque (Euskera) word
for knife means literally "stone that cuts," and their word for ceiling means
"top of the cavern" (Blanc, 1854).
Ethnologist Michael A. Etcheverry states his opinion that the Basques, having
fought off assimilation by the Romans, Visigoths, Moors and Franks, were
themselves the direct descendants of the Ice Age Cro-Magnon people who
had, more than any others, avoided both the modification of their genetic
makeup and their language during the following era of Neolithic expansion.
(Ryan & Pittman, 1998)
Prof. Henry Fairfield Osborn (1915-1923) had long ago declared that the Cro-
Magnon people of the Stone Age left two cultural "relics" that survived into
modern times: (1) the Berber-speaking Guanches of the Canary Islands, and
(2) the unique Basque language of western Europe. In regard to the extreme
age of the Basque language, the distinguished British scholar Michael
Harrison once wrote:
"In support of the theory that Basque, if not an autochthonous language, is at
least one of the most primitive languages of Europe, in the sense of its being
here before any of the existing others, is the fact that Basque . . . is still a
language with no proven congeners." (Harrison, 1974)
If Basque was indeed the language of Cro-Magnon Man, it must have once
been spoken over a much larger area of Europe than it is now. Today it stands
isolated into two tiny linguistic "islands," surrounded by languages totally
alien in vocabulary, syntax, and grammatical structure (Saltarelli, 1988).
According to Harrison, who has done his homework, Basque did indeed cover
a far greater area than it does today, reminding us that this fact was recorded
by the ancient Carthaginians and Romans (Harrison, 1974).
But what about the little-known Iberian language (generally believed to be
related to the Berber language of North Africa)? The defunct Iberian
language is known to us only through inscriptions (the Iberian script is mainly
syllabic, but also partly alphabetic). It was once spoken throughout the entire
Iberian peninsula, and through Iberian language specialist William J.
Entwhistle (1936) we learn that this language is also related to the modern
Basque language. All these languages are agglutinative, as apposed to
inflected.
One particular Ibero-Tartessian sequence etched in prehistoric bone has
lately been discovered at La Coruña in Galicia, Spain, which proves to be of
interest (Bouvier, 2003). It is said to depict the old Iberian name for Atlantis,
as well as the name of the ancient Iberian city of Tartessos. The inscription
has been transliterated as follows:

Iberian characters reportedly found etched in a 6,000 year-old bone at La Coruña in Galicia,
Northern Spain
It should be remembered that later inflected Indo-European languages had
inflectional "endings" added to the stem of the word. Thus, "Tarte" (i.e.,
omitting the Greek suffix -ssos) would be the ancient Iberian name for
Tartessos. The same applies to the original name of Atlantis (sans the Greek
suffix). These Iberian inscriptions are far too old to be Punic, since they have
been dated at circa. 4000 B.C.—some of them have been carbon-dated even
earlier (Schøyen, 2005).
The characters appear to be syllabic, therefore any vowel sounds indicated
above (in small letters) are only conjectural. Thus the ATL noted above could
represent the original Iberian name for "Atlantis". (Could this be "Atala"—a
name found also in North Africa among the Berbers of Tunisia, and one of the
most ancient names of the celebrated White Island?)
The famous German philologist Wilhelm von Humboldt was convinced of the
existence of a single great Iberian people in ancient times, speaking a distinct
non-European language of their own. He proposed that these ancient Iberian
people once extended through southern France into Brittany, and on into the
British Isles—he even included the Mediterranean islands of Sicily, Sardinia
and Corsica. Humboldt also contended that the Basques of modern times are
remnants of that "once wide-spread Atlantic seaboard population" (von
Humboldt, 1821).
Franz N. Finch, another German authority on comparative philology,
asserted that modern Basque is simply "an indubitable continuation" of the
older Iberian language—although this has been contested recently (Hualde,
1991; Trask, 1997). But even though recent investigators are reluctant to
admit to vocabulary equivalence (attributing such to "borrowings" from the
Basque), they also know that similarities in language structure (an extremely
conservative trait, highly resistant to outside influences) is the most telling
trait, and historically it is the structure of these languages which has so
intrigued linguists.
Finch also points out that Basque (or Euskera) is not only connected with the
Basques of southern France, but equally with the Ausci, an ancient
Aquitanian tribe of central France (see above), to whom they were most likely
related. Muck (1976) wondered if this might imply kinship between the
Aquitanian and that oldest Italic aboriginal tribe known as the Osci?
Harrison expresses the opinion that both Iberian and Basque originated in
Berber country. Why? Because of the affinities which exist between those two
languages and the modern Berber tongue.
"Indeed that Basque should have many words in common with the member of
all the North African group of languages is not surprising, since modern
opinion ever more inclines to credit the Basque with a North African
origin . . ." (Harrison, 1974)
But even though these languages are apparently related, why imagine they all
originated in North Africa? A quick look at any map will show the
geographical proximity of these areas to Plato's Atlantis. It may be that none
of these needed to "cross" the Straits of Gibraltar. If Cro-Magnon
simultaneously appeared on the western shores of both continents, as most
physical anthropologists insist, then so did his language. No evidence has been
found to indicate that Cro-Magnon's origin was in North Africa (see my
Anthropology page), so why would his language originate there? In other
words, to bring it down to our terms, if Cro-Magnon originated in Atlantis, so
did his language. (Click here for a linguistic map illustrating those
relationships.)
Linguists have been stunned by the lack of change in these languages over
extremely long periods of time. It seems that, language-wise, Cro-Magnon was
very conservative! Prof. Johannes Friedrich (1957), a leading linguist of the
Free University of Berlin, says that the Berber language has not changed at all
in the last two thousand years. From this, one might conclude that the ancient
Atlantean language is well enough intact, even after 12,000 years, that even
today it can be identified to a reasonable extent.
Linguists call Basque "primitive" in the sense of its being the "first" (i.e., the
earliest) of the present-day European languages, and in no way implies that it
is simple or undeveloped. Basque language authorities, such as S.H. Blanc
(1854) and J. Morris-Jones (1940), describe Basque syntax as both "complex
and orderly". Now to complete the picture. I haven't said anything about the
British languages Welch, Erse and Gaelic. Let's take a look.
WELCH, ERSE AND GAELIC
It appears that the peculiar Basque syntax (word order) is preserved in the
modern Welch language. This much is certain. Someone, speaking some
language (language X) was already in Great Britain when the first wave of
Kelts arrived in about 1800 B.C. The questions are, who were they, and what
was the language they spoke? Prof. Morris-Jones has answered the above
questions by means of an intensive study of the Welch language. He explains
the peculiarity of the Welch language by making the observation that it is
composed mainly of a Keltic vocabulary, but having a non-Keltic syntax. After
studying the language for most of his life, he has concluded that modern
Welch is derived from a principally Keltic vocabulary which has been
superimposed upon a much older syntax resembling Basque. He believes this
happened as a result of conquest of the British Isles by the later Kelts. His
theory goes like this:
When one people is conquered by another, the conquering warriors usually
make wives or mistresses out of the conquered people's women folk. The latter
are more or less forced to learn the vocabulary of the conqueror [Keltic]; but
syntax is a harder thing to learn, especially when the warrior-husband is gone
a lot fighting other battles. The children of these unions are raised by their
mothers, and therefore learn the "incorrect" version of the conquerors
language [Keltic vocabulary combined with original Basque syntax] from
their mothers. Within a few generations the language as spoken by the women
and children at home is considered "correct," resulting in the final Welch.
This happened when the Lowland Scots had the English language
superimposed on the older Gaelic, giving the Scottish dialect of English its
particular flavor.
Morris-Jones concluded that the syntax most closely resembling that of Welch
is the Berber and Tamachek languages of North Africa (both closely related to
Basque). In other words, language X is identified as belonging to our Berber-
Ibero-Basque complex, i.e., the Atlantean language. It appears that the
earliest language of Britain is found—almost hidden at the root of the Welsh,
Erse and Gaelic languages—to be the Atlantean language. Some scholars tend
to include certain pre-Indo-European Keltic languages of Northwestern
Europe in this category (Renan, 1873).
The Basque language in the Pyrenees seems to be the last relic of a language
which preceded the Indo-European in the western portions of Europe and the
British Isles. In addition to this, a number of physical characteristics (skin,
hair, and eye colouring) of certain natives of western Britain and Ireland, are
likely relics of what Huxley believed to be "an Iberian population" (Huxley,
1870).
The late Prof. Barry Fell of Harvard University reminds us that one of the
ancient names for Ireland is Ibheriu (derived from Iberiu; Fell, 1976), further
asserting that Gaelic histories point to Iberia as an earlier homeland of the
Gaels. It certainly wouldn't be the first time in history that the name of an
older homeland had been transferred to the younger. Many authorities,
including some linguists, think this might indeed be the case.
Recent genetic findings suggest that the people now inhabiting the British Isles
(including Irish, Welsh, Scots, Basques and Bretons) are a remnant of a group
of people who also left the Iberian peninsula (or Atlantis; R.C.L.) between
18,000 and 12,000 years ago and spent 6,000 years isolated from Europe
before returning, bringing the Megalithic culture to coastal Europe. (Recent
NOVA interview with Dr. Dennis Stanford and Dr. Bruce Bradley of the
Smithsonian Museum of Natural History)
Other genetic studies show that Mayans, Incas and Auracanians are all
virtually 100% group O, with 5-20% of the population being rhesus negative.
This was the blood of the original Europeans and stems from Cro-Magnon
man (Kurlansky, 2001). The races that possess this blood type are races of the
Americas, the Canary Islands, the Berbers, the Basques, and Gaelic Kelts.
So it is almost certain that from Morocco to the British Isles (seeming to
"hug" the Atlantic coast), we are dealing with basically a single language and
a single people. If Cro-Magnon Man was as primitive as most people think, he
would not have spoken only one language. Look at the uncountable languages
of the American Indian, and the thousands of languages existing in sub-
Saharan Africa. Each tribe spoke its own language, and sign language had to
be resorted to for communication between them.
The unity expressed in all Cro-Magnon culture—in their art impulse, their
tools and weapons, social organization, and in the language they spoke—is
eloquent testimony of the high state of civilization attained in their original
homeland before becoming refugees struggling for survival. And the evidence
seems to indicate that this homeland was none other than the lost Atlantis.
 TOP of Page
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Blanc, S. H., Grammaire de la Langue Basque (d'apres celle de Larramendi), Lyons & Paris,
1854.
Bouvier, Michael, in the Catalogue L'Art of l'Ècriture, Paris, 2003.
Entwhistle, W. J. "The Spanish Language," (as cited in Michael Harrison's work, 1974.)
London, 1936.
Fell, Barry, "America B.C.: Ancient Settlers in the New World," Simon & Schuster, New
York, 1976.
Friedrich, Johannes, "Extinct Languages," (translated from German by Frank Gaynor)
published by The Philosophical Library, New York, 1957.
Gorrochategui, J., "La onomástica aquitana y su relación con la ibérica" in Untermann, J., &
Villar, F. Lengua y Cultura en la Hispania Prerromana, Salamanca, 1993.
Gorrochategui, J., "Las placas votivas de plata de origen aquitano halladas en Hagenbach
(Renania-Palatinado, Alemania)," Aquitania, XIX, 2003.
Harrison, Michael, "The Roots of Witchcraft," Citadel Press, Secaucas, N.J., 1974.
Hiernaux, Jean, "The People of Africa," Charles Schribner's Sons, New York, 1975.
Hualde, J. I., "Basque Phonology," Routledge, London & New York, 1991.
Huxley, Thomas H., "On the Ethnology of Britain," The Journal of the Ethnological Society of
London, Scientific Memoirs III, 1870.
Kurlansky, Mark, "The Basque History of the World," Random House Publ., New York,
2001.
Lundman, Bertil J., "The Races and Peoples of Europe," IAAEE Monograph No. 4
(translated from German by Donald A. Swan), New York, 1977.
Martins, J. P. de Oliveira, "A History of Iberian Civilization," Oxford University Press, 1930.
Morris-Jones, J., In Appendix to "The Welch Languages," by Sir John Rhys, London, 1939.
Muck, Otto Heinrich, "Alles uber Atlantis," Econ Verlag GmbH, Dusseldorf-Wien, 1976.
Osborn, Henry Fairfield, "Men of the Old Stone Age," New York, 1915-1923.
Renan, Ernest, De l'Origine du Langage, Paris, 1858; La Societe' Berbere, Paris, 1873.
Ripley, William Z., "The Races of Europe," D. Appleton & Co., New York, 1899.
Ryan, William & Pitman, Walter, "Noah's Flood: The new scientific discoveries about the
event that changed history," Simon & Schuster, New York, 1998.
Saltarelli, M., "Basque," Croom Helm, New York, 1988.
Schmoll,Ulrich von Harrassowitz, Die Sprachen der vorkeltischen Indogermanen Hispaniens
und das Keltiberische," Broschiert, 1959.
Schøyen, Martin, "The beginning of writing and the first alphabets," The Schøyen Collection,
No. 4 (Palaeography 4.1), Oslo, February 2005.
Strabo (Strabo of Amasia), Geography (Appendix, 7 B.C.), Loeb edition, 1917-32.
Trask, Robert Lawrence, "The History of Basque," Routledge, London & New York, 1997.
von Humboldt, Wilhelm, "Researches into the Early Inhabitants of Spain with the help of the
Basque language" (original title: Prüfung der Untersuchungen über die Urbewohner
Hispaniens vermittelst der
vaskischen Sprache), 1821.

Copyright © 2001 by Atlantek Software, Inc.

Version 2.4: Last update: 3 Mar 2009.
URL: www.atlantisquest.com