What language did Bell Beakers speak?

**Skeleton** · 06-03-2020, 08:10 PM

Was it proto-Celtic, an unknown IE language, or a pre-IE language?

**PaleoEuropean** · 06-03-2020, 08:11 PM

Swahili

Ülev · 06-03-2020, 08:14 PM

at 0:46

**PaleoEuropean** · 06-03-2020, 08:25 PM

Originally Posted by Sundqvist

at 0:46

Where did you find this piece of history?

**Jingle Bell** · 04-07-2023, 05:48 PM

No idea, we dont even know if they speaked a IE language or no, the best proof its Lusitani language which seens somehow related to Italo-Celtic, prob brought in Iberia by German Bell Beaker that for some reason only spoke a IE language in Lusitania region (im refering to before the celts), but despite that we just cant know what language they speak

**cmt160** · 12-30-2023, 04:23 PM

They were an IE-descended and IE-speaking group, but their language (IE-descended) went extinct when the proto-celts expanded and assimilated those bell beakers.
Iirc a bell-beaker language survived up until the roman expansion in Iberia (the lusitanian language) which linguists tried to associate with the italic branch of the italo-celtic languages (Unetice-descended) due to lack of knowledge (thats why they couldn't succesfully associate it with italic languages, and why it officially remains "unclassified") rather than associating it with the bell beakers (which is what it was). Ofc there would be similarities with proto italo-celtic because both Unetice (ancestors of protoitalocelts/protogermanics/protoslavs) and bell beakers were IE descended. But thats the same as pointing out similarities between greek and latin because both are IE so ofc theres resemblance, even if both came from different branches of IE.

Ik this thread is about linguistics, but the "celts" in western europe were genetically/"autosomally" predominately bell beaker, like basically fully/almost fully. They just spoke the language of the elite that conquered them (La Tene/Hallstatt from central europe).

**Blondie** · 12-30-2023, 04:29 PM

finno-ugric

**Jingle Bell** · 12-30-2023, 06:24 PM

Originally Posted by cmt160

They were an IE-descended and IE-speaking group, but their language (IE-descended) went extinct when the proto-celts expanded and assimilated those bell beakers.
Iirc a bell-beaker language survived up until the roman expansion in Iberia (the lusitanian language) which linguists tried to associate with the italic branch of the italo-celtic languages (Unetice-descended) due to lack of knowledge (thats why they couldn't succesfully associate it with italic languages, and why it officially remains "unclassified") rather than associating it with the bell beakers (which is what it was). Ofc there would be similarities with proto italo-celtic because both Unetice (ancestors of protoitalocelts/protogermanics/protoslavs) and bell beakers were IE descended. But thats the same as pointing out similarities between greek and latin because both are IE so ofc theres resemblance, even if both came from different branches of IE.

Ik this thread is about linguistics, but the "celts" in western europe were genetically/"autosomally" predominately bell beaker, like basically fully/almost fully. They just spoke the language of the elite that conquered them (La Tene/Hallstatt from central europe).

La Tene/Hallsttat is also Beaker derived (They descended from Urnfield, which descended from Unecite which descended from Beakers) so i think its plausible that they spoke a IA Language related to Italo-Celtic, if that they did not absorved a Megalithic/EEF language from farmers XD who knows

**Odelia** · 01-01-2024, 05:13 AM

Bellend

**Grace O'Malley** · 01-01-2024, 05:23 AM

They would have spoken some Proto-Indo-European language I think. Bell Beakers descend from Corded Ware so I think the languages would be Proto-Indo-European. Another puzzle related to this is how the Celtic language became so widely spoken in Ireland when the population is much more Bell Beaker than Celtic. I find it difficult to think a small population of Celts are going to change the majority language if it was not something similar. Anyway that's another puzzle. But for the reasons I've stated I would say some type of Proto-Indo-European.