Sobre el signo ibérico «y» y los valores fonéticos que anota: apuntes para una sistematización de las grafías de las nasales en la escritura ibérica

Abstract

In this work it is examined —in accordance with known materials— the problem of the signs used by Iberians and Celtiberians for the notation of nasal sounds. This analysis shows the following results: (a) The sign Y was used for different sounds (vocalic, consonantic and sometimes, conventionally, syllabic). (b) Eastern Celtiberians were more conservative than Western ones in the use and adaptation of the Iberian script. (c) Because of the influence of Roman capital letters, the Iberian script system tends to normalize the use of the sign for Old Italic letter en instead of Y. (d) Some fluctuations in Iberian names, written with Latin capital letters, are not the result of Iberian phonetics, but of fluctuations of Latin alphabet before Caesar.