To the written sources of the Basque language

“We are able to understand the first word, which is suryoniko In mid-November 2022, the linguist Joaquín Gorchatguilli revealed it while showing the audience the five words engraved on the “hand of an iroligi.” In 2021, archaeologists from the University of the Basque Country discovered this hand-shaped amulet in the grip of the iroligi castle in Navarre. The length of the piece is approx. Fifteen centimeters, it was cut out of a sheet of bronze, and then five words were engraved on it using the Iberian alphabet. It is evident that the amulet was attached to the door of one of the houses in the village of Vascon, which was burned by the Romans at the beginning of our era. Very widespread during antiquity in southwestern France – where they gave its name to Gascony – and in the north-west of the Iberian Peninsula the Vascons were the ancestors of the Basques, which is indicated by the hand of ‘Iroligi’ .. Indeed, its inscription is written as follows:

suryoniko n;
tenekebekiŕatere [n] ;
Utitan. isicachi.
Iocon.

But the floor suryoniko It is similar to the modern Basque word zonioneko, meaning “lucky, happy”, in other words “good luck” that you would expect on an amulet! So the presence of this word indicates that two thousand years ago, the learned Basque was spoken by Vascones Eroligi. The Irulegi inscription found in Navarre also indicates why it was called Basque in the Middle Ages Lingua Navarrorum, meaning “Navarrese language”. As for the philologists who will strive to clarify the other four words, we can only wish them the same suryoniko !