The Aquitanian language was spoken by the ancient Aquitani people during Roman times. They lived in an area between the Pyrenees mountains, the Garonne river, and the Atlantic Ocean. Evidence of this language has also been found south of the Pyrenees, in regions such as Navarre and Castile.
No written texts in Aquitanian have survived. The only evidence comes from names of people and gods, which were recorded in Latin inscriptions from the Roman imperial period. These names were found mostly between the 1st and 3rd centuries AD, with a few possibly from the 4th or 5th centuries. The Gascon language includes some influences from Aquitanian, with certain words similar to those in the Basque language.
Relationship to Basque
Scholars generally agree that Aquitanian was a Paleo-European language connected to Basque, though there is disagreement about how closely they are related. Some experts, such as R. L. Trask, believe Aquitanian was a direct ancestor of Basque, while others, like Lyle Campbell, think it may have been a close relative of Basque instead of its direct ancestor.
Aquitanian is only known through proper names, and there is not enough information to fully understand their meanings. For example, the Aquitanian words andere, umme, and sahar are thought to mean "woman, lady," "child," and "old," based on comparisons with similar Basque words: andere, ume, and zahar.
Linguist José Ignacio Hualde suggests that because Aquitanian was spoken in a large area (some names of Aquitanian origin have been found as far south as Soria in Castile), it likely had multiple dialects. He proposes that Basque may have developed from one of these dialects, though it is unclear which Aquitanian names belong to Basque’s direct ancestor and which come from a related dialect. Hualde refers to the reconstructed common ancestor of Proto-Basque and other Aquitanian dialects as "Proto-Basque-Aquitanian."
Geographical extent
Based on linguistic evidence, Joaquín Gorrochategui determined that the Aquitanian language was spoken from at least the 1st century BC until the fall of the Roman Empire across a region spanning from Biscay in the west to the Aran Valley in the east, and from the Aquitanian Plain in the north to the Ebro River in the south.
The Aquitanian language interacted with Gaulish near Tolosa (Toulouse) and the Garonne River, and with Celtiberian further west and near the Ebro River. Both Gaulish and Celtiberian spread into areas where Aquitanian was spoken, leaving traces in names of people and places.
Lexicon
Many name parts from Aquitanian can be easily recognized by Basque speakers. These parts closely match the ancient forms of the Basque language that the linguist Koldo Mitxelena reconstructed.