The Aquitanian language was spoken by the ancient Aquitani people during Roman times. They lived between the Pyrenees mountains, the Garonne River, and the Atlantic Ocean. Evidence of this language has also been found south of the Pyrenees, in areas such as Navarre and Castile.
No written texts in Aquitanian have survived. The only evidence comes from names, such as personal names and names of gods, which appear in Latin inscriptions from the Roman imperial period. These names were recorded mostly between the 1st and 3rd centuries AD, with a few possibly dating to 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
Most scholars agree that Aquitanian was a Paleo-European language closely related to Basque, though some debate how exactly they are connected. Some linguists, like R. L. Trask, believe Aquitanian was nearly the direct ancestor of Basque, while others, such as Lyle Campbell, think it was a close relative of Basque rather than its direct ancestor.
Aquitanian is only known through proper names, and not enough information exists to determine their exact meanings. For example, the Aquitanian words andere, umme, and sahar are believed to mean "woman, lady," "child," and "old," respectively, by comparing them to similar Basque words: andere, ume, and zahar.
Linguist José Ignacio Hualde suggests that because Aquitanian was spoken in many areas (some names of Aquitanian origin have been found as far south as Soria in Castile), it likely had several 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 calls the imagined ancestor of Proto-Basque and other Aquitanian dialects "Proto-Basque-Aquitanian."
Geographical extent
Using language evidence, Joaquín Gorrochategui found that the Aquitanian language was spoken from around 100 BC until the Roman Empire ended. It was used in an area covering 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 met Gaulish near Tolosa (Toulouse) and the Garonne river, and met Celtiberian further west and near the Ebro river. Both Gaulish and Celtiberian spread into Aquitanian-speaking areas, leaving clues in names of people and places.
Lexicon
Most name parts from Aquitanian can be clearly recognized from a Basque perspective. These name parts closely match the early Basque forms reconstructed by linguist Koldo Mitxelena.