El dogma de una Cultura Celta originaria de Centroeuropa, que llega a la Península Ibérica tras un largo periplo y se asienta tardíamente en estas tierras de manera heterogénea, local y discontinua, es un mantra cada vez más alejado de las Universidades y sin embargo más difundido por la Red.
Estamos en el único lugar del mundo, donde se confunde ser con estar y haber con tener, de tal manera que no somos por estar, sino que estamos por haber sido «descubiertos». Y si aquí hubo cultura, no fue por tenerla, sino por haberla recibido de otros.
Cosa diferente, es leer las investigaciones de los verdaderos especialistas en la materia:
“Recent work has modified the status quæstionis. Notes on the Decipherment of Tartessian as Celtic (2015) by the American linguist Terrence Kaufman could be counted as a sustained argument—at viii + 526 pages—for the classification of the language of SW corpus as Celtic. Regarding this core issue, Kaufman recognizes common ground:
… part of Koch’s summing up of his conclusions and accomplishments runs: ‘[It is not hard to see that the SW corpus contains Celtic names.]3 It is not hard to see that the matrix language contains forms that look like Indo-European verbs and preverbs tee, ro, and rar4. Combined, these categories make up more than half the corpus and are consistent with a particular classification.’ [Koch 2014b, 400–1] This is entirely correct and is the reason that Koch needs to be credited for showing that Tartessian is Celtic.5 (Kaufman 2015, 19, cf. 525)
Kaufman (2015, 9) also provides a detailed account of how the distinguished Celticist and Indo-Europeanist, Eric Hamp, reached the conclusion that Tartessian is Celtic in 2010. This view of Hamp’s also figured in his updated Indo-European family tree (Hamp 2013).6 Several proposals in Kaufman’s book are attributed to personal communication with Hamp. Thus, in effect, we are informed that there now exists a school of thought for whom the Celticity of the SW language has been established.
The seminar of Werner Nahm, ‘Is Tartessian Celtic?’, given at the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies in October 2015, presented work carried out independently of Kaufman and Hamp and was made public at nearly the same time as Kaufman 2015 appeared.7 It is therefore significant that this seminar expressed agreements on several matters of detail, as well as the general conclusion, concerning the Indo- European, specifically Celtic, classification.
Notwithstanding the foregoing points, the Celtic classification of the SW language is not the primary focus of Kaufman’s monograph. He sees the matter as already well enough established. So, it is time to move on to a second set of questions: Where can the grammatical and etymological interpretations be improved or confirmed? What is the content of the lexicon and grammar? What do the inscriptions say and what can that tell us about the cultural history of the region? What light does this new evidence throw on the evolution of Proto-Celtic from Proto-Indo-European? In Koch 2011 (§46.2) and speaking only for myself, I wrote that my personal research on the SW corpus had reached a similar stage.”
(John T. Koch. COMMON GROUND AND PROGRESS ON THE CELTIC OF THE SOUTH-WESTERN (s.w.) INSCRIPTIONS. Aberystwyth Canolfan Uwchefrydiau Cymreig a Cheltaidd Prifysgol Cymru University of Wales. Centre for Advanced Welsh and Celtic Studies 2019.)
Si los tartessios hablaban proto-celta, o sea, un celta primitivo hablado antes del celta convencional, ¿cómo pudimos aprenderlo de unos pueblos que llegaron después hablando un celta ya estructurado y definido, nosotros, qué lo hablábamos al menos 500 años antes de la presunta llegada de éstos primeros celtohablantes? La respuesta es sencilla: leemos más, o dejamos de tener Wikipedia como recurso intelectual.
Mientras tanto, es España seguiremos buscando «gamusinos» en los pecios fenicios, incluso cuando estudios genéticos han establecido que los Filisteos vinieron del sur de Europa (Anatolia, Creta, Cerdeña o España)*. Vamos, que va a ser cierto que esto de definir quién dio el qué a cada cual, tiene más de ideología que de epistemología.
©Fernando González
* https://elpais.com/elpais/2019/07/03/ciencia/1562161996_514533.html?id_externo_rsoc=FB_CC
Como siempre fabuloso este documento y con los datos muy claros, gracias.