Noric language

Template:Short description Template:Template otherTemplate:Main other The Noric or Eastern Celtic language was likely an unclassified Continental Celtic language. Its existence is inferred from only two fragmentary inscriptions from the area of the former Roman province of Noricum (one in Grafenstein, Carinthia, Austria, the other in Ptuj, Slovenia). These do not provide enough information to draw conclusions about the language. Nonetheless, it is assumed to have been similar to other Celtic languages near to it, such as Gaulish. No evidence yet shows when it became extinct.

Ptuj inscription

File:Ptuj inscription-facsimile.png

Template:Transliteration (a facsimile of the original inscription, written right to left)

The Ptuj inscription, discovered in 1894, is written right to left in a northern Italic alphabet and reads: Template:Verse translation This is interpreted as two personal names: Template:Transliteration [son] of Template:Transliteration. The name Template:Transliteration may mean "bear penis" (compare Welsh "bear" and Irish "penis"), while Template:Transliteration may contain the element brog-, mrog- "country" (compare Welsh "region, country"). Alternatively, the inscription may be interpreted as Template:Transliteration [made this] for Template:Transliteration, with the second name in the dative case.

Grafenstein inscription

The Grafenstein inscription, on a tile from the 2nd century AD that was discovered in a gravel pit in 1977, is incomplete, but the extant part has been transcribed as follows:

Template:Main other Here, seems to be a personal name or an abbreviation of one, a Latin abbreviation indicating a weight, a verbal form possibly meaning "you (singular) do not set", perhaps "this amount", and another personal name. The text may therefore be a record of some sort of financial transaction.

Other readings of the inscription have also been proposed, including: Template:Main other

and Template:Main other