The Latino-Libyan Inscriptions of Tripolitania

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Abstract
Explorations made in the interior of Tripolitania during the last fifty years, and intensified since 1946, have brought to light a series of inscriptions which promise to yield much useful information relating to the language and life of the indigenous population of Libya during the Roman period. These inscriptions, which are best described as ‘Latino-Libyan’, are inscribed in Latin characters in a language which, although still largely unknown, must have been in common use between the Fezzan and the Tripolitanian coast during the first four centuries A.D. Basically, this language may be a great deal older than the Roman period and related to the equally obscure language of the Libyan inscriptions of French North Africa. Similarly, it must in many areas have survived the Arab invasions, and may be the origin of the Berber language still spoken in the western Gebel of Tripolitania.

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