Joaquín Gorrochategui Churruca (born 17 August 1953) is a Spanish linguist, emeritus professor of Indo-European linguistics at the University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU). He works in historical linguistics on the languages of the pre-Roman Iberian Peninsula and the ancient languages of Western Europe, and is regarded as a leading authority on the history of the Basque language. A pupil and continuator of Koldo Mitxelena, he coordinates the Hesperia database of Palaeohispanic languages and epigraphy, and in 2023 was awarded the Euskadi Research Prize.
Early life and education Gorrochategui was born in Eibar, in the Basque Country, on 17 August 1953. He read classical philology at the University of Salamanca, where he took his and his doctorate. He completed the doctorate in 1982 with a thesis on the indigenous onomastics of Aquitaine, supervised by Koldo Mitxelena. He then studied at Toulouse and undertook postgraduate work on Celtic linguistics at the University of Bonn under Karl Horst Schmidt. As a researcher he held stays at the University of Wales, Aberystwyth, the Ausonius Institute of the University of Bordeaux and the University of Rome Tor Vergata, and was a visiting professor at the École pratique des hautes études in Paris.
Career Gorrochategui became professor () of Indo-European linguistics in the Department of Classical Studies at the University of the Basque Country, and later professor emeritus. He has directed the university's Institute for the Sciences of Antiquity and its doctoral programme in linguistics, and served as dean of the Faculty of Letters and as director of its publishing division. He edited the journal Veleia for 27 years, from 1985 to 2012. He coordinates the Hesperia database, a project of several Spanish universities for the digital edition of the Palaeohispanic languages and inscriptions, sits on the international executive committee for Palaeohispanic languages, and belongs to the editorial boards of several journals. He has supervised doctoral theses in Basque, Italic, Slavic and Palaeohispanic linguistics.
Gorrochategui served on the Basque-language advisory council of the provincial council () of Álava and on the expert commission convened to assess the authenticity of the Iruña-Veleia graffiti. In a study published in 2011 he treated the inscriptions as modern forgeries. In 2022 he was the specialist charged with reading and interpreting the inscription on the Hand of Irulegi.
Research Gorrochategui works in historical and comparative linguistics, combining linguistic evidence with the historical and epigraphic record. His research centres on the linguistic situation of ancient Western Europe, and of the pre-Roman Iberian Peninsula in particular. His work follows three main lines. The first is the earliest stages of Basque, documented in the onomastic remains of southern Aquitaine and the northern Iberian Peninsula and reaching into medieval onomastics. The second is the ancient Indo-European languages of the peninsula, in particular Celtiberian and Lusitanian. The third is bilingualism and language contact in antiquity, both among the pre-Roman languages (Aquitanian, Iberian and Gaulish) and between them and Latin.
His doctoral research appeared as the monograph (1984), a study of the Aquitanian language.
Recognition Gorrochategui is a full member () of Jakiunde, the Academy of Sciences, Arts and Letters of the Basque Country, and a corresponding member of Euskaltzaindia (the Royal Academy of the Basque Language) and of the Real Academia Española. He sits on the board of trustees of Ikerbasque, the Basque Foundation for Science. In 2023 he was awarded the Euskadi Research Prize () in the field of Social Sciences and Humanities, for his academic career and his contribution to research training in the school founded by Mitxelena.
Selected works
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