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OLD ITALIC ALPHABET

 

Old Italic
Type:
Languages:
Time period:
ISO 15924 code: Ital
Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. See IPA chart for English for an English-​based pronunciation key.
History of the Alphabet

Middle Bronze Age 19–15th c. BC
Meroitic 3rd c. BC
Complete genealogy
Note: This article contains special characters.

Old Italic refers to several now extinct alphabet systems used on the Italian Peninsula in ancient times for various Indo-European (predominantly Italic) and non-Indo-European (e.g. Etruscan) languages.

The alphabets derive from Euboean Greek Cumaean alphabet, used at Ischia and Cumae in the Bay of Naples in the eighth century BC. Cumaean, in turn showed strong similarities to the Phoenician alphabet, lending support to theories of Phoenician influence in the West-Central Mediterranean region.

Various Indo-European languages belonging to the Italic branch (Faliscan and members of the Sabellian group, including Oscan, Umbrian, and South Picene, and other Indo-European branches such as Venetic and Messapic) originally used the alphabet. Faliscan, Oscan, Umbrian, North Picene, and South Picene all derive from an Etruscan form of the alphabet.

Etruscan cippus (grave marker) from the necropolis Crocifisso del Tufo outside Orvieto, Italy, side view showing the inscription in the Old Italic (Etruscan) alphabet.
Etruscan cippus (grave marker) from the necropolis Crocifisso del Tufo outside Orvieto, Italy, side view showing the inscription in the Old Italic (Etruscan) alphabet.

The Germanic runic alphabet was most likely derived from one of these alphabets in about the 2nd century.

Contents

The Etruscan alphabet

The Masiliana tablet abecedarium, ca. 700 BC: ABGDEVZHΘIKLMN[Ξ]OPŚQRSTUXΦΨ, read right to left.
The Masiliana tablet abecedarium, ca. 700 BC: ABGDEVZHΘIKLMN[Ξ]OPŚQRSTUXΦΨ, read right to left.

It is not clear whether the process of adaptation from the Greek alphabet took place in Italy from the first colony of Greeks, the city of Cumae, or in Greece/Asia Minor. It was in any case a Western Greek alphabet. In the alphabets of the West, X had the sound value [ks], Ψ stood for [kʰ]; in Etruscan: X = [s], Ψ = [kʰ] or [kχ] (Rix 202-209).

The earliest Etruscan abecedarium, the Masiliana tablet which dates to c. 700 BC, lists 26 letters corresponding to contemporary forms of the Greek alphabet which retained san and qoppa but which had not yet developed omega.

Ψ Φ X U T S R Q Ś P O Ξ N M L K I Θ H Z V E D G B A
Ψ Φ X U T S R Q Ś P O Ξ N M L K I Θ H Z V E D G B A

Until about 600 BC, the archaic form of the Etruscan alphabet remains practically unchanged, and the direction of writing is free. From the 6th century, however, there are evolutions of the alphabet, guided by the phonology of the Etruscan language, and letters representing phonemes nonexistent in Etruscan are dropped. By 400 BC, it appears that all of Etruria was using the classical Etruscan alphabet of 20 letters, mostly written from left to right:

ACEVZHΘILMNPŚRSTUΦΨF

An additional sign, in shape similar to the numeral 8, F transcribed as F, was present in both Lydian and Etruscan (Jensen 513). Its origin is disputed; it may be an altered B or H or an ex novo creation (Rix 202). Its sound value was [f] and it replaced the Etruscan FH. Some letters were, on the other hand, falling out of use: B and D were apparently considered superfluous over P and T. K was dropped in favour of G (also transcribed as C). O disappears and is replaced by U. In the course of its simplification, the redundant letters showed some tendency towards a syllabary: C, K and Q were predominantly used in the contexts CE, KA, QU.

This classical alphabet remained in use until the 2nd century BC when it began to be contaminated by the rise of the Latin alphabet. Soon after the Etruscan language itself became extinct.

The Oscan alphabet

The Osci probably adopted the archaic Etruscan alphabet during the 7th century, but a recognizably Oscan variant of the alphabet is attested only from the 5th century, its sign inventory being extended over the classical Etruscan alphabet by the introduction of long vowel variants of I and U, transcribed as Í and Ú. U came to be used to represent Oscan o, while Ú was used for actual Oscan u.

ABGDEVZHIKLMNPŚRSTUFÚÍ

Image:Oscanalphabet.png

Alphabet of Lugano

The "Alphabet of Lugano" was used to record Lepontic inscriptions, among the oldest testimonies of any Celtic language, in use from the 7th to the 5th centuries BC. The alphabet has 17 letters, derived from the archaic Etruscan alphabet:

AEIKLMNOPRSTΘUVXZ

The alphabet does not distinguish voiced and unvoiced occlusives, i.e. P represents /b/ or /p/, T is for /t/ or /d/, K for /g/ or /k/. Z is probably for /ts/. U /u/ and V /w/ are distinguished. Θ is probably for /t/ and X for /g/. There are claims of a related script discovered in Glozel.

Raetic alphabets

The alphabet of Sanzeno (also, of Bozen-Bolzano), about 100 Raetic inscriptions. This variant in particular is a candidate for the origin of the Runic alphabet. [1]

abgdEFwzhθiKlMnjuΠϘrstgo
ABKDEFWZEHΘIKLMNJUPQRSTGO

The alphabet of Sondrio, west Raetian and Kamunian inscriptions.

The alphabet of Magrè, east Raetian inscriptions.

Alphabet of Este

Similar but not identical to that of Magrè, Venetic inscriptions.

Latin alphabet

Duenos inscription, 6th century BC
Duenos inscription, 6th century BC
Main article: Latin alphabet

21 of the 26 archaic Etruscan letters were adopted for Old Latin from the 7th century BC, either directly from the Cumae alphabet, or via archaic Etruscan forms, compared to the classical Etruscan alphabet retaining B, D, K, O, Q, X but dropping Θ, Ś, Φ, Ψ, F (Etruscan U is Latin V, Etruscan V is Latin F).

ABCDEFZHIKLMNOPQRSTVX

Unicode

Unicode range U+10300–U+1033F is reserved for "Old Italic" without specification of a particular alphabet (i.e. the Old Italic alphabets are considered equivalent, and the font used will determine the variant).

Letter Translit. Name Letter Translit. Name Letter Translit. Name
𐌀 a a 𐌁 b be 𐌂 c ke
𐌃 d de 𐌄 e e 𐌅 v ve
𐌆 z ze 𐌇 h he 𐌈 b the
𐌉 i i 𐌊 k ka 𐌋 l el
𐌌 m em 𐌍 n en 𐌎 š esh
𐌏 o o 𐌐 p pe 𐌑 ś she
𐌒 q ku 𐌓 r er 𐌔 s es
𐌕 t te 𐌖 u u 𐌗 x eks
𐌘 ph phe 𐌙 ch khe 𐌚 f ef
𐌛 ř ers 𐌜 ç che 𐌝 í ii
𐌞 ú uu 𐌠 I 1 𐌡 V 5
𐌢 X 10 𐌣 D 50

See also

External links

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