Old Italic is one of several now extinct alphabet systems used on the Italian Peninsula in ancient
times for various Indo-European languages (predominantly Italic) and non-Indo-European
(e.g. Etruscan) languages. The alphabets derive from the Euboean Greek Cumaean alphabet, used
at Ischia and Cumae in the Bay of Naples in the eighth century BC.
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 Celtic, Venetic and Messapic) originally used the alphabet. Faliscan, Oscan,
Umbrian, North Picene, and South Picene all derive from an Etruscan form of the alphabet.The
Germanic runic alphabet may have been derived from one of these alphabets by the 2nd century
AD.
== Alphabets ==
=== Etruscan alphabet ===
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 or 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 Marsiliana (near Grosseto) tablet which dates to c. 700
BC, lists 26 letters corresponding to contemporary forms of the Greek alphabet which retained
Digamma, san and qoppa but which had not yet developed omega.
Until about 600 BC, the archaic form of the Etruscan alphabet remained practically unchanged,
and the direction of writing was free. From the 6th century, however, the alphabet evolved,
adjusting to the phonology of the Etruscan language, and letters representing phonemes
nonexistent in Etruscan were 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:
An additional sign 𐌚, in shape similar to the numeral 8, transcribed as F, was present
in both Lydian and Etruscan (Jensen 513). Its origin is disputed; it may have been 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. Etruscan did
not have any voiced stops, for which B, C, D were originally intended (/b/, /g/, and
/d/ respectively). The B and D therefore fell out of use, and the C, which is simpler and
easier to write than K, was adopted to write /k/, mostly displacing K itself. Likewise,
since Etruscan had no /o/ vowel sound, O disappeared and was replaced by U. In the course of its
simplification, the redundant letters showed some tendency towards a semi-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 influenced
by the rise of the Latin alphabet. The Romans, who did have voiced stops in their language,
revived B and D for /b/ and /d/, and used C for both /k/ and /g/, until they invented
a separate letter G to distinguish the two sounds. Soon after, the Etruscan language
itself became extinct.
=== Oscan alphabet === The Osci probably adopted the archaic Etruscan
alphabet during the 7th century BC, but a recognizably Oscan variant of the alphabet
is attested only from the 5th century BC; its sign inventory extended over the classical
Etruscan alphabet by the introduction of lowered variants of I and U, transcribed as Í and
Ú. Ú came to be used to represent Oscan /o/, while U was used for /u/ as well as historical
long */oː/, which had undergone a sound shift in Oscan to become ~[uː].
=== Alphabet of Nuceria ===
The Nucerian alphabet is based on inscriptions found in southern Italy (Nocera Superiore,
Sorrento, Vico Equense and other places). It is attested only between the 6th and the
5th century BC. The most important sign is the /S/, shaped
like a fir tree, and possibly a derivation from the Phoenician alphabet.
=== Alphabet of Lugano ===
The Alphabet of Lugano, based on inscriptions found in northern Italy and Canton Ticino,
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 18 letters, derived from
the archaic Etruscan alphabet:
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 Bolzano),
about 100 Raetic inscriptions. The alphabet of Magrè (near Schio), east
Raetian inscriptions.
=== Venetic alphabet === Alphabet of Este: Similar but not identical
to that of Magrè, Venetic inscriptions.
=== Camunic alphabet === Inscribed abecedarium on rock engraves in
Valle Camonica.
== 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, and F. (Etruscan U is Latin V; Etruscan V is Latin F.)
== South Picene alphabet ==
The South Picene alphabet, known from the 6th century BC, is most like the southern
Etruscan alphabet in that it uses Q for /k/ and K for /g/. It is:
⟨.⟩ is a reduced ⟨o⟩ and ⟨:⟩ is a reduced ⟨8⟩, used for /f/.
== Unicode == The Old Italic alphabets were unified and
added to the Unicode Standard in March, 2001 with the release of version 3.1.
=== Block ===
The Unicode block for Old Italic is U+10300–U+1032F without specification of a particular alphabet
(i.e. the Old Italic alphabets are considered equivalent, and the font used will determine
the variant). Writing direction (right-to-left, left-to-right,
or boustrophedon) varies based on the language and even the time period. For simplicity most
scholars use left-to-right and this is the Unicode default direction for the Old Italic
block. For this reason, the glyphs in the code chart are shown with left-to-right orientation.
=== Letters with Transliteration ===
== See also == Euboean alphabet
Negau helmet Alphabets of Asia Minor
== References ==
== Further reading ==
Bonfante, Giuliano and Larissa Bonfante. The Etruscan Language: An Introduction. Manchester:
Manchester University Press, 2002. Mullen, Alex. Southern Gaul and the Mediterranean:
Multilingualism and Multiple Identities in the Iron Age and Roman Periods. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, 2013.
== External links == Etruscan Texts Project: A searchable online
database of Etruscan inscriptions. Old Italic Unicode
The Etruscan alphabet (Omniglot) Old Italic alphabets (Omniglot)
Etruscan (Ancient Scripts) Oscan (Ancient Scripts)
Unicode Fonts