Italic languages
|
Hypothetical distribution of languages in Iron Age Italy, 6th century BC |
The
Italic subfamily is a member of the
Centum branch of the
Indo-European language family. It includes the
Romance languages (among others,
French,
Italian,
Spanish and
Portuguese), and a number of extinct languages.
Italic has two known branches:
*
Sabellic, including:
**
Oscan, was spoken in the south-central region of the
Italian Peninsula** Umbrian group, including:
***
Umbrian (not to be confused with the modern Umbrian dialect of Italian), was spoken in the north-central region
***
Volscian***
Aequian***
Marsian, the language of the
Marsi**
South Picene, in east-central Italy
*
Latino-Faliscan, including:
**
Faliscan, was spoken in the area around
Falerii Veteres (modern
Civita Castellana) north of the city of
Rome**
Latin, was spoken in west-central
Italy, the Roman conquests eventually spreading it throughout the empire and beyond
***
Romance languages, the descendants of Latin
The Italic speakers were not native to Italy, but migrated into the Italian Peninsula in the course of the
2nd millennium BC, and may have been originally an offshoot of the
Celts. Archaeologically, the
Appenine culture (inhumations) enters the Italian Peninsula from ca. 1350 BC, east to west; the
Iron Age reaches Italy from ca.
1100 BC, with the
Villanovan culture (cremating), intruding north to south. Before the Italic arrival, Italy was populated primarily by non-Indo-European groups (perhaps including the
Etruscans). The first settlement on the
Palatine hill dates to ca.
750 BC, settlements on the
Quirinal to
720 BC (see
Founding of Rome). The closest relatives of the Italic languages are
Celtic languages see:
Italo-Celtic.
The Italic languages are first attested in writing from Umbrian and Faliscan inscriptions dating to the
7th century BC. The alphabets used are based on the
Old Italic alphabet, which is itself based on the
Greek alphabet. The Italic languages themselves show minor influence from the
Etruscan and somewhat more from the
Ancient Greek languages.
As
Rome extended its political dominion over the whole of the Italian Peninsula, so too did Latin become dominant over the other Italic languages, which ceased to be spoken perhaps sometime in the
1st century AD. From so-called
Vulgar Latin the
Romance languages emerged.
The ancient
Venetic language, as revealed by inscriptions (including complete sentences) is considered by many linguists to have been very close to the Italic languages and it is sometimes even classified as Italic.
*
Language families and languages*
Ernst Pulgram:
Tongues of Italy, Prehistory and History*
Rix, Helmut (2004). Ausgliederung und Aufgliederung der italischen Sprachen.
Languages in Prehistoric Europe. ISBN 3-8253-1449-9
