The Camunic language is an extinct language that was spoken in the 1st millennium BC in

Val Camonica Val Camonica or Valcamonica (), also Valle Camonica and anglicized as Camonica Valley, is one of the largest valleys of the central Alps, in eastern Lombardy, Italy. It extends about from the Tonale Pass to Corna Trentapassi, in the c ...

, a valley in the Central Alps. The language is sparsely attested to an extent that makes any classification attempt uncertain—even the discussion of whether it should be considered a pre–Indo-European or an

Indo-European language The Indo-European languages are a language family native to the northern Indian subcontinent, most of Europe, and the Iranian plateau with additional native branches found in regions such as Sri Lanka, the Maldives, parts of Central Asia ( ...

has remained indecisive. Among several suggestions, it has been hypothesized that Camunic is related to the

Raetic language Rhaetic or Raetic (), also known as Rhaetian, was a Tyrsenian languages, Tyrsenian language spoken in the ancient region of Rhaetia in the eastern Alps in pre-Roman and Roman times. It is documented by around 280 texts dated from the 5th throug ...

from the

Tyrsenian language family Tyrsenian (also Tyrrhenian or Common Tyrrhenic), named after the Tyrrhenians (Ancient Greek, Ionic: ''Tyrsenoi''), is an extinct family of closely related ancient languages put forward by linguist Helmut Rix in 1998, which consists of the Etrus ...

, or to the

Celtic languages The Celtic languages ( ) are a branch of the Indo-European language family, descended from the hypothetical Proto-Celtic language. The term "Celtic" was first used to describe this language group by Edward Lhuyd in 1707, following Paul-Yve ...

Language

The extant corpus is carved on rock. There are at least 170 known inscriptions, the majority of which are only a few words long. The

writing system A writing system comprises a set of symbols, called a ''script'', as well as the rules by which the script represents a particular language. The earliest writing appeared during the late 4th millennium BC. Throughout history, each independen ...

used is a variant of the north-Etruscan alphabet, known as the ''Camunian alphabet'' or ''alphabet of Sondrio''. Longer inscriptions show that Camunic writing used

boustrophedon Boustrophedon () is a style of writing in which alternate lines of writing are reversed, with letters also written in reverse, mirror-style. This is in contrast to modern European languages, where lines always begin on the same side, usually the l ...

. Its name derives from the people of the

Camunni The Camuni or Camunni were an ancient population located in Val Camonica during the Iron Age (1st millennium BC); the Latin name ''Camunni'' was attributed to them by the authors of the 1st century. They are also called ancient Camuni, to disting ...

, who lived during the

Iron Age The Iron Age () is the final epoch of the three historical Metal Ages, after the Chalcolithic and Bronze Age. It has also been considered as the final age of the three-age division starting with prehistory (before recorded history) and progre ...

in Valcamonica and were the creators of many of the stone carvings in the area.

Abecedarium An abecedarium (also known as an abecedary or ABCs or simply an ABC) is an inscription consisting of the letters of an alphabet, almost always listed in order. Typically, abecedaria (or abecedaries) are practice exercises. Non-Latin alphabet ...

s found in Nadro and Piancogno have been dated to between 500 BC and 50 AD. The amount of material is insufficient to fully decipher the language. Some scholars think it may be related to Raetic and to

Etruscan __NOTOC__ Etruscan may refer to: Ancient civilization *Etruscan civilization (1st millennium BC) and related things: **Etruscan language ** Etruscan architecture **Etruscan art **Etruscan cities **Etruscan coins **Etruscan history **Etruscan myt ...

, but it is considered premature to make such affiliation. Other scholars suggest that Camunic could be a

Celtic Celtic, Celtics or Keltic may refer to: Language and ethnicity *pertaining to Celts, a collection of Indo-European peoples in Europe and Anatolia **Celts (modern) *Celtic languages **Proto-Celtic language *Celtic music *Celtic nations Sports Foot ...

or another unknown

.Diether Schürr: ''Zur Doppelinschrift von Voltino.'' Studi Etruschi 72, 2006

007 The ''James Bond'' franchise focuses on James Bond (literary character), the titular character, a fictional Secret Intelligence Service, British Secret Service agent created in 1953 by writer Ian Fleming, who featured him in twelve novels ...

p. 335-346.

Transliteration

Gallery

File:Iscrizione in alfabeto camuno - Parco di Naquane R 50 - Capo di Ponte (Foto Luca Giarelli).jpg, Inscription from Capo di Ponte (

) File:Incisione in alfabeto camuno - Foppe R 6 - Nadro (Foto Luca Giarelli).jpg, Inscription from Nadro (

) File:Iscrizione_-_Foppe_R_23_-_Nadro.jpg, Inscription from Nadro (

) File:Iscrizione - Museo Sondrio (Foto Luca Giarelli).jpg, Inscription from the museum of

Sondrio Sondrio (; ; ; archaic or ; ) is an Italian city, ''comune'' and administrative centre for the province of Sondrio, located in the heart of the Valtellina. , Sondrio counted approximately 21,876 inhabitants. In 2007, Sondrio was named the Alpine ...

(

Valtellina Valtellina or the Valtelline (occasionally spelled as two words in English: Val Telline; (); or ; ; ) is a valley in the Lombardy region of northern Italy, bordering Switzerland. Today it is known for its ski centre, hot spring spas, bresa ...

)

References

Bibliography

*Mancini, Alberto. 1980. "Le iscrizioni della Valcamonica" in ''Studi Urbinati di storia, filosofia e letteratura. Supplemento linguistico'' 2, pp. 75–166. *Mancini, Alberto. 1991. "Iscrizioni retiche e iscrizioni camune. Due ambiti a confronto" in ''Quaderni del Dipartimento di Linguistica, Università degli studi di Firenze'' 2, pp. 77–93. *Marchesini, Simona. 2011.
Alla ricerca del modello perduto. Sulla genesi dell’alfabeto camuno"
','' ''Palaeohispanica'' 11, pp. 155-171 *Markey, Thomas L. 2008. "Shared symbolics, genre difusion, token perceptions and late literacy in North-western Europe" in ''NOWELE'' 54/55, pp. 5–62. *Morandi, Alessandro. 2004. ''Epigrafia e lingua dei Celti d'Italia'', vol. II. ''Celti d’Italia,'' ed. by Paola Piana Agostinetti (Popoli e civiltà dell'Italia antica, 12), Roma 2004 *Prosdocimi, Aldo Luigi. 1965. "Per un'edizione delle iscrizioni della Valcamonica", in ''Studi Etruschi'' 33, pp. 574–599. *Schumacher, Stefan. 2007. "Val Camonica, Inschriften" in ''Reallexikon der germanischen Altertumskunde. Band 35: Speckstein bis Zwiebel''. Ed. Heinrich Beck et al., Berlin – New York, pp. 334–337. *Tibiletti Bruno, Maria Grazia. 1978. "Camuno, retico e pararetico", in ''Lingue e dialetti dell'Italia antica'' ('Popoli e civiltà dell'Italia antica', 6), ed. by A. L. Prosdocimi, Roma 1978, pp. 209–255. *Tibiletti Bruno, Maria Grazia. 1990. "Nuove iscrizioni camune" in ''Quaderni camuni'' 49-50, pp. 29–171. *Tibiletti Bruno, Maria Grazia. 1992. "Gli alfabetari" in ''Quaderni camuni'' 60, pp. 309–380.

External links