The Old Italic scripts are a family of ancient

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 ...

s used in the Italian Peninsula between about 700 and 100 BC, for various languages spoken in that time and place. The most notable member is the

Etruscan alphabet The Etruscan alphabet was used by the Etruscans, an ancient civilization of central and northern Italy, to write Etruscan language, their language, from about 700 BC to sometime around 100 AD. The Etruscan alphabet derives from the Euboean alpha ...

, which was the immediate ancestor of the

Latin alphabet The Latin alphabet, also known as the Roman alphabet, is the collection of letters originally used by the Ancient Rome, ancient Romans to write the Latin language. Largely unaltered except several letters splitting—i.e. from , and from � ...

used by more than 100 languages today, including English. The

runic alphabets Runes are the Letter (alphabet), letters in a set of related alphabets, known as runic rows, runic alphabets or futharks (also, see ''#Futharks, futhark'' vs ''#Runic alphabets, runic alphabet''), native to the Germanic peoples. Runes were ...

used in

Northern Europe The northern region of Europe has several definitions. A restrictive definition may describe northern Europe as being roughly north of the southern coast of the Baltic Sea, which is about 54th parallel north, 54°N, or may be based on other ge ...

are believed to have been separately derived from one of these alphabets by the 2nd century AD.

Origins

The Old Italic alphabets ultimately derive from the

Phoenician alphabet The Phoenician alphabet is an abjad (consonantal alphabet) used across the Mediterranean civilization of Phoenicia for most of the 1st millennium BC. It was one of the first alphabets, attested in Canaanite and Aramaic inscriptions fo ...

, but the general consensus is that the

was imported from the

Euboea Euboea ( ; , ), also known by its modern spelling Evia ( ; , ), is the second-largest Greek island in area and population, after Crete, and the sixth largest island in the Mediterranean Sea. It is separated from Boeotia in mainland Greece by ...

Greek colonies Greek colonisation refers to the expansion of Archaic Greeks, particularly during the 8th–6th centuries BC, across the Mediterranean Sea and the Black Sea. The Archaic expansion differed from the Iron Age migrations of the Greek Dark Ages ...

Cumae Cumae ( or or ; ) was the first ancient Greek colony of Magna Graecia on the mainland of Italy and was founded by settlers from Euboea in the 8th century BCE. It became a rich Roman city, the remains of which lie near the modern village of ...

and Ischia (Pithekoūsai) situated in the

Gulf of Naples The Gulf of Naples (), also called the Bay of Naples, is a roughly 15-kilometer-wide (9.3 mi) gulf located along the south-western coast of Italy (Metropolitan City of Naples, Campania region). It opens to the west into the Mediterranean ...

in the 8th century BC; this

Euboean alphabet Many local variants of the Greek alphabet were employed in ancient Greece during the archaic and early classical periods, until around 400 BC, when they were replaced by the classical 24-letter alphabet that is the standard today. All forms ...

is also called 'Cumaean' (after Cumae), or 'Chalcidian' (after its

metropolis A metropolis () is a large city or conurbation which is a significant economic, political, and cultural area for a country or region, and an important hub for regional or international connections, commerce, and communications. A big city b ...

Chalcis Chalcis (; Ancient Greek and Katharevousa: , ), also called Chalkida or Halkida (Modern Greek: , ), is the chief city of the island of Euboea or Evia in Greece, situated on the Euripus Strait at its narrowest point. The name is preserved from ...

). The Cumaean hypothesis is supported by the 1957–58 excavations of

Veii Veii (also Veius; ) was an important ancient Etruscan city situated on the southern limits of Etruria and north-northwest of Rome, Italy. It now lies in Isola Farnese, in the comune of Rome. Many other sites associated with and in the city-st ...

by the

British School at Rome The British School at Rome (BSR) is a British interdisciplinary research centre supporting the arts, humanities and architecture established in Rome. Historical and archaeological study are at the core of its activities. History The British Sc ...

, which found pieces of Greek pottery indicating that contacts between the Etruscan city of Veii and the Greek colonies of Cumae and Ischia have existed ever since the second half of the 8th century. Other scholars posit a different hypothetical Western Greek alphabet that was even older than those attested to have given rise to the Etruscan letters. Whatever the case, the Etruscans added the ''c'', the ''q'' and the combination of ''vh'' or ''hv'' (for /f/) in order to spell sounds that did not exist in Ancient Greek. The development and usage of their own Greek-derived alphabet arguably marked the end of the

Villanovan culture The Villanovan culture (–700 BCE), regarded as the earliest phase of the Etruscan civilization, was the earliest Iron Age culture of Italy. It directly followed the Bronze Age Proto-Villanovan culture which branched off from the Urnfield cult ...

and ushered in the Etruscan Orientalising period. As the Etruscans were the leading civilization of Italy in that period, it is widely accepted that they spread their alphabet across the peninsula, and the other Old Italic scripts were derived from theirs. Scholars provide three reasons: Etruscans and non-Etruscans had strong contacts in the 8th and 7th centuries, surviving inscriptions from other languages appear later (after the end of the 8th century) than the earliest Etruscan ones (first amongst the

Umbrians The Umbri were an Italic people of ancient Italy. A region called Umbria still exists and is now occupied by Italian speakers. It is somewhat smaller than the ancient Umbria. Most ancient Umbrian cities were settled in the 9th-4th centuries BC ...

Faliscans The Falisci were an Italic tribe who lived in what is now northern Lazio, on the Etruscan side of the Tiber River. They spoke an Italic language, Faliscan, closely related to Latin. Originally a sovereign state, politically and socially th ...

Latins The term Latins has been used throughout history to refer to various peoples, ethnicities and religious groups using Latin or the Latin-derived Romance languages, as part of the legacy of the Roman Empire. In the Ancient World, it referred to th ...

, and

Sabines The Sabines (, , , ; ) were an Italic people who lived in the central Apennine Mountains (see Sabina) of the ancient Italian Peninsula, also inhabiting Latium north of the Anio before the founding of Rome. The Sabines divided int ...

to the south, in the 6th century also in the

Po Valley The Po Valley, Po Plain, Plain of the Po, or Padan Plain (, , or ) is a major geographical feature of northern Italy. It extends approximately in an east-west direction, with an area of including its Venetian Plain, Venetic extension not actu ...

and amongst the Cisalpine Celtic,

Venetic Venetic ( ) is an extinct Indo-European language, most commonly classified into the Italic subgroup, that was spoken by the Veneti people in ancient times in northeast Italy (Veneto and Friuli) and part of modern Slovenia, between the Po ...

and Raetic tribes), and the letters used in these texts are evidently based on the Etruscan version of the Western Greek alphabet. However, some of them, including the Latin alphabet, retained certain Greek letters that the Etruscans themselves dropped at a rather early stage. The Old Italic alphabets were used for various different languages, which included some

Indo-European 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 (e. ...

ones (predominantly from the Italic branch, but also in

Gaulish Gaulish is an extinct Celtic languages, Celtic language spoken in parts of Continental Europe before and during the period of the Roman Empire. In the narrow sense, Gaulish was the language of the Celts of Gaul (now France, Luxembourg, Belgium, ...

and probably in inscriptions interpreted as

Proto-Germanic Proto-Germanic (abbreviated PGmc; also called Common Germanic) is the linguistic reconstruction, reconstructed proto-language of the Germanic languages, Germanic branch of the Indo-European languages. Proto-Germanic eventually developed from ...

) and some non-Indo-European ones (such as

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 ...

itself).

Alphabets related to Etruscan

The following table shows the ancient Italic scripts that are presumed to be related to the Etruscan alphabet. Symbols that are assumed to be correspondent are placed on the same column. Many symbols occur with two or more variant forms in the same script; only one variant is shown here. The notations ��'' and ��'' indicate that the shapes shown were used when writing right-to-left and left-to-right, respectively. Warning: For the languages marked the appearance of the "Letters" in the table is whatever one's browser's

Unicode Unicode or ''The Unicode Standard'' or TUS is a character encoding standard maintained by the Unicode Consortium designed to support the use of text in all of the world's writing systems that can be digitized. Version 16.0 defines 154,998 Char ...

font shows for the corresponding code points in the Old Italic Unicode block. The same code point represents different symbol shapes in different languages; therefore, to display those glyph images properly one needs to use a Unicode font specific to that language. Missing from the above table: *

* Faliscan *

Umbrian Umbrian is an extinct Italic language formerly spoken by the Umbri in the ancient Italian region of Umbria. Within the Italic languages it is closely related to the Oscan group and is therefore associated with it in the group of Osco-Umbr ...

* North Picene *

Rhaetic Rhaetic or Raetic (), also known as Rhaetian, was a 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 through the 1st century BC ...

(Raetic) * Camunic

Etruscan alphabet

Various

Indo-European languages 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 (e. ...

belonging to the Italic branch ( Faliscan and members of the Sabellian group, including

Oscan Oscan is an extinct Indo-European language of southern Italy. The language is in the Osco-Umbrian or Sabellic branch of the Italic languages. Oscan is therefore a close relative of Umbrian and South Picene. Oscan was spoken by a number of t ...

, and South Picene, and other Indo-European branches such as

) originally used the alphabet. Faliscan, Oscan, Umbrian, North Picene, and South Picene all derive from an Etruscan form of the alphabet.

Nucerian alphabet

The ''

Nuceria Nocera dei Pagani (), as it was known between the 16th century and 1806, was a ''civitas'' that included a large portion of the Agro nocerino-sarnese, corresponding to five contemporary municipalities: Nocera Inferiore, Nocera Superiore, P ...

n alphabet'' is based on inscriptions found in southern Italy ( Nocera Superiore,

Sorrento Sorrento ( , ; ; ) is a City status in Italy, city and overlooking the Gulf of Naples, Bay of Naples in Southern Italy. A popular tourist destination, Sorrento is located on the Sorrentine Peninsula at the southern terminus of a main branch o ...

Vico Equense Vico Equense is a coastal town and ''comune'' in the Metropolitan City of Naples, in southern Italy. Geography Vico Equense is part of the greater Bay of Naples metropolitan area and is a tourist destination. Located on a tuff cliff, it is ...

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

Rhaetic alphabets

Attested in almost 400 inscriptions from mainly the

Trentino Trentino (), officially the Autonomous Province of Trento (; ; ), is an Autonomous province#Italy, autonomous province of Italy in the Northern Italy, country's far north. Trentino and South Tyrol constitute the Regions of Italy, region of Tren ...

and

South Tyrol South Tyrol ( , ; ; ), officially the Autonomous Province of Bolzano – South Tyrol, is an autonomous administrative division, autonomous provinces of Italy, province in northern Italy. Together with Trentino, South Tyrol forms the autonomo ...

regions of Northern Italy, and

North Tyrol North Tyrol, rarely North Tirol (), is the main part of the Austrian federal state Tyrol, located in the western part of the country. The other part of the federal state is East Tyrol, which also belongs to Austria, but doesn't share a border wi ...

(Austria) in two distinct alphabets: the alphabet of

Sanzeno Sanzeno (, ) is a ''Communes of Trentino, comune'' (municipality) in Trentino in the northern Italy, Italian region Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol, located about north of Trento. As of 31 December 2004, it had a population of 948 and an area of .A ...

, and the alphabet of Magrè (near

Schio Schio () is a town and comune in the province of Vicenza (region of Veneto, northern Italy) situated north of Vicenza and east of the Lake Garda. It is surrounded by the Little Dolomites (Italian Prealps) and Mount Pasubio. History Its name c ...

). It was used to write the

language.

Venetic alphabet

Alphabet of Este: Similar but not identical to that of Magrè,

inscriptions.

Camunic alphabet

Inscribed abecedaria and other short inscriptions found on rock drawings in Valcamonica.

Latin alphabet

21 of the 26 archaic Etruscan letters were adopted for

Old Latin Old Latin, also known as Early, Archaic or Priscan Latin (Classical ), was the Latin language in the period roughly before 75 BC, i.e. before the age of Classical Latin. A member of the Italic languages, it descends from a common Proto-Italic ...

from the 7th century BC, either directly from the

Cumae alphabet Many local variants of the Greek alphabet were employed in ancient Greece during the Archaic Greece, archaic and Classical Greece, early classical periods, until around 400 BC, when they were replaced by the classical 24-letter alphabet that ...

, or via archaic Etruscan forms, compared to the classical Etruscan alphabet retaining B, D, K, O, Q, X but dropping Θ, Ξ, Ϻ, Φ, and Ψ.

South Picene alphabet

The South Picene alphabet, known from the 6th century BC, is most like the southern

in that it uses ''Q'' for /k/ and ''K'' for /g/. is a reduced and is a reduced , used for .

Unicode

The Old Italic alphabets were unified and added to the

Standard in March 2001 with the release of version 3.1. 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 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 ...

) 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.

References

External links

* * * * * * * {{Etruscans Languages of ancient Italy Obsolete writing systems Palaeography it:Lingua etrusca#Alfabeto