The Marsian language is the extinct language of the

Marsi The Marsi were an Italic people of ancient Italy, whose chief centre was Marruvium, on the eastern shore of Lake Fucinus (which was drained in the time of Claudius). The area in which they lived is now called Marsica. They originally spoke a l ...

. It is classified by the

Linguist List The LINGUIST List is an online resource for the academic field of linguistics. It was founded by Anthony Aristar in early 1990 at the University of Western Australia, and is used as a reference by the National Science Foundation in the United S ...

as one of the

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 ...

group of languages.

Phonology

Their language differs very slightly from Roman

Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

of that date; for apparently contracted forms, such as instead of , may really only be a matter of spelling. In final syllables, the

diphthong A diphthong ( ), also known as a gliding vowel or a vowel glide, is a combination of two adjacent vowel sounds within the same syllable. Technically, a diphthong is a vowel with two different targets: that is, the tongue (and/or other parts of ...

s ''ai'', ''ei'', and ''oi'' all appear as ''e''. On the other hand, the older form of the name of the tribe (dat. plur. = Lat. ) shows its derivation and exhibits the

assibilation In linguistics, assibilation is a sound change resulting in a sibilant consonant. It is a form of spirantization and is commonly the final phase of palatalization. Arabic A characteristic of Mashreqi varieties of Arabic (particularly Levanti ...

of ''-tio-'' into ''-tso-'', proper to the

Oscan language 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 ...

but strange to classical Latin.

Corpus

The Marsian inscriptions are dated by the style of the alphabet from about 300 to 150 BC (the middle

Roman Republic The Roman Republic ( ) was the era of Ancient Rome, classical Roman civilisation beginning with Overthrow of the Roman monarchy, the overthrow of the Roman Kingdom (traditionally dated to 509 BC) and ending in 27 BC with the establis ...

). Conway lists nine inscriptions, one from Ortona and two each from

Marruvium San Benedetto dei Marsi (, ; ) is a ''comune ''and town in the province of L'Aquila in the Abruzzo region of central Italy. It is on the eastern shore of the dried Lake Fucino, from the remains of another ancient site, Alba Fucens. Near the town ...

Lecce Lecce (; ) is a city in southern Italy and capital of the province of Lecce. It is on the Salentine Peninsula, at the heel of the Italian Peninsula, and is over two thousand years old. Because of its rich Baroque architecture, Lecce is n ...

, Trasacco and Luco. In addition, there are a few glosses, a few place names and a few dozen personal names in Latin form.

Bronze of Lake Fucinus

The Bronze of Lake Fucinus was an inscribed bronze plaque found in 1877 near Luco during the draining of the lake, from an ancient settlement that had been covered by the lake. The bronze was placed in the Museum of Prince Alessandro Torlonia, where it was photographed for publication. It was lost in 1894 and it has not been seen since. The text of the plaque is as follows: : , , , : , , , , : , . It seems to be or describe a votive offering () perhaps of boars () to the local goddess(es) Anctia () on behalf of the Marsian Legions (pro le ioibus martses).

Notes

References

Bibliography

* ; Attribution * Endnote: ** (from which some portions of this article are taken; on the Fucino-Bronze, ''ib.'' p. 294) {{AncientRome-stub Languages of ancient Italy Osco-Umbrian languages Extinct languages of Europe Languages extinct in the 2nd century BC