Siculian (or Sicel) is an extinct

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 ( ...

spoken in central and eastern

Sicily Sicily (Italian language, Italian and ), officially the Sicilian Region (), is an island in the central Mediterranean Sea, south of the Italian Peninsula in continental Europe and is one of the 20 regions of Italy, regions of Italy. With 4. ...

by the

Sicels The Sicels ( ; or ''Siculī'') were an Indo-European tribe who inhabited eastern Sicily, their namesake, during the Iron Age. They spoke the Siculian language. After the defeat of the Sicels at the Battle of Nomae in 450 BC and the death of ...

. It is attested in fewer than thirty inscriptions in eastern Sicily from the late 6th century to 4th century BCE, and in around twenty-five glosses from ancient writers.

Classification

Ancient sources state that Siculians entered Sicily from the Italian Peninsula either around the 13th century or the middle of the 11th century BCE (or in two waves), driving the prior inhabitants, the Sicanians and

Elymians The Elymians () were an ancient tribe, tribal people who inhabited the western part of Sicily during the Bronze Age and Classical antiquity. Origins According to Thucydides, the Elymians were refugees coming from the destroyed Troy. Instead for ...

, to the west of the island. Due to its limited attestation, it is difficult to determine much about this language beyond that it was Indo-European. The prevalent modern view is that Siculian was an Italic language, although the scarcity of sources and the difficulties in interpreting inscriptions and glosses make it impossible to come to a definitive conclusion. Some inscriptions may reveal Italic elements, such as ''geped'' ('had'), which is comparable to the

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 ...

''hipid''; ''dedaxed'' ('made' ?), perhaps a reduplicated ''k''-extended form of the root *''dʰeh1''- similar to Volscian ''fhe:fhaked'' and Oscan ''fefacid''; and the female name ''Kup(a)ra'', which evokes the

Sabellic The Osco-Umbrian, Sabellic or Sabellian languages are an extinct group of Italic languages, the Indo-European languages that were spoken in central and southern Italy by the Osco-Umbrians before being replaced by Latin, as the power of ancient Rom ...

*''kupro''- ('good'). If Siculian is indeed classified as Italic, it would diverge from all its relatives in showing voiced reflexes of the Proto-Indo-European voiced aspirates in initial position, in contrast to the sound changes ''f'' < *''dʰ'', *''bʰ'' and ''h''- < *''gʰ''/*''g̑ʰ'', attested in Sabellic, in latin and Venetic.

Attestations

They used the Greek alphabet, along with a native one based upon Western Greek scripts, probably the Euboic- Chalkidic version. According to scholar Markus Hartmann, "of the fewer than thirty inscriptions in total, only six appear to be at least in part intelligible and to be Siculian (i.e., most certainly neither Greek nor belonging to some other Italic or pre-Italic language)." Some inscriptions, written in Sicilian

Doric Greek Doric or Dorian (), also known as West Greek, was a group of Ancient Greek dialects; its Variety (linguistics), varieties are divided into the Doric proper and Northwest Doric subgroups. Doric was spoken in a vast area, including northern Greec ...

and displaying lexical items that appear to match Latin, are also suspected to be of Siculian origin, such as ''lítra'' (comparable to Latin ''lībra'', 'pound') and ''kúbiton'' (paralleling Latin ''cubitum'', 'elbow').

References

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Classification

Attestations

References

Bibliography

Further reading