Vestinian is an

extinct Extinction is the termination of an organism by the death of its Endling, last member. A taxon may become Functional extinction, functionally extinct before the death of its last member if it loses the capacity to Reproduction, reproduce and ...

Italic language documented only in two surviving inscriptions of the

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 ...

. It is presumed to have been anciently spoken by the tribe of the

Vestini Vestini () were an Italic peoples, Italic tribe who occupied the area of the modern Abruzzo (central Italy), included between the Gran Sasso and the northern bank of the Aterno-Pescara, Aterno river. Their main centres were ''Pitinum ''(near mo ...

, who occupied the region within current

Abruzzo Abruzzo (, ; ; , ''Abbrìzze'' or ''Abbrèzze'' ; ), historically also known as Abruzzi, is a Regions of Italy, region of Southern Italy with an area of 10,763 square km (4,156 sq mi) and a population of 1.3 million. It is divided into four ...

from Gran Sasso to the

Adriatic Sea The Adriatic Sea () is a body of water separating the Italian Peninsula from the Balkans, Balkan Peninsula. The Adriatic is the northernmost arm of the Mediterranean Sea, extending from the Strait of Otranto (where it connects to the Ionian Se ...

in east-central

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

during that time. Vestini is the Roman

exonym An endonym (also known as autonym ) is a common, name for a group of people, individual person, geographical place, language, or dialect, meaning that it is used inside a particular group or linguistic community to identify or designate them ...

for the people. Not enough of their presumed language survives to classify it beyond Italic. Vestinian is one of a number of scantily attested Italic languages spoken in small regions of the

Apennines The Apennines or Apennine Mountains ( ; or Ἀπέννινον ὄρος; or – a singular with plural meaning; )Latin ''Apenninus'' (Greek or ) has the form of an adjective, which would be segmented ''Apenn-inus'', often used with nouns s ...

directly east of Rome called generally "the minor dialects". There is currently no agreement on their precise classification. However, de Vaan's consensus classification has it as Osco-Umbrian, closely related to

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 ...

(see ).

Corpus

Only two inscriptions survive.

Sample text

CIL 1².394 from near Navelli in the

, dated mid-third-century BC, constitutes one of the few attestations of any Vestinian language or later dialect of Latin. The inscription appears to display a dialect formed from the fusion of Latin with another, presumably local language. The inscription reads: Vestinian text: :t.vetio , duno , didet , herclo , iovio , brat , data Translation into Latin: :T. Vetius donum dedit Herculi Jovio. Grate data. Translation into Italian: :Tito Vezio ha dato un dono a Ercole Giovo. Dato con gratitudine. Translation into Spanish: :Tito Vecio le dio un don (regalo) a Hércules Jovio. Dado con gratitud. Translation into English: :Titus Vetius gave (this as) a gift to Hercules Jove. Gratefully given.

References

Bibliography

* * {{Italic languages Osco-Umbrian languages Languages attested from the 3rd century BC Languages extinct in the 1st century BC