Oscan is an extinct

Indo-European language The Indo-European languages are a language family native to the overwhelming majority of Europe, the Iranian plateau, and the northern Indian subcontinent. Some European languages of this family, English, French, Portuguese, Russian, Du ...

of southern

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...

. The language is in the

Osco-Umbrian 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 ...

or Sabellic branch of the

Italic languages The Italic languages form a branch of the Indo-European language family, whose earliest known members were spoken on the Italian Peninsula in the first millennium BC. The most important of the ancient languages was Latin, the official languag ...

. Oscan is therefore a close relative of

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-Umbrian ...

. Oscan was spoken by a number of tribes, including the

Samnites The Samnites () were an ancient Italic people who lived in Samnium, which is located in modern inland Abruzzo, Molise, and Campania in south-central Italy. An Oscan-speaking people, who may have originated as an offshoot of the Sabines, they f ...

, the

Aurunci The Aurunci were an Italic tribe that lived in southern Italy from around the 1st millennium BC. They were eventually defeated by Rome and subsumed into the Roman Republic during the second half of the 4th century BC. Identity Aurunci is the n ...

(

Ausones "Ausones" (; ), the original Greek form for the Latin "Aurunci", was a name applied by Greek writers to describe various Italic peoples inhabiting the southern and central regions of Italy. The term was used, specifically, to denote the partic ...

), and the

Sidicini The Sidicini (Ancient Greek Σιδικῖνοι) were one of the Italic peoples of ancient Italy. Their territory extended northward from their capital, Teanum Sidicinum (modern day Teano), along the valley of the Liri river up to Fregellae, cove ...

. The latter two tribes were often grouped under the name "

Osci The Osci (also called Oscans, Opici, Opsci, Obsci, Opicans) were an Italic people of Campania and Latium adiectum before and during Roman times. They spoke the Oscan language, also spoken by the Samnites of Southern Italy. Although the languag ...

". The Oscan group is part of the Osco-Umbrian or Sabellic family, and includes the Oscan language and three variants ( Hernican, Marrucinian and Paelignian) known only from inscriptions left by the

Hernici The Hernici were an Italic tribe of ancient Italy, whose territory was in Latium between the Fucine Lake and the Sacco River (''Trerus''), bounded by the Volsci on the south, and by the Aequi and the Marsi on the north. For many years of the ear ...

Marrucini The Marrucini were an Italic tribe that occupied a small strip of territory around the ancient ''Teate'' (modern Chieti), on the east coast of Abruzzo, Italy, limited by the Aterno and Foro Rivers. Other Marrucinian centers included ''Ceio'' ( Sa ...

and

Paeligni The Paeligni or Peligni were an Italic tribe who lived in the Valle Peligna, in what is now Abruzzo, central Italy. History The Paeligni are first mentioned as a member of a confederacy that included the Marsi, Marrucini, and Vestini, with which ...

, minor tribes of eastern central Italy. Adapted from the Etruscan alphabet, the Central Oscan alphabet was used to write Oscan in

Campania (man), it, Campana (woman) , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = , demographics1_footnotes = , demographics1_title1 = , demographics1_info1 = , demog ...

and surrounding territories from the 5th century BCE until possibly the 1st century CE.

Evidence

Oscan is known from inscriptions dating as far back as the 5th century BCE. The most important Oscan inscriptions are the

Tabula Bantina The Tabula Bantina ( Latin for "Tablet from Bantia") is a bronze tablet and one of the major sources for ancient Oscan, an extinct Indo-European language closely related to Latin. It was discovered in 1793 near Banzi (known as "Bantia" in antiquity ...

, the

Oscan Tablet The Oscan Tablet ( Latin Tabula Osca) or Agnone Tablet is a bronze inscription written in the Oscan alphabet that dates to the 3rd century BC. It was found near the town of Agnone in Molise, Italy. Since 1873, the original has been kept in the ...

or Tabula Osca, and the

Cippus Abellanus The Cippus Abellanus is a stone slab inscribed in the Oscan language. It is one of the most important examples of the Oscan language along with the Tabula Bantina. The Cippus Abellanus is part of the collection of the in Nola, Italy. Disco ...

. In

Apulia it, Pugliese , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = , demographics1_footnotes = , demographics1_title1 = , demographics1_info1 = , demographic ...

, there is evidence that ancient currency was inscribed in Oscan (dating to before 300 BCE) at

Teanum Apulum Teanum Apulum is an ancient town of Apulia, southeastern Italy, near the modern town of San Paolo di Civitate. It was located on the road between Larinum and Sipontum, at a crossing of the Fortore river, and was east of Larinum. History The town ...

. Oscan

graffiti Graffiti (plural; singular ''graffiti'' or ''graffito'', the latter rarely used except in archeology) is art that is written, painted or drawn on a wall or other surface, usually without permission and within public view. Graffiti ranges from s ...

on the walls of

Pompeii Pompeii (, ) was an ancient city located in what is now the ''comune'' of Pompei near Naples in the Campania region of Italy. Pompeii, along with Herculaneum and many villas in the surrounding area (e.g. at Boscoreale, Stabiae), was burie ...

indicate its persistence in at least one urban environment well into the 1st century of the

common era Common Era (CE) and Before the Common Era (BCE) are year notations for the Gregorian calendar (and its predecessor, the Julian calendar), the world's most widely used calendar era. Common Era and Before the Common Era are alternatives to the or ...

. In total, as of 2017, there were 800 found Oscan texts, with a rapid expansion in recent decades.McDonald, K. L. (2017)
"Fragmentary ancient languages as “bad data”: towards a methodology for investigating multilingualism in epigraphic sources."
Pages 4–6 Oscan was written in various scripts depending on time period and location, including the "native" Oscan script, the South Oscan script which was based on Greek, and the ultimately prevailing Roman Oscan script.

Demise

In coastal zones of Southern Italy, Oscan is thought to have survived three centuries of bilingualism with

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

between 400 and 100 BCE, making it "an unusual case of stable societal bilingualism" wherein neither language became dominant or caused the death of the other; however, over the course of the

Roman period The Roman Empire ( la, Imperium Romanum ; grc-gre, Βασιλεία τῶν Ῥωμαίων, Basileía tôn Rhōmaíōn) was the post- Republican period of ancient Rome. As a polity, it included large territorial holdings around the Mediter ...

, both Oscan and Greek would be progressively effaced from Southern Italy, excepting the controversial possibility of

Griko Griko, sometimes spelled Grico, is the dialect of Italiot Greek spoken by Griko people in Salento (province of Lecce) and (also called Grecanic) in Calabria. Some Greek linguists consider it to be a Modern Greek dialect and often call it ( el, ...

representing a continuation of ancient dialects of Greek. Oscan's usage declined following the Social War. Graffiti in towns across the Oscan speech area indicate it remained in colloquial usage. Page 2 in the online version. One piece of evidence that supports the colloquial usage of the language is the presence of Oscan graffiti on walls of

that were reconstructed after the earthquake of 62 CE, which must therefore have been written between 62 and 79 CE. Other scholars argue that this is not strong evidence for the survival of Oscan as an official language in the area, given the disappearance of public inscriptions in Oscan after Roman colonization. It is possible that both languages existed simultaneously under different conditions, in which Latin was given political, religious, and administrative importance while Oscan was considered a "low" language. This phenomenon is referred to as

diglossia In linguistics, diglossia () is a situation in which two dialects or languages are used (in fairly strict compartmentalization) by a single language community. In addition to the community's everyday or vernacular language variety (labeled ...

with bilingualism. Some Oscan

exists from the 1st century CE, but it is rare to find evidence from Italy of Latin-speaking Roman citizens representing themselves as having non–Latin-speaking ancestors.

General characteristics

Oscan speakers came into close contact with the

Latium Latium ( , ; ) is the region of central western Italy in which the city of Rome was founded and grew to be the capital city of the Roman Empire. Definition Latium was originally a small triangle of fertile, volcanic soil ( Old Latium) on w ...

population. Early Latin texts have been discovered nearby major Oscan settlements. For example, the

Garigliano Bowl The Garigliano bowl is a small impasto bowl with bucchero glaze likely to have been produced around 500 BC, with an early Latin inscript written in a form of the western Greek or Etruscan alphabet.Cf. page 200, BALDI (2002) It was found along the ...

was found close to

Minturnae Minturno is a city and ''comune'' in the southern Lazio, Italy, situated on the north west bank of the Garigliano (known in antiquity as the Liris), with a suburb on the opposite bank about from its mouth, at the point where the Via Appia cross ...

, less than 40 kilometers from

Capua Capua ( , ) is a city and ''comune'' in the province of Caserta, in the region of Campania, southern Italy, situated north of Naples, on the northeastern edge of the Campanian plain. History Ancient era The name of Capua comes from the Etrus ...

, which was once a large Oscan settlement. Oscan had much in common with

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through ...

, though there are also many striking differences, and many common word-groups in Latin were absent or represented by entirely different forms. For example, Latin ''volo'', ''velle'', ''volui'', and other such forms from the

Proto-Indo-European Proto-Indo-European (PIE) is the reconstructed common ancestor of the Indo-European language family. Its proposed features have been derived by linguistic reconstruction from documented Indo-European languages. No direct record of Proto-Indo ...

root ''*wel-'' ('to will') were represented by words derived from *gher ('to desire'): Oscan ''herest'' ('(s)he shall want, (s)he shall desire', German cognate 'begehren', English cognate 'yearn') as opposed to Latin ''volent'' (id.). Place was represented by the

hapax In corpus linguistics, a ''hapax legomenon'' ( also or ; ''hapax legomena''; sometimes abbreviated to ''hapax'', plural ''hapaxes'') is a word or an expression that occurs only once within a context: either in the written record of an entire ...

''slaagid'' (place), which Italian linguist Alberto Manco has linked to a surviving local toponym. Distant cognate of the Latin ''locus'', both derived from

Proto-Italic The Proto-Italic language is the ancestor of the Italic languages, most notably Latin and its descendants, the Romance languages. It is not directly attested in writing, but has been reconstructed to some degree through the comparative method. P ...

''"stlokos"''.Alberto Manco, "Sull’osco *slagi-"
AIΩN Linguistica
28, 2006. In

phonology Phonology is the branch of linguistics that studies how languages or dialects systematically organize their sounds or, for sign languages, their constituent parts of signs. The term can also refer specifically to the sound or sign system of a ...

too, Oscan exhibited a number of clear differences from Latin: thus, Oscan 'p' in place of Latin 'qu' (Osc. ''pis'', Lat. ''quis'') (compare the similar P-Celtic/Q-Celtic cleavage in the

Celtic languages The Celtic languages (usually , but sometimes ) are a group of related languages descended from Proto-Celtic. They form a branch of the Indo-European language family. The term "Celtic" was first used to describe this language group by Edward ...

); 'b' in place of Latin 'v'; medial 'f' in contrast to Latin 'b' or 'd' (Osc. ''mefiai'', Lat. ''mediae''). Oscan is considered to be the most conservative of all the known

, and among attested Indo-European languages it is rivaled only by

in the retention of the inherited vowel system with the

diphthongs A diphthong ( ; , ), also known as a gliding vowel, 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 the speech ...

intact.

Writing system

Alphabet

Oscan was originally written in a specific "Oscan alphabet", one of the

Old Italic scripts The Old Italic scripts are a family of similar ancient writing systems 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, whic ...

derived from (or cognate with) the

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

. Later inscriptions are written in the

and

alphabet An alphabet is a standardized set of basic written graphemes (called letters) that represent the phonemes of certain spoken languages. Not all writing systems represent language in this way; in a syllabary, each character represents a syllab ...

The "Etruscan" alphabet

The Osci probably adopted the archaic Etruscan alphabet during the 7th century BCE, but a recognizably Oscan variant of the alphabet is attested only from the 5th century BCE; its sign inventory extended over the classical Etruscan alphabet by the introduction of lowered variants of I and U, transcribed as Í and Ú. Ú came to be used to represent Oscan /o/, while U was used for /u/ as well as historical long */oː/, which had undergone a sound shift in Oscan to become ~ ː Oscan alphabet

The ''Z'' of the native alphabet is pronounced . The letters ''Ú'' and ''Í'' are "differentiations" of ''U'' and ''I'', and do not appear in the oldest writings. The ''Ú'' represents an ''o''-sound, and ''Í'' is a higher-mid . Doubling of vowels was used to denote length but a long ''I'' is written ''IÍ''.

The "Greek" alphabet

Oscan written with the Greek alphabet was identical to the standard alphabet with the addition of two letters: one for the native alphabet's ''H'' and one for its ''V''. The letters ''η'' and ''ω'' do not indicate quantity. Sometimes, the clusters ''ηι'' and ''ωϝ'' denote the diphthongs and respectively while ''ει'' and ''oυ'' are saved to denote

monophthong A monophthong ( ; , ) is a pure vowel sound, one whose articulation at both beginning and end is relatively fixed, and which does not glide up or down towards a new position of articulation. The monophthongs can be contrasted with diphthongs, wh ...

s and of the native alphabet. At other times, ''ει'' and ''oυ'' are used to denote diphthongs, in which case ''o'' denotes the sound.

The "Latin" alphabet

When written in the Latin alphabet, the Oscan ''Z'' does not represent but instead , which is not written differently from in the native alphabet.

Transliteration

When Oscan inscriptions are quoted, it is conventional to transliterate those in the "Oscan" alphabet into Latin boldface, those in the "Latin" alphabet into Latin ''italics'', and those in the "Greek" alphabet into the modern Greek alphabet. Letters of all three alphabets are represented in lower case.

History of sounds

Vowels

Vowels are regularly lengthened before ''ns'' and ''nct'' (in the latter of which the ''n'' is lost) and possibly before ''nf'' and ''nx'' as well.

Anaptyxis In phonology, epenthesis (; Greek ) means the addition of one or more sounds to a word, especially in the beginning syllable ('' prothesis'') or in the ending syllable (''paragoge'') or in-between two syllabic sounds in a word. The word ''epenth ...

, the development of a vowel between a

liquid A liquid is a nearly incompressible fluid that conforms to the shape of its container but retains a (nearly) constant volume independent of pressure. As such, it is one of the four fundamental states of matter (the others being solid, gas, ...

nasal Nasal is an adjective referring to the nose, part of human or animal anatomy. It may also be shorthand for the following uses in combination: * With reference to the human nose: ** Nasal administration, a method of pharmaceutical drug delivery * ...

and another consonant, preceding or following, occurs frequently in Oscan; if the other (non-liquid/nasal) consonant precedes, the new vowel is the same as that of the preceding vowel. If the other consonant follows, the new vowel is the same as that of the following vowel.

Monophthongs

=A

= Short ''a'' remains in most positions. Long ''ā'' remains in an initial or medial position. Final ''ā'' starts to sound similar to so that it is written ''ú'' or, rarely, ''u''.

=E

= Short ''e'' "generally remains unchanged;" before a labial in a medial syllable, it becomes ''u'' or ''i'', and before another vowel, ''e'' raises to higher-mid �� written ''í''. Long ''ē'' similarly raises to higher-mid �� the sound of written ''í'' or ''íí''.

=I

= Short ''i'' becomes written ''í''. Long ''ī'' is spelt with ''i'' but when written with doubling as a mark of length with ''ií''.

=O

= Short ''o'' remains mostly unchanged, written ''ú''; before a final ''-m'', ''o'' becomes more like ''u''. Long ''ō'' becomes denoted by ''u'' or ''uu''.

=U

= Short ''u'' generally remains unchanged; after ''t'', ''d'', ''n'', the sound becomes that of ''iu''. Long ''ū'' generally remains unchanged; it changed to an ī sound in monosyllables, and may have changed to an ''ī'' sound for final syllables.

Diphthongs

The sounds of

diphthong A diphthong ( ; , ), also known as a gliding vowel, 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 the speech ...

s remain unchanged.

Consonants

S

In Oscan, ''s'' between vowels did not undergo

rhotacism Rhotacism () or rhotacization is a sound change that converts one consonant (usually a voiced alveolar consonant: , , , or ) to a rhotic consonant in a certain environment. The most common may be of to . When a dialect or member of a language ...

as it did in Latin and Umbrian; but it was voiced, becoming the sound . However, between vowels, the original cluster ''rs'' developed either to a simple ''r'' with lengthening on the preceding vowel, or to a long ''rr'' (as in Latin), and at the end of a word, original ''rs'' becomes ''r'' just as in Latin. Unlike in Latin, the s is not dropped, either Oscan or Umbrian, from the consonant clusters ''sm'', ''sn'', ''sl'': Umbrian ''`sesna'' "dinner," Oscan kersnu vs Latin ''cēna''.

Examples of Oscan texts

From the
Cippus Abellanus The Cippus Abellanus is a stone slab inscribed in the Oscan language. It is one of the most important examples of the Oscan language along with the Tabula Bantina. The Cippus Abellanus is part of the collection of the in Nola, Italy. Disco ...

: In English:

From
Tabula Bantina The Tabula Bantina ( Latin for "Tablet from Bantia") is a bronze tablet and one of the major sources for ancient Oscan, an extinct Indo-European language closely related to Latin. It was discovered in 1793 near Banzi (known as "Bantia" in antiquity ...

First paragraph

out of six paragraphs in total, lines 3-8 (the first couple lines are too damaged to be clearly legible): In Latin: In English: Notes: Oscan ''carn-'' "part, piece" is related to Latin ''carn-'' "meat" (seen in English 'carnivore'), from an Indo-European root ''*ker-'' meaning 'cut'--apparently the Latin word originally meant 'piece (of meat).' Oscan ''tangin-'' "judgement, assent" is ultimately related to English 'think'.

Second paragraph

= lines 8-13. In this and the following paragraph, the assembly is being discussed in its judiciary function as a court of appeals: In Latin: In English:

Third Paragraph

= lines 13-18 In Latin: In English:

The Testament of Vibius Adiranus

In Oscan: In English:

References

Sources

* *

External links

*
Languages and Cultures of Ancient Italy. Historical Linguistics and Digital Models
, Project fund by the Italian Ministry of University and Research (P.R.I.N. 2017) * *
Image of Tabula Batina
{{DEFAULTSORT:Oscan Language Osco-Umbrian languages Languages attested from the 5th century BC Languages extinct in the 1st century Osci Samnium

Evidence

Demise

General characteristics

Writing system

Alphabet

The "Etruscan" alphabet

The "Greek" alphabet

The "Latin" alphabet

Transliteration

History of sounds

Vowels

Monophthongs

=A

=E

=I

=O

=U

Diphthongs

Consonants

S

Examples of Oscan texts

From the
Cippus Abellanus The Cippus Abellanus is a stone slab inscribed in the Oscan language. It is one of the most important examples of the Oscan language along with the Tabula Bantina. The Cippus Abellanus is part of the collection of the in Nola, Italy. Disco ...

From
Tabula Bantina The Tabula Bantina ( Latin for "Tablet from Bantia") is a bronze tablet and one of the major sources for ancient Oscan, an extinct Indo-European language closely related to Latin. It was discovered in 1793 near Banzi (known as "Bantia" in antiquity ...

First paragraph

Second paragraph

Third Paragraph

The Testament of Vibius Adiranus

See also

References

Sources

Further reading

External links

Evidence

Demise

General characteristics

Writing system

Alphabet

The "Etruscan" alphabet

The "Greek" alphabet

The "Latin" alphabet

Transliteration

History of sounds

Vowels

Monophthongs

=A

=E

=I

=O

=U

Diphthongs

Consonants

S

Examples of Oscan texts

From the Cippus Abellanus The Cippus Abellanus is a stone slab inscribed in the Oscan language. It is one of the most important examples of the Oscan language along with the Tabula Bantina. The Cippus Abellanus is part of the collection of the in Nola, Italy. Disco ...

From Tabula Bantina The Tabula Bantina ( Latin for "Tablet from Bantia") is a bronze tablet and one of the major sources for ancient Oscan, an extinct Indo-European language closely related to Latin. It was discovered in 1793 near Banzi (known as "Bantia" in antiquity ...

First paragraph

Second paragraph

Third Paragraph

The Testament of Vibius Adiranus

See also

References

Sources

Further reading

External links

From the
Cippus Abellanus The Cippus Abellanus is a stone slab inscribed in the Oscan language. It is one of the most important examples of the Oscan language along with the Tabula Bantina. The Cippus Abellanus is part of the collection of the in Nola, Italy. Disco ...

From
Tabula Bantina The Tabula Bantina ( Latin for "Tablet from Bantia") is a bronze tablet and one of the major sources for ancient Oscan, an extinct Indo-European language closely related to Latin. It was discovered in 1793 near Banzi (known as "Bantia" in antiquity ...