Volscian was a

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 ...

Italic language, which was spoken by the

Volsci The Volsci (, , ) were an Italic tribe, well known in the history of the first century of the Roman Republic. At the time they inhabited the partly hilly, partly marshy district of the south of Latium, bounded by the Aurunci and Samnites on the ...

and 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 ...

and Umbrian.

Overview

Volscian is attested in an inscription found in

Velitrae Velletri (; ; ) is an Italian ''comune'' in the Metropolitan City of Rome, approximately 40 km to the southeast of the city centre, located in the Alban Hills, in the region of Lazio, central Italy. Neighbouring communes are Rocca di Papa, ...

(Velletri), dating probably from early in the 3rd century BC; it is cut upon a small bronze plate (now in the Naples Museum), which must have once been fixed to some votive object, dedicated to the god ''Declunus'' (or the goddess ''Decluna'').Baldi, Phillip. ''The Foundations of Latin''. New York: Mouton de Gruyter. 2002. pp. 140-142. The language of this inscription is clear enough to show the very marked peculiarities that rank it close to the language of the Iguvine Tables. It shows on the one hand the labialization of the original velar ''q'' (Volscian ''pis'' =

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 ...

''quis''), and on the other hand it palatalizes the guttural ''c'' before a following ''i'' (Volscian ''façia'' Latin ''faciat''). Like Umbrian also, but unlike Latin and

, it has changed all the diphthongs into simple vowels (Volscian ''se'' parallel to Oscan ''svai''; Volscian ''deue'',

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 ...

and Oscan ''deiuai'' or ''deiuoi''). This phenomenon of what might have been taken for a piece of Umbrian text appearing in a district remote from Umbria and hemmed in by Latins on the north and Oscan-speaking

Samnites The Samnites () were an ancient Italic peoples, Italic people who lived in Samnium, which is located in modern inland Abruzzo, Molise, and Campania in south-central Italy. An Oscan language, Oscan-speaking Osci, people, who originated as an offsh ...

on the south is a most curious feature in the geographical distribution of the Italic dialects, and is clearly the result of some complex historical movements. In seeking for an explanation, academics have suggested that there is some evidence in the ethnicon itself: the name ''Volsci'' belongs to what may be called the ''-co-'' group of tribal names in the centre, and mainly on the west coast, of Italy, all of whom were subdued by the Romans before the end of the 4th century BC; and many of whom were conquered by the

about a century or more earlier. They are, from south to north,

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 langua ...

, Aurunci, Hernici, Marruci,

Falisci The Falisci were an Italic peoples, Italic tribe who lived in what is now northern Lazio, on the Etruscan side of the Tiber River. They spoke an Italic languages, Italic language, Faliscan language, Faliscan, closely related to Latin. Origina ...

; with these were no doubt associated the original inhabitants of Aricia and of Sidicinum, of Vescia among the Aurunci, and of Labici close to Hernican territory. The same formative element appears in the adjective ''Mons Massicus'', and the names Glanica and Marica belonging to the Auruncan district, with Graviscae in south Etruria, and a few other names in central Italy (see "''I due strati nella popolazione Indo-Europea dell'Italia Antica,''" in the ''Atti del Congresso Internazionale di Scienze Storiche'', Rome, 1903, p. 17). With these names must clearly be judged the forms '' Etrusci'' and ''Tusci'', although these forms must not be regarded as anything but the names given to the Etruscans by the folk among whom they settled. Now the historical fortune of these tribes is reflected in several of their names (see

Sabini 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 into ...

). The Samnite and Roman conquerors tended to impose the form of their own ethnicon, namely the suffix ''-no-'', upon the tribes they conquered; hence the Marruci became the Marrucini, the Sarici became Aricini, and it seems at least probable that the forms Sidicini, Carecini, and others of this shape are the results of this same process. The conclusion suggested is that these ''-co-'' tribes occupied the centre and west coast of Italy at the time of the Etruscan invasion; whereas the ''-no-'' tribes only reached this part of Italy, or at least only became dominant there, long after the Etruscans had settled in the Peninsula. It remains, therefore, to ask whether any information can be had about the language of this primitive ''-co- '' folk, and whether they can be identified as the authors of any of the various archaeological strata now recognized on Italian soil. If the conclusions suggested under Sabini may be accepted as sound we should expect to find the Volsci speaking a language similar to that of the

Ligures The Ligures or Ligurians were an ancient people after whom Liguria, a region of present-day Northern Italy, north-western Italy, is named. Because of the strong Celts, Celtic influences on their language and culture, they were also known in anti ...

, whose fondness for the suffix ''-sco-'' has been noticed, and identical with that spoken by the plebeians of Rome, and that this branch of Indo-European was among those that preserved the original Indo-European Velars from the labialization that befell them in the speech of the Samnites. The language of the inscription of Velitrae offers at first sight a difficulty from this point of view, in the conversion it shows of ''q'' to ''p'', but the ethnicon of Velitrae is ''Veliternus'', and the people are called on the inscription itself ''Velestrom'' (genitive plural); so nothing prevents assuming there was a settlement of Sabines among the Volscian hills, with their language, to some extent, (e.g., in the diphthongs and palatals) corrupted by the speech around them, just as was the case with the Sabine language of the Iguvini, whose very name became ''Iguvinates'', the suffix ''-ti-'' being much more frequent among the ''-co-'' tribes than among the Sabines. The name Volsci itself is significant not merely in its suffix; the older ''Volusci'' clearly contains the word meaning marsh identical with Gr. ''helos'', since the change of ''*velos-'' to ''*volus-'' is phonetically regular in Latin. The name ''Marica'' ("goddess of the salt-marshes") among the Aurunci appears also both on the coast of Picenum and among the Ligurians; and

Stephanus of Byzantium Stephanus or Stephen of Byzantium (; , ''Stéphanos Byzántios''; centuryAD) was a Byzantine grammarian and the author of an important geographical dictionary entitled ''Ethnica'' (). Only meagre fragments of the dictionary survive, but the epit ...

identified the Osci with the Siculi, who, there is reason to suspect, were kinsmen of the Ligures. It is remarkable in how many marshy places this ''-co-'' or ''-ca-'' suffix is used. Besides the Aurunci and the ''dea Marica'' and the ''intempestaeque Graviscae'' ('' Aeneis'' 10.184), we have the ''Ustica cubans'' of

Horace Quintus Horatius Flaccus (; 8 December 65 BC – 27 November 8 BC), Suetonius, Life of Horace commonly known in the English-speaking world as Horace (), was the leading Roman lyric poet during the time of Augustus (also known as Octavian). Th ...

(''Odes'' 1.17.1), the ''Hernici'' in the Trerus Valley, '' Satricum'' and ''Glanica'' in the Pontine Marshes.

Example Text

The following is the text of the Velitrae inscription:

"To the goddess Declona this is decreed. If anyone will have snatched ome foliage or firewoodfor himself, even if it were ora sacrifice, it will be a violation. Let he guilty oneplace in arrangement an ox and coins for the jars and for the wine. If anyone (will have taken the foliage or firewood) with the approval of the public assembly, the carrying away will be without violation. Egnatus Cossutius, son of Seppius and Marcus Tafanius, son of Gavius, magistrates, established his.

Translation by Blanca María Prósper:

"If someone has committed an act of destruction aﬀecting the sacred hoard of the goddess Declona, (then) whoever makes up for it, vindicating his superior right to do so, should besprinkle (it) (pour a libation) with vessels of food and with wine. If anyone (does this) with the consent of the public assembly (or: in public, with the knowledge of the curial priest), let the procedure be considered lawful".

References

Sources

*For the text and fuller account of the Volscian inscription, and for other records of the dialect, see R. S. Conway, ''The Italic Dialects'', pp. 267 sqq. *

Overview

Example Text

References

Sources

Further reading