ITALIC LANGUAGES. 29 ITALIC LANGUAGES. phedon (q.v. ) manner, the Italic characters seem to have been based on the Greek alphabet of the Chalcidian colonies in Italy, especially on that of Cumie. T«o forms were derived from this source, the Latino-Faliscan and the Etrusco- Osco-Urabrian. (For a discussion of the origin and the development of the Latino-Faliscan dialect, reference may be made to the article on Latin Language.) The Osco-Umbrian alphabets consisted of twenty-one and nineteen letters re- spectively, and were read, like the oldest Latin and Greek, from right to left. The letters were as follows: Oscan a e i h-vvDHwa>ixTn>5iai8Bi i' u u'vnmrl kt pgdbsfhz Umbrian aeiuvnmrlkt I pbsfhf^z Indo- Germanic. a a There were a few numerical signs, Osco-Umbrian I for 1, X for 10, Oscan V for 5, ) for 100. Both Oscan and Umbrian, however, frequently em- ployed the Latin alphabet. In modern linguistic works the words in Oseo-LTmbrian script are usu- ally printed in spaced Roman type, those in Latin letters are represented by italics, as Oscan f a k s i a d, 'let liim make,' fefacvst, 'he shall have made.' In addition the oldest Italic inscrip- tions are in many cases written in the Greek alphabet. Punctuation in the inscriptions is capricious, and frequently neglected; the usual sj'stem, however, is one or more dots, the num- ber ranging even to four in the Old Sabellian text. Distinguishing Chakacteristics of the Italic Dialects. The chief peculiarities of Italic are as follows: Phonological — Indo-Ger- manie m and n become em and en; Indo-Germanic t and [ become or and ol ; internal Indo-Germanic tl becomes kl ; Indo-Germanic bh, dh. and kh be- come f, p, X • intervocalic Indo-Germanic s becomes z. Morphological — Ablative singular in -iid, -ed, -id by analogy with the ablative in 6d;
- som (Latin sum). 'I am,' for Indo-Germanic
- esmi. The noun has lost the instrumental case
and the dual number, while the verb has con- fused the aorist and perfect tenses, has formed a new imperfect in -ba-, and several new ways of forming the future, has made a future per- fect and a pluperfect peculiar to itself, and has confused the Indo-Germanic subjunctive and optative in its so-called subjunctive. The pho- nology of the Osco-L'mbrian is, relatively speak- ing, far more simple and primitive than the Latin; the declension, however, is less clear than in Latin, and the same statements seem to hold true of the conjugation, although the materials for reconstructing the Osco-Umbrian verb are, unfortunately, very meagi-e. For the relation of Latin sounds and inflections to the Indo-Ger- manic .system, see Latin Language; Gbimm's Law ; Vebnee's Law ; Indo-Germanic Languages. PiioNOLOGT. The following table will serve to show the general phonological relations of Oscan and Umbrian with the Indo-Germanic sound system: eu. oi oil ai V m P b bh t dh k, q gh, h a (final 6, o) e (or i) i, Ii, i U »> " i, i, il o (final u) u, uu u (iu after t, d, n, and prob- ably s) al, ai, ae, ai, ae, ai au el U (v), OM fil, oi ou •al -HI i (written ii, i, or indicated by doubled conso- nant) u (written v) n (often dropped before mutes in final unaccent- ed syllables), ns becomes nts (written nz, nzs) em en 1 Umbrian. ol or p (pt became ft) b E t ( tl became kl ; final nt prob- ably became ns) d(nd became nn) a (final u, o, a) e (or i) e, i 1, i (Old Umb. often e) i, i, ei o u, o u, o
e, e, ee (very rarely i) u. u, o
-e -e i (written i) u (written v) m (dropped when final ) , often ii n( dropped before s and often be- fore mutes), ns became nts (written n z , nzs), nt^t and Indo -Germanic nts became f em en 1 ( initial prob- ably v), inter- vocalic r, rs; It became t, be- fore i probably became s r (rs often be- came s) ol or p (pt became ht) b f t ( tl became kl ; final nt prob- ably became ns) _ ^ d, intervocalic r, rs (nd became nr) f k (but c. s, s, befoi'e e, i) g (palatalized to i before e, i) h
