Oscan Language

Information about Oscan Language

Denarius of Marsican Confederation with Oscan legend.

Languages in Iron Age Italy, 6th century BC

Oscan, the language of the Osci, is in the Sabellic branch of the Italic language family, which is a branch of Indo-European that also includes Umbrian, Latin, and Faliscan. It was spoken in Samnium and in Campania, as well as in Lucania, Ager Bruttius, and Abruzzo. Oscan is known from inscriptions beginning in the 5th century BC. The most important Oscan inscriptions are the Tabula Bantina and the Cippus Abellanus. Oscan was written in the Latin and Greek alphabets, as well as in a variety of the Old Italic alphabet.

Dialects of Oscan include Samnite, Marrucine, Paelignan, Vestinian, Sabine, and Marsian.

Oscan had much in common with Latin, though there are also many striking differences, and many common word-groups in Latin were absent and represented by entirely different forms. For example, Latin volo, velle, volui, and other such forms from the Proto-Indo-European root *wel ('to will') were represented by words derived from *gher ('to desire'): Oscan herest ('he wants, desires') as opposed to Latin vult (id.). Latin locus (place) was absent and represented by slaagid (place).

In phonology, Oscan also showed differences from Latin: Oscan 'p' in place of Latin 'qu' (Osc. pis, Lat. quis); 'b' in place of Latin 'v'; medial 'f' in contrast to Latin 'b' or 'd' (Osc. mefiai, Lat. mediae).

Considered the most conservative of all the known Italic languages, Oscan is rivaled only by Greek in the retention of the inherited vowel system with the diphthongs intact.

Example of an Oscan text (the Cippus Abellanus)

ekkum[svaÃ pÃd herieset trÃÃbarak[avÃºm tereÃ pÃºd liÃmÃtÃº[m] pernÃºm [pÃºÃs herekleÃs fÃÃsnÃº mefi[Ãº Ãst, ehtrad feÃhÃºss pÃº[s herekleÃs fÃÃsnam amfr et, pert vÃam pÃºsstÃst paÃ Ãp Ãst, pÃºstin slagÃm senateÃs suveÃs tangi nÃºd trÃbarakavÃºm lÃ kÃtud. ÃnÃm ÃÃºk trÃba rakkiuf pam nÃºvlanÃºs trÃbarakattuset ÃÃºk trÃ barakkiuf ÃnÃm ÃºÃttiuf abellanÃºm estud. avt pÃºst feÃhÃºÃs pÃºs fÃsnam am fret, eÃseÃ tereÃ nep abel lanÃºs nep nÃºvlanÃºs pÃdum trÃbarakattÃns. avt the savrÃºm pÃºd eseÃ tereÃ Ãst, pÃºn patensÃns, mÃºÃnÃkad ta[n ginÃºd patensÃns, ÃnÃm pÃd e[ÃseÃ thesavreÃ pÃºkkapÃd ee[stit a]ÃttÃÃºm alttram alttr[Ãºs h]errÃns. avt anter slagÃm a]bellanam ÃnÃm nÃºvlanam s]Ãºllad vÃÃº uruvÃº Ãst . edÃº e]ÃsaÃ vÃaÃ mefiaÃ teremen n]iÃº staÃet.

References

Buck, Carl Darling. 1904. A Grammar of Oscan and Umbrian. With a Collection of Inscriptions and a Glossary. Reprinted by Evolution Publishing, 2005.
Salvucci, Claudio R. 1999. A Vocabulary of Oscan. Evolution Publishing.

External links

Oscan vocabulary.
Electronic edition of Buck's Grammar of Oscan and Umbrian.

Osci, which may also be referred to by the names of Opici, Opsci (for the fertility goddess, Ops), and Obsci (Oscans or Opicans in English) were historic inhabitants of Southern Italy dwelling in Northern Campania and ultimately settling in the border region between Latium and
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The Osco-Umbrian languages or Sabellic languages are a group of languages that belong to the Italic language family of the Indo-European languages. They were spoken in central and southern Italy before Latin replaced them as the power of the Romans expanded.
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Italic subfamily is a member of the Centum branch of the Indo-European language family. It includes the Romance languages (including Italian, Catalan, Occitan, French, Corsican, Portuguese, Romanian and Spanish), and a number of extinct languages.
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Indo-European languages comprise a family of several hundred related languages and dialects ^[1], including most of the major languages of Europe, the northern Indian subcontinent (South Asia), the Iranian plateau (Southwest Asia), and much of Central Asia.
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Umbrian}}}
Writing system: Old Italic alphabet
Language codes
ISO 639-1: none
ISO 639-2: ine
ISO 639-3: xum

This article is about the ancient language.

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Latin}}}
Official status
Official language of: Vatican City
Used for official purposes, but not spoken in everyday speech
Regulated by: Opus Fundatum Latinitas
Roman Catholic Church
Language codes
ISO 639-1: la
ISO 639-2: lat
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Faliscan may refer to:

The Falisci, an ancient Italian people group
The Faliscan language

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Samnium (Oscan Safinim) was a region of the south central Apennines in Italy that was home to the Samnites, a group of Sabellic tribes that controlled the area from about 600 BC to about 290 BC.
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Regione Campania

Map highlighting the location of Campania in Italy

Capital Naples
President Antonio Bassolino
(DS-Union)
Provinces Avellino
Benevento
Caserta
Naples
Salerno
Comuni 551
Area 13,595 km
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Lucania was an ancient district of southern Italy, extending from the Tyrrhenian Sea to the Gulf of Taranto. To the north it adjoined Campania, Samnium and Apulia, and to the south it was separated by a narrow isthmus from the district of Bruttium.
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Regione Abruzzo

Map highlighting the location of Abruzzo in Italy

Capital L'Aquila
President Ottaviano Del Turco
(SDI-Union)
Provinces L'Aquila
Chieti
Pescara
Teramo
Comuni 305
Area 10,794 km
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Epigraphy (Greek, ἐπιγραφή — "written upon") is the study of inscriptions or epigraphs engraved into stone or other durable materials, or cast in metal, the science of classifying them as to cultural context and
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The 5th century BC started the first day of 500 BC and ended the last day of 401 BC.

Overview

This century sees the beginning of a period of philosophical brilliance among advanced civilizations, particularly the Greeks which would continue all the way through the
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Latin alphabet
Child systems Numerous: see Alphabets derived from the Latin
Sister systems Cyrillic
Coptic
Armenian
Runic/Futhark
Unicode range See Latin characters in Unicode
ISO 15924 Latn

Note
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Greek alphabet
Child systems Gothic
Glagolitic
Cyrillic
Coptic
Old Italic alphabet
Latin alphabet

ISO 15924 Grek

Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode.
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ABCs redirects here, for the Alien Big Cats, see British big cats.

An alphabet is a standardized set of letters
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Old Italic
Child systems Latin alphabet, Runic alphabet
Sister systems Anatolian alphabets

ISO 15924 Ital

Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode.
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Sabines (Latin Sabini - singular Sabinus) were an Italic tribe that lived in ancient Italy. Their language belonged to the Sabellic subgroup of Italic languages and shows some similarities to Oscan and Umbrian.
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Marsi were an ancient people of Italy, whose chief centre was Marruvium, on the eastern shore of Lake Fucinus. The area in which they lived is now called Marsica.

They are first mentioned as members of a confederacy with the Vestini, Paeligni and Marrucini ^[1].
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Proto-Indo-European language (PIE) is the hypothetical common ancestor of the Indo-European languages, spoken by the Proto-Indo-Europeans. Although the existence of such a language has been accepted by linguists for a long time, there has been debate about many specific
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For the journal, see .

Phonology (Greek φωνή (phōnē), voice, sound + λόγος (lÃ³gos), word, speech, subject of discussion), is a subfield of linguistics which studies the sound system of a
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In phonetics, a diphthong (also gliding vowel) (Greek δίφθογγος, "diphthongos", literally "with two sounds," or "with two tones") is a monosyllabic vowel combination involving a quick but smooth movement from one vowel to
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Carl Darling Buck (October 2, 1866 - February 8, 1955), American philologist, was born in Bucksport, Maine.

He graduated from Yale in 1886, was a graduate student there for three years, and studied at the American School of Classical Studies in Athens (1887-1889) and in
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Oscan Language

Information about Oscan Language

Example of an Oscan text (the Cippus Abellanus)

References

External links

Overview