Old Italic script

Old Italic script
Old Italic
Masiliana tablet.svg
The Marsiliana tablet abecedarium, ca. 700 BC: ABGDEVZHΘIKLMNΞOPŚQRSTUXΦΨ, read right to left
Type Alphabet
Languages Italic languages, Etruscan, Raetic
Time period 8th to 1st centuries BC
Parent systems
Child systems Latin alphabet, Runic alphabet
Sister systems Anatolian alphabets
ISO 15924 Ital, 210
Direction Left-to-right
Unicode alias Old Italic
Unicode range U+10300–U+1032F
Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols.

Old Italic refers to several now extinct alphabet systems used on the Italian Peninsula in ancient times for various Indo-European languages (predominantly Italic) and non-Indo-European (e.g. Etruscan) languages. The alphabets derive from the Euboean Greek Cumaean alphabet, used at Ischia and Cumae in the Bay of Naples in the eighth century BC.

Various Indo-European languages belonging to the Italic branch (Faliscan and members of the Sabellian group, including Oscan, Umbrian, and South Picene, and other Indo-European branches such as Celtic, Venetic and Messapic) originally used the alphabet. Faliscan, Oscan, Umbrian, North Picene, and South Picene all derive from an Etruscan form of the alphabet.

The Germanic runic alphabet was derived from one of these alphabets by the 2nd century.

Contents

Etruscan alphabet

Etruscan cippus (grave marker) from the necropolis Crocifisso del Tufo outside Orvieto, Italy, side view showing the inscription in the Old Italic (Etruscan) alphabet.

It is not clear whether the process of adaptation from the Greek alphabet took place in Italy from the first colony of Greeks, the city of Cumae, or in Greece/Asia Minor. It was in any case a Western Greek alphabet. In the alphabets of the West, X had the sound value [ks], Ψ stood for [kʰ]; in Etruscan: X = [s], Ψ = [kʰ] or [kχ] (Rix 202-209).

The earliest Etruscan abecedarium, the Marsiliana d'Albegna (near Grosseto) tablet which dates to c. 700 BC, lists 26 letters corresponding to contemporary forms of the Greek alphabet which retained san and qoppa but which had not yet developed omega.

Comparison of the Western Greek alphabet with archaic and classical Etruscan variants.

Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

Look at other dictionaries:

  • Old Turkic script — Infobox Writing system name=Orkhon script type=Alphabet languages=Old Turkic unicode=Not in Unicode fam1=Proto Canaanite fam2=Phoenician fam3=Aramaic fam4=Syriac fam5=Sogdian (controversial) children= Old Hungarian script time=8th to 13th… …   Wikipedia

  • Italic script — This article is about the calligraphic and handwriting style. Also see Old Italic alphabet or Italic type .Italic script, also known as chancery cursive, is a semi cursive, slightly sloped style of handwriting and calligraphy that was developed… …   Wikipedia

  • Old Permic alphabet — Old Permic, Abur, Anbur Type alphabet Languages Komi language Time period 1372 1600s ISO 15924 Perm, 227 Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols …   Wikipedia

  • Old Latin — For Old Latin translation of the Bible, see Vetus Latina. Old Latin Prisca Latinitas Titus Maccius Plautus, an O …   Wikipedia

  • Old Hungarian alphabet — For the Romanian village of Răvăşel, called Rovás in Hungarian, see Mihăileni, Sibiu. Old Hungarian Type Alphabet Time period unknown to today …   Wikipedia

  • Runic script — Rune redirects here. For other uses, see Rune (disambiguation). Runic Type Alphabet Languages Germanic languages Time period …   Wikipedia

  • Nüshu script — Nüshu Nüshu written in Nüshu (right to left). Type syllabary …   Wikipedia

  • Kawi script — Kawi The Laguna Copperplate Inscription, a text in Kawi script from the Philippines, 900 CE …   Wikipedia

  • 'Phags-pa script — Phags pa ꡖꡍꡂꡛ ꡌ Christian tombsto …   Wikipedia

  • Mongolian script — For the traditional alphabet used specifically to write Mongolian, see traditional Mongolian alphabet. Mongolian …   Wikipedia

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”