Osco-Umbrian languages

Following an original theory by Antoine Meillet, the Osco-Umbrian languages were traditionally considered a branch of the Italic languages, a language family that grouped Latin and Faliscan together with several other related languages.[1] However, this unitary scheme was criticized by, among others, Alois Walde, Vittore Pisani and Giacomo Devoto, who proposed a classification of the Italic languages into two distinct Indo-European branches. This view gained acceptance in the second half of the 20th century, although the exact processes of formation and penetration into Italy remains the object of research.[2] However, proponents such as Rix would later reject the idea, and the unitary theory (proposing the descent of all Italic languages from a unique common ancestor) remains dominant.[3]

Oscan was one of the many languages spoken in the heart of the Italian peninsula, such as Umbrian and other languages belonging to the Sabine languages, such as Volscian, Sabine, South Picene, Marsian, Paeligni, Hernican, Marrucinian, Pre-Samnite and Sidicini.

Aequian and Vestinian may also have been part of the group.

They have traditionally been ascribed to either an Oscan group or an Umbrian group. However, they are all poorly attested, and such a division is not supported by evidence. It appears that they may have formed a continuum, with Umbrian in the north, Oscan in the south and the 'Sabellic' languages in between (see next section) having features of both.[4]

However, there were also colonies that spoke Oscan, scattered throughout Southern Italy and Sicily. Oscan was the language of the Samnite tribes, powerful enemies of the Romans, who took years to subdue them (the Samnite wars took place from 370 BC to 290 BC).

These languages are known from a few hundred inscriptions dating from between 400 BC and the 1st century. In Pompeii there are numerous Oscan inscriptions, such as dedications in public buildings and signs.

Umbrian began a process of decline when the Umbrians were subdued by the Romans and the process of Romanisation led to its demise. Of all the Osco-Umbrian languages, it is the one that is the best known, mainly because of the Iguvine Tablets.

These languages were spoken in Samnium and in Campania, partly in Apulia, Lucania and Bruttium, as well as by the Mamertines in the Sicilian colony of Messana (Messina).

Sabellic was originally the collective ethnonym of the Italic people who inhabited central and southern Italy at the time of Roman expansion. The name was later used by Theodor Mommsen in his Unteritalische Dialekte to describe the pre-Roman dialects of Central Italy that were neither Oscan nor Umbrian.

The term is currently used for the Osco-Umbrian languages as a whole. The word "Sabellic" was once applied to all such minor languages, Osco-Umbrian or not. North Picene was included, even if it has always been known to have been unrelated.

The Osco-Umbrian languages or dialects of which testimony is preserved are:[5]

• Oscan, with spoken languages in the southern central region of the Italian peninsula, which includes:
  • Oscan is the best documented language of the group, along with other varieties that are poorly known and considered related to Oscan:
    • Marrucinian
    • Paeligni
    • Sidicini
• Umbrian, with languages spoken in the northern central region of the peninsula.
  • Umbrian
  • Marsian
  • Sabine
  • Volscian
  • Hernican
• Picene-Pre-Samnite
  • South Picene
  • Pre-Samnite, a language documented in the south, but which seems to contain characteristics closer to South Picene than to Oscan.
• Unknown
  • Aequian
  • Vestinian

Little-documented variants collectively known as "Sabellic dialects" are ascribed without much evidence to the two main groups. Some authors doubt such traditional classification, placing, for example, Aequian and Vestinian in opposite branches, instead of grouping them together.[6]

The Osco-Umbrian languages are fusional inflected languages with about 5 different morphological cases in the singular, similar to those of Latin.

• Italic peoples

• Adams, Douglas Q., and James P. Mallory. 1997. "Italic languages." In The encyclopedia of Indo-European culture. Edited by James P. Mallory and Douglas Q. Adams, 314–19. Chicago: Fitzroy Dearborn.
• Baldi, Philip. 2002. The foundations of Latin. Berlin: de Gruyter.
• Beeler, Madison S. 1952. "The relation of Latin and Osco-Umbrian." Language 28: 435–43.
• ————. 1966. "The interrelationships within Italic." In Ancient Indo-European dialects: Proceedings of the Conference on Indo-European Linguistics held at the University of California, Los Angeles, April 25–27, 1963. Edited by Henrik Birnbaum and Jaan Puhvel, 51–58. Berkeley: Univ. of California Press.
• Buck, Carl Darling. 1928. A grammar of Oscan and Umbrian, with a collection of inscriptions and a glossary. 2nd edition. Boston: Ginn.
• Clackson, James. 2015. "Subgrouping in the Sabellian Branch of Indo‐European." Transactions of the Philological Society 113 (1): 4–37. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-968X.12034
• Coleman, Robert. 1986. "The Central Italic languages in the period of the Roman expansion." Transactions of the Philological Society 84(1): 100–131.
• de Vaan, Michiel. 2008. Etymological dictionary of Latin and the other Italic languages. Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill.
• Dupraz, Emmanuel. 2012. Sabellian Demonstratives: Forms and Functions. Leiden: Brill.
• Mercado, Angelo. 2012. Italic Verse: A Study of the Poetic Remains of Old Latin, Faliscan, and Sabellic. Innsbruck: Institut für Sprachen und Literaturen der Universität Innsbruck.
• Nishimura, Kanehiro. "Superlative Suffixes *-ismo- and *-isim̥mo in Sabellian Languages." Glotta 81 (2005): 160-83. www.jstor.org/stable/40267191.
• Poccetti, Paolo. "Lingue sabelliche". In: Palaeohispanica: revista sobre lenguas y culturas de la Hispania antigua n. 20 (2020): pp. 403-494. ISSN 1578-5386 DOI: 10.36707/palaeohispanica.v0i20.399
• Poultney, James. 1951. "Volscians and Umbrians." American Journal of Philology 72: 113–27.
• Tikkanen, Karin. 2009. A comparative grammar of Latin and the Sabellian languages: The system of case syntax. PhD diss., Uppsala Univ.
• Weiss, Michael L. 2010. Language and Ritual In Sabellic Italy: The Ritual Complex of the Third and the Fourth Tabulae Iguvinae. Leiden: Brill.
• Woodard, Roger D. 2008. The Ancient Languages of Europe. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.