Old Italic scripts

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Old Italic
Type
Alphabet
Parent systems
DirectionLeft-to-right
ISO 15924Ital, 210
Unicode alias
Old Italic
U+10300–U+1032F[1]

The Old Italic scripts are a number of similar ancient writing systems used in the Italian Peninsula between about 700 and 100 BCE, for various languages spoken in that time and place. The most notable member is the Etruscan alphabet, which was the immediate ancestor of the Latin alphabet currently used by English and many other languages of the world. The runic alphabets used in northern Europe are believed to have been separately derived from one of these alphabets by the 2nd century AD.

Origins[edit]

The Old Italic alphabets clearly derive from the Phoenician alphabet, apparently through the Cumaean alphabet used in the Euboean Greek colonies of Ischia and Cumae in the Bay of Naples in the 8th century BCE. The Etruscans were the leading civilization of Italy in that period, and it is assumed that the other Old Italic scripts were derived from theirs – although some of them, including the Latin alphabet, retained certain Greek letters that the Etruscans themselves dropped at a rather early stage.

The Old Italic alphabets were used for various different languages, which included some Indo-European ones (predominantly from the Italic branch, but also in Gaulish and probably in inscriptions interpreted as Proto-Germanic) and some non-Indo-European ones (such as Etruscan itself).

Alphabets related to Etruscan[edit]

The following table shows the ancient Italic scripts that are presumed to be related to the Etruscan alphabet. Symbols that are assumed to be correspondent are placed on the same column. Many symbols occur with two or more variant forms in the same script; only one variant is shown here. The notations [←] and [→] indicate that the shapes shown were used when writing right-to-left and left-to-right, respectively. For more information, such as variant shapes and the prevalent writing direction of each script, see the corresponding language article.

Warning: For the languages marked [?] the appearance of the "Letters" in the table is whatever one's browser's Unicode font shows for the corresponding code points in the Old Italic Unicode block. The same code point represents different symbol shapes in different languages; therefore, to display those glyph images properly one needs to use a Unicode font specific to that language.

Phoenician
Letter [←] Phoenician aleph.svg Phoenician beth.svg Phoenician gimel.svg Phoenician daleth.svg Phoenician he.svg Phoenician waw.svg Phoenician zayin.svg Phoenician heth.svg Phoenician teth.svg Phoenician yodh.svg Phoenician kaph.svg Phoenician lamedh.svg Phoenician mem.svg Phoenician nun.svg Phoenician samekh.svg Phoenician ayin.svg Phoenician pe.svg Phoenician sade.svg Phoenician qoph.svg Phoenician res.svg Phoenician sin.svg Phoenician taw.svg
Value ʾ b g d h w z y k l m n s ʿ p q r š t
Western Greek
Letter [→] Greek Alpha 03.svg Greek Beta 16.svg Greek Gamma archaic 1.svg Greek Delta 04.svg Greek Epsilon archaic.svg Greek Digamma oblique.svg Greek Zeta archaic.svg Greek Eta archaic.svg Greek Theta archaic.svg Greek Iota normal.svg Greek Kappa normal.svg Greek Lambda 09.svg Greek Mu 04.svg Greek Nu 01.svg Greek Omicron 04.svg Greek Pi archaic.svg Greek San 02.svg Greek Koppa normal.svg Greek Rho pointed.svg Greek Sigma normal.svg Greek Tau normal.svg Greek Upsilon normal.svg Greek Chi normal.svg Greek Phi archaic.svg Greek Psi straight.svg
Value a b g d e w zd h i k l m n o p s k r s t u ks
Transcription Α Β Γ Δ Ε Ϝ Ζ Η Θ Ι Κ Λ Μ Ν Ξ Ο Π Ϻ Ϙ Ρ Σ Τ Υ Χ Φ Ψ
Etruscan - from 7th century BC [2][3]
Marsiliana [←] EtruscanA-01.svg EtruscanB-01.svg EtruscanC-01.svg EtruscanD-01.svg EtruscanE-01.svg EtruscanF-01.svg EtruscanZ-01.svg EtruscanH-02.svg EtruscanTH-03.svg EtruscanI-01.svg EtruscanK-01.svg EtruscanL-01.svg EtruscanM-01.svg EtruscanN-01.svg Greek Xi archaic grid.svg Greek Omicron 04.svg EtruscanP-01.svg EtruscanSH-01.svg EtruscanQ-01.svg EtruscanR-01.svg Greek Sigma Z-shaped.svg EtruscanT-01.svg EtruscanV-01.svg EtruscanX-01.svg EtruscanPH-01.svg EtruscanKH-01.svg
Archaic (to 5th c.) [←] EtruscanA-01.svg EtruscanC-01.svg EtruscanE-01.svg EtruscanF-01.svg EtruscanZ-01.svg EtruscanH-02.svg EtruscanTH-03.svg EtruscanI-01.svg EtruscanK-01.svg EtruscanL-01.svg EtruscanM-01.svg EtruscanN-01.svg EtruscanP-01.svg EtruscanSH-01.svg EtruscanQ-01.svg EtruscanR-03.svg EtruscanS-02.svg EtruscanT-01.svg EtruscanV-01.svg EtruscanX-01.svg EtruscanPH-01.svg EtruscanKH-01.svg EtruscanF-02.svg
Neo (4th to 1st c.)[←] EtruscanA-01.svg EtruscanC-01.svg EtruscanE-01.svg EtruscanF-01.svg EtruscanZ-01.svg EtruscanH-01.svg EtruscanTH-01.svg EtruscanI-01.svg EtruscanL-01.svg EtruscanM-02.svg EtruscanN-02.svg EtruscanP-01.svg EtruscanSH-01.svg EtruscanR-04.svg EtruscanS-02.svg EtruscanT-02.svg EtruscanU-02.svg EtruscanPH-02.svg EtruscanKH-02.svg EtruscanF-02.svg
Value a k e v ts h th i k l m n p sh k r s t u ph kh f
Transcription a c e v z h θ i k l m n p ś q r s t u φ χ f
Oscan - from 5th century BC
Letter [←] Oscan A3.svg Oscan B1.svg Oscan C1.svg Oscan D1.svg Oscan E1.svg Oscan F2.svg Oscan Z1.svg Oscan H1.svg Oscan I1.svg Oscan K2.svg Oscan L2.svg Oscan M1.svg Oscan N1.svg Italic p 5 rtl.png Oscan R1.svg Oscan S1.svg Oscan T2.svg Oscan U1.svg Oscan F3.svg Oscan U3.svg Oscan I2.svg
Value a b g d ɛ v ts x? i k l m n p r s t o: f o e
Transcription A B G D E V Z H I K L M N P R S T U F Ú Í
Lepontic - 7th to 5th century BC
Letter [?][→] 𐌀 𐌄 𐌅 𐌆 𐌈 𐌉 𐌊 𐌋 𐌌 𐌍 𐌏 𐌐 𐌑 𐌓 𐌔 𐌕 𐌖 𐌗
Value
Transcription A E V Z Θ I K L M N O P Ś R S T U X
South Picene - from 6th century BC
Letter [?][→] 𐌀 𐌁 𐌂 𐌃 𐌄 𐌅 𐌇 𐌉 𐌊 𐌋 𐌌 𐌍 𐌏 𐌐 𐌒 𐌓 𐌔 𐌕 𐌖 𐌚 𐌞 𐌝 𐌟
Value
Transcription A B G D E V H I K L M N O P Q R S T U F Ú Í *

Etruscan alphabet[edit]

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 Venetic) originally used the alphabet. Faliscan, Oscan, Umbrian, North Picene, and South Picene all derive from an Etruscan form of the alphabet.[citation needed]

Alphabet of Nuceria[edit]

Segni alfabeto nucerino.PNG

The Nucerian alphabet is based on inscriptions found in southern Italy (Nocera Superiore, Sorrento, Vico Equense and other places). It is attested only between the 6th and the 5th century BC. The most important sign is the /S/, shaped like a fir tree, and possibly a derivation from the Phoenician alphabet.

The alphabets of Este (Venetic), Magrè and Bolzano/Bozen-Sanzeno (Raetic), Sondrio (Camunic), Lugano (Lepontic)

Missing from the above table:

Raetic alphabets[edit]

The alphabet of Sanzeno (also, of Bolzano), about 100 Raetic inscriptions. The alphabet of Magrè (near Schio), east Raetian inscriptions.

Venetic alphabet[edit]

Alphabet of Este: Similar but not identical to that of Magrè, Venetic inscriptions.

Camunic alphabet[edit]

Inscribed abecedarium on rock drawings in Valcamonica.

Latin alphabet[edit]

Duenos inscription, 6th century BC

21 of the 26 archaic Etruscan letters were adopted for Old Latin from the 7th century BC, either directly from the Cumae alphabet, or via archaic Etruscan forms, compared to the classical Etruscan alphabet retaining B, D, K, O, Q, X but dropping Θ, Ś, Φ, Ψ, and F. (Etruscan U is Latin V; Etruscan V is Latin F.)

𐌀 𐌁 𐌂 𐌃 𐌄 𐌅 𐌆 𐌇 𐌉 𐌊 𐌋 𐌌 𐌍 𐌏 𐌐 𐌒 𐌓 𐌔 𐌕 𐌖 𐌗
A B C D E F Z H I K L M N O P Q R S T V X

South Picene alphabet[edit]

The South Picene alphabet, known from the 6th century BC, is most like the southern Etruscan alphabet in that it uses Q for /k/ and K for /g/. ⟨.⟩ is a reduced ⟨o⟩ and ⟨:⟩ is a reduced ⟨8⟩, used for /f/.[4]

Unicode[edit]

The Old Italic alphabets were unified and added to the Unicode Standard in March, 2001 with the release of version 3.1. The Unicode block for Old Italic is U+10300–U+1032F without specification of a particular alphabet (i.e. the Old Italic alphabets are considered equivalent, and the font used will determine the variant).

Writing direction (right-to-left, left-to-right, or boustrophedon) varies based on the language and even the time period. For simplicity most scholars use left-to-right and this is the Unicode default direction for the Old Italic block. For this reason, the glyphs in the code chart are shown with left-to-right orientation.

Old Italic[1][2]
Official Unicode Consortium code chart (PDF)
  0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 A B C D E F
U+1030x 𐌀 𐌁 𐌂 𐌃 𐌄 𐌅 𐌆 𐌇 𐌈 𐌉 𐌊 𐌋 𐌌 𐌍 𐌎 𐌏
U+1031x 𐌐 𐌑 𐌒 𐌓 𐌔 𐌕 𐌖 𐌗 𐌘 𐌙 𐌚 𐌛 𐌜 𐌝 𐌞 𐌟
U+1032x 𐌠 𐌡 𐌢 𐌣 𐌭 𐌮 𐌯
Notes
1.^ As of Unicode version 13.0
2.^ Grey areas indicate non-assigned code points

See also[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ Old Italic (PDF) (chart), Unicode.
  2. ^ Giuliano Bonfante (1983). The Etruscan language. Manchester: Manchester University Press. p. 64. ISBN 0719009022. OCLC 610734784. OL 19629507M.
  3. ^ Herbert Alexander Stützer (1992). Die Etrusker und ihre Welt. Köln: DuMont. p. 12. ISBN 3770131282. LCCN 94191271. OCLC 611534598. OL 1198388M.
  4. ^ Stuart-Smith, Jane (2004). Phonetics and Philology: Sound Change in Italic. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-925773-6.

Further reading[edit]

  • Bonfante, Giuliano; Bonfante, Larissa (2002). The Etruscan Language: An Introduction (2nd ed.). Manchester: Manchester University Press. ISBN 0-7190-5539-3.
  • Mullen, Alex (2013). Southern Gaul and the Mediterranean: Multilingualism and Multiple Identities in the Iron Age and Roman Periods. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-1-107-02059-7.

External links[edit]