Venetic language

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Ethnolinguistic map of Italy in the Iron Age, before the Roman expansion and conquest of Italy. Venetic is in brown.

Venetic (Template:IPAc-en Template:Respell) is an extinct Indo-European language, most commonly classified into the Italic subgroup, that was spoken by the Veneti people in ancient times in northeast Italy (Veneto and Friuli) and part of modern Slovenia, between the Po Delta and the southern fringe of the Alps, associated with the Este culture.<ref name="pell67"/><ref name="walla">Template:Cite encyclopedia</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

The language is attested by over 300 short inscriptions dating from the 6th to the 1st century BCE. Its speakers are identified with the ancient people called Veneti by the Romans and Enetoi by the Greeks. It became extinct around the 1st century when the local inhabitants assimilated into the Roman sphere. Inscriptions dedicating offerings to Reitia are one of the chief sources of knowledge of the Venetic language.<ref>Template:Cite book Template:Full citation needed</ref>

Linguistic classification

File:Venetico.png
Venetic alphabet

Venetic is a centum language. The inscriptions use a variety of the Northern Italic alphabet, similar to the Etruscan alphabet.

The exact relationship of Venetic to other Indo-European languages is still being investigated, but the majority of scholars agree that Venetic, aside from Liburnian, shared some similarities with the Italic languages and so is sometimes classified as Italic. However, since it also shared similarities with other Western Indo-European branches (particularly Celtic languages and Germanic languages), some linguists prefer to consider it an independent Indo-European language. Venetic may also have been related to the Illyrian languages once spoken in the western Balkans, though the theory that Illyrian and Venetic were closely related is debated by current scholarship.

While some scholars consider Venetic plainly an Italic language, and Eric P. Hamp in 1954 thought it more closely related to Latino-Faliscan than to the Osco-Umbrian languages, many authorities suggest, in view of the divergent verbal system, that Venetic was not part of Italic proper, but split off from the core of Italic early.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>

A 2012 study has suggested that Venetic was a relatively conservative language significantly similar to Celtic, on the basis of morphology, while it occupied an intermediate position between Celtic and Italic, on the basis of phonology. However these phonological similarities may have arisen as an areal phenomenon.<ref name="Jadranka">Template:Cite journal</ref> Phonological similarities to Rhaetian have also been pointed out.<ref>Template:Cite conference</ref>

In 2016, Celtologist Peter Schrijver argued that Venetic and Italic together form one sub-branch of an Italo-Celtic branch of Indo-European, the other sub-branch being Celtic.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

Decline

During the period of Latin-Venetic bilingual inscriptions in the Roman script, i.e. 150–50 BCE, Venetic became flooded with Latin loanwords. The shift from Venetic to Latin resulting in language death is thought by scholarship to have already been well under way by that time.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

Features

Venetic had about six, possibly seven, noun cases and four conjugations (similar to Latin). About 60 words are known, but some were borrowed from Latin (liber.tos. < libertus) or Etruscan. Many of them show a clear Indo-European origin, such as vhraterei < PIE *bʰréh₂trey = to the brother.Template:Cn

Phonology

In Venetic, PIE stops *bʰ, *dʰ and *gʰ developed to Template:IPA, Template:IPA and Template:IPA, respectively, in word-initial position (as in Latin and Osco-Umbrian), but to Template:IPA, Template:IPA and Template:IPA, respectively, in word-internal intervocalic position (as in Latin). For Venetic, at least the developments of *bʰ and *dʰ are clearly attested. Faliscan and Osco-Umbrian have Template:IPA, Template:IPA and Template:IPA internally as well.Template:Cn

There are also indications of the developments of PIE *kʷ > kv, *gʷ- > w- and PIE *gʷʰ- > f- in Venetic, the latter two being parallel to Latin; as well as the regressive assimilation of the PIE sequence *p...kʷ... > *kʷ...kʷ..., a feature also found in Italic and Celtic.<ref name="leje74"/>Template:Rp

Language sample

A sample inscription in Venetic, found on a bronze nail at Este (Es 45):<ref name="pell67"/>Template:Rp

Venetic Mego donasto śainatei Reitiiai porai Egeotora Aimoi ke louderobos
Latin (literal) Me donavit sanatrici Reitiae bonae Egetora [pro] Aemo liberis-que
English Egetora gave me to Good Reitia the Healer on behalf of Aemus and the children

Another inscription, found on a situla (vessel such as an urn or bucket) at Cadore (Ca 4 Valle):<ref name="pell67"/>Template:Rp

Venetic eik Goltanos doto louderai Kanei
Latin (literal) hoc Goltanus dedit liberae Cani
English Goltanus sacrificed this for the free Kanis

Scholarship

The most prominent scholars who have deciphered Venetic inscriptions or otherwise contributed to the knowledge of the Venetic language are Pauli,<ref name="pauli">Template:Cite book</ref> Krahe,<ref name="krahe">Template:Cite book</ref> Pellegrini,<ref name="pell67">Template:Cite book</ref> Prosdocimi,<ref name="pell67"/><ref name="pros02">Template:Cite bookTemplate:Full citation needed</ref><ref name="pros02b">Template:Cite journal (Catalogue of an exposition at Montebelluna, 12/2001–05/2002)</ref> and Lejeune.<ref name="leje74">Template:Cite book</ref> Recent contributors include Capuis<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> and Bianchi.<ref name="bianchi">Template:Cite book</ref>

See also

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References

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Further reading

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