Oscan language


Oscan is an extinct Indo-European language of southern Italy. The language is also the namesake of the language group to which it belonged. As a member of the Italic languages, Oscan is therefore a sister language to Latin and Umbrian.
Oscan was spoken by a number of tribes, including the Samnites, the Aurunci, and the Sidicini. The latter two tribes were often grouped under the name "Osci". The Oscan group is part of the Osco-Umbrian or Sabellic family, and includes the Oscan language and three variants known only from inscriptions left by the Hernici, Marrucini and Paeligni, minor tribes of eastern central Italy. The language was spoken until approximately CE 100.

Evidence

Oscan is known from inscriptions dating as far back as the 5th century BCE. The most important Oscan inscriptions are the Tabula Bantina, the Oscan Tablet or Tabula Osca, and the Cippus Abellanus. In Apulia, Oscan are also the legends of the ancient currencies found at Teanum Apulum. Oscan graffiti on the walls of Pompeii indicate its persistence in at least one urban environment well into the 1st century of the common era.
In total, as of 2017, there were 800 Oscan texts, with a rapid expansion in recent decades.
Oscan was written in various scripts depending on time period and location, including the "native" Oscan script, the South Oscan script which was based on Greek, and the ultimately prevailing Roman Oscan script.

Demise

In coastal zones of Southern Italy, Oscan is thought to have survived 3 centuries of bilingualism with Greek between 400 and 100 BCE, making it "an unusual case of stable societal bilingualism" wherein neither language became dominant or caused the death of the other; however, over the course of the Roman period both Oscan and Greek would be progressively effaced from Southern Italy, excepting the controversial possibility of Griko representing a continuation of ancient dialects of Greek.
Oscan was likely banned from official usage after 80 BCE. Its usage declined following the Social War. However, graffiti in towns across the Oscan speech area indicate it remained in good health after this. A very strong piece of evidence is the presence of Oscan graffiti on walls of Pompeii that were reconstructed after the earthquake of CE 62, and must therefore have been written between CE 62 and 79.

General characteristics

Oscan had much in common with Latin, though there are also many striking differences, and many common word-groups in Latin were absent or represented by entirely different forms. For example, Latin volo, velle, volui, and other such forms from the Proto-Indo-European root *wel were represented by words derived from *gher : Oscan herest he shall want, as opposed to Latin vult. Latin locus was absent and represented by the hapax slaagid, which Italian linguist Alberto Manco has linked to a surviving local toponym.
In phonology too, Oscan exhibited a number of clear differences from Latin: thus, Oscan 'p' in place of Latin 'qu' ; 'b' in place of Latin 'v'; medial 'f' in contrast to Latin 'b' or 'd'.
Oscan is considered to be the most conservative of all the known Italic languages, and among attested Indo-European languages it is rivaled only by Greek in the retention of the inherited vowel system with the diphthongs intact.

Writing system

Alphabet

Oscan was originally written in a specific "Oscan alphabet", one of the Old Italic scripts derived from the Etruscan alphabet. Later inscriptions are written in the Greek and Latin alphabets.

The "Etruscan" alphabet

The Osci probably adopted the archaic Etruscan alphabet during the 7th century BCE, but a recognizably Oscan variant of the alphabet is attested only from the 5th century BCE; its sign inventory extended over the classical Etruscan alphabet by the introduction of lowered variants of I and U, transcribed as Í and Ú. Ú came to be used to represent Oscan /o/, while U was used for /u/ as well as historical long */oː/, which had undergone a sound shift in Oscan to become ~.
The Z of the native alphabet is pronounced. The letters Ú and Í are "differentiations" of U and I, and do not appear in the oldest writings. The Ú represents an o-sound, and Í is a higher-mid. Doubling of vowels was used to denote length but a long I is written IÍ.

The "Greek" alphabet

Oscan written with the Greek alphabet was identical to the standard alphabet with the addition of two letters: one for the native alphabet's H and one for its V. The letters η and ω do not indicate quantity. Sometimes, the clusters ηι and ωϝ denote the diphthongs and respectively while ει and oυ are saved to denote monophthongs and of the native alphabet. At other times, ει and oυ are used to denote diphthongs, in which case o denotes the sound.

The "Latin" alphabet

When written in the Latin alphabet, the Oscan Z does not represent but instead, which is not written differently from in the native alphabet.

History of sounds

Vowels

Vowels are regularly lengthened before ns and nct and possibly before nf and nx as well.
Anaptyxis, the development of a vowel between a liquid or nasal and another consonant, preceding or following, occurs frequently in Oscan; if the other consonant precedes, the new vowel is the same as that of the preceding vowel. If the other consonant follows, the new vowel is the same as that of the following vowel.

Monophthongs

A
Short a remains in most positions.
Long ā remains in an initial or medial position. Final ā starts to sound similar to so that it is written ú or, rarely, u.
E
Short e "generally remains unchanged;" before a labial in a medial syllable, it becomes u or i and before another vowel, e becomes í.
Long ē becomes the sound of í or íí.
I
Short i becomes written í.
Long ī is spelt with i but when written with doubling as a mark of length with ií.
O
Short o remains mostly unchanged, written ú; before a final -m, o becomes more like u.
Long ō becomes denoted by u or uu.
U
Short u generally remains unchanged; after t, d, n, the sound becomes that of iu.
Long ū generally remains unchanged; it may have changed to an ī sound for final syllables.

Diphthongs

The sounds of diphthongs remain unchanged.

Consonants

S

In Oscan, S between vowels did not undergo rhotacism as it did in Latin; but it was voiced, becoming the sound. However, between vowels, the original cluster rs developed either to a simple r with lengthening on the preceding vowel, or to a long rr, and at the end of a word, original rs becomes r just as in Latin. Unlike in Latin, the s is not dropped from the consonant clusters sm, sn, sl.

Example of an Oscan text

Taken from the
In Latin: