Oscan language explained

Oscan
Region:	south and south-central Italy
States:	Samnium, Campania, Lucania, Calabria and Abruzzo
Era:	attested 5th century BCE–1st century CE^[1]
Extinct:	>79 AD
Familycolor:	Indo-European
Fam2:	Italic
Fam3:	Osco-Umbrian (Sabellic)
Ancestor:	Proto-Indo-European
Ancestor2:	Proto-Italic
Script:	Old Italic alphabet
Iso3:	osc
Linglist:	osc
Glotto:	osca1245
Glottorefname:	Oscan
Imagecaption:	Denarius of Marsican Confederation with Oscan legend
Map:	Iron_Age_Italy.png
Notice:	IPA
Dia1:	Hernican
Dia2:	Marrucinian
Dia3:	Oscan proper
Dia4:	Paelignian
Dia5:	Samnite
Dia6:	Sidicini
Dia7:	Vestinian?

Oscan is an extinct Indo-European language of southern Italy. The language is in the Osco-Umbrian or Sabellic branch of the Italic languages. Oscan is therefore a close relative of Umbrian and South Picene.

Oscan was spoken by a number of tribes, including the Samnites,^[2] the Aurunci (Ausones), 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 (Hernican, Marrucinian and Paelignian) known only from inscriptions left by the Hernici, Marrucini and Paeligni, minor tribes of eastern central Italy. Adapted from the Etruscan alphabet, the Central Oscan alphabet was used to write Oscan in Campania and surrounding territories from the 5th century BCE until possibly the 1st century CE.^[3]

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,^[4] and the Cippus Abellanus. In Apulia, there is evidence that ancient currency was inscribed in Oscan (dating to before 300 BCE)^[5] at Teanum Apulum.^[6] 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.^[7]

In total, as of 2017, there were 800 found Oscan texts, with a rapid expansion in recent decades.^[8] 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.^[8]

Demise

In coastal zones of Southern Italy, Oscan is thought to have survived three 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.^[8] Oscan's usage declined following the Social War.^[9] Graffiti in towns across the Oscan speech area indicate it remained in colloquial usage.^[10] One piece of evidence that supports the colloquial usage of the language is the presence of Oscan graffiti on walls of Pompeii that were reconstructed after the earthquake of 62 CE,^{[11] [12]} which must therefore have been written between 62 and 79 CE.^[10] Other scholars argue that this is not strong evidence for the survival of Oscan as an official language in the area, given the disappearance of public inscriptions in Oscan after Roman colonization.^[13] It is possible that both languages existed simultaneously under different conditions, in which Latin was given political, religious, and administrative importance while Oscan was considered a "low" language.^{[14] [15]} This phenomenon is referred to as diglossia with bilingualism. Some Oscan graffiti exists from the 1st century CE, but it is rare to find evidence from Italy of Latin-speaking Roman citizens representing themselves as having non–Latin-speaking ancestors.^[13]

General characteristics

Oscan speakers came into close contact with the Latium population.^[16] Early Latin texts have been discovered nearby major Oscan settlements. For example, the Garigliano Bowl was found close to Minturnae, less than 40 kilometers from Capua, which was once a large Oscan settlement. 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

• welh₁-

('to will') were represented by words derived from

• ǵʰer-

('to desire'): Oscan herest ('(s)he shall want, (s)he shall desire', German cognate 'begehren', Dutch 'begeren', English cognate 'yearn') as opposed to Latin volent (id.). Latin locus (place) was absent and represented by the hapax slaagid (place), which Italian linguist Alberto Manco has linked to a surviving local toponym.^[17]

In phonology too, Oscan exhibited a number of clear differences from Latin: thus, Oscan 'p' in place of Latin 'qu' (Osc. pis, Lat. quis) (compare the similar P-Celtic/Q-Celtic cleavage in the Celtic languages); 'b' in place of Latin 'v'; medial 'f' in contrast to Latin 'b' or 'd' (Osc. mefiai, Lat. mediae).

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.^[16]

Writing system

Alphabet

Oscan was originally written in a specific "Oscan alphabet", one of the Old Italic scripts derived from (or cognate with) 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. At the beginning of the 3rd century BCE its sign inventory was 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 ~[uː]. Í was used to denote a higher-mid pronounced as /[ẹ]/.

The Z of the native alphabet is pronounced pronounced as /[ts]/. 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 pronounced as //ei// and pronounced as //ou// respectively while ει and oυ are saved to denote monophthongs pronounced as //iː// and pronounced as //uː// of the native alphabet. At other times, ει and oυ are used to denote diphthongs, in which case o denotes the pronounced as //uː// sound.

The "Latin" alphabet

When written in the Latin alphabet, the Oscan Z does not represent pronounced as /[ts]/ but instead pronounced as /[z]/, which is not written differently from pronounced as /[s]/ in the native alphabet.

Transliteration

When Oscan inscriptions are quoted, it is conventional to transliterate those in the "Oscan" alphabet into Latin boldface, those in the "Latin" alphabet into Latin italics, and those in the "Greek" alphabet into the modern Greek alphabet. Letters of all three alphabets are represented in lower case.

Phonology

Vowels

Vowels are regularly lengthened before ns and nct (in the latter of which the n is lost) 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 (non-liquid/nasal) consonant precedes, the new vowel is the same as the preceding vowel. If the other consonant follows, the new vowel is the same as the following vowel.

Monophthongs

A

Short a remains in most positionsLong ā remains in an initial or medial position. Final ā starts to sound similar to pronounced as /[ɔː]/ 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 raises to higher-mid [ẹ], written í.Long ē similarly raises to higher-mid [ẹ], the sound of written 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 changed to an ī sound in monosyllables, and may have changed to an ī sound for final syllables.

Diphthongs

Oscan had the following diphthongs:

/ay/	/ey/	/oy/
/aw/	/ew/	/ow/

The sounds of diphthongs remain unchanged from the Proto-Indo-European origins.

Consonants

The consonant inventory of Oscan is as follows:

		Labial	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Plosive	voiceless	pronounced as /link/	pronounced as /link/		pronounced as /link/
	voiced	pronounced as /link/	pronounced as /link/		pronounced as /link/
Fricative		pronounced as /link/	pronounced as /s/			pronounced as /link/
Nasal		pronounced as /link/	pronounced as /link/
Liquid			pronounced as /link/
Rhotic			pronounced as /link/
Semivowel				pronounced as /link/	pronounced as /link/

S

In Oscan, s between vowels did not undergo rhotacism as it did in Latin and Umbrian; but it was voiced, becoming the sound pronounced as //z//. However, between vowels, the original cluster rs developed either to a simple r with lengthening on the preceding vowel, or to a long rr (as in Latin), and at the end of a word, original rs becomes r just as in Latin. Unlike in Latin, the s is not dropped, either Oscan or Umbrian, from the consonant clusters sm, sn, sl: Umbrian `sesna "dinner," Oscan kersnu vs Latin cēna.

Morphology

Noun declension

Oscan nouns can have one of the seven cases: nominative, vocative, accusative, genitive, dative, ablative and locative (the latter is not present in Latin). Oscan nouns, like in Latin, are divided into multiple declension patterns.

Second-declension nouns

The second declension in Oscan has a few features that distinguish it from its Latin counterpart.

• The nominative singular of masculines features the syncope of *-os to -s, leading to further phonetic and orthographic consequences.
• The genitive singular -eís is taken from the i-stems.
• The nominative plural -ús preserves the usual Indo-European nominative plural ending for animate thematic nouns, which Latin replaced with -ī < *-oi from pronominal declensions.

These nouns in Oscan are declined as follows:

Oscan second declension

	Singular	Plural
Nominative	-s (masculine)^[18] -úm (neuter)	-ús (masculine) -ú (neuter)
Vocative	-e	?
Accusative	-úm^[19]	-úss (masculine) -ú (neuter)
Genitive	-eís	-úm
Dative	-úí	-úís
Ablative	-úd
Locative	-eí

Third-declension nouns

Like in Latin, the third declension in Oscan is a merger of the i-stem nouns with the consonant-stem nouns.

These nouns in Oscan are declined as follows. Neuters are not attested.

Oscan third declension

	Singular	Plural
Nominative	-s ^[20]	-s ^[21]
Vocative	?	?
Accusative	-úm, -um	-s
Genitive	-eís	-úm
Dative	-eí	-is
Ablative	-úd
Locative

Verbal system

Verbs in Oscan are inflected for the following categories:

• Tense (present, imperfect, future, perfect, and future perfect),
• Voice (active, deponent/passive)
• Mood (indicative, imperative, subjunctive)
• Person (1st, 2nd, 3rd)
• Number (singular, plural)

Present, future and future perfect forms in the active voice use the following set of personal endings:

	Singular	Plural
1st	-ō
2nd	-s
3rd	-t	-nt

Imperfect, perfect indicative and all tenses of the subjunctive in the active voice use a different set of endings:

	Singular	Plural
1st	-m
2nd	-s
3rd	-d	-ns

Passive endings are attested only for the 3rd person: singular -ter, plural -nter.

Perfect stems are derived from the present stem in different ways. Latin -vī- and -s- perfects are not attested in Oscan. Instead, Oscan uses its own set of forms, including reduplicated perfects such as deded 'gave', -tt- suffix as in prúfa-tt-ed 'approved', -k- suffix as in kella-k-ed 'collected, and -f- suffix as in aíkda-f-ed 'rebuilt'. Some verbs also use suppletive forms.

Other tenses are formed by suffixation:

Mood	Tense	Stem	Suffix	Example
Indicative	Imperfect	Present	-fā-	fu-fa-ns 'they were'
	Future	Present	-(e)s-	deiua-s-t 'he will swear'
	Future perfect	Perfect	-us-	tríbarakatt-us-et 'they will have built'
Subjunctive	Present	Present	-ī- (for a-stems), -ā- (for other stems)	deiua-i-d 'let him swear'
	Imperfect	Present	-sē-	fu-sí-d 'should be'
	Perfect	Perfect	-ē-	tríbarakatt-í-ns 'should build'

The following non-finite forms are attested (all of them are based on the present stem):

Form	Suffix	Example
Present active participle	-nt-	praese-nt-id 'being at hand' (Abl.sg. fem.)
Past participle	-to-	teremna-tu 'widened' (Nom.sg. fem.)
Present active infinitive	-om	tríbarakav-úm 'to build'
Present passive infinitive	-fi/-fir	sakara-fír 'to be consecrated'
Gerundive	-nno-	úpsa-nna-m 'build' (Acc.sg. fem.)

Examples of Oscan texts

From the Cippus Abellanus

In Latin:

In English:

From Tabula Bantina

First paragraph

out of six paragraphs in total, lines 3-8 (the first couple lines are too damaged to be clearly legible):

In Latin:

In English:

Notes: Oscan carn- “part, piece” is related to Latin carn- “meat” (seen in English ‘carnivore’), from an Indo-European root *ker- meaning ‘cut’―apparently the Latin word originally meant ‘piece (of meat).’^[22] Oscan tangin- "judgement, assent" is ultimately related to English 'think'. ^[23]

Second paragraph

= lines 8-13. In this and the following paragraph, the assembly is being discussed in its judiciary function as a court of appeals:

In Latin:

In English:

Third Paragraph

= lines 13-18

In Latin:

In English:

The Testament of Vibius Adiranus

In Oscan:

In English:

See also

• Ancient peoples of Italy

Sources

• Book: Buck, Carl Darling . 1904 . A Grammar of Oscan and Umbrian: with a Collection of Inscriptions and a Glossary . Boston . Ginn & Company . 1045590290.
• Book: Salvucci, Claudio R. . 1999 . A Vocabulary of Oscan Including the Oscan and Samnite Glosses . Southampton, Pennsylvania . Evolution Publishing and Manufacturing Co .
• Book: Wallace . Rex E. . The Sabellic Languages of Ancient Italy . 2007 . LINCOM . Munich.

Further reading

Linguistic Outlines:

• Prosdocimi, A.L. 1978. «L’osco». In Lingue e dialetti dell’Italia antica, a cura di Aldo Luigi Prosdocimi, 825–912. Popoli e civiltà dell’Italia antica 6. Roma - Padova: Biblioteca di storia patria.

Studies:

• Planta, R. von 1892-1897. Grammatik der oskisch-umbrischen Dialekte. 2 voll. Strassburg: K. J. Trubner. Vol. 1; Vol. 2
• Conway, Robert Seymour 1897. The Italic Dialects: Edited with a Grammar and Glossary. 2 voll. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Vol. 1; Vol. 2
• Cooley, Alison E. 2002. "The survival of Oscan in Roman Pompeii." Becoming Roman, writing Latin? : literacy and epigraphy in the Roman West. Journal of Roman Archaeology. . .
• Fishman, J.A. 1967. "Bilingualism with and without diglossia; diglossia with and without bilingualism." Journal of Social Issues 23, 29-38.
• Pisani, Vittore. 1964. Le lingue dell'Italia antica oltre il Latino. Rosenberg & Sellier.
• Lejeune, Michel. "Phonologie osque et graphie grecque". In: Revue des Études Anciennes. Tome 72, 1970, n°3-4. pp. 271–316.
• Untermann, J. 2000. Wörterbuch des Oskisch-Umbrischen. Heidelberg: C. Winter.
• McDonald, Katherine. 2015. Oscan in Southern Italy and Sicily: Evaluating Language Contact in a Fragmentary Corpus. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. .
• Book: Zair, Nicholas . 2016 . Oscan In The Greek Alphabet . Cambridge . Cambridge University Press . 10.1017/CBO9781107706422. 978-1-107-70642-2 .
• Machajdíková, Barbora; Martzloff, Vincent. "Le pronom indéfini osque pitpit "quicquid" de Paul Diacre à Jacob Balde: morphosyntaxe comparée des paradigmes *kwi- kwi- du latin et du sabellique". In: Graeco-Latina Brunensia. 2016, vol. 21, iss. 1, pp. 73-118. .
• Petrocchi, A., Wallace, R. 2019. Grammatica delle Lingue Sabelliche dell’Italia Antica. München: LINCOM GmbH. [ed. inglese. 2007]

Texts

• Janssen, H.H. 1949. Oscan and Umbrian Inscriptions, Leiden.
• Vetter, E. 1953. Handbuch der italischen Dialekte, Heidelberg.
• Rix, H. 2002. Sabellische Texte. Heidelberg: C. Winter.
• Crawford, M. H. et al. 2011. Imagines Italicae. London: Institute of Classical Studies.
• Franchi De Bellis, A. 1988. Il cippo abellano. Universita Degli Studi Di Urbino.
• Del Tutto Palma, Loretta. 1983. La Tavola Bantina (sezione osca): Proposte di rilettura. Vol. 1. Linguistica, epigrafia, filologia italica, Quaderni di lavoro.
• Del Tutto Palma, L. (a cura di) 1996. La tavola di Agnone nel contesto italico. Atti del Convegno di studio (Agnone 13-15 aprile 1994). Firenze: Olschki.
• Franchi De Bellis, Annalisa. 1981. Le iovile capuane. Firenze: L.S. Olschki.
• Murano, Francesca. 2013. Le tabellae defixionum osche. Pisa ; Roma: Serra.
• Decorte, Robrecht. 2016. "Sine dolo malo: The Influence and Impact of Latin Legalese on the Oscan Law of the Tabula Bantina". Mnemosyne 69 (2): 276–91.

External links

• "Languages and Cultures of Ancient Italy. Historical Linguistics and Digital Models", Project fund by the Italian Ministry of University and Research (P.R.I.N. 2017)
• Web site: JB . Hare . Oscan . wordgumbo . 2005 . 21 August 2010 .
• Web site: Jost . Gipert . Oscan . TITUS DIDACTICA . 2001 . 9 October 2021 .
• Image of Tabula Batina

Notes and References

1. Web site: Oscan . Ancient Scripts . 4 November 2011 . https://web.archive.org/web/20151025161323/http://www.ancientscripts.com/oscan.html . 25 October 2015 . dead .
2. Web site: Monaco . Davide . 4 November 2011 . Samnites the People . 4 November 2011 . Samniti.info.
3. Lejeune . Michel . 1970 . Phonologie osque et graphie grecque . Revue des Études Anciennes . fr . 72 . 3 . 271–316 . 10.3406/rea.1970.3871 . 0035-2004.
4. Web site: Samnites Oscan Tablet of Agnone.
5. Web site: Teano Apulo. Treccani. it.
6. Book: Salvemini Biagio, Massafra Angelo. Storia della Puglia. Dalle origini al Seicento. May 2014. Laterza. 978-88-581-1388-2. it.
7. Freeman, Philip (1999). The Survival of Etruscan. Page 82: "Oscan graffiti on the walls of Pompeii show that non-Latin languages could thrive in urban locations in Italy well into the 1st century CE."
8. Web site: McDonald . K. L. . 2017 . Fragmentary ancient languages as "bad data": towards a methodology for investigating multilingualism in epigraphic sources . 4–6.
9. Lomas, Kathryn, "The Hellenization of Italy", in Powell, Anton. The Greek World. Page 354.
10. Schrijver . Peter . Oscan love of Rome . Glotta . 2016 . 92 . 1 . 223–226 . 10.13109/glot.2016.92.1.223 . 0017-1298. Page 2 in the online version.
11. Cooley, Alison (2002)."The survival of Oscan in Roman Pompeii", in A.E. Cooley (ed.), Becoming Roman, Writing Latin? Literacy and Epigraphy in the Roman West, Portsmouth (Journal of Roman Archaeology), 77–86. Page 84
12. Cooley (2014). Pompeii and Herculaneum: A Sourcebook. New York – London (Routledge). Page 104.
13. McDonald . Katherine . 2012 . The Testament of Vibius Adiranus . Journal of Roman Studies . en . 102 . 40–55 . 10.1017/S0075435812000044 . 162821087 . 0075-4358.
14. Book: Cooley . Alison . Burnett . Andrew M. . Becoming Roman, writing Latin? : literacy and epigraphy in the Roman West . 2002 . Journal of Roman Archaeology . 1-887829-48-2 . 54951998.
15. Book: Vaänänen, Veikko . 1959-12-31 . Le latin vulgaire des inscriptions pompéiennes . De Gruyter . 10.1515/9783112537206. 978-3-11-253720-6 . 246734111.
16. Book: Clackson . James . The Blackwell history of the Latin language . 2011 . Wiley-Blackwell . Geoffrey C. . Horrocks . 978-1-4443-3920-8 . Malden, MA . 126227889.
17. Alberto Manco, "Sull’osco *slagi-", AIΩN Linguistica 28, 2006.
18. If a cluster pronounced as //ts// is formed by this ending, the cluster is spelled as -z, for instance in húrz "enclosure" (< *hortos).
19. -im in io-stem nouns like Pakis (personal name), accusative Pakim.
20. Absorbs the stem-final consonant in some words and is outright absent in others.
21. If a cluster pronounced as //ts// is formed by this ending, the cluster is spelled as -z, for instance in deívúz (a class of deity).
22. Web site: Etymonline: Proto-Indo-European *sker-.
23. Web site: Etymonline: think.