Oscan language

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, there is evidence that ancient currency was inscribed in Oscan (dating to before 300 BCE) at Teanum Apulum. Oscan graffiti on the walls of Pompeii indicate its persistence in at least one urban environment well into the 1st century AD. In total, as of 2017, there were 800 found 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. Graffiti in towns across the Oscan speech area indicate it remained in colloquial usage. 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, which must therefore have been written between 62 and 79 CE. 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. 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. ==General characteristics==

Oscan speakers came into close contact with the Latium population. Early Latin texts have been discovered near 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. 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. ==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 , while U was used for as well as historical long , which had undergone a sound shift in Oscan to become . Í was used to denote a higher-mid . The Z of the native alphabet is pronounced . Doubling of vowels was used to denote length but a long I is written IÍ. of Marsican Confederation with Oscan legend 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. 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 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 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: The sounds of diphthongs remain unchanged from the Proto-Indo-European origins. Consonants The consonant inventory of Oscan is as follows: : S In Oscan, s between vowels did not undergo rhotacism as it did in Latin and Umbrian; 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 (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 last being vestigial in classical Latin). Oscan nouns, like in Latin, are divided into multiple declension patterns. First-declension nouns The first declension in Oscan has three primary differences from Latin. • The ablative singular has the ending -ad as opposed to the -ā of Classical Latin, but agrees with Archaic Latin (e.g. puellād). • It retains the proto-italic genitive singular ending -ās, which was eventually replaced by -ae in Classical Latin, but is still present in archaizing forms (e.g. pater familiās). • Oscan also preserves the intervocalic -s in the genitive plural, which is likewise shared with Archaic Latin (e.g. puellāsom). First declension nouns in Oscan are declined as follows: 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: 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. 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: Imperfect, perfect indicative and all tenses of the subjunctive in the active voice use a different set of endings: 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: The following non-finite forms are attested (all of them are based on the present stem): == Examples of Oscan texts ==

===From the Cippus Abellanus=== {{quote| In Latin: {{Quote| 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: {{Quote|(3) … he shall take oath with the assent of the majority of the senate, provided that not less than (4) 40 are present, when the matter is under advisement. If anyone by right of intercession shall prevent the assembly, before preventing it, (5) he shall swear wittingly in the assembly without guile, that he prevents this assembly rather for the sake of the public welfare, (6) rather than out of favor or malice toward anyone; and that too in accordance with the judgment of the majority of the senate. The presiding magistrate whose assembly is prevented in this way shall not hold the assembly on this day. 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).’ Oscan tangin- "judgement, assent" is ultimately related to English 'think'. 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: {{Quote| In English: Third Paragraph = lines 13-18 In Latin: In English: The Testament of Vibius Adiranus In Oscan: In English: ==See also==