Venetic language

Image:venetico.png

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.{{cite journal |last=de Melo |first=Wolfgang David Cirilo |date=2007 |title=The sigmatic future and the genetic affiliation of Venetic: Latin faxō "I shall make" and Venetic vha.g.s. to "he made" |journal=Transactions of the Philological Society |volume=105 |issue=105 |pages=1–21 |doi=10.1111/j.1467-968X.2007.00172.x |url=https://biblio.ugent.be/publication/1186868/file/1189048}}

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.{{cite journal |last=Gvozdanović |first=Jadranka |year=2012 |title=On the linguistic classification of Venetic |journal=Journal of Language Relationship |volume=7 |pages=33–46 |doi=10.31826/jlr-2012-070107 |s2cid=212688857 |url=http://www.jolr.ru/files/%2883%29jlr2012-7%2833-46%29.pdf|doi-access=free }} Phonological similarities to Rhaetian have also been pointed out.{{cite conference |first1=M. |last1=Silvestri |first2=G. |last2=Tomezzoli |year=2007 |title=Linguistic distances between Rhaetian, Venetic, Latin, and Slovenian languages |conference=Int'l Topical Conf. Origin of Europeans |pages=184–190 |url=http://www.korenine.si/zborniki/zbornik07/tomezzoli_dist07.pdf}}

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.{{cite book |last1=Schrijver |first1=Peter |author-link1=Peter Schrijver |editor1-last=Koch |editor1-first=John T. |editor2-last=Cunliffe |editor2-first=Barry |editor1-link=John T. Koch |editor2-link=Barry Cunliffe |title=Celtic from the West 3: Atlantic Europe in the Metal Ages – Questions of Shared Language |date=2016 |publisher=Oxbow Books |location=Oxford, UK |isbn=978-1-78570-227-3 |pages=489–502 |chapter=17. Ancillary study: Sound Change, the Italo-Celtic Linguistic Unity, and the Italian Homeland of Celtic |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HP4sDwAAQBAJ&q=%22peter+schrijver%22+%22celtic+from+the+west+3%22&pg=PA9 |access-date=May 12, 2019 }}

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.{{cite book |editor-last=Woodard |editor-first=Roger D. |year=2008 |title=The ancient languages of Europe |publisher=Cambridge University Press |page=139}}

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.{{cn|date=August 2024}}

In Venetic, PIE stops *bʰ, *dʰ and *gʰ developed to {{IPA|/f/}}, {{IPA|/f/}} and {{IPA|/h/}}, respectively, in word-initial position (as in Latin and Osco-Umbrian), but to {{IPA|/b/}}, {{IPA|/d/}} and {{IPA|/ɡ/}}, 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 {{IPA|/f/}}, {{IPA|/f/}} and {{IPA|/h/}} internally as well.{{cn|date=August 2024}}

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.{{rp|p.141}}

A sample inscription in Venetic, found on a bronze nail at Este (Es 45):{{rp|p=149}}

Another inscription, found on a situla (vessel such as an urn or bucket) at Cadore (Ca 4 Valle):{{rp|p=464}}

The most prominent scholars who have deciphered Venetic inscriptions or otherwise contributed to the knowledge of the Venetic language are Pauli,{{cite book |first=Carl Eugen |last=Pauli |year=1885–1894 |title=Altitalische Forschungen |publisher=J.A. Barth |place=Leipzig |url=https://archive.org/details/altitalischefor02paulgoog}} Krahe,{{cite book |first=Hans |last=Krahe |author-link=Hans Krahe |year=1954 |title=Sprache und Vorzeit: europäische Vorgeschichte nach dem Zeugnis der Sprache |publisher=Quelle & Meyer |location=Heidelberg |language=de}} Pellegrini,{{cite book |first1=Giovanni Battista |last1=Pellegrini |first2=Aldo Luigi |last2=Prosdocimi |year=1967 |title=La Lingua Venetica: I – Le iscrizioni; II – Studi |publisher=Istituto di glottologia dell'Università di Padova |location=Padova}} Prosdocimi,{{cite book |first=Aldo Luigi |last=Prosdocimi |year=2002 |title=Veneti, Eneti, Euganei, Ateste}}{{full citation needed|date=January 2021}}{{cite journal |first=Aldo Luigi |last=Prosdocimi |year=2002 |title=Trasmissioni alfabetiche e insegnamento della scrittura |journal=AKEO. I Tempi della Scrittura. Veneti Antichi: Alfabeti e Documenti |place=Montebelluna |pages=25–38}} (Catalogue of an exposition at Montebelluna, 12/2001–05/2002) and Lejeune.{{cite book |first=Michel |last=Lejeune |author-link=Michel Lejeune (linguist) |year=1974 |title=Manuel de la langue vénète |publisher=Carl Winter – Universitätsverlag |location=Heidelberg}} Recent contributors include Capuis{{cite web |title=Selected bibliography |first=Loredana |last=Capuis |url=http://www.istitutoveneto.it/iv/presentazione/soci/biografia_socio.php?id=252 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20050806081832/http://www.istitutoveneto.it/iv/presentazione/soci/biografia_socio.php?id=252 |archive-date=2005-08-06|url-status=dead}} and Bianchi.{{cite book |first1=Anna Maria Chieco |last1=Bianchi |display-authors=etal |year=1988 |title=Italia: omnium terrarum alumna: la civiltà dei Veneti, Reti, Liguri, Celti, Piceni, Umbri, Latini, Campani e Iapigi |publisher=Scheiwiller |location=Milano |language=it}}

{{div col|colwidth=22em}}

• Adriatic Veneti
• Castellieri culture
• Illyrian languages
• Indo-European languages
• Italic languages
• Italo-Celtic
• Liburnian language
• Proto-Celtic language
• Venetian language
• Wave model

{{div col end}}

{{reflist|25em}}

{{refbegin}}

• {{cite book |last=Beeler |first=Madison Scott |year=1949 |title=The Venetic Language |place=Berkeley, CA |publisher=Univ. of California Press |url=https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.89959/mode/2up }} (archive.org)
• {{cite journal |last=Gambacurta |first=Giovanna |year=2013 |title=I Celti e il Veneto |journal=Études Celtiques |volume=39 |pages=31–40 |doi=10.3406/ecelt.2013.2396}}
• {{cite journal |last=Gérard |first=Raphaël |year=2001 |title=Observations sur les inscriptions vénètes de Pannonie |journal=Revue belge de philologie et d'histoire |series=Antiquité – Oudheid |volume=79 |issue=1 |pages=39–56 |doi=10.3406/rbph.2001.4506}}
• {{cite journal |last=Marinetti |first=Anna |year=2020 |title=Venetico |journal=Palaeohispanica. Revista sobre lenguas y culturas de la Hispania Antigua |issue=20 |pages=367–401 |issn=1578-5386 |doi=10.36707/palaeohispanica.v0i20.374|doi-access=free |hdl=10278/3737688 |hdl-access=free }}
• {{cite journal |last=Prósper |first=Blanca Maria |date=Spring–Summer 2018 |title=The Venetic inscription from Monte Manicola and three termini publici from Padua: A reappraisal |journal=Journal of Indo-European Studies |volume=46 |number=1–2 |pages=1–61}}
• Prósper, Blanca Maria. "[https://doaj.org/article/e2b3c6dc2b9b49b2b50bd312f09280f3 The Venetic Names of Roman Siscia]". In: Voprosy onomastiki, 2018, Volume 15, Issue 3, pp. 105–124. DOI: 10.15826/vopr_onom.2018.15.3.031
• Prósper, Blanca María. "[https://www.academia.edu/40719160/Celtic_and_Venetic_in_contact_The_Dialectal_Attribution_of_the_Personal_Names_in_the_Venetic_record Celtic and Venetic in contact: the dialectal attribution of the personal names in the Venetic record]". In: Zeitschrift für celtische Philologie 66, no. 1 (2019): 131-176. https://doi.org/10.1515/zcph-2019-0006
• {{cite book |first1=Jožef |last1=Šavli |first2=Matej |last2=Bor |first3=Ivan |last3=Tomažič |first4=Anton |last4=Škerbinc |year=1996 |title=Veneti: First builders of European community: Tracing the history and language of early ancestors of Slovenes |place=Wien |publisher=Editiones Veneti}}

{{refend}}

{{Library resources box |by=no |onlinebooks=yes |others=yes |about=yes |label=Venetic language}}

• "[https://www.prin-italia-antica.unifi.it/index.html?newlang=eng 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)
• {{cite web |title=Víteliú |series=The Languages of Ancient Italy |url=http://www.evolpub.com/LCA/VTLhome.html}}
• {{cite web |first=Adolfo |last=Zavaroni |title=Venetic inscriptions |url=http://members.tripod.com/adolfozavaroni/venet.htm}}
• {{cite web |first=Cyril |last=Babaev |title=Indo-European database: The Venetic language |url=http://indoeuro.bizland.com/tree/balk/venetic.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=2005-04-05 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050405220139/http://indoeuro.bizland.com/tree/balk/venetic.html}}
• {{cite web |title=Additional reading |series=Italic languages |website=Encyclopædia Britannica |url=http://wwwa.britannica.com/eb/article-74687 |url-status=dead |archive-date=2008-08-27 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080827194804/http://wwwa.britannica.com/eb/article-74687}}

{{Italic languages}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Venetic Language}}

Category:Unclassified Indo-European languages

Category:Languages of ancient Italy

Category:Languages attested from the 5th century BC

Category:Languages extinct in the 1st century BC

Category:Este culture

Category:Italo-Celtic