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The Italic subfamily is a member of the Indo-European
Indo-European languages

The Indo-European languages are a Language family of several hundred related languages and dialects, including most major languages of Europe, the Iranian plateau , Central Asia and the Indian subcontinent ....
 language family's Centum branch. It includes the Romance languages
Romance languages

The Romance languages are a branch of the Indo-European languages comprising all the languages that descend from Latin language, the language of ancient Rome....
 derived from Latin
Latin

Latin is an Italic language, historically spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. Through the Military history of the Roman Empire, Latin spread throughout the Mediterranean and a large part of Europe....
 (Spanish
Spanish language

Spanish or Castilian is a Romance languages that originated in northern Spain, and gradually spread in the Kingdom of Castile and evolved into the principal language of government and trade....
, Portuguese
Portuguese language

Portuguese is a Romance language that originated in what is now Galicia and Portugal. It is derived from the Latin language spoken by the Romanization Pre-Roman peoples of the Iberian Peninsula around 2000 years ago....
, French
French language

French is a Romance language spoken around the world by around 80 million people as first language, by 190 million as second language, and by about another 200 million people as an acquired tongue, with significant speakers in 54 countries....
, Italian
Italian language

Italian is a Romance languages spoken by about 63 million people as a first language, primarily in Italy. In Switzerland, Italian is one of four Linguistic geography of Switzerlands....
, Romanian
Romanian language

Romanian or Daco-Romanian ; self-designation: limba rom?na, ) is a Romance languages spoken by around 24 to 28 million people, primarily in Romania and Moldova....
, etc.), and a number of extinct language
Extinct language

An extinct language is a language which no longer has any speakers .Extinct languages may be contrasted with Language death: no longer spoken as a main language....
s of the Italian Peninsula
Italian Peninsula

The Italian Peninsula or Apennine Peninsula is one of the three peninsulas of Southern Europe , spanning 1,000 km from the Po Valley in the north to the central Mediterranean Sea in the south....
, including Umbrian
Umbrian language

Umbrian is an language death Italic languages formerly spoken by the Umbri in the ancient Italy region of Roman Umbria. It is closely related to Oscan language....
, Oscan
Oscan language

Oscan, the language of the Osci, is in the Sabellic branch of the Italic languages, which is a branch of Indo-European languages that also includes Umbrian language, Latin, and Faliscan language....
, and the aforementioned Latin.

rtial list of regular phonetic changes from Proto-Indo-European
Proto-Indo-European language

The Proto-Indo-European language is the unattested, linguistic reconstruction common ancestor of the Indo-European languages, spoken by the Proto-Indo-Europeans....
 to Proto-Italic: > before ; unchanged elsewhere

Further changes occurred during the evolution of the individual Italic languages, such as > between vowels and > in Latin.

Irregular changes include > in e.g.






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Iron Age Italy
The Italic subfamily is a member of the Indo-European
Indo-European languages

The Indo-European languages are a Language family of several hundred related languages and dialects, including most major languages of Europe, the Iranian plateau , Central Asia and the Indian subcontinent ....
 language family's Centum branch. It includes the Romance languages
Romance languages

The Romance languages are a branch of the Indo-European languages comprising all the languages that descend from Latin language, the language of ancient Rome....
 derived from Latin
Latin

Latin is an Italic language, historically spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. Through the Military history of the Roman Empire, Latin spread throughout the Mediterranean and a large part of Europe....
 (Spanish
Spanish language

Spanish or Castilian is a Romance languages that originated in northern Spain, and gradually spread in the Kingdom of Castile and evolved into the principal language of government and trade....
, Portuguese
Portuguese language

Portuguese is a Romance language that originated in what is now Galicia and Portugal. It is derived from the Latin language spoken by the Romanization Pre-Roman peoples of the Iberian Peninsula around 2000 years ago....
, French
French language

French is a Romance language spoken around the world by around 80 million people as first language, by 190 million as second language, and by about another 200 million people as an acquired tongue, with significant speakers in 54 countries....
, Italian
Italian language

Italian is a Romance languages spoken by about 63 million people as a first language, primarily in Italy. In Switzerland, Italian is one of four Linguistic geography of Switzerlands....
, Romanian
Romanian language

Romanian or Daco-Romanian ; self-designation: limba rom?na, ) is a Romance languages spoken by around 24 to 28 million people, primarily in Romania and Moldova....
, etc.), and a number of extinct language
Extinct language

An extinct language is a language which no longer has any speakers .Extinct languages may be contrasted with Language death: no longer spoken as a main language....
s of the Italian Peninsula
Italian Peninsula

The Italian Peninsula or Apennine Peninsula is one of the three peninsulas of Southern Europe , spanning 1,000 km from the Po Valley in the north to the central Mediterranean Sea in the south....
, including Umbrian
Umbrian language

Umbrian is an language death Italic languages formerly spoken by the Umbri in the ancient Italy region of Roman Umbria. It is closely related to Oscan language....
, Oscan
Oscan language

Oscan, the language of the Osci, is in the Sabellic branch of the Italic languages, which is a branch of Indo-European languages that also includes Umbrian language, Latin, and Faliscan language....
, and the aforementioned Latin.

Phonetic changes

A partial list of regular phonetic changes from Proto-Indo-European
Proto-Indo-European language

The Proto-Indo-European language is the unattested, linguistic reconstruction common ancestor of the Indo-European languages, spoken by the Proto-Indo-Europeans....
 to Proto-Italic:
  • Palatovelars
    Velar consonant

    Velars are consonants articulated with the back part of the tongue against the soft palate, the back part of the roof of the mouth, known also as the Soft palate)....
     merge with plain velars
  • >
  • >
  • >
  • Voiced labiovelars unround or lenite
  • >
  • > or
  • Voiced aspirates become first unvoiced, then fricativize
  • > > >
  • > >
  • > >
> before ; unchanged elsewhere
  • Resonants and remaining stops unchanged


Further changes occurred during the evolution of the individual Italic languages, such as > between vowels and > in Latin.

Irregular changes include > in e.g. Latin quinque, "five", from PIE *penk?e, and Latin coquere, "to cook", from PIE *pek?-.

Branches

The Italic family has two known branches:
  • Sabellic
    Osco-Umbrian languages

    The Osco-Umbrian languages or Sabellic languages are a group of languages that belong to the Italic languages of the Indo-European languages....
    , including:
    • Oscan
      Oscan language

      Oscan, the language of the Osci, is in the Sabellic branch of the Italic languages, which is a branch of Indo-European languages that also includes Umbrian language, Latin, and Faliscan language....
      , which was spoken in the south-central region of the Italian Peninsula
      Italian Peninsula

      The Italian Peninsula or Apennine Peninsula is one of the three peninsulas of Southern Europe , spanning 1,000 km from the Po Valley in the north to the central Mediterranean Sea in the south....
    • Umbrian group, including:
      • Umbrian
        Umbrian language

        Umbrian is an language death Italic languages formerly spoken by the Umbri in the ancient Italy region of Roman Umbria. It is closely related to Oscan language....
         (not to be confused with the modern Umbrian dialect of Italian), which was spoken in the north-central region
      • Volscian
        Volscian language

        'Volscian' was a Sabellic Italic language, which was spoken by the Volsci and closely related to Oscan and Umbrian.It is attested in an inscription found in Velitrae , dating probably from early in the 3rd century BC; it is cut upon a small bronze plate , which must have once been fixed to some votive object, dedicated to the god Declunus...
      • Aequian
        Aequian language

        Aequian is an extinct language that was part of the Italic languages branch of the Indo-European languages language family, closely related to Umbrian language....
      • Marsian, the language of the Marsi
        Marsi

        The Marsi were an ancient people of Italy, whose chief centre was Marruvium, on the eastern shore of Fucine Lake. The area in which they lived is now called Marsica....
    • South Picene
      South Picene language

      South Picene is an extinct Italic language, belonging to the Sabellic language subfamily. It was spoken by the Sabini in east-central and southern Italy during the first millennium BC....
      , in east-central Italy
      Italy

      Italy , officially the Italian Republic , is a country located on the Italian Peninsula in Southern Europe and on the two largest islands in the Mediterranean Sea, Sicily and Sardinia....
  • Latino-Faliscan
    Latino-Faliscan languages

    The Latino-Faliscan languages are a group of languages that belong to the Italic languages of the Indo-European languages. They were spoken in Italy....
    , including:
    • Faliscan
      Faliscan language

      The Faliscan language, the extinct language of the ancient Falisci, forms, together with Latin, the group of Latino-Faliscan languages. It is preserved in about 100 short inscriptions, dating from the 3rd century BC and 2nd century BC centuries BC, and is written in a variety of the Old Italic alphabet alphabet derived from the Etruscan, and...
      , which was spoken in the area around Falerii
      Falerii

      Falerii was one of the twelve chief cities of Etruria, situated about one mile west of the ancient Via Flaminia, c. 50 km north of Rome....
       Veteres (modern Civita Castellana
      Civita Castellana

      Civita Castellana is a town in the province of Viterbo, 65 km north of Rome.Mount Soracte lies about 10 km to the south-east....
      ) north of the city of Rome
      Rome

      Rome is the capital city of Italy and Lazio, and is Italy's largest and most populous city, with 2,724,347 residents in an urban area of some ....
       and possibly Sardinia
      Sardinia

      Sardinia is the Mediterranean islands#By area island in the Mediterranean Sea . The area of Sardinia is . The island is surrounded by the France island of Corsica, the Italian Peninsula, Tunisia and the Balearic Islands....
    • Latin
      Latin

      Latin is an Italic language, historically spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. Through the Military history of the Roman Empire, Latin spread throughout the Mediterranean and a large part of Europe....
      , which was spoken in west-central Italy. The Roman
      Ancient Rome

      Ancient Rome was a civilization that grew out of a small agricultural community founded on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 10th century BC....
       conquests eventually spread it throughout the peninsula and beyond in the Roman Empire
      Roman Empire

      The Roman Empire was the Roman Republic phase of the Ancient Rome, characterised by an autocracy form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean....
      .
      • Romance languages
        Romance languages

        The Romance languages are a branch of the Indo-European languages comprising all the languages that descend from Latin language, the language of ancient Rome....
        , the descendants of Latin (see List of Romance languages
        List of Romance languages

        According to the SIL International's guide to world languages, the Ethnologue, the Romance languages include 47 languages and dialects spoken in Europe....
        )


The Italic speakers were not native to Italy
Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic , is a country located on the Italian Peninsula in Southern Europe and on the two largest islands in the Mediterranean Sea, Sicily and Sardinia....
, but migrated into the Italian Peninsula
Italian Peninsula

The Italian Peninsula or Apennine Peninsula is one of the three peninsulas of Southern Europe , spanning 1,000 km from the Po Valley in the north to the central Mediterranean Sea in the south....
 in the course of the 2nd millennium BC and were apparently related to the Celtic
Celt

Celts , is a modern term used to describe any of the European peoples who spoke, or speak, a Celtic languages. The term is also used in a wider sense to describe the Modern Celts of those peoples, notably those who participate in a Celtic culture....
 tribes that roamed over a large part of Western Europe
Western Europe

Western Europe refers to the countries in the western most half of Europe. This concept has had different meanings, political and cultural as well as geographical issues have influenced the area....
 at the time. Archaeologically, the Apennine culture
Apennine culture

The Apennine culture is a late Bronze Age culture in the Apennine Mountains of Italy, dating from around 1350 to 1150 BC.It is contemporary to the late Terramare culture and succeeded by the Villanovan culture....
 (inhumations) enters the Italian Peninsula from ca. 1350 BC, east to west. Before the Italic arrival, Italy was populated primarily by non-Indo-European groups (perhaps including the Etruscans). The first settlement on the Palatine hill
Palatine Hill

The Palatine Hill is the centermost of the Seven Hills of Rome and is one of the most ancient parts of the city. It stands 40 metres above the Roman Forum, looking down upon it on one side, and upon the Circus Maximus on the other....
 dates to ca. 750 BC, settlements on the Quirinal to 720 BC (see Founding of Rome
Founding of Rome

The founding of Rome is reported by many legends, which in recent times are beginning to be supplemented by more scientific reconstructions.Virgil's Aeneid is an important source for information about those early times or, at least, the myth-historical events current in the Augustan period....
).

The ancient Venetic language
Venetic language

Venetic is an extinct Indo-European languages that was spoken in ancient times in the North-Italy Veneto and modern Slovenia, between the Po River river delta and the southern fringe of the Alps....
, as revealed by its inscriptions (including complete sentences), was also closely related to the Italic languages and is sometimes even classified as Italic. However, since it also shares similarities with other Western Indo-European branches (particularly Germanic
Germanic languages

The Germanic languages are a group of related languages that constitute a branch of the Indo-European languages language family. The common ancestor of all the languages in this branch is Proto-Germanic, spoken in approximately the mid-1st millennium BC in Pre-Roman Iron Age....
), some linguists prefer to consider it an independent Indo-European language.

The Italic languages are first attested in writing from Umbrian and Faliscan inscriptions dating to the 7th century BC. The alphabets used are based on the Old Italic alphabet
Old Italic alphabet

Old Italic refers to several now extinct alphabet systems used on the Italian Peninsula in ancient times for various Indo-European and non-Indo-European languages....
, which is itself based on the Greek alphabet
Greek alphabet

The Greek alphabet is a set of twenty-four letters that has been used to write the Greek language since the late 9th century BC or early 8th century BCE....
. The Italic languages themselves show minor influence from the Etruscan
Etruscan language

The Etruscan language was spoken and written by the Etruscan civilization in the ancient region of Etruria and in parts of Lombardy, Veneto, and Emilia-Romagna , in Italy....
 and somewhat more from the Ancient Greek
Ancient Greek

Ancient Greek is the historical stage in the development of the Greek language spanning across the Archaic Greece , Classical Greece , and Hellenistic civilization periods of ancient Greece and the classical antiquity....
 languages.

As Rome
Roman Republic

The Roman Republic was the phase of the Ancient Rome characterized by a republican form of government; a period which began with the overthrow of the Roman Roman Kingdom, c....
 extended its political dominion over the whole of the Italian Peninsula, Latin became dominant over the other Italic languages, which ceased to be spoken perhaps sometime in the 1st century AD. From so-called Vulgar Latin
Vulgar Latin

Vulgar Latin is a blanket term covering the popular dialects and sociolects of the Latin which diverged from each other in the early Middle Ages, evolving into the Romance languages by the 9th century....
 the Romance languages
Romance languages

The Romance languages are a branch of the Indo-European languages comprising all the languages that descend from Latin language, the language of ancient Rome....
 emerged.

See also

  • Language families and languages
  • Italo-Celtic
    Italo-Celtic

    In historical linguistics, Italo-Celtic refers to the observation that the Italic languages and the Celtic languages share a number of common features unique to these two groups....