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The ItAnt project investigates the languages of ancient Italy, whose only attestations consist in epigraphic evidence, focusing on Venetic, Oscan, Faliscan and Celtic languages. For this purpose, the project combines the traditional method proper to historical linguistics with the setting up of digital technologies, developing computational tools specifically designed to create a digital set of interrelated resources. 1st Challenge: TEI/Epidoc Encoding Inscriptions are collected in a digital corpus managed in a digital archive containing the formal representation of the texts leveraging the TEI/EpiDoc encoding schema. It was necessary to extend the schema, in order to encode the peculiarities of these texts, such as odd writing ductus, and to describe the information in more detail, such as a division of information on language and script. The archive is enriched with standard metadata describing linguistics and material information. ItAnt is experimenting with Domain-Specific Languages to deploy a system that can assist scholars in the creation of the textual digital resources. 2nd Challenge: Describing the Lexicon ItAnt is developing a multilingual computational lexicon, providing a structured and formal representation of the lexical items and their related information as well as for allowing for a semantic access to the corpus. Traditional methods of lemmatisation do not lend themselves to fragmentary attested languages, in many cases the relation between words and lemmas being difficult for various reasons, such as different graphic standards, difficult linguistic analysis, incomplete paradigms, etc. Furthermore, sense representation is problematic, since meanings can often be reconstructed only partially and hypothetically. 3rd Challenge: Applying Ontological Model ItAnt is testing the use of CRMinf and CRMtex extensions of CIDOC CRM, the de facto standard ontology in the Digital Humanities for the representation of the texts and their scientific interpretation in a semantic format. This is the first experiment of complete treatment of the information concerning epigraphic material through this ontology. 4th Challenge: Integrating Data Finally, ItAnt will interlink among the different datasets, creating a hub that will primarily integrate lexicon and epigraphy transcriptions, together with contextual metadata, bibliography, and, experimentally, the hermeneutic positions. 5th Challenge: Preservation Tools and resources produced and developed within the project will be made available through relevant European-wide Research Infrastructures, such as CLARIN and DARIAH. This will ensure both a long-term preservation of the resources produced and a high valorisation of this heritage., The paper is supported by the Ministero dell'Università e della Ricerca, Italy [PRIN 2017XJLE8J]

The poster presents a newly started project about languages and cultures of Ancient Italy, which brings together competences from Historical Linguistics, Computational Lexicography and Digital Humanities. The main objective of the project is to investigate the cultures of ancient Italy on the basis of their linguistic documentation (7th - 1stc. B.C.) by means of digital tools specifically tailored for their peculiarities., The paper is supported by the Ministero dell'Università e della Ricerca, Italy [PRIN 2017XJLE8J]

The Sabines were the first Sabellian-speaking people to devise an alphabet for their own language. Their writing system had a strong influence on the way of writing all the other Sabellian languages. From the Archaic period onwards, Sabine graphemes were added to various other writing systems; the first example of this practice is a peculiar "Falisco-Sabine" alphabet, employed in some Archaic (and, maybe, post-Archaic) Sabellian inscriptions. Even more significant is the introduction of two Sabine graphemes into the Oscan alphabet, a particularly artificial creation of a relatively later age. The same graphemes were added even to the Latin alphabet, in the ephemeral attempt by the inhabitants of Capena to write their Sabellian language, when the destruction of Veii (396 BC) had dissolved the heavy cultural influence of this powerful Etruscan city. Sharing graphemes between writing systems which came to being independently from each other is an unparalleled phenomenon in the Classical world. It responded probably to cultural needs, rather than to linguistic ones, as is clearly demonstrated by the history of the Oscan alphabet, which adopted the Sabine graphemes about a century after its invention; their late introduction shows that the Oscan language could be equally written without them (as it actually was intended to, at least when the alphabet was first created). The migration of Sabine graphemes into other writing systems, therefore, was probably related to the diffusion of the mythical narrative which connected all Sabellian-speaking peoples to Sabine ancestry.

We present a newly started project about languages and cultures of Ancient Italy, which brings together competences from Historical Linguistics, Computational Lexicography and Digital Humanities. The main objective of the project is to investigate the cultures of ancient Italy on the basis of their linguistic documentation (7th - 1stc. B.C.) by means of digital tools specifically tailored for their peculiarities., The paper is supported by the Ministero dell'Università e della Ricerca, Italy [PRIN 2017XJLE8J]

Les langues sabelliques occupent une place tout à fait spéciale qui les distingue des autres domaines linguistiques non seulement de la Péninsule italienne, mais aussi de la Méditerranée ancienne dans son ensemble. Les populations installées en Grande-Grèce et en Sicile sont demeurées fidèles aux modèles de l’alphabet grec, avec lesquels elles étaient plus directement en contact, alors que les populations indigènes du centre de la Péninsule ont développé très tôt des systèmes d’écriture autonomes les uns par rapport aux autres. La conquête de cette autonomie non seulement vis-à-vis de l’alphabet grec, qui a fourni le modèle, mais aussi par rapport aux autres langues voisines (telles que le latin et l’étrusque) se réalise à travers deux procédés fondamentaux, l’innovation et la conservation, qui concernent à la fois la forme et la valeur des signes. Dès l’époque archaïque, le domaine sabellique se distingue des autres langues de la Péninsule non seulement par l’emploi de systèmes d’écriture différents, mais aussi par les évolutions et le réseau des contacts qui accompagnent l’histoire de ces communautés réparties entre l’Ombrie et la Calabre, jusqu’à leur absorption dans le monde romain. The Sabellian languages are very different from other language areas not only of the Italian peninsula, but also of the whole ancient Mediterranean. Native peoples of Magna Graecia and Sicily have taken models of the Greek alphabet, with which they were more in touch, while the native peoples from the center of the Peninsula have developed early writing systems, all autonomous from each other. The conquest of autonomy not only with respect to the Greek alphabet, which provided the model, but also in relation to other neighboring languages (such as Latin and Etruscan) takes place through two fundamental processes, innovation and conservation, which concern both the form and the value of signs. Since the Archaic period, the Sabellian field differs from other languages of the peninsula not only by the use of different writing systems, but also by the changes and the network of contacts that accompany the history of these communities spread between Umbria and Calabria, until their absorption in the Roman world.

espanolEn este trabajo se presenta un analisis de los procesos de adaptacion del alfabeto griego a cuatro lenguas diferentes del Mediterraneo antiguo: el enotrio (un dialecto del grupo sabelio), el iberico, el osco y el galo. En cada caso se senala en que ha consistido el proceso de adaptacion, la cronologia en el empleo de la escritura y algunas particularidades paleograficas. En general, estos cuatro alfabetos son las maneras respectivas de escribir una lengua local mediante letras griegas mas que una creacion especifica de una escritura como una senal de identidad. EnglishIn this paper an analysis of the processes of adaptation of the Greek alphabet to four different languages of the Ancient Mediterranean is offered; Oenotrian (a Sabellian dialect), Iberian, Oscan and Gaulish. In each case the author shows how the process of adaptation was, and also the chronology of the use of the script and some palaeographic features. In general terms, these four alphabets are rather ways of writing a local language by means of Greek letters than a specific creation of a script as a sign of identity.

Let us start with an image (Figure 6.1). We see, on the pediment of a temple, a male god with a bunch of grapes and a goblet, flanked by a stick with a ribbon, a thyrsus, and a tympanon, in the company of a banqueter and a panther. He is easily recognisable: Dionysos, Bacchus, Liber for Latin speakers, Fufluns for Etruscans. As the relief was cut in Oscan Pompeii during the second half of the third century BC, 2 local worshippers must have called him *Loufir or Lifar. 3 And yet, the iconography of the pediment is inspired by a Hellenistic pattern, which has been broadly spread over Italy, as we shall see: and we recognise the god exactly because this voiceless image is, if not transcultural by nature, at least meaningful enough to be adopted by several cultures that might fit their own conception of the god over what is more or less the same image.

The origin of the Latin words bardus ‘stupid’ and gurdus ‘stupid’ is examined. It is shown that bardus cannot be borrowed from Etruscan, as previously claimed. It is probably a borrowing from Oscan and is cognate with forms like Greek βραδύς, Lithuanian gurdus ‘slow’. While gurdus could be a loanword from some unknown language, it could also be the regular result in Latin of *gw ord-o-, an o-stem adjective derived from the same root as the u-stem that lies behind bardus.

The shadowy Roman god Sēmō and the plural group Sēmōnēs have long been associated with sēmen ‘seed.’ But the evidence that Sēmō or the Sēmōnēs have anything to do with seeds is lacking. The Sēmōnēs first appear in the Carmen Arvale : here they constitute Mars9s retinue. The Sabellic evidence also puts Semo firmly in the Martial sphere. The form Semo appears, in addition, as part of the Semo Sancus Dius Fidius complex. These divinities are connected with the sanctity ( sancīre ) of treaties ( foedus , fidēs ) and oaths. In “Dumezilian” terms Semo is a god of the first (priestly) and second (warrior) function, but not a god of the third (agricultural) function, precisely the opposite of what the standard etymology predicts. New evidence from Oscan allows us to reject conclusively the connection between sēmen and Sēmō . In an inscription from Pietrabbondante the god9s name is spelled seemunei (dat. sg.) and this spelling with ee is not the expected one. If the Oscan form were a derivative of the root seen in sēmen , the spelling would have to have been † siimunei . The spelling ee shows that the Oscan form, and its Latin cognate, must have a different origin. The only plausible source is *seγVmōn -. A form that matches reconstructed * seγVmōn - exactly is Gaulish Segomoni and Ogham Irish SEGAMANAS. The Gaulish god is identified with Mars. The Celtic and Italic forms continue a Proto-Italo-Celtic * seĝ h omōn - ‘strong one,’ ‘strongman,’ which is a derivative of a noun * seĝ h om ‘strength.’ The root * seĝ h - (Gk. ἔχω etc.) had the original meaning ‘hold firmly’ and this developed to ‘be strong,’ ‘conquer’ in Indo-Iranian and Western Indo-European. The god * seĝ h omōn- is the sole example of a divine name that perhaps can be considered a unique and innovative feature of the ancient Proto-Italo-Celtic speech community.

EnglishThe goal of this work is to present a new interpretation of the problematic gloss amosio: annuo (Fest., p. 26). Firstly, a critical analysis of the emendations proposed by previous scholars is offered in order to demonstrate their inconsistency both from a philological and linguistic perspective. Secondly, it is shown that the only philologically plausible emendation is correcting amosio to annosio. Subsequently, this form annosio is analyzed as an old -osio genitive of the word for ‘year’, Lat. annus, crystallized as an adverb. It is argued that the newly acquired form annosio supports the idea that Very Old Latin inherited a genitive singular o-stem ending -osio from Proto-Italic (and PNIE), and that Latin inherited in its earliest phases a genitive of time construction as well, exactly as Oscan and other Indo-European languages. francaisCette etude a pour objectif de proposer une nouvelle interpretation de la glose problematique amosio: annuo (Fest. p. 26). Nous analysons d’abord, de maniere critique, les corrections proposees jusqu’ici afin de demontrer leur incoherence du point de vue philologique et linguistique. Ensuite, nous montrons que la seule correction philologique plausible est de corriger amosio en annosio. Par consequent, la forme annosio est analysee comme un ancien genitif en -osio du mot ‘annee’, Lat. annus, fige en adverbe. Enfin, nous envisageons que la forme annosio prouve l’idee que le vieux latin a herite une desinence -osio propre du genitif singulier des themes en -o- venant du proto-italique (et PNIE), et que le latin a aussi herite, dans ses phases anciennes, un genitif de temps, exactement comme l’osque et d’autres langues indo-europeennes.

The Oscan law of the Tabula Bantina (tbo), the longest Oscan text found to this date, is the product of a politically significant time in Roman history in which the Italian socii revolted against, and tried to assert independence from, Rome. In spite of this, the tbo largely reads like a Roman law, particularly in vocabulary and phrasing. The aim of this article is to reveal the extent to which the tbo was influenced by Latin legal language. It will identify several remarkable syntactic, stylistic and epigraphic aspects of this Oscan law and compare them to conventions in the Latin legal register.

This work aims to clarify a number of issues concerning the etymology of personal names attested in Latin epigraphy in the Alpine region, especially in Gallia Transpadana, Venetia et Histria, Pannonia and Noricum. The author selected a number of comparative and superlative proprial forms which may be classified as Celtic or Italic, and attempted to establish their language attribution based on the analysis of their etymology, geographic distribution and the sound changes that they presumably underwent. The author also offers an explanation of the different and apparently contradictory types of vowel syncope characteristic of the Gaulish superlative forms, which is based on a hypothesis about the successive accent shifts, before and after the split-up of the Celtic language family. Additionally, this analysis has some bearing on the interpretation of several South-Picene inscriptions, namely that from Penna Sant’Andrea. The paper also seeks to make a methodological point by exibiting how much the evidence of proper names with clearly discernable patterns may contribute to the understanding of particular issues related to the phonology and morphology of the whole group of languages. Such information may lead, in its turn, to new etymologies, and therefore to better understanding of some particular features of the Celtic languages in their early period. Данная статья посвящена некоторым частным проблемам этимологизации личных имен, засвидетельствованных в памятниках латинской эпиграфики, которые найдены в приальпийских областях, в особенности в Транспаданской Галлии, Венетии, Истрии, Паннонии и Норике. Автором отобраны имена с этимологическим сравнительным или превосходным значением, которые могут быть классифицированы как кельтские или италийские. На основе этимологического, ареального и историко-фонетического анализа этих форм в статье предпринимается попытка лингвистической атрибуции исследуемых онимов. В ходе анализа автор также предлагает объяснение различных и, по всей видимости, взаимоисключающих видов синкопы гласного, имевших место в галльских формах суперлатива. Такое объяснение основывается на гипотезе относительно последовательного изменения места ударения на разных этапах истории языка — до и после распада общекельтского языкового состояния. Помимо этого, проведенный анализ позволяет предложить новые интерпретации некоторых южнопиценских надписей, в частности надписи на стеле из Пенна-Сант-Андреа. Данное исследование имеет также методологическую направленность, так как демонстрирует важность изучения проприальных лексем, построенных в рамках явно различимой словообразовательной модели. Анализ подобного ономастического материала позволяет пролить свет на некоторые частные проблемы морфологии и фонетики целых групп родственных языков. В свою очередь, это делает возможным выдвижение новых этимологий и позволяет лучше понимать отдельные черты кельтских языков на ранних этапах их истории. This work has been financed by the Spanish Government (MINECO FFI2012–30657: La antroponimia indígena indoeuropea de Hispania: Estudio comparativo). The author also wishes to thank the editors as well as two anonymous reviewers for their kind comments on a preliminary version of this work.

Cooper (2013: 11–12, 2015: 317–320) suggests that /m/ was less sonorous in PIE than /l/, /r/, and /n/. This article discusses the evidence proposed for this analysis and puts forward some further evidence, of differing degrees of strength, from Sanskrit, Oscan, Venetic, Celtic and Greek. It concludes that there is some evidence for a lower sonority of /m/ than /l/, /n/ and /r/ in Greek and Sanskrit, but that the evidence for other languages is inconclusive. There are a number of instances in which /m/ patterns with plosives rather than the other sonorants in a number of other contexts, whose relevance to questions of sonority, however, is not clear. Overall, it is plausible that /m/ may have had a lower sonority than the other sonorants in PIE, but this is not necessarily the explanation for all its odd behaviour relative to the other sonorants in PIE and its descendant languages.

In the archaeological site of Pompeii, epigraphs Tituli Picti applied on stone, such as Campanian ignimbrite in Oscan and Latin language, were surveyed by different authors. Although there are several publications concerning the building materials and artefacts of Pompeii, the scientific literature lacks of studies regarding the knowledge and conservation of such paints. The diagnostic and conservation project is aimed at determining the execution technique, as well as at defining the state of conservation of the Tituli Picti realized on the Campanian ignimbrite. In addition, the study will provide experimental data useful to suggest proper conservation procedures, mainly in terms of protective and consolidating products to be used. Results carried out by means of Optical Microscopy, Electron Probe Microanalysis, portable XRF and portable Raman techniques revealed that the epigraphs were applied on the stone surface, without any setting layer. Hematite-based red ochre was detected as pigment. On the contrary, it is still unclear if any substance was used to bind the pigment on the stone substrate. The subsequent stage of the project will include the reproduction of Tituli Picti in laboratory and the development of suitable conservation procedures to be tested in situ.

The study of language contact in the ancient world has been an area of huge growth over the past ten years. However, in areas of the ancient world where sources are more limited, scholars have been more hesitant to make sweeping claims about the nature of language contact, even in communities where societal bilingualism is likely to have existed for many centuries. Languages only attested in fragmentary epigraphic corpora are considered the ultimate “bad data” and have not always received a great deal of attention in historical sociolinguistics, despite these texts representing our best evidence of many of the communities across the ancient Mediterranean. In response to this problem, this article asks how we should go about interpreting the evidence of ancient language contact in small or fragmentary corpora of texts. This article uses the Oscan corpus from Southern Italy (Lucania, Bruttium and Messina) c. 400-50 BCE as a case study for examining bilingualism in a fragmentary corpus. It outlines the data gathered from a range of different text-types from Southern Italy, the different kinds of contact phenomena which have been found in these texts, and whether there are any discernible patterns in the data. It argues, because of the fragmentary state of the Oscan corpus, that there is little clear evidence of chronological or geographic differentiation in levels of bilingualism. Rather, the evidence shows that in this corpus some text-types are more likely than others to contain contact phenomena. With this in mind, this paper proposes a new model which includes consideration of text-type for the interpretation of language contact and bilingualism in fragmentary corpora.

Despite numerous recent studies of Italic textiles and textile production etc., no systematic study has so far been attempted regarding the textile terminology of Italic languages besides Latin. The present study seeks to remedy this, making a first step into the textile terminology of Sabellic languages, predominantly Oscan and Umbrian. There are two types of sources for Sabellic textile terminology: inscriptions and glosses in Greek and Latin literature. Both are, however, fraught with uncertainties. The glosses, as for example seen in the case of Etruscan, may have been misunderstood or misinterpreted and should be treated with due caution, and there is considerable debate on many of the epigraphically attested terms and significant doubt about their precise interpretation. Glosses are especially problematic, since they have been transmitted to us through a succession of manuscripts. As noted by Clackson, it is only through epigraphy that we can access the texts, and therefore the terms themselves, directly. Sometimes, however, the glosses are indeed correct, making their investigation important. The extant Sabellic corpus, although minuscule compared to Latin, is nevertheless linguistically invaluable and offers complementary evidence of the Indo-European and Italic textile lexicon, although many aspects of the various Sabellic languages are notoriously difficult to interpret and remain a matter of debate. The present contribution does not claim to endorse the interpretation of the most doubtful cases, but includes them in order to provide an overview of Sabellic terms that have been suggested by scholars as belonging to the domain of textiles. (Less)

The Mills Valley is situated in the Monti Lattari Regional Park and is included in a context in which interesting traces of life forms have been found, dating back to the eras of the Upper Jurassic and the Cretaceous, in a period between 165 and 65 million years ago. The earliest forms of human settlement date back to the Oscan population of Indo-European origin and the first urbanization took place in 89 BC. The current geological structure of the Lattari Mountains owes its development to the flow of water and debris produced by erosion and transport. The Mills Valley is washed by the stream Vernotico. It is urgent a sustainable project of an eco museum for Mill Valley valuing natural resources but also the building products such as mills, the canals, aqueducts, all an integral and inseparable part of a unique and unrepeatable ecosystem.

Oscan and Umbrian have a future perfect suffix -us-/–ur–. Although various sources for this suffix have been suggested, none satisfactorily explain its origin. This article evaluates these previous attempts and makes a new proposal: the Oscan and Umbrian future perfect can be identified as a perfect suffix *-ō- plus the future suffix *-s-. The perfect suffix *-ō-, although not directly attested in Oscan and Umbrian, is found in the related language South Picene. The origin of the *-ō- suffix is traced back to inherited perfects of the type 3sg. *Ce-CoH-e, e.g. *de-doh3-e ‘gave’ > *dedō → Umbrian teřust ‘(s)he will have given’, with subsequent reanalysis of the root vowel *-ō- as a suffix. A parallel for this development is found in Gaulish.

The evidence for the treatment in Oscan of *-u- after a coronal is examined. In the areas which use the Oscan alphabet (Campania and Samnium), this has become [i̯u]; in the areas which use the Greek alphabet (Lucania and Bruttium) it has become [y]. Contrary to previous assumptions, there is evidence for a change to [y] in the Latin-alphabet Tabula Bantina from Lucania, since the in the forms petiropert ‘four times’ and manim ‘hand’ is most easily explained as coming directly from *-u-. Evidence from both relative and absolute chronology shows that this difference must be a dialectal rather than a chronological split between Campania-Samnium and Lucania-Bruttium, since the different reflexes of *-u- are already in place by the time of our earliest evidence, and are maintained throughout the history of Oscan.