Note: This article contains special characters.

Old Italic refers to several now extinct alphabet systems used on the Italian peninsula in ancient times for various Indo-European (predominantly Italic) and non-Indo-European (e.g. Etruscan) languages. Drawing of the 16 and 12 characters Wadi el-Hol inscriptions The Proto-Canaanite (also Proto-Sinaitic) alphabet is identified as the prototype of the Semitic alphabets that, mostly via the successful Phoenician alphabet became the ancestor of most scripts in use today. ... The Phoenician alphabet dates from around 1400 BC and is related to the Proto-Canaanite alphabet. ... The Aramaic alphabet is an abjad alphabet designed for writing the Aramaic language. ... BrāhmÄ« refers to the pre-modern members of the Brahmic family of scripts. ... The Brahmic family is a family of abugidas used in South Asia, Tibet and Southeast Asia. ... Om Mani Padme Hum, the primary mantra of Tibetan Buddhism written in the Tibetan script, on a rock outside the Potala Palace in Lhasa, Tibet. ... This article or section uses Khmer characters which may be rendered as boxes or other nonsensical symbols. ... Javanese script is the script that Javanese is originally written in (not to be confused with Javascript, which is a programming language). ... This article is mainly about Hebrew letters. ... 11th century book in Syriac Serto. ... The Avestan alphabet was created in the 3rd century AD for writing the hymns of Zarathustra (a. ... The Arabic alphabet is the script used for writing in the Arabic language. ... The Latin alphabet, also called the Roman alphabet, is the most widely used alphabetic writing system in the world today. ... Younger Futhark inscription on the Vaksala Runestone The Runic alphabets are a set of related alphabets using letters known as runes, formerly used to write Germanic languages, mainly in Scandinavia and the British Isles, but before Christianization also on the European Continent. ... Representation of the Gothic alphabet surrounding its inventor Ulfilas The Gothic alphabet is an alphabetic writing system attributed to Wulfila used exclusively for writing the ancient Gothic language. ... Tablet inscribed with the Glagolitic alphabet The Glagolitic alphabet or Glagolitsa is the oldest known Slavonic alphabet. ... The Cyrillic alphabet (or azbuka, from the old name of the first two letters) is an alphabet used for several Slavic languages; (Belarusian, Bulgarian, Macedonian, Russian, Rusyn, Serbian, and Ukrainian) and many other languages of the former Soviet Union, Asia and Eastern Europe. ... The Samaritan alphabet is a direct descendant of the paleo-Hebrew variety of the Phoenician alphabet, the more commonly known Hebrew alphabet having been adapted from the Aramaic alphabet under the Persian Empire. ... photograph of Botorrita 1 (both sides), 1st century BC. The Iberian scripts (or Iberian alphabet) are two scripts (or two styles of the same script) found on the Iberian peninsula, the Northeast and South Iberian script. ... The ancient South Arabian alphabet (also known as musnad) branched from the Proto-Sinaitic alphabet in ca. ... The Geez language (or Giiz language) is an ancient language that developed in the Ethiopian Highlands of the Horn of Africa as the language of the peasantry. ... The Meroitic script is an alphabet of Egyptian (Hieroglyphic) origin used in Kingdom of Meroë. Some scholars, e. ... Nearly all the segmental scripts (alphabets, but see below for more precise terminology) used around the globe were apparently derived from the Proto-Sinaitic alphabet. ... A Specimen of typeset fonts and languages, by William Caslon, letter founder; from the 1728 Cyclopaedia. ... The Italian peninsula or the Apennine peninsula is one of the greatest peninsulas of Europe, spanning 1000 km from the Alps in the north, to the central Mediterranean Sea in the south. ... The Italic subfamily is a member of the Centum branch of the Indo-European language family. ... Etruscan was a language spoken and written in the ancient region of Etruria (current Tuscany) and in parts of what are now Lombardy, Veneto, and Emilia-Romagna (where the Etruscans were displaced by Gauls), in Italy. ...

The alphabets derive from Euboean Greek Cumaean alphabet, used at Ischia and Cumae in the Bay of Naples in the eighth century BC. Cumaean, in turn showed strong similarities to the Phoenician alphabet, lending support to theories of Phoenician influence in the West-Central Mediterranean region. Euboea or Negropont or Negroponte (Modern Greek: Εύβοια Evia, Ancient Greek Εúβοια Eúboia; see also List of traditional Greek place names), is the largest island of the Greek archipelago. ... It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with Western Greek alphabet. ... The island of Ischia near Naples, Italy. ... Cumae (Cuma, in Italian) is an ancient Greek settlement lying to the northwest of Naples in the Italian region of Campania. ... Gulf of Naples is located in Southern Italy. ... (9th century BC - 8th century BC - 7th century BC - other centuries) (800s BC - 790s BC - 780s BC - 770s BC - 760s BC - 750s BC - 740s BC - 730s BC - 720s BC - 710s BC - 700s BC - other decades) (2nd millennium BC - 1st millennium BC - 1st millennium AD) Events Golden age in Armenia Assyria... The Phoenician alphabet dates from around 1400 BC and is related to the Proto-Canaanite alphabet. ... The Mediterranean Sea is an intercontinental sea positioned between Europe to the north, Africa to the south and Asia to the east, covering an approximate area of 2. ...

Various Indo-European languages belonging to the Italic branch (Faliscan and members of the Sabellian group, including Oscan, Umbrian, and South Picene, and other Indo-European branches such as Venetic and Messapic) originally used the alphabet. Faliscan, Oscan, Umbrian, North Picene, and South Picene all derive from an Etruscan form of the alphabet. The Indo-European languages comprise a family of several hundred languages and dialects [1], including most of the major languages of Europe, as well as many in Southwest Asia, Central Asia and South Asia. ... The Italic subfamily is a member of the Centum branch of the Indo-European language family. ... Falisci, a tribe of Sabine origin or connections, but speaking a dialect closely akin to Latin, who inhabited the town of Falerii, as well as a considerable tract of the surrounding country, probably reaching as far south as to include the small town of Capena. ... Oscan, the language of the Osci, is in the Sabellic branch of the Italic language family, which is a branch of Indo-European and includes Umbrian, Latin and Faliscan. ... Umbrian, an Indo-European language of the Italic family, is a dead language formerly spoken in Umbria, Italy. ... South Picene is an extinct Italic language, belonging to the Sabellic subfamily. ... Venetic is an extinct Indo-European language that was spoken in ancient times in the Veneto region of Italy, between the Po River delta and the southern fringe of the Alps. ... Messapian (also known as Messapic) is an extinct Indo-European language of South-Eastern Italy, in the regions of Apulia and Calabria. ... Oscan, the language of the Osci, is in the Sabellic branch of the Italic language family, which is a branch of Indo-European and includes Umbrian, Latin and Faliscan. ... Umbrian, an Indo-European language of the Italic family, is a dead language formerly spoken in Umbria, Italy. ... Languages in Iron Age Italy, 6th century BC North Picene is an extinct language of eastern Italy that is known from a number of inscriptions dating from the 1st millennium BC, mostly from Picenum. ... South Picene is an extinct Italic language, belonging to the Sabellic subfamily. ...

Etruscan cippus (grave marker) from the necropolis Crocifisso del Tufo outside Orvieto, Italy, side view showing the inscription in the Old Italic (Etruscan) alphabet.

The Germanic runic alphabet was most likely derived from one of these alphabets in about the 2nd century. Image File history File linksMetadata Download high resolution version (1600x1200, 756 KB) Summary Etruscan cippus (grave marker) in the form of a warrior head, found in the necropolis Crocifisso del Tufo outside Orvieto, Italy. ... Image File history File linksMetadata Download high resolution version (1600x1200, 756 KB) Summary Etruscan cippus (grave marker) in the form of a warrior head, found in the necropolis Crocifisso del Tufo outside Orvieto, Italy. ... The site of Orvieto is an Etruscan acropolis. ... Younger Futhark inscription on the Vaksala Runestone The Runic alphabets are a set of related alphabets using letters known as runes, formerly used to write Germanic languages, mainly in Scandinavia and the British Isles, but before Christianization also on the European Continent. ... The 2nd century is the period from 101 - 200 in accordance with the Julian calendar in the Christian Era. ...

The Etruscan alphabet

The Masiliana tablet abecedarium, ca. 700 BC: ABGDEVZHΘIKLMN[Ξ]OPŚQRSTUXΦΨ, read right to left.

It is not clear whether the process of adaptation from the Greek alphabet took place in Italy from the first colony of Greeks, the city of Cumae, or in Greece/Asia Minor. It was in any case a Western Greek alphabet. In the alphabets of the West, X had the sound value [ks], Ψ stood for [kʰ]; in Etruscan: X = [s], Ψ = [kʰ] or [kχ] (Rix 202-209). Image File history File links Masiliana_tablet. ... Image File history File links Masiliana_tablet. ... An abecedarium is an inscription consisting of the letters of the alphabet in order. ... Due to technical limitations, some web browsers may not display some special characters in this article. ... Cumae (Cuma, in Italian) is an ancient Greek settlement lying to the northwest of Naples in the Italian region of Campania. ... Anatolia (Greek: ανατολη anatole, rising of the sun or East; compare Orient and Levant, by popular etymology Turkish Anadolu to ana mother and dolu filled), also called by the Latin name of Asia Minor, is a region of Southwest Asia which corresponds today to the Asian portion of Turkey. ... It has been suggested that Cumae alphabet be merged into this article or section. ... The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) is a system of phonetic notation devised by linguists to accurately and uniquely represent each of the wide variety of sounds (phones or phonemes) used in spoken human language. ...

The earliest Etruscan abecedarium, the Masiliana tablet which dates to c. 700 BC, lists 26 letters corresponding to contemporary forms of the Greek alphabet which retained san and qoppa but which had not yet developed omega. An abecedarium is an inscription consisting of the letters of the alphabet in order. ... San (uppercase , lowercase ) was a letter of the Greek alphabet, appearing between Pi and Qoppa in alphabetical order, corresponding in position although not in name to the Phoenician tsade. ... Qoppa Qoppa is an obsolete letter of the Greek alphabet and has a numeric value of 90. ... Note: This article contains special characters. ...

Ψ

Φ

X

U

T

S

R

Q

Ś

P

O

Ξ

N

M

L

K

I

Θ

H

Z

V

E

D

G

B

A

Ψ

Φ

Comparison of the Western Greek alphabet with archaic and classical Etruscan variants.

Until about 600 BC, the archaic form of the Etruscan alphabet remains practically unchanged, and the direction of writing is free. From the 6th century, however, there are evolutions of the alphabet, guided by the phonology of the Etruscan language, and letters representing phonemes nonexistent in Etruscan are dropped. By 400 BC, it appears that all of Etruria was using the classical Etruscan alphabet of 20 letters, mostly written from left to right: Image File history File links EtruscanX-01. ... Image File history File links EtruscanV-01. ... Image File history File links EtruscanT-01. ... Image File history File links EtruscanS-01. ... Image File history File links EtruscanR-01. ... Image File history File links EtruscanQ-01. ... Image File history File links Phoenician_sade. ... Image File history File links EtruscanP-01. ... -1... Phoenician Samekh. ... Image File history File links EtruscanN-01. ... Image File history File links EtruscanM-01. ... Image File history File links EtruscanL-01. ... Image File history File links EtruscanK-01. ... Image File history File links EtruscanI-01. ... Phoenician Teth. ... Image File history File links EtruscanH-01. ... Image File history File links EtruscanZ-01. ... Image File history File links EtruscanF-01. ... Image File history File links EtruscanE-01. ... Image File history File links EtruscanD-01. ... Image File history File links EtruscanC-01. ... Drawn by User:Nohat after drawings in Encyclopedia Britannica File links The following pages link to this file: B Categories: GFDL images ... Rendered by User:Nohat File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ... Image File history File links Download high resolution version (191x705, 11 KB)PD or fair use, based on [1] File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ... Image File history File links Download high resolution version (191x705, 11 KB)PD or fair use, based on [1] File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ... The area covered by the Etruscan civilzation. ...

ACEVZHΘILMNPŚRSTUΦΨF

An additional sign, in shape similar to the numeral 8, transcribed as F, was present in both Lydian and Etruscan (Jensen 513). Its origin is disputed; it may be an altered B or H or an ex novo creation (Rix 202). Its sound value was [f] and it replaced the Etruscan FH. Some letters were, on the other hand, falling out of use: B and D were apparently considered superfluous over P and T. K was dropped in favour of G (also transcribed as C). O disappears and is replaced by U. In the course of its simplification, the redundant letters showed some tendency towards a syllabary: C, K and Q were predominantly used in the contexts CE, KA, QU. Image File history File links EtruscanF-02. ... Lydian was an Indo-European language, one of the Anatolian languages, that was spoken in the state of Lydia in Anatolia, present day Turkey. ... A syllabary is a set of written symbols that represent (or approximate) syllables, which make up words. ...

This classical alphabet remained in use until the 2nd century BC when it began to be contaminated by the rise of the Latin alphabet. Soon after the Etruscan language itself became extinct. The Latin alphabet, also called the Roman alphabet, is the most widely used alphabetic writing system in the world today. ...

The Oscan alphabet

The Osci probably adopted the archaic Etruscan alphabet during the 7th century, but a recognizably Oscan variant of the alphabet is attested only from the 5th century, its sign inventory being extended over the classical Etruscan alphabet by the introduction of long vowel variants of I and U, transcribed as Í and Ú. U came to be used to represent Oscan o, while Ú was used for actual Oscan u.

ABGDEVZHIKLMNPŚRSTUFÚÍ

Image File history File links Oscanalphabet. ...

Alphabet of Lugano

The "Alphabet of Lugano" was used to record Lepontic inscriptions, among the oldest testimonies of any Celtic language, in use from the 7th to the 5th centuries BC. The alphabet has 17 letters, derived from the archaic Etruscan alphabet: Location within Switzerland Lugano is a city in south-east Switzerland, in the Italian speaking canton of Ticino, which borders Italy. ... Lepontic is an extinct Celtic language that was once spoken in Northern Italy between 700 BCE and 400 BCE. The language is only known from a few inscriptions discovered that were written in a variety of the Northern Italic alphabet, which was related to the Old Italic alphabet. ... Proto-Indo-European Indo-European studies Celtic languages are a branch of the Indo-European languages. ...

AEIKLMNOPRSTΘUVXZ

The alphabet does not distinguish voiced and unvoiced occlusives, i.e. P represents /b/ or /p/, T is for /t/ or /d/, K for /g/ or /k/. Z is probably for /t^s/. U /u/ and V /w/ are distinguished. Θ is probably for /t/ and X for /g/. There are claims of a related script discovered in Glozel. A voiced consonant is a sound made as the vocal cords vibrate, as opposed to a voiceless consonant, where the vocal cords are relaxed. ... A stop, plosive, or occlusive is a consonant sound produced by stopping the airflow in the vocal tract. ... Glozel () is a hamlet in central France, part of the commune of Ferrières-sur-Sichon, Mayet de Montagne, Allier, some 17 km from Vichy. ...

Raetic alphabets

The alphabet of Sanzeno (also, of Bozen-Bolzano), about 100 Raetic inscriptions. This variant in particular is a candidate for the origin of the Runic alphabet. [1] Bozen (German) or Bolzano (Italian) is a city in the South Tyrol region of Italy. ... Raetic is an obscure language of antiquity, which used to be spoken in the eastern Alps, to the north and west of Venetic. ... Younger Futhark inscription on the Vaksala Runestone The Runic alphabets are a set of related alphabets using letters known as runes, formerly used to write Germanic languages, mainly in Scandinavia and the British Isles, but before Christianization also on the European Continent. ...

EF K M ΠϘ

ABKDEFWZEHΘIKLMNJUPQRSTGO

The alphabet of Sondrio, west Raetian and Kamunian inscriptions. Image File history File links Old_Futhark_a. ... Image File history File links Old_Futhark_b. ... Image File history File links Old_Futhark_k. ... Image File history File links Old_Futhark_d. ... Image File history File links Old_Futhark_w. ... Image File history File links EtruscanZ-01. ... Image File history File links EtruscanH-01. ... Image File history File links Old_Futhark_th. ... Image File history File links Old_Futhark_i. ... Image File history File links Old_Futhark_l. ... Image File history File links EtruscanN-01. ... Phoenician Samekh. ... Image File history File links Old_Futhark_u. ... Image File history File links Old_Futhark_r. ... Image File history File links Old_Futhark_s. ... Image File history File links Old_Futhark_t. ... Image File history File links Old_Futhark_g. ... Image File history File links Old_Futhark_o. ... Sondrio (Latin Sundrium) is a town in the Province of Sondrio, in the region Lombardy in Italy. ...

The alphabet of Magrè, east Raetian inscriptions.

Alphabet of Este

Similar but not identical to that of Magrè, Venetic inscriptions. Venetic is an extinct Indo-European language that was spoken in ancient times in the Veneto region of Italy, between the Po River delta and the southern fringe of the Alps. ...

Latin alphabet

Duenos inscription, 6th century BC

Main article: Latin alphabet

21 of the 26 archaic Etruscan letters were adopted for Old Latin from the 7th century BC, either directly from the Cumae alphabet, or via archaic Etruscan forms, compared to the classical Etruscan alphabet retaining B, D, K, O, Q, X but dropping Θ, Ś, Φ, Ψ, F (Etruscan U is Latin V, Etruscan V is Latin F). Wikipedia does not have an article with this exact name. ... Wikipedia does not have an article with this exact name. ... The Duenos inscription, as recorded by Heinrich Dressel. ... The Latin alphabet, also called the Roman alphabet, is the most widely used alphabetic writing system in the world today. ... The Forum inscription is one of the oldest known Latin inscriptions. ... (2nd millennium BC - 1st millennium BC - 1st millennium) The 7th century BC started on January 1, 700 BC and ended on December 31, 601 BC. // Overview Events Ashurbanipal, king of Assyria who created the the first systematically collected library at Nineveh A 16th century depiction of the Hanging Gardens of... The Cumae alphabet was a special Greek alphabet, considered to be a variation of the alphabet used in Chalkis. ...

ABCDEFZHIKLMNOPQRSTVX

Unicode

Unicode range U+10300–U+1033F is reserved for "Old Italic" without specification of a particular alphabet (i.e. the Old Italic alphabets are considered equivalent, and the font used will determine the variant). Due to technical limitations, some web browsers may not display some special characters in this article. ...

See also

• Negau helmet
• Alphabets of Asia Minor

The Negau helmet usually refers to one of 28 bronze helmets from the 5th century BS, found in a cache in Negau, present Zenjak, in Slovenia on which is inscribed, in the Etruscan alphabet harigastiz fefakit. ... Various alphabetic writing systems were in use in Iron Age Anatolia to record Anatolian dialects and the Phrygian language. ...

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to:

Etruscan alphabet

• Etruscan Texts Project: A searchable online database of Etruscan inscriptions.
• Old Italic Unicode
• The Etruscan alphabet (Omniglot)
• Old Italic alphabets (Omniglot)
• Etruscan (Ancient Scripts)
• Oscan (Ancient Scripts)