The Sabellian languages
Sabellian is a (sub)branch of the Indo-European family attested from the beginning of the 6th century BC. Sabellian languages are distinguished from the Latin-Faliscan varieties with which they is traditionally grouped under the label of ‘Italic’.
The documentation pertaining to these languages consists of about 1000 inscriptions of variable length, from a few letters to a few hundred words.
The documentation uses different alphabets: a series of national alphabets of Etruscan origin, alphabets of Greek origin (in southern Italy) and, in recent times, the Latin alphabet.
The Sabellian languages are divided into two groups based on their chronology: ‘archaic’ languages substantially belonging to the 6th century BC and languages of more recent attestation, 4th-1st century BC, traditionally called Osco-Umbrian group.
The archaic group consists of: South-Picene, attested by a group of about twenty inscriptions from what will be then the Picenum and the ager Praetuttiorum, and by a small group of fragments found in Sabina proper, sharing with the South-Picene a similar alphabetical variety, the ‘Sabine alphabet’. This alphabetical variety is also shared by the so-called Capenate inscriptions, found in the ager Capenas (bordering the Faliscan and Etruscan area), which are more recent attestation and strongly influenced by the nearby languages. Inscriptions found in southern Italy are also part of the archaic Sabellian documentation: on the basis of their finding area, these texts are described as ‘Oenotrian’; among these the most significant is the cippus from Tortora.
Among the most recent linguistic varieties, Oscan and Umbrian present the more significant corpora and represent the two poles of comparison for the so-called ‘minor’ languages. The other Sabellic, also called 'central dialects', are concerned with the Italic populations settled between Abruzzo and lower Lazio. They present small or very small corpora and their glossonyms are related to the ethnonyms handed down from the sources: Paelignian, Marrucinian, Hernician, Vestinian, and Marsian and Volscian, usually considered Umbrian varieties (Volscian is applied to the inscription of Velletri recently considered Umbrian).
Classical languages present indirect documentation of the Sabellic languages in epigraphic sources, such as the Latin inscription of Caso Cantovio from the territory of the Marsi, and in literary sources, especially in glosses.
Sabellic languages were spoken in a significant part of the ancient Italy, a larger territory in comparison with the one pertaining to the other pre-Roman languages. The attestation area borders to the north-west with Etruria, along the course of the Tiber river, and extends into central-southern Italy with offshoots arriving in Sicily (Mamertini). Latium Vetus, a strictly Latin area, and Salento, where the Messapian language was spoken, are excluded. The northernmost extremities of the Sabellic area currently coincide with Umbria, Sabina and Picenum, while the southernmost ones, with Lucania and Calabria.
The importance of Sabellian populations in Roman history emerges from the origins of Rome, since the Sabines have a relevant position in the early stages of the monarchy (kings Titus Tatius and Numa Pompilius have Sabin origins), up to the entire Republican age. According to tradition, the Latins received some religious and international law institutions from the Sabellic-speaking peoples, such as the ius Fetiale attributed to the Aequicoli.
The very strong relation between the Latins and the Sabellian peoples are evident, from a linguistic point of view, from connection and influences due to the Italic koine (also including Etruscans).
However, following the Social War (91-88 BC), the event causing the breaking of peaceful relations between Rome and the Sabellic peoples, the documentation in Sabellic languages become less frequent and the local alphabetic varieties are replaced by the Latin alphabet: the Sabellic linguistic documentation was progressively assimilated to Latin, the language with more sociolinguistic prestige.
Bibliography
Grammars and Dictionaries:
- Planta, R. 1892-1897. Grammatik der Oskisch-Umbrischen Dialekte. Strassburg: Trübner.
- Buck, C. 1904. A Grammar of Oscan and Umbrian. Boston: Ginn & Company Publishers.
- Wallace, R., Petrocchi, A. 2019. Grammatica delle Lingue Sabelliche dell’Italia Antica, München, Lincom [ed. ingl. 2007].
- Untermann, J. 2000. Wörterbuch des Oskisch-Umbrischen. Heidelberg: C. Winter.
Linguistic Studies:
- Prosdocimi, A. L. 2008. Latino (e) italico e altre varietà indeuropee. Padova: Unipress.
- Clackson, J. 2015. «Subgrouping in the Sabellian branch of Indo-European», Transactions of the Philological Society»113(1): 4–37.
- Poccetti, P. 2017. «The Documentation of Italic». In Handbook of Comparative and Historical Indo-European Linguistics, 2:733–42. Berlin - Boston: De Gruyter Mouton.
- Meiser, G. 2017. «The Phonology of Italic». In Handbook of Comparative and Historical Indo-European Linguistics, 2:743–51. Berlin - Boston: De Gruyter Mouton.
- Vine, B. 2017. «The Morphology of Italic». In Handbook of Comparative and Historical Indo-European Linguistics, 2:751–804. Berlin - Boston: De Gruyter Mouton.
- Baldi, Ph. 2017. «The Syntax of Italic». In Handbook of Comparative and Historical Indo-European Linguistics, 2:804–28. Berlin - Boston: De Gruyter Mouton.
- Lindner, Th. 2017. «The Lexicon of Italic». In Handbook of Comparative and Historical Indo-European Linguistics, 2:828–35. Berlin - Boston: De Gruyter Mouton.
- Fortson, B. W. 2017. «The Dialectology of Italic». In Handbook of Comparative and Historical Indo-European Linguistics, 2:835–58. Berlin - Boston: De Gruyter Mouton.
- Bossong, G. 2017. «The Evolution of Italic». In Handbook of Comparative and Historical Indo-European Linguistics, 2:858–74. Berlin - Boston: De Gruyter Mouton.
Collections:
- Rix, H. 2002. Sabellische Texte. Heidelberg: C. Winter.
- Crawford, M. H. et al. 2011. Imagines Italicae. London: Institute of Classical Studies.
Introductions:
- Prosdocimi, A.L. (a cura di) 1978. Lingue e dialetti dell’Italia antica . Popoli e civiltà dell’Italia antica 6., Roma – Padova: Biblioteca di Storia Patria.
- Poccetti, P. 2020. «Lingue sabelliche», Palaeohispanica 20: 403–494.
Last update
15.04.2021