The Umbrian language
Umbrian is a Sabellic language attested in Central Italy, basically in the area of the current Umbria region.
Cicero calls "Umbria" (De div. I, 92) a well-defined region inhabited by the people described by Plinius (Nat. Hist. III, 14) as gens antiquissima Italiae, in close contact with the neighbouring populations (Etruscans, Sabines and Picenes).
The epigraphic sources cover a period going from the 4th to the 1st cent. BC. The language is preserved in two main writing systems, an epichoric Etruscan-based alphabet and the Latin one. Within the corpus, an extreme imbalance is immediately visible between the most extensive, complex, long and best-preserved texts of the Sabellic documentation, the Iguvine Tables, and the rest of the Umbrian documentary corpus which consists of about thirty inscriptions.
The Iguvine Tables are an extremely important document within the epigraphic sources of ancient Italy since they describe, both in the Umbrian and in the Latin alphabet, complex ancient rituals. The Tables contain descriptions of prayers and rituals (i.e., purification, cleaning, sacrifices) which have to be performed by the religious association of the Atiedian Brothers.
The remaining attestations of the Umbrian language consist of a few dozens of votive, dedicatory, funerary, public short inscriptions (e.g., describing activities performed by the magistrates). Between them, the most important for their support are the Mars of Todi and the helmet from Bologna.
Compared to the Oscan language, which is considered the most conservative Sabellian language under a phonetic, morphosyntactic and lexical point of view, Umbrian seems to have progressed further as showed, by instance, by the syncope which caused the deletion of atonic vowels.
Together with the other languages of ancient Italy, Umbrian participates in the dense network of exchanges and influences of the ancient Italy koine.
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.
- Petrocchi, A., Wallace, R. 2019. Grammatica delle Lingue Sabelliche dell’Italia Antica, München, Lincom [ed. ingl. 2007].
- Untermann, J. 2000. Wörterbuch des Oskisch-Umbrischen. Heidelberg: C. Winter.
Texts:
- Rocca, G. 1996. Iscrizioni umbre minori, Firenze: Olschki.
- Rix, H. 2002. Sabellische Texte. Heidelberg: C. Winter.
- Agostianini, L., Calderini, A. e Massarelli, R. 2011. Screhto est. Lingua e scrittura degli antichi Umbri, Perugia.
- Prosdocimi, A. L. 2015. Tavole Iguvine. II. Preliminari all’interpretazione. La testualità: fatti e metodi, I-III, Firenze: Olschki.
Introductions:
- Prosdocimi, A.L. 1978. «L'umbro». In Lingue e dialetti dell’Italia antica, a cura di Aldo Luigi Prosdocimi, 585–788. Popoli e civiltà dell’Italia antica 6. Roma - Padova: Biblioteca di Storia Patria.
Last update
10.04.2021