Volscian language
Volscian | |
---|---|
Native to | Latium |
Region | Italy |
Era | 3rd century BCE[1] |
Indo-European
| |
Language codes | |
ISO 639-3 | xvo |
xvo | |
Glottolog | vols1237 |
Location of the Volsci . |
Volscian was a
.Overview
Volscian is attested in an inscription found in
In seeking for an explanation we may perhaps trust, at least in part, the evidence of the ethnicon itself: the name Volsci belongs to what may be called the -co- group of tribal names in the centre, and mainly on the west coast, of Italy, all of whom were subdued by the Romans before the end of the 4th century BC; and many of whom were conquered by the Samnites about a century or more earlier. They are, from south to north, Osci, Aurunci, Hernici, Marruci, Falisci; with these were no doubt associated the original inhabitants of Aricia and of Sidicinum, of Vescia among the Aurunci, and of Labici close to Hernican territory.[4]
The same formative element appears in the adjective Mons Massicus, and the names Glanica and Marica belonging to the Auruncan district, with Graviscae in south Etruria, and a few other names in central Italy (see "I due strati nella popolazione Indo-Europea dell'Italia Antica," in the Atti del Congresso Internazionale di Scienze Storiche, Rome, 1903, p. 17). With these names must clearly be judged the forms
The conclusion suggested is that these -co- tribes occupied the centre and west coast of Italy at the time of the Etruscan invasion; whereas the -no- tribes only reached this part of Italy, or at least only became dominant there, long after the Etruscans had settled in the Peninsula.[4]
It remains, therefore, to ask whether any information can be had about the language of this primitive -co- folk, and whether they can be identified as the authors of any of the various archaeological strata now recognized on Italian soil. If the conclusions suggested under Sabini may be accepted as sound we should expect to find the Volsci speaking a language similar to that of the Ligures, whose fondness for the suffix -sco- has been noticed, and identical with that spoken by the plebeians of Rome, and that this branch of Indo-European was among those that preserved the original Indo-European Velars from the labialization that befell them in the speech of the Samnites. The language of the inscription of Velitrae offers at first sight a difficulty from this point of view, in the conversion it shows of q to p, but the ethnicon of Velitrae is Veliternus, and the people are called on the inscription itself Velestrom (genitive plural); so nothing prevents assuming there was a settlement of Sabines among the Volscian hills, with their language, to some extent, (e.g., in the diphthongs and palatals) corrupted by the speech around them, just as was the case with the Sabine language of the Iguvini, whose very name became Iguvinates, the suffix -ti- being much more frequent among the -co- tribes than among the Sabines.[4]
The name Volsci itself is significant not merely in its suffix; the older Volusci clearly contains the word meaning marsh identical with Gr. helos, since the change of *velos- to *volus- is phonetically regular in Latin. The name Marica ("goddess of the salt-marshes") among the Aurunci appears also both on the coast of Picenum and among the Ligurians; and
References
- the Linguist List
- ISBN 978-1-107-02240-9
- ISBN 3-11-016294-6
- ^ a b c d e f Conway 1911.
Sources
- For the text and fuller account of the Volscian inscription, and for other records of the dialect, see R. S. Conway, The Italic Dialects, pp. 267 sqq.
- public domain: Conway, Robert Seymour (1911). "Volsci". In Chisholm, Hugh (ed.). Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 28 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 197–198. This article incorporates text from a publication now in the
Further reading
- Coleman, Robert. 1986. "The central Italic languages in the period of Roman expansion." Transactions of the Philological Society 84 (1): 100–131.
- Coarelli, Filippo. Roma, i Volsci e il Lazio antico. In: Crise et transformation des sociétés archaïques de l'Italie antique au Ve siècle av. JC. Actes de la table ronde de Rome (19-21 novembre 1987) Rome : École Française de Rome, 1990. pp. 135-154. (Publications de l'École française de Rome, 137) [www.persee.fr/doc/efr_0000-0000_1990_act_137_1_3901]
- Poultney, James. 1951. "Volscians and Umbrians." American Journal of Philology 72: 113–27.