Old Italic scripts

The Old Italic scripts are a number of similar ancient writing systems used in the Italian Peninsula
between about 700 and 100 BC, for various languages spoken in that time and place. The most notable Old Italic

member is the Etruscan alphabet, which was the immediate ancestor of the Latin alphabet currently used
by English and many other languages of the world. The runic alphabets used in northern Europe are An inscription from the Marsiliana
believed to have been separately derived from one of these alphabets by the 2nd century AD.
tablet, around 700 BC

Script Alphabet
type
Contents
Direction right-to-left script, left-to-
Origins right 
Alphabets related to Etruscan Related scripts
Etruscan alphabet
Parent Phoenician
Alphabet of Nuceria systems
Raetic alphabets Greek alphabet
Venetic alphabet (Euboean variant)
Camunic alphabet
Old Italic
Latin alphabet
ISO 15924
South Picene alphabet
ISO Ital, 210 , ​Old Italic
Unicode
15924 (Etruscan, Oscan, etc.)
See also
Unicode
References
Unicode Old Italic
Further reading alias
External links Unicode U+10300–U+1032F (htt
range ps://www.unicode.org/ch
arts/PDF/U10300.pdf)[1]
Origins
The Old Italic alphabets clearly derive from the Phoenician alphabet, apparently through the Cumaean alphabet used in the Euboean Greek
colonies of Ischia and Cumae in the Bay of Naples in the 8th century BC. The Etruscans were the leading civilization of Italy in that period,
and it is assumed that the other Old Italic scripts were derived from theirs – although some of them, including the Latin alphabet, retained
certain Greek letters that the Etruscans themselves dropped at a rather early stage.

The Old Italic alphabets were used for various different languages, which included some Indo-European ones (predominantly from the Italic
branch, but also in Gaulish and probably in inscriptions interpreted as Proto-Germanic) and some non-Indo-European ones (such as
Etruscan itself).

Alphabets related to Etruscan

The following table shows the ancient Italic scripts that are presumed to be related to the Etruscan alphabet. Symbols that are assumed to be
correspondent are placed on the same column. Many symbols occur with two or more variant forms in the same script; only one variant is
shown here. The notations [←] and [→] indicate that the shapes shown were used when writing right-to-left and left-to-right, respectively.
For more information, such as variant shapes and the prevalent writing direction of each script, see the corresponding language article.

Warning: For the languages marked [?] the appearance of the "Letters" in the table is whatever one's browser's Unicode
font shows for the corresponding code points in the Old Italic Unicode block. The same code point represents different
symbol shapes in different languages; therefore, to display those glyph images properly one needs to use a Unicode font
specific to that language.
 Phoenician
Letter [←]
Value ʾ b g d h w z ḥ ṭ y k l m n s ʿ p ṣ q r š t

Western Greek [2] [3]

Letter [→]

Value a b g d e w zd h tʰ i k l m n o p s k r s t u ks pʰ kʰ
Transcription Α Β Γ Δ Ε Ϝ Ζ Η Θ Ι Κ Λ Μ Ν Ξ Ο Π Ϻ Ϙ Ρ Σ Τ Υ X Φ Ψ

Etruscan - from 7th century BC [4][5]

Marsiliana
[←]
Archaic (to
5th c.) [←]
Neo (4th to
1st c.)[←]

Value a k e v ts h th i k l m n p sh k r s t u s ph kh f

Transcription a c e v z h θ i k l m n p ś q r s t u ṡ φ χ f

Oscan - from 5th century BC [6]

Letter [←]
Value a b g d ɛ v ts x? i k l m n p r s t o: f o e
Transcription A B G D E V Z H I K L M N P R S T U F Ú Í
Lepontic - 7th to 5th century BC

Letter [?][→] 𐌀 𐌄 𐌅 𐌆 𐌈 𐌉 𐌊 𐌋 𐌌 𐌍 𐌏 𐌐 𐌑 𐌓 𐌔 𐌕 𐌖 𐌗
Value
Transcription A E V Z Θ I K L M N O P Ś R S T U X
South Picene - from 6th century BC

Letter [?][→] 𐌀 𐌁 𐌂 𐌃 𐌄 𐌅 𐌇 𐌉 𐌊 𐌋 𐌌 𐌍 𐌏 𐌐 𐌒 𐌓 𐌔 𐌕 𐌖 𐌚 𐌞 𐌝 𐌟
Value
Transcription A B G D E V H I K L M N O P Q R S T U F Ú Í *

Etruscan alphabet

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) originally used the alphabet. Faliscan, Oscan, Umbrian, North Picene,
and South Picene all derive from an Etruscan form of the alphabet.

Alphabet of Nuceria

The Nucerian alphabet is based on inscriptions found in southern Italy (Nocera Superiore, Sorrento, Vico Equense and other places). It is
attested only between the 6th and the 5th century BC.
The most important sign is the /S/, shaped like a fir tree, and possibly a derivation
from the Phoenician alphabet.

Missing from the above table:

Venetic
Faliscan
 Umbrian
North Picene
Rhaetic (Raetic)
Camunic

Raetic alphabets

The alphabet of Sanzeno (also, of Bolzano), about 100  Raetic inscriptions.

The alphabet of
Magrè (near Schio), east Raetian inscriptions.

Venetic alphabet

Alphabet of Este: Similar but not identical to that of Magrè, Venetic inscriptions.

Camunic alphabet

Inscribed abecedarium on rock drawings in Valcamonica.

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, and F. (Etruscan U is
Latin V; Etruscan V is Latin F.)
The alphabets of Este (Venetic), Magrè and
Bolzano/Bozen-Sanzeno (Raetic), Sondrio
𐌀 𐌁 𐌂 𐌃 𐌄 𐌅 𐌆 𐌇 𐌉 𐌊 𐌋 𐌌 𐌍 𐌏 𐌐 𐌒 𐌓 𐌔 𐌕 𐌖 𐌗 (Camunic), Lugano (Lepontic)
A B C D E F Z H I K L M N O P Q R S T V X

South Picene alphabet

The South Picene alphabet, known from the 6th century BC, is most like the southern Etruscan alphabet
in that it uses Q for /k/ and K for /g/.
⟨.⟩ is a reduced ⟨o⟩ and ⟨:⟩ is a reduced ⟨8⟩, used for /f/.[7]

Unicode
The Old Italic alphabets were unified and added to the Unicode Standard in March, 2001 with the release
of version 3.1. The Unicode block for Old Italic is U+10300–U+1032F without specification of a
particular alphabet (i.e. the Old Italic alphabets are considered equivalent, and the font used will
determine the variant). Duenos inscription, 6th century BC

Writing direction (right-to-left, left-to-right, or boustrophedon) varies based on the language and even
the time period. For simplicity most scholars use left-to-right and this is the Unicode default direction for the Old Italic block. For this
reason, the glyphs in the code chart are shown with left-to-right orientation.

Old Italic[1][2]
Official Unicode Consortium code chart (https://www.unicode.org/charts/PDF/U10300.pdf) (PDF)

  0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 A B C D E F

U+1030x 𐌀 𐌁 𐌂 𐌃 𐌄 𐌅 𐌆 𐌇 𐌈 𐌉 𐌊 𐌋 𐌌 𐌍 𐌎 𐌏
U+1031x 𐌐 𐌑 𐌒 𐌓 𐌔 𐌕 𐌖 𐌗 𐌘 𐌙 𐌚 𐌛 𐌜 𐌝 𐌞 𐌟
U+1032x 𐌠 𐌡 𐌢 𐌣 𐌭 𐌮 𐌯
Notes

1.^ As of Unicode version 13.0

2.^ Grey areas indicate non-assigned code points

See also
 Euboean alphabet
Alphabets of Asia Minor

References
1. Old Italic (https://www.unicode.org/charts/PDF/U10300.pdf) (PDF) (chart), Unicode.
2. Adolf Kirchhoff (1877). Studien zur Geschichte des griechischen Alphabets (https://archive.org/details/studienzurgeschi00kirc). Berlin:
Dümmler. p. 102 (https://archive.org/details/studienzurgeschi00kirc/page/102). OL 24337090M (https://openlibrary.org/books/OL2433709
0M).
3. Kirchhoff 1877, p. 168 (https://archive.org/details/studienzurgeschi00kirc/page/n179).
4. Giuliano Bonfante (1983). The Etruscan language (https://archive.org/details/etruscanlanguage0000bonf). Manchester: Manchester
University Press. p. 64 (https://archive.org/details/etruscanlanguage0000bonf/page/64). ISBN 0719009022. OCLC 610734784 (https://ww
w.worldcat.org/oclc/610734784). OL 19629507M (https://openlibrary.org/books/OL19629507M).
5. Herbert Alexander Stützer (1992). Die Etrusker und ihre Welt (https://archive.org/details/dieetruskerundih0000stut). Köln: DuMont. p. 12
(https://archive.org/details/dieetruskerundih0000stut/page/12). ISBN 3770131282. LCCN 94191271 (https://lccn.loc.gov/94191271).
OCLC 611534598 (https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/611534598). OL 1198388M (https://openlibrary.org/books/OL1198388M).
6. Carl Darling Buck (1904). A grammar of Oscan and Umbrian (https://archive.org/details/grammarofoscanum00buckuoft). Boston: Ginn.
p. 22 (https://archive.org/details/grammarofoscanum00buckuoft/page/22). OL 7118142M (https://openlibrary.org/books/OL7118142M).
7. Stuart-Smith, Jane (2004). Phonetics and Philology: Sound Change in Italic. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-925773-6.

Further reading
Bonfante, Giuliano; Bonfante, Larissa (2002). The Etruscan Language: An Introduction (2nd ed.). Manchester: Manchester University
Press. ISBN 0-7190-5539-3.
Mullen, Alex (2013). Southern Gaul and the Mediterranean: Multilingualism and Multiple Identities in the Iron Age and Roman Periods.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-1-107-02059-7.

External links
"Etruscan Texts Project" (https://web.archive.org/web/20050330053810/http://etp.classics.umass.edu/). U. Mass. Archived from the
original (http://etp.classics.umass.edu/) on 30 March 2005. "A searchable online database of Etruscan inscriptions"
"Old Italic" (https://www.unicode.org/charts/PDF/U10300.pdf) (PDF). Unicode.org.
"The Etruscan alphabet" (http://www.omniglot.com/writing/etruscan.htm). Omniglot.com.
"Old Italic alphabets" (http://www.omniglot.com/writing/olditalic.htm). Omniglot.com.
"Etruscan" (http://www.ancientscripts.com/etruscan.html). AncientScripts.com.
"Oscan" (https://web.archive.org/web/20151025161323/http://www.ancientscripts.com/oscan.html). AncientScripts.com. Archived from
the original (http://www.ancientscripts.com/oscan.html) on 2015-10-25. Retrieved 2006-11-13.
"Unicode Fonts" (http://www.wazu.jp/gallery/Fonts_OldItalic.html). www.wazu.jp.

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