Umbrian language

Umbrian is an extinct Italic language formerly spoken by the

Umbri in the ancient Italian region of Umbria. Within the Italic Umbrian
languages it is closely related to the Oscan group and is therefore Native to Umbria
associated with it in the group of Osco-Umbrian languages. Since Region central Italy
that classification was first formulated a number of other languages
Ethnicity Umbri
in ancient Italy were discovered to be more closely related to
Umbrian. Therefore, a group, the Umbrian languages, was devised Era attested 7th–1st
to contain them. century BC[1]
Language Indo-European
family
Italic
Contents Osco-Umbrian
Corpus Umbrian
Alphabet Writing Umbrian and Old
system Italic alphabet
Sample text
Language codes
References
ISO 639-3 xum
Sources
Linguist List xum (http://mult
Further reading
itree.org/codes/
External links xum)
Glottolog umbr1253 (htt
p://glottolog.or
Corpus g/resource/langu
oid/id/umbr1253)
Umbrian is known from about 30 inscriptions dated from the 7th
through 1st centuries BC. The largest cache by far is the Iguvine
Tablets, nine inscribed bronze tablets found in 1444 in an
underground chamber at Gubbio (ancient Iguvium). Two have since
disappeared. The remaining seven contain notes on the ceremonies
and statutes for priests of the ancient religion in the region.
Sometimes they are called the Eugubian tablets after the medieval
name of Iguvium/Eugubium.[2] The tablets contain 4000-5000
words.

Other minor inscriptions are from Todi, Assisi and Spoleto.

Alphabet
The Iguvine tablets were written in two alphabets. The older, the Approximate distribution of
Umbrian alphabet, like other Old Italic script, was derived from the languages in Iron Age Italy during
Etruscan alphabet, and was written right-to-left. The newer was the 6th century BC
written in the Latin script. The texts are sometimes called Old
Umbrian and New Umbrian. The differences are mainly orthographic.[3]
Sample text
Taken from the Iguvine Tablets, tablet VIa, lines 25-31:

(25)...Dei grabouie orer ose persei ocre fisie pir orto est (26) toteme iouine arsmor dersecor subator
sent pusei neip heritu. (27) dei crabouie persei tuer perscler uaseto est pesetom est peretom est (28)
frosetom est daetom est tuer perscler uirseto auirseto uas est. di grabouie persei mersei esu bue (29)
peracrei pihaclu pihafei. di.grabouie pihatu ocre fisei pihatu tota iouina. di.grabouie pihatu ocrer (30)
fisier totar iouinar nome nerf arsmo ueiro pequo castruo fri pihatu futu fos pacer pase tua ocre fisi (31)
tote iiouine erer nomne erar nomne. di.grabouie saluo seritu ocre fisi salua seritu tota iiouina.

In Latin:

"(25)...Iovi Grabovie huius opere, si in montis Fisie ignis ortus est (26) civitate Iguvina, ritus debiti
omissi sunt quasi nec consulto. (27) Iovi Grabovie si in tui sacrifici, vitiatum est, peccatum est,
peremptum est, (28) fraudatum est, demptum est, tui sacrifici visum, invisum, vitium est. Iovi Grabovie
si ius sit hoc bove (29) optimo piaculo piator. Iovi Grabovie piato montem Fisiem piato civitatem
Iguvinam piato montis Fisie piato civitatem (30) Iguvina nomen magistratus, formationes, viros, pecua,
castra, fructus, piato esto favens propitius pace tua monti Fisii (31) civitati Iguvinae eius nomini eas
nomini. Iovi Grabovie salvum servato montem Fisii salvam servato civitatem Iguvinae.

In English:

"(25)...Jupiter Grabovius, if on the Fisian mount fire has arisen, or if in the (26) nation of Iguvium the
owed preparations have been omitted, let it be as if they had been made (27) Jupiter Grabovius, if in
your sacrifice (anything) has been done wrongly, mistaken, transgressed, (28) deceived, left out, (if) in
your ritual there is a seen or unseen flaw, Jupiter Grabovius, if it be right for this (29) yearling ox as
purificatory offering to be purified, Jupiter Grabovius, purify the Fisian Mount, purify the Iguvine state.
Jupiter Grabovius, purify the name of the Fisian Mount (and) of the Iguvine state, purify the magistrates
(and) formulations, men (and) cattle, heads (of grain) (and) fruits, Be favorable (and) propitious in your
peace to the Fisian Mount, (31) to the Iguvine state, to the name of that, to the name of this. Jupiter
Grabovius, keep safe the Fisian Mount, keep safe the Iguvine state."[4]

References
1. Umbrian (http://multitree.org/codes/xum) at MultiTree on the Linguist List
2. Colby, Frank Moore; Williams, Talcott, eds. (1922). "Italic languages". The New International
Encyclopedia. Volume 12. New York: Dodd, Mead and Company. p. 459.
3. Buck 1904, p. 7
4. Fortson, Benjamin W. (2010). Indo-European Language and Culture. An Introduction. Second
edition, Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell, p.299.

Sources
Buck, Carl Darling (2007) [1904]. A Grammar Of Oscan And Umbrian: With A Collection Of
Inscriptions And A Glossary (https://archive.org/details/grammarofoscanum00buckuoft). Kessinger.
ISBN 978-1-4326-9132-5.

Further reading
 Buck, Carl Darling. 1979. A Grammar of Oscan and Umbrian: With a Collection of Inscriptions and a
Glossary. Hildesheim: Olms.
————. 2001. A Vocabulary of Umbrian: Including the Umbrian Glosses. Bristol, PA: Evolution
Publishing.
Clackson, James. 2015. "Subgrouping in the Sabellian Branch of Indo‐European." Transactions of
the Philological Society 113 (1): 4–37.
Poultney, James. 1959. The bronze tables of Iguvium. Philological Monographs 18. Baltimore:
American Philological Association.
Weiss, Michael L. 2010. Language and Ritual In Sabellic Italy: The Ritual Complex of the Third and
the Fourth Tabulae Iguvinae. Leiden: Brill.
Whatmough, Joshua. "A New Umbrian Inscription of Assisi." Harvard Studies in Classical Philology
50 (1939): 89-93. Accessed May 5, 2020. doi:10.2307/310593.

External links
Hare, JB (2005). "Umbrian" (http://www.wordgumbo.com/ie/cmp/umbr.htm). Wordgumbo. Retrieved
24 August 2010.
Conway, Robert Seymour (1911). "Iguvium"  (https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/1911_Encyclop%C3%A6
dia_Britannica/Iguvium). Encyclopædia Britannica. 14 (11th ed.). pp. 297–298. — with details of the
Umbrian language

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