Latino-Faliscan languages
Language family
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Latino-Faliscan or Latinian languages form a group of the Italic languages within the Indo-European family. They were spoken by the Latino-Faliscan people of Italy who lived there from the early 1st millennium BC.
distributionOriginally Latium in Italy, then throughout the Roman Empire, especially in the western regions; now also throughout Latin America, Eastern Canada, and many countries in Africa
- Italic
- Latino-Faliscan
- Latin (including Romance languages)
- Faliscan†
- Lanuvian†
- Praenestine†
- Siculian?†
| Latino-Faliscan | |
|---|---|
| Latinian | |
| Geographic distribution | Originally Latium in Italy, then throughout the Roman Empire, especially in the western regions; now also throughout Latin America, Eastern Canada, and many countries in Africa |
| Linguistic classification | Indo-European
|
| Proto-language | Proto-Latino-Faliscan |
| Subdivisions |
|
| Language codes | |
| Glottolog | lati1262 |
Latino-Faliscan languages and dialects in different shades of blue. | |
Latin and Faliscan belong to the group, as well as Lanuvian and Praenestine, which are sometimes considered dialects of Latin.[1]
Linguistic description
Latin and Faliscan have several features in common with other Italic languages:
- The late Indo-European diphthong /*eu/ evolved into ou.[2]
- The late Indo-European /*ə/ from vocalic laryngeals evolved into a.[3]
- The Indo-European syllabic liquids /*l̥, *r̥/ developed an epenthetic vowel o, giving Italic ol, or.[4]
- The Indo-European syllabic nasals /*m̥, *n̥/ developed an epenthetic vowel e, giving Italic em, en.[5]
- Word-initial aspirated stops from Indo-European were fricativised: /*bʰ, *dʰ, *gʰ, gʷʰ/ > f, f, h, f.[6]
- The sequence /*p...kʷ/ was assimilated into kʷ...kʷ (Proto-Indo-European *penkʷe 'five' > Latin quinque).[7]
Latin and Faliscan also have characteristics not shared by other branches of Italic. They retain the Indo-European labiovelars /*kʷ, *gʷ/ as qu-, gu- (later becoming velar and semivocal), whereas in Osco-Umbrian they become labial p, b. Latin and Faliscan use the ablative suffix -d, seen in med ("me", ablative), which is absent in Osco-Umbrian. In addition, Latin displays evolution of ou into ū, though this happens later than the Latino-Faliscan era, occurring around the 2nd century BCE (Latin lūna < Proto-Italic *louksnā < PIE *lówksneh₂ "moon").
Phonology
It is likely that the consonant inventory of Proto-Latino-Faliscan was basically identical to that of archaic Latin. Consonants not found in the Praeneste fibula are marked with an asterisk.
The /kʷ/ sound still existed in archaic Latin when the Latin alphabet was developed, since it gives rise to the minimal pair quī /kʷiː/ ("who", nominative) > cuī /ku.iː/ ("to whom", dative). In other positions there is no distinction between diphthongs and hiatuses: for example, persuādere ("to persuade") is a diphthong but sua ("his"/"her") is a hiatus. For reasons of symmetry, it is quite possible that many sequences of gu in archaic Latin in fact represent a voiced labiovelar /gʷ/.[citation needed]
Lanuvian
Praenestine
Praenestine or Praenestinian was an archaic form of Latino-Faliscan spoken in eastern Old Latium (modern day Lazio), Italy.[9]
