View source for Venetic language

{{Short description|Extinct Indo-European language of northeast Italy}}
{{About|the extinct Venetic language|the modern day Romance language|Venetian language|the constructed language|Venedic language|the anti-crime operation |Operation Venetic|other uses|Veneti (disambiguation)}}
{{refimprove|date=August 2024}}
{{Infobox language
 |name=Venetic
 |states=[[Italy]]
 |region=[[Veneto]]
 |ethnicity=[[Adriatic Veneti]]
 |era=attested 6th–1st century BCE
 |ref=<ref name="walla"/>
 |familycolor=Indo-European
 |fam2=[[Italic languages|Italic]] (?) or<br/>para-[[Celtic languages|Celtic]] (?)<ref name=Jadranka/>
 |script=[[Old Italic scripts|Old Italic]] ([[Venetic alphabet]])
 |iso3=xve
 |linglist=xve
 |glotto=vene1257
 |glottorefname=Venetic
}}

[[File:Iron Age Italy.svg|thumb|240px|right|Ethnolinguistic map of Italy in the [[Iron Age]], before the [[Roman conquest of Italy|Roman expansion and conquest of Italy]]. Venetic is in brown.]]

'''Venetic''' ({{IPAc-en|v|ɪ|ˈ|n|ɛ|t|ɪ|k}} {{respell|vin|ET|ik}}) is an extinct [[Indo-European languages|Indo-European language]], most commonly classified into the [[Italic languages|Italic subgroup]], that was spoken by the [[Adriatic Veneti|Veneti]] people in ancient times in northeast [[Italy]] ([[Veneto]] and [[Friuli]])  and part of modern [[Slovenia]], between the [[Po (river)#Po Delta|Po Delta]] and the southern fringe of the [[Alps]], associated with the [[Este culture]].<ref name="pell67"/><ref name="walla">{{cite encyclopedia |last=Wallace |first=Rex |year=2004 |title=Venetic |editor-last=Woodard |editor-first=Roger D. |encyclopedia=The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the World's Ancient Languages |pages=840–856 |publisher=[[University of Cambridge]] |isbn=0-521-56256-2 |url=http://www.umass.edu/classics/wallace.htm}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |first=J.J. |last=Wilkes |date=9 January 1996 |title=The Illyrians |edition=1st |page=77 |publisher= Wiley-Blackwell |isbn=0-631-19807-5 |via=Google Books |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iOWS4i5X9fgC&q=Venetic++Slovenia&pg=PA77}}</ref>

The language is attested by over 300&nbsp;short inscriptions dating from the 6th to the 1st&nbsp;century&nbsp;BCE. Its speakers are identified with the ancient people called ''[[Adriatic Veneti|Veneti]]'' by the [[Ancient Rome|Romans]] and ''Enetoi'' by the [[Ancient Greece|Greeks]]. It became extinct around the 1st&nbsp;century when the local inhabitants assimilated into the Roman sphere. Inscriptions dedicating offerings to [[Reitia]] are one of the chief sources of knowledge of the Venetic language.<ref>{{cite book |title=The Ancient Languages of Europe |year=2008 |publisher=Cambridge e‑Books |doi=10.1017/CBO9780511486814 |isbn=9780511486814 |url=http://ebooks.cambridge.org/chapter.jsf?bid=CBO9780511486814&cid=CBO9780511486814A018|editor1-last=Woodard |editor1-first=Roger D }} {{full citation needed|date=January 2021}}</ref>

==Linguistic classification==
[[Image:venetico.png|thumb|130px|Venetic alphabet]]
Venetic is a [[centum]] language. The inscriptions use a variety of the [[Northern Italic alphabet]], similar to the [[Etruscan alphabet]].

The exact relationship of Venetic to other Indo-European languages is still being investigated, but the majority of scholars agree that Venetic, aside from [[Liburnian language|Liburnian]], shared some similarities with the [[Italic languages]] and so is sometimes classified as Italic. However, since it also shared similarities with other Western Indo-European branches (particularly [[Celtic languages]] and [[Germanic languages]]), some linguists prefer to consider it an independent Indo-European language. Venetic may also have been related to the [[Illyrian languages]] once spoken in the western [[Balkans]], though the theory that Illyrian and Venetic were closely related is debated by current scholarship.

While some scholars consider Venetic plainly an Italic language, and [[Eric P. Hamp]] in 1954 thought it more closely related to Latino-Faliscan than to the [[Osco-Umbrian languages]], many authorities suggest, in view of the divergent verbal system, that Venetic was not part of Italic proper, but split off from the core of Italic early.<ref>{{cite journal |last=de&nbsp;Melo |first=Wolfgang David Cirilo |date=2007 |title=The sigmatic future and the genetic affiliation of Venetic: Latin faxō "I shall make" and Venetic vha.g.s. to "he made" |journal=Transactions of the Philological Society |volume=105 |issue=105 |pages=1–21 |doi=10.1111/j.1467-968X.2007.00172.x |url=https://biblio.ugent.be/publication/1186868/file/1189048}}</ref>

A 2012 study has suggested that Venetic was a relatively [[Linguistic conservatism|conservative language]] significantly similar to Celtic, on the basis of morphology, while it occupied an intermediate position between Celtic and Italic, on the basis of phonology. However these phonological similarities may have arisen as an areal phenomenon.<ref name="Jadranka">{{cite journal |last=Gvozdanović |first=Jadranka |year=2012 |title=On the linguistic classification of Venetic |journal=Journal of Language Relationship |volume=7 |pages=33–46 |doi=10.31826/jlr-2012-070107 |s2cid=212688857 |url=http://www.jolr.ru/files/%2883%29jlr2012-7%2833-46%29.pdf|doi-access=free }}</ref> Phonological similarities to [[Rhaetian language|Rhaetian]] have also been pointed out.<ref>{{cite conference |first1=M. |last1=Silvestri |first2=G. |last2=Tomezzoli |year=2007 |title=Linguistic distances between Rhaetian, Venetic, Latin, and Slovenian languages |conference=Int'l Topical Conf. Origin of Europeans |pages=184–190 |url=http://www.korenine.si/zborniki/zbornik07/tomezzoli_dist07.pdf}}</ref>

In 2016, [[Celtic studies|Celtologist]] [[Peter Schrijver]] argued that Venetic and Italic together form one sub-branch of an [[Italo-Celtic]] branch of Indo-European, the other sub-branch being Celtic.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Schrijver |first1=Peter |author-link1=Peter Schrijver |editor1-last=Koch |editor1-first=John T. |editor2-last=Cunliffe |editor2-first=Barry |editor1-link=John T. Koch |editor2-link=Barry Cunliffe |title=Celtic from the West 3: Atlantic Europe in the Metal Ages – Questions of Shared Language |date=2016 |publisher=[[Oxbow Books]] |location=Oxford, UK |isbn=978-1-78570-227-3 |pages=489–502 |chapter=17. Ancillary study: Sound Change, the Italo-Celtic Linguistic Unity, and the Italian Homeland of Celtic |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HP4sDwAAQBAJ&q=%22peter+schrijver%22+%22celtic+from+the+west+3%22&pg=PA9 |access-date=May 12, 2019 }}</ref>

==Fate==
During the period of Latin-Venetic bilingual inscriptions in the Roman script, i.e. 150–50&nbsp;BCE, Venetic became flooded with Latin loanwords. The shift from Venetic to Latin resulting in [[language death]] is thought by scholarship to have already been well under way by that time.<ref>{{cite book |editor-last=Woodard |editor-first=Roger D. |year=2008 |title=The ancient languages of Europe |publisher=Cambridge University Press |page=139}}</ref>

== Features ==
Venetic had about six, possibly seven, noun cases and four conjugations (similar to Latin). About 60&nbsp;words are known, but some were borrowed from [[Latin]] (''liber.tos.'' < ''libertus'') or [[Etruscan language|Etruscan]]. Many of them show a clear Indo-European origin, such as ''vhraterei'' < PIE ''*bʰréh₂trey'' = to the brother.{{cn|date=August 2024}}

== Phonology ==
In Venetic, [[Proto-Indo-European language|PIE]] stops ''*bʰ'', ''*dʰ'' and ''*gʰ'' developed to {{IPA|/f/}}, {{IPA|/f/}} and {{IPA|/h/}}, respectively, in word-initial position (as in Latin and Osco-Umbrian), but to {{IPA|/b/}}, {{IPA|/d/}} and {{IPA|/ɡ/}}, respectively, in word-internal intervocalic position (as in Latin). For Venetic, at least the developments of ''*bʰ'' and ''*dʰ'' are clearly attested. Faliscan and Osco-Umbrian have {{IPA|/f/}}, {{IPA|/f/}} and {{IPA|/h/}} internally as well.{{cn|date=August 2024}}

There are also indications of the developments of PIE ''*kʷ'' > ''kv'', ''*gʷ-'' > ''w-'' and PIE ''*gʷʰ-'' > ''f-'' in Venetic, the latter two being parallel to Latin; as well as the regressive assimilation of the PIE sequence ''*p...kʷ...'' > ''*kʷ...kʷ...'', a feature also found in Italic and Celtic.<ref name="leje74"/>{{rp|p.141}}

==Language sample==
A sample inscription in Venetic, found on a [[bronze]] [[nail (engineering)|nail]] at [[Este, Italy|Este]] (Es 45):<ref name="pell67"/>{{rp|p=149}}

{| style="padding-left: 2em"
|-
| Venetic
| style="padding-left: 0.5em" | ''Mego donasto śainatei Reitiiai porai Egeotora Aimoi ke louderobos''
|-
| Latin (literal)
| style="padding-left: 0.5em" | ''Me donavit sanatrici Reitiae bonae Egetora [pro] Aemo liberis-que''
|-
| English
| style="padding-left: 0.5em" | Egetora gave me to Good [[Reitia]] the Healer on behalf of Aemus and the children
|}

Another inscription, found on a ''[[situla]]'' (vessel such as an urn or bucket) at [[Cadore]] (Ca 4 Valle):<ref name="pell67"/>{{rp|p=464}}

{| style="padding-left: 2em"
|-
| Venetic
| style="padding-left: 0.5em" | ''eik Goltanos doto louderai Kanei''
|-
| Latin (literal) 
| style="padding-left: 0.5em" | ''hoc Goltanus dedit liberae Cani''
|-
| English
| style="padding-left: 0.5em" | Goltanus sacrificed this for the free Kanis
|}

==Scholarship==
The most prominent scholars who have deciphered Venetic inscriptions or otherwise contributed to the knowledge of the Venetic language are Pauli,<ref name="pauli">{{cite book |first=Carl Eugen |last=Pauli |year=1885–1894 |title=Altitalische Forschungen |publisher=J.A. Barth |place=Leipzig |url=https://archive.org/details/altitalischefor02paulgoog}}</ref> [[Hans Krahe|Krahe]],<ref name="krahe">{{cite book |first=Hans |last=Krahe |author-link=Hans Krahe |year=1954 |title=Sprache und Vorzeit: europäische Vorgeschichte nach dem Zeugnis der Sprache |publisher=Quelle & Meyer |location=Heidelberg |language=de}}</ref> Pellegrini,<ref name="pell67">{{cite book |first1=Giovanni Battista  |last1=Pellegrini |first2=Aldo Luigi |last2=Prosdocimi |year=1967 |title=La Lingua Venetica: I – Le iscrizioni; II – Studi |publisher=Istituto di glottologia dell'[[University of Padua|Università di Padova]] |location=Padova}}</ref> Prosdocimi,<ref name="pell67"/><ref name="pros02">{{cite book |first=Aldo Luigi |last=Prosdocimi |year=2002 |title=Veneti, Eneti, Euganei, Ateste}}{{full citation needed|date=January 2021}}</ref><ref name="pros02b">{{cite journal |first=Aldo Luigi |last=Prosdocimi |year=2002 |title=Trasmissioni alfabetiche e insegnamento della scrittura |journal=AKEO. I Tempi della Scrittura. Veneti Antichi: Alfabeti e Documenti |place=Montebelluna |pages=25–38}} (Catalogue of an exposition at Montebelluna, 12/2001–05/2002)</ref> and [[Michel Lejeune (linguist)|Lejeune]].<ref name="leje74">{{cite book |first=Michel |last=Lejeune |author-link=Michel Lejeune (linguist) |year=1974 |title=Manuel de la langue vénète |publisher=Carl Winter – Universitätsverlag |location=Heidelberg}}</ref> Recent contributors include Capuis<ref>{{cite web |title=Selected bibliography |first=Loredana |last=Capuis |url=http://www.istitutoveneto.it/iv/presentazione/soci/biografia_socio.php?id=252 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20050806081832/http://www.istitutoveneto.it/iv/presentazione/soci/biografia_socio.php?id=252 |archive-date=2005-08-06|url-status=dead}}</ref> and Bianchi.<ref name="bianchi">{{cite book  |first1=Anna Maria Chieco |last1=Bianchi |display-authors=etal |year=1988 |title=Italia: omnium terrarum alumna: la civiltà dei Veneti, Reti, Liguri, Celti, Piceni, Umbri, Latini, Campani e Iapigi |publisher=Scheiwiller |location=Milano |language=it}}</ref>

== See also ==
{{div col|colwidth=22em}} 
* [[Adriatic Veneti]]
* [[Castellieri culture]]
* [[Illyrian languages]]
* [[Indo-European languages]]
* [[Italic languages]]
* [[Italo-Celtic]]
* [[Liburnian language]]
* [[Proto-Celtic language]]
* [[Venetian language]]
* [[Wave model]]
{{div col end}}

==References==
{{reflist|25em}}

==Further reading==
{{refbegin}}
* {{cite book |last=Beeler |first=Madison Scott |year=1949 |title=The Venetic Language |place=Berkeley, CA |publisher=Univ. of California Press |url=https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.89959/mode/2up }} (archive.org)
* {{cite journal |last=Gambacurta |first=Giovanna |year=2013 |title=I Celti e il Veneto |journal=Études Celtiques |volume=39 |pages=31–40 |doi=10.3406/ecelt.2013.2396}}
* {{cite journal |last=Gérard |first=Raphaël |year=2001 |title=Observations sur les inscriptions vénètes de Pannonie |journal=Revue belge de philologie et d'histoire |series=Antiquité – Oudheid |volume=79 |issue=1 |pages=39–56 |doi=10.3406/rbph.2001.4506}}
* {{cite journal |last=Marinetti |first=Anna |year=2020 |title=Venetico |journal=Palaeohispanica. Revista sobre lenguas y culturas de la Hispania Antigua |issue=20 |pages=367–401 |issn=1578-5386 |doi=10.36707/palaeohispanica.v0i20.374|doi-access=free |hdl=10278/3737688 |hdl-access=free }}
* {{cite journal |last=Prósper |first=Blanca Maria |date=Spring–Summer 2018 |title=The Venetic inscription from Monte Manicola and three termini publici from Padua: A reappraisal |journal=Journal of Indo-European Studies |volume=46 |number=1–2 |pages=1–61}} 
* [[Blanca María Prósper|Prósper, Blanca Maria]]. "[https://doaj.org/article/e2b3c6dc2b9b49b2b50bd312f09280f3 The Venetic Names of Roman Siscia]". In: ''Voprosy onomastiki'', 2018, Volume 15, Issue 3, pp.&nbsp;105–124. DOI: 10.15826/vopr_onom.2018.15.3.031
* Prósper, Blanca María. "[https://www.academia.edu/40719160/Celtic_and_Venetic_in_contact_The_Dialectal_Attribution_of_the_Personal_Names_in_the_Venetic_record Celtic and Venetic in contact: the dialectal attribution of the personal names in the Venetic record]". In: ''Zeitschrift für celtische Philologie'' 66, no. 1 (2019): 131-176. https://doi.org/10.1515/zcph-2019-0006
* {{cite book |first1=Jožef |last1=Šavli |first2=Matej |last2=Bor |first3=Ivan |last3=Tomažič |first4=Anton |last4=Škerbinc |year=1996 |title=Veneti: First builders of European community: Tracing the history and language of early ancestors of Slovenes |place=Wien |publisher=Editiones Veneti}}
{{refend}}

==External links==
{{Library resources box |by=no |onlinebooks=yes |others=yes |about=yes |label=Venetic language}}
* "[https://www.prin-italia-antica.unifi.it/index.html?newlang=eng Languages and Cultures of Ancient Italy. Historical Linguistics and Digital Models]", Project fund by the Italian Ministry of University and Research (P.R.I.N. 2017)
* {{cite web |title=Víteliú |series=The Languages of Ancient Italy |url=http://www.evolpub.com/LCA/VTLhome.html}}
* {{cite web |first=Adolfo |last=Zavaroni |title=Venetic inscriptions |url=http://members.tripod.com/adolfozavaroni/venet.htm}}
* {{cite web |first=Cyril |last=Babaev |title=Indo-European database: The Venetic language |url=http://indoeuro.bizland.com/tree/balk/venetic.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=2005-04-05 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050405220139/http://indoeuro.bizland.com/tree/balk/venetic.html}}
* {{cite web |title=Additional reading |series=Italic languages |website=Encyclopædia Britannica |url=http://wwwa.britannica.com/eb/article-74687 |url-status=dead |archive-date=2008-08-27 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080827194804/http://wwwa.britannica.com/eb/article-74687}}

{{Italic languages}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Venetic Language}}
[[Category:Unclassified Indo-European languages]]
[[Category:Languages of ancient Italy]]
[[Category:Languages attested from the 5th century BC]]
[[Category:Languages extinct in the 1st century BC]]
[[Category:Este culture]]
[[Category:Italo-Celtic]]