Venetic is an extinct Indo-European language that was spoken in ancient times in the Veneto region of Italy, between the Po River delta and the southern fringe of the Alps.

The city of Venice may have been founded by Venetic-speaking people, who were called Veneti by the Romans and Enetoi by the Greeks.

The language is attested by over 200 short inscriptions dating between the 5th century BC and 1st century. It became extinct around the 1st century when the local inhabitants were assimilated into the Roman sphere.

Venetic should not be confused with Venetian, a Romance language presently spoken in that region.

Linguistic classification

Venetic is a centum language. The inscriptions use a variety of the Northern Italic alphabet one, similar to the Old Italic alphabet.

The exact relationship of Venetic to other Indo-European languages is still being investigated, but the majority of scholars agree that Venetic was closest to the Italic languages (a group that includes Latin and Umbrian). Venetic may also have been close to the Illyrian languages.

Features

Venetic had about six or even seven noun cases and four conjugations (similar to Latin). About 600 words are known, but many were borrowed from Latin or Etruscan. Many of them show a clear Indo-European origin, such as fraterei < PIE *bhraterei = to the brother.

Language sample

A sample inscription in Venetic, found on a bronze nail at Este:

Venetic: mego donasto sainatei reitiai porai egeotora aimoi ke louderobos

Latin (literal): me donavit sanatrici Reitiae bonae Egetora pro-Aemo que liberis

English: Egetora gave me to Good Reitia the Healer on behalf of Aemus and the children

See also

• Italic languages
• Indo-European languages

External link

• Venetic from Voices of Stone site.
• The enigma of the Venetic script
• Venetic inscription index by Adolfo Zavaroni.