Faliscan language

Spoken in

Indo-European languages

• Faliskisch

The Faliscan language belongs to the Italic branch of the Indo-European language family and is closely related to the Latin, the Latin- Faliscan subgroup.

Faliskisch was spoken in ancient times from the tribe of Faliscans in northern Lazio. We know it from a few hundred short inscriptions from the 3rd or 2nd century BC, which are written in an alphabet, which was derived from the Etruscan and written from right to left, but still shows traces of influence of the Latin alphabet.

As a model of this language, the words can be cited that are written around the edge of an image on a patera and their authenticity is ensured by the fact that they are under the glaze: " foied vino pipafo, cra carefo, in Latin " hodie vinum bibam, cras carebo " (RS Conway, Italic Dialects, page 312, b).

The characteristics of the language are faliskischen then, among other things:

Other characteristics are:

See:. Conway, ibid page 370f, especially 384-385, where the relations of the name Falisci, Falerii to the local hero Halaesus be discussed ( cf. Ovid, Fasti, iv 73. ) And where are reasons why the change from initial f ( originally from bh or dh ) to the initial h is a genuine feature of the faliskischen dialect.

It is likely that the language - but increasingly influenced by Latin - was up to at least 150 BC spoken.