The language is attested by over 300 short inscriptions dating from the 6th to the 1st century BCE. Its speakers are identified with the ancient people called Veneti by the Romans and Enetoi by the Greeks. It became extinct around the 1st 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.[5]
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, 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.[6]
A 2012 study has suggested that Venetic was a relatively 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.[2] Phonological similarities to Rhaetian have also been pointed out.[7]
In 2016, CeltologistPeter 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.[8]
Fate
During the period of Latin-Venetic bilingual inscriptions in the Roman script, i.e. 150–50 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.[9]
Features
Venetic had about six, possibly seven, noun cases and four conjugations (similar to Latin). About 60 words are known, but some were borrowed from Latin (liber.tos. < libertus) or Etruscan. Many of them show a clear Indo-European origin, such as vhraterei < PIE *bʰréh₂trey = to the brother.[citation needed]
Phonology
In Venetic, PIE stops *bʰ, *dʰ and *gʰ developed to /f/, /f/ and /h/, respectively, in word-initial position (as in Latin and Osco-Umbrian), but to /b/, /d/ and /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 /f/, /f/ and /h/ internally as well.[citation needed]
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.[10]: p.141
Language sample
A sample inscription in Venetic, found on a bronzenail at Este (Es 45):[3]: 149
Venetic
Mego donasto śainatei Reitiiai porai Egeotora Aimoi ke louderobos
Latin (literal)
Me donavit sanatrici Reitiae bonae Egetora [pro] Aemo liberis-que
English
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):[3]: 464
Venetic
eik Goltanos doto louderai Kanei
Latin (literal)
hoc Goltanus dedit liberae Cani
English
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,[11]Krahe,[12] Pellegrini,[3] Prosdocimi,[3][13][14] and Lejeune.[10] Recent contributors include Capuis[15] and Bianchi.[16]
^ abcdePellegrini, Giovanni Battista; Prosdocimi, Aldo Luigi (1967). La Lingua Venetica: I – Le iscrizioni; II – Studi. Padova: Istituto di glottologia dell'Università di Padova.
^Krahe, Hans (1954). Sprache und Vorzeit: europäische Vorgeschichte nach dem Zeugnis der Sprache (in German). Heidelberg: Quelle & Meyer.
^Prosdocimi, Aldo Luigi (2002). Veneti, Eneti, Euganei, Ateste.[full citation needed]
^Prosdocimi, Aldo Luigi (2002). "Trasmissioni alfabetiche e insegnamento della scrittura". AKEO. I Tempi della Scrittura. Veneti Antichi: Alfabeti e Documenti. Montebelluna: 25–38. (Catalogue of an exposition at Montebelluna, 12/2001–05/2002)
^Bianchi, Anna Maria Chieco; et al. (1988). Italia: omnium terrarum alumna: la civiltà dei Veneti, Reti, Liguri, Celti, Piceni, Umbri, Latini, Campani e Iapigi (in Italian). Milano: Scheiwiller.
Further reading
Beeler, Madison Scott (1949). The Venetic Language. Berkeley, CA: Univ. of California Press. (archive.org)
Gambacurta, Giovanna (2013). "I Celti e il Veneto". Études Celtiques. 39: 31–40. doi:10.3406/ecelt.2013.2396.
Gérard, Raphaël (2001). "Observations sur les inscriptions vénètes de Pannonie". Revue belge de philologie et d'histoire. Antiquité – Oudheid. 79 (1): 39–56. doi:10.3406/rbph.2001.4506.
Prósper, Blanca Maria (Spring–Summer 2018). "The Venetic inscription from Monte Manicola and three termini publici from Padua: A reappraisal". Journal of Indo-European Studies. 46 (1–2): 1–61.
Šavli, Jožef; Bor, Matej; Tomažič, Ivan; Škerbinc, Anton (1996). Veneti: First builders of European community: Tracing the history and language of early ancestors of Slovenes. Wien: Editiones Veneti.
