TheEtruscan alphabet was used by theEtruscans, an ancient civilization of central and northernItaly, to writetheir language, from about700 BC to sometime around100 AD.
The Etruscanalphabet derives from theEuboean alphabet used in theGreek colonies in southern Italy which belonged to the "western" ("red") type, the so-calledWestern Greek alphabet. SeveralOld Italic scripts, including theLatin alphabet, derived from it (or simultaneously with it).
The Etruscan alphabet originated as an adaptation of theEuboean alphabet used by theEuboean Greeks in their first colonies inItaly, the island ofPithekoussai and the city ofCumae inCampania.[1]In the alphabets of the West, X had thesound value[ks], Ψ stood for[kʰ]; in Etruscan: X =[s], Ψ =[kʰ] or[kχ] (Rix 202–209).
The earliest known Etruscanabecedarium is inscribed on the frame of awax tablet in ivory, measuring 8.8 cm × 5 cm (3.5 in × 2 in), found atMarsiliana (nearGrosseto,Tuscany). It dates from about 700 BC, and lists 26 letters corresponding to contemporary forms of the Greek alphabet, includingdigamma,san, andqoppa, but notomega, which had still not been added at the time.
| Phoenician model |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Western Greek |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  | ||
| Sound in Ancient Greek (Western) | [a] | [b] | [ɡ] | [d] | [e] | [w] | [dz]~[z]~[zd] | [h] | [tʰ] | [i] | [k] | [l] | [m] | [n] | [o] | [p] | [ts]~[s] | [k] | [r] | [s] | [t] | [u] | [ks] | [pʰ] | [kʰ] | ||
| Old Italic (Unicode block) | 𐌀 | 𐌁 | 𐌂 | 𐌃 | 𐌄 | 𐌅 | 𐌆 | 𐌇 | 𐌈 | 𐌉 | 𐌊 | 𐌋 | 𐌌 | 𐌍 | 𐌎 | 𐌏 | 𐌐 | 𐌑 | 𐌒 | 𐌓 𐌛 | 𐌔 | 𐌕 | 𐌖 | 𐌗 | 𐌘 | 𐌙 | 𐌚 |
| Marsiliana tablet |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  | |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  | |
| Archaic Etruscan (to 5th c.)[2] | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |  |  | | | | | |  | ||||
| Neo-Etruscan[2] | | | | | |  |  | | |  |  | | |  | |  |  |  |  | | |||||||
| Transliteration[3] | a | b | c | d | e | v | z | h | θ | i | k | l | m | n | s᫈ | o | p | σ | q | r | s, ς | t | u | s̽ | φ | χ | f |
| Approx. pron. | [a] | — | [k] | — | [e] | [w] | [ts] | [h] | [tʰ] | [i] | [k] | [l] | [m] | [n] | — | — | [p] | [ʃ],[s] | [k] | [r] | [s],[ʃ] | [t] | [u] | — | [pʰ] | [kʰ] | [f] |
The shapes of the Archaic Etruscan and Neo-Etruscan letters had a few variants, used in different places and/or in different epochs. Notably, opposite letters were used for[s] and[ʃ] depending on the locality. Shown above are the glyphs from theUnicode Old Italic block, whose appearance will depend on the font used by the browser. These are oriented as they would be in lines written from left to right. Also shown are SVG images of variants shown as they would be written right to left, as in most of the actual inscriptions.[4][5]
The archaic form of the Etruscan alphabet remained practically unchanged from its origin in the 8th century BC until about 600 BC, and the direction of writing was free. From the 6th century BC, however, the alphabet evolved, adjusting to the phonology of the Etruscan language, and letters representing phonemes nonexistent in Etruscan were dropped. By 400 BC, it appears that all ofEtruria was using the classical Etruscan alphabet of 20 letters, mostly written from right to left.
An additional sign𐌚, in shape similar to the numeral 8, transcribed as F, was present inLydian, Neo-Etruscan and Italic alphabets ofOsco-Umbrian languages such as Oscan, Umbrian, Old Sabine and South Picene (Old Volscian).[6] This sign was introduced in Etruscan around 600–550 BC and was not present in the Marsiliana tablet, the earliest example of the Etruscan alphabet. It is thought that the sign𐌚 may have been an altered B or H or anex novo creation. Formerly it was even suspected to have been an Etruscan invention, but an early Sabellian inscription suggests that it is instead an invention of speakers of aSabellian language (Osco-Umbrian languages).[6] Its sound value was/f/ and it replaced the Etruscandigraph FH that was previously used to express that sound. Some letters were, on the other hand, falling out of use. Etruscan did not have anyvoiced stops, for which B, C, D were originally intended (/b/,/ɡ/, and/d/ respectively). The B and D therefore fell out of use, and the C, which is simpler and easier to write than K, was adopted to write/k/, mostly displacing K itself. Likewise, since Etruscan had no/o/ vowel sound, O disappeared and was replaced by U. In the course of its simplification, the redundant letters showed some tendency towards asemi-syllabary: C, K and Q were predominantly used in the contexts CE, KA, QU.
This classical alphabet remained in use until the 2nd century BC, when it began to be influenced by the rise of theLatin alphabet. Soon after, the Etruscan language itself became extinct — so thoroughly that its vocabulary and grammar are still only partly known, in spite of more than a century of intense research. The Romans, who did have voiced stops in their language, after taking over the archaic Etruscan alphabet in the 7th century BC, continued to use B and D for/b/ and/d/, and used C for both/k/ and/ɡ/, until they invented a separate letter G to distinguish the two sounds.
The Etruscan alphabet apparently was the immediate ancestor for theLatin alphabet,[7] as well as of severalOld Italic scripts used in Italy before the rise ofRome, such as those used in theOscan,Umbrian,Lepontic,Rhaetian (or Raetic),Venetic,Messapian,North andSouth Picene, andCamunic inscriptions.[8]
![Bowl from Roselle [ru] depicts the south variant of Etruscan alphabet](/mt/?noimg=&dark=on&url=https%3a%2f%2fen.wikipedia.org%2fwiki%2fFile%3a8669_-_Museo_archeologico%2c_Grosseto_-_Bucchero_con_alfabeto_etrusco%2c_sec._VI_a.C.._Foto_Giovanni_Dall%2527Orto%2c_1_novembre_2015.jpg)
