Faliscan language

The Faliscan language, the extinct language of the ancient Falisci, forms, together with Latin, the group of Latino-Faliscan languages. It seems probable that the dialect lasted on, though being gradually permeated with Latin, until at least 150 BC.

Corpus

An estimated 355 inscriptions survive, mostly short and dating from the 7th to 2nd centuries BC. Some are written in a variety of the Old Italic alphabet derived from the Etruscan, and are written from right to left, but show some traces of the influence of the Latin alphabet. An inscription to Ceres of c.600 BC, found in Falerii and usually taken as the oldest example, reads left to right.^[1]

A specimen of the language appears written round the edge of a picture on a patera, the genuineness of which is established by the fact that the words were written before the glaze was put on: "foied vino pipafo, cra carefo," i.e. in Latin hodie vinum bibam, cras carebo 'today I will drink wine; tomorrow I won't have any' (R. S. Conway, Italic Dialects, p. 312, b).

In addition to the remains found in the graves, which belong mainly to the period of Etruscan domination and give ample evidence of material prosperity and refinement, the earlier strata have yielded more primitive remains from the Italic epoch. A large number of inscriptions consisting mainly of proper names may be regarded as Etruscan rather than Faliscan, and they have been disregarded in the account of the dialect just given. It should perhaps be mentioned that there was a town Feronia in Sardinia, named probably after their native goddess by Faliscan settlers, from some of whom we have a votive inscription found at S. Maria di Falleri (Conway, ib. p. 335).

Phonetic characteristics

Some of the phonetic characteristics of the Faliscan language are:

1. The retention of medial f which in Latin became b (modern Italian often v);
2. The representation of an initial Proto-Indo-European gh by f (foied, contrast Latin hodie); Italian, descended from Latin, later lost the sound h completely.
3. The palatalization of d+ consonant i into some sound denoted merely by i- the central sound of foied, from fo-died (Italian usually ggi, as in oggi, although Milano is one case where Italian follows Faliscan);
4. The loss of final s, at least before certain following sounds (cra beside Latin cras), also a feature of Italian;
5. The retention of the labiovelars (Fal. cuando = Latin quando; contrast Umbrian pan(n)u;)
6. The assimilation of some final consonants to the initial sound of the next word: "pretod de zenatuo sententiad" (Conway, lib. cit. 321), i.e. in Latin "praetor de senatus sententia" (zenatuo for senatuos, an archaic genitive).

For further details see Conway, ib. pp. 370 ff., especially pp. 384–385, where the relation of the names Falisci, Falerii to the local hero Halaesus (e.g. Ovid, Fasti, iv. 73) is discussed, and where reason is given for thinking that the change of initial f (from an original bh or dh) into an initial h was a genuine mark of Faliscan dialect.

References

Bibliography

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed (1911). Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.