Editing Umbrian language (section)

==Phonological history==
===Shared changes===
Umbrian shares some phonological changes with its sister language Oscan.

====Labialization of ''*kʷ'' to ''p''====
This change is shared with Umbrian, and so is a common Sabellic change, reminiscent of the k/p split between Goidellic (Irish, etc) and Brythonic (Welsh, etc). '''piře''', ''pirse'' "what"; Oscan '''pídum''' vs Latin ''quid.''<ref>Poultney, J.W. "Bronze Tables of Iguvium" 1959 p. 65. https://archive.org/details/bronzetablesofig00poul/page/n19/mode/2up</ref>

====Initial stress and syncope====

At some point early in the history of all Indo-European Italic languages, the accent seems to have shifted to the initial syllable of words as a stress accent, since non-initial syllables are regularly lost or weakened. Since the same pattern occurs in the history of [[Etruscan language|Etruscan]], this must be assumed to be an areal feature. (By the time of classical Latin, the accent had shifted in that language to more of an Ancient Greek pattern--on the third syllable from the end (antepenult) unless the last syllable was long, in which case it fell on the second to last syllable (the penult).) {{sfn|Buck|1904|p=101}} The degree to which these shifts can be connected to similar shifts to initial stress in Celtic and Germanic is unclear; for discussion see J. Salmons' ''Accentual Change and Language Contact''. <ref>Salmons, Joseph (1992), ''Accentual Change and Language Contact'', Stanford University Press</ref>

Examples: 
Loss of unstressed short -e-: *''onse'' "shoulder" < *''omesei'', compare Latin ''umerus''; ''destre'' "on the right" < *''deksiterer''; ''ostendu'' "present" (imperative) < *''obs-tendetōd'', compare Latin ''ostendito''.<ref>Poultney, J.W. "Bronze Tables of Iguvium" 1959 p. 45 https://archive.org/details/bronzetablesofig00poul/page/n19/mode/2up</ref>

===Innovations unique to Umbrian (or not shared with Oscan)===
But compared to its highly conservative sister language Oscan, Umbrian exhibits a number of '''innovations''', some of them shared by its neighbor to the west, Latin. (Below, following convention, '''bold''' text for Umbrian and Oscan indicates words written in the native, Etruscan derived script, while ''italics'' represents words written in Latin-derived script.)

====Treatment of original diphthongs====
All [[diphthong]]s are simplified [[Monophthongization|into monophthongs]], a process only partly seen in Latin, and only very rarely in Oscan. So [[Proto-Italic language|Proto-Italic]] *''ai'' and *''ei'' become Umbrian low ''ē'': '''kvestur''' : Oscan '''kvaísstur''', Latin ''[[quaestor]]'' 'official in charge of public revenue and expenditure'; '''prever''' 'single' : Oscan ''preivatud'', Latin ''prīvus''; furthermore, Proto-Italic *''oi'', *''ou'' and *''au'' become ''ō'' (written '''u''' in the native script) in initial syllables: '''unu''' 'one' : Old Latin ''oinus''; '''ute''' 'or' : Oscan ''auti'', Latin ''aut''; '''tuta''' 'city' : Oscan ''touto''.{{sfn|Buck|1904|p=41}}

====Palatalization of velars====
Velars are palatalized and spirantized before front vowels and the front glide /j/ to probably a [[Palatalization (sound change)|palatalized]] [[sibilant]] (perhaps the [[Postalveolar consonant|postalveolar]] /ʃ/), written '''ç''', ''ś'' or simply ''s''. (A similar change happened later in most Romance languages.) For example: Umbrian ''śesna'' 'dinner' : Oscan '''kersnu''', Latin ''cēna''; Umbrian '''façiu''' 'I do, I make' : Latin ''faciō''. {{sfn|Buck|1904|pp=89-91}}

====Rhotacism====
Like Latin, but unlike Oscan, intervocalic -s- rhotacized to -r- in Umbrian. In late forms of the language, final -s also becomes -r (a change not seen in Latin).  For example, the genitive plural ending of -ā stems: Umbrian ''-arum'', Latin ''-arum'' vs Oscan '''-asúm ''' (compare Sanskrit -''āsām''). {{sfn|Buck|1904|p=74}}

====Treatment of *''d''====

While initial *''d-'' is preserved (spelled '''t''' in the native alphabet), earlier intervocalic *-d- (and sometimes *-l-) show up in the native alphabet as a character generally transliterated as ''' ř''', but as the sequence ''rs'' in Umbrian texts using the Latin alphabet. The exact pronunciation is unknown: '''piře''', ''pirse'' "what" vs. Oscan '''pídum''', Latin ''quid.''{{sfn|Buck|1904|p=82}}
====Vowels====
Proto-italic ''*ū'' became /i/, '''sim''' (accusative singular) <PI ''*sūm'' "pig" {{sfn|Sihler|1995|p=48}}