Editing Italic languages (section)

==History==

=== Proto-Italic period ===
{{main|Proto-Italic}}
[[Proto-Italic language|Proto-Italic]] was probably originally spoken by [[Italic peoples|Italic tribes]] north of the [[Alps]]. In particular, early contacts with Celtic and Germanic speakers are suggested by linguistic evidence.{{Sfn|Bossong|2017|p=859}}

Bakkum defines Proto-Italic as a "chronological stage" without an independent development of its own, but extending over late Proto-Indo-European and the initial stages of Proto-Latin and Proto-Sabellic. Meiser's dates of 4000 BC to 1800 BC, well before Mycenaean Greek, are described by him as being "as good a guess as anyone's".<ref>{{harvnb|Bakkum|2009|p=54}}.</ref> Schrijver argues for a Proto-Italo-Celtic stage, which he suggests was spoken in "approximately the first half or the middle of the 2nd millennium BC",<ref>{{harvnb|Schrijver|2016|p=490}}</ref> from which Celtic split off first, then Venetic, before the remainder, Italic, split into Latino-Faliscan and Sabellian.<ref>{{harvnb|Schrijver|2016|p=499}}</ref>

[[Italic peoples]] probably moved towards the [[Italian Peninsula]] during the second half of the 2nd millennium BC, gradually reaching the southern regions.{{Sfn|Bossong|2017|p=859}}{{Sfn|Fortson|2004|p=245}} Although an equation between archeological and linguistic evidence cannot be established with certainty, the Proto-Italic language is generally associated with the [[Terramare culture|Terramare]] (1700–1150 BC) and [[Proto-Villanovan culture]] (1200–900 BC).{{Sfn|Bossong|2017|p=859}}

===Languages of Italy in the Iron Age===
{{More citations needed|section|date=April 2021}}
At the start of the Iron Age, around 700 BC, [[Ionians|Ionian Greek]] settlers from [[Euboea]] established colonies along the coast of southern Italy.<ref name="Britannica">{{cite encyclopedia|title=history of Europe : Romans|encyclopedia=Encyclopædia Britannica|url=https://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/195896/history-of-Europe/58256/Romans|access-date=28 October 2012}}</ref> They brought with them the [[alphabet]], which they had learned from the [[Phoenician people|Phoenicians]]; specifically, what we now call [[Western Greek alphabet]]. The invention quickly spread through the whole peninsula, across language and political barriers. Local adaptations (mainly minor letter shape changes and the dropping or addition of a few letters) yielded several [[Old Italic alphabets]].

The inscriptions show that, by 700 BC, many languages were spoken in the region, including members of several branches of Indo-European and several non-Indo-European languages. The most important of the latter was [[Etruscan language|Etruscan]], attested by evidence from more than 10,000 inscriptions and some short texts. No relation has been found between Etruscan and any other known language, and there is still no clue about its possible origin (except for inscriptions on the island of [[Lemnos]] in the eastern [[Mediterranean Sea|Mediterranean]]). Other possibly non-Indo-European languages present at the time were Rhaetian in the [[Alps|Alpine region]], [[Ligurian language (ancient)|Ligurian]] around present-day [[Genoa]], and some unidentified languages in [[Sardinia]]. Those languages have left some detectable imprint in Latin.

The largest language in southern Italy, except [[Ionic Greek]] spoken in the Greek colonies, was [[Messapian language|Messapian]], known from some 260 inscriptions dating from the 6th and 5th centuries BC. There is a historical connection of Messapian with the [[Illyria]]n tribes, added to the [[archaeology|archaeological]] connection in [[ceramic]]s and [[metal]]s existing between both peoples, which motivated the hypothesis of linguistic connection. But the evidence of Illyrian inscriptions is reduced to personal names and places, which makes it difficult to support such a hypothesis.

It has also been proposed by some scholars, although not confirmed, that the [[Lusitanian language]] may have belonged to the Italic family.{{Sfn|Villar|2000|p=}}<ref>Francisco Villar, Rosa Pedrero y Blanca María Prósper</ref>

===Timeline of Latin===
{{unreferenced section|date=January 2021|find=History of Latin}}
In the history of Latin of ancient times, there are several periods:
*From the archaic period, several inscriptions of the 6th to the 4th centuries BC, fragments of the oldest laws, fragments from the sacral anthem of the [[Salii]], the anthem of the [[Arval Brethren]] were preserved.
*In the pre-classical period (3rd and 2nd centuries BC), the [[Old Latin|literary Latin language]] (the comedies of [[Plautus]] and [[Terence]], the [[agriculture|agricultural]] treatise of [[Cato the Elder]], fragments of works by a number of other authors) was based on the dialect of Rome.
*The period of [[Classical Latin#Authors of the Golden Age|classical ("golden") Latin]] dated until the death of Ovid in AD 17<ref name=Fortson1326>Fortson (2010) §13.26.</ref> (1st century BC, the development of vocabulary, the development of terminology, the elimination of old morphological doublets, the flowering of [[literature]]: [[Cicero]], [[Julius Caesar|Caesar]], [[Sallust]], [[Virgil]], [[Horace]], [[Ovid]]) was particularly distinguished.
*During the period of [[Classical Latin#Authors of the Silver Age|classical ("silver") Latin]] dated until the death of emperor [[Marcus Aurelius]] in AD 180, seeing works by [[Juvenal]], [[Tacitus]], [[Suetonius]] and the ''Satyricon'' of [[Petronius]],<ref name=Fortson1326/> during which time the phonetic, morphological and spelling norms were finally formed.

As the [[Roman Republic]] extended its political dominion over the whole of the Italian peninsula, Latin became dominant over the other Italic languages, which ceased to be spoken perhaps sometime in the 1st century AD. From [[Vulgar Latin]], the Romance languages emerged.

The Latin language gradually spread beyond Rome, along with the growth of the power of this state, displacing, beginning in the 4th and 3rd centuries BC, the languages of other Italic tribes, as well as [[Illyrian languages|Illyrian]], [[Messapian language|Messapian]] and [[Venetic language|Venetic]], etc. The [[Romanization (cultural)|Romanisation]] of the Italian Peninsula was basically complete by the 1st century BC; except for the [[Southern Italy|south of Italy]] and [[Sicily]], where the dominance of [[Greek language|Greek]] was preserved.
The attribution of [[Ligurian language (ancient)|Ligurian]] is controversial.