Editing Oscan language (section)

==General characteristics==
Oscan speakers came into close contact with the [[Latium]] population.<ref name="Clackson_2011">{{cite book |last1=Clackson |first1=James |title=The Blackwell history of the Latin language |date=2011 |publisher=Wiley-Blackwell |first2=Geoffrey C. |last2=Horrocks |isbn=978-1-4443-3920-8 |publication-place=Malden, MA |oclc=126227889}}</ref> Early Latin texts have been discovered nearby major Oscan settlements. For example, the [[Garigliano bowl|Garigliano Bowl]] was found close to [[Minturno|Minturnae]], less than 40 kilometers from [[Capua]], which was once a large Oscan settlement.<ref name="Clackson_2011" /> Oscan had much in common with [[Latin]], though there are also many striking differences, and many common word-groups in Latin were absent or represented by entirely different forms. For example, Latin ''volo'', ''velle'', ''volui'', and other such forms from the [[Proto-Indo-European language|Proto-Indo-European]] root [[wikt:Reconstruction:Proto-Indo-European/welh₁-|*welh₁-]] ('to will') were represented by words derived from [[wikt:Reconstruction:Proto-Indo-European/ǵʰer-|*ǵʰer-]] ('to desire'): Oscan ''herest'' ('(s)he shall want, (s)he shall desire', German cognate 'begehren', Dutch 'begeren', English cognate 'yearn') as opposed to Latin ''volent'' (id.). Latin ''locus'' (place) was absent and represented by the [[hapax]] ''slaagid'' (place), which Italian linguist Alberto Manco has linked to a surviving local toponym.<ref name="Manco">Alberto Manco, "Sull’osco *slagi-", [http://www.aionlinguistica.com/ AIΩN Linguistica] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161023032629/http://www.aionlinguistica.com/ |date=23 October 2016 }} 28, 2006.</ref>

In [[phonology]] too, Oscan exhibited a number of clear differences from Latin: thus, Oscan 'p' in place of Latin 'qu' (Osc. ''pis'', Lat. ''quis'') (compare the similar [[P-Celtic and Q-Celtic languages|P-Celtic/Q-Celtic]] cleavage in the [[Celtic languages]]); 'b' in place of Latin 'v'; medial 'f' in contrast to Latin 'b' or 'd' (Osc. ''mefiai'', Lat. ''mediae'').{{sfn|Buck|1904|p=23}}

Oscan is considered to be the most conservative of all the known [[Italic languages]], and among attested Indo-European languages it is rivaled only by [[Greek language|Greek]] in the retention of the inherited vowel system with the [[diphthongs]] intact.{{sfn|Buck|1904|p=18}}<ref name="Clackson_2011"/>