Editing Italic languages (section)

=== 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}}