Editing Oscan language (section)

==Writing system==
[[File:Linguistic_Landscape_of_Central_Italy.png|thumb|400px|The linguistic landscape of Central Italy at the beginning of Roman expansion]]

===Alphabet===

Oscan was originally written in a specific "Oscan alphabet", one of the [[Old Italic scripts]] derived from (or cognate with) the [[Etruscan alphabet]]. Later inscriptions are written in the [[Greek alphabet|Greek]] and [[Latin alphabet|Latin]] [[alphabet]]s.{{sfn|Buck|1904|pp=22–23}}

====The "Etruscan" alphabet====
The Osci probably adopted the archaic Etruscan alphabet during the 7th century BCE, but a recognizably Oscan variant of the alphabet is attested only from the 5th century BCE. At the beginning of the 3rd century BCE its sign inventory was extended over the classical Etruscan alphabet by the introduction of lowered variants of I and U, transcribed as Í and Ú. Ú came to be used to represent Oscan {{IPA|/o/}}, while U was used for {{IPA|/u/}} as well as historical long {{IPA|*/oː/}}, which had undergone a sound shift in Oscan to become {{IPA|~[uː]}}. Í was used to denote a higher-mid {{IPA|[ẹ]}}.{{sfn|Wallace|2007|p=6}}

<div style="background-color: white !important; color: black !important;">[[File:Oscan alphabet.svg|Français : Alphabet osque accompagné de la prononciation et des lettres latines équivalentes.]]</div>

The ''Z'' of the native alphabet is pronounced {{IPA|[ts]}}.{{sfn|Buck|1904|p=22}} Doubling of vowels was used to denote length but a long ''I'' is written ''IÍ''.{{sfn|Buck|1904|p=23}}
[[File:Denarius-Marsic Federation-Syd 627-1-.jpg|thumb|[[Denarius]] of [[Marsi|Marsican Confederation]] with Oscan legend]]

====The "Greek" alphabet====
Oscan written with the Greek alphabet was identical to the standard alphabet with the addition of two letters: one for the native alphabet's ''H'': {{GrGl|Eta tack}}, and one for its ''V'': {{GrGl|Digamma angular}}.{{sfn|Buck|1904|p=23}} The letters ''η'' and ''ω'' do not indicate quantity.{{sfn|Buck|1904|p=23}} Sometimes, the clusters ''ηι'' and ''ωϝ'' denote the diphthongs {{IPA|/ei/}} and {{IPA|/ou/}} respectively while ''ει'' and ''oυ'' are saved to denote [[monophthong]]s {{IPA|/iː/}} and {{IPA|/uː/}} of the native alphabet.{{sfn|Buck|1904|p=23}} At other times, ''ει'' and ''oυ'' are used to denote diphthongs, in which case ''o'' denotes the {{IPA|/uː/}} sound.{{sfn|Buck|1904|p=23}}

====The "Latin" alphabet====
When written in the Latin alphabet, the Oscan ''Z'' does not represent {{IPA|[ts]}} but instead {{IPA|[z]}}, which is not written differently from {{IPA|[s]}} in the native alphabet.{{sfn|Buck|1904|pp=22–23}}

====Transliteration====
When Oscan inscriptions are quoted, it is conventional to transliterate those in the "Oscan" alphabet into Latin '''boldface''', those in the "Latin" alphabet into Latin ''italics'', and those in the "Greek" alphabet into the modern Greek alphabet.  Letters of all three alphabets are represented in lower case.{{sfn|Buck|1904|p=xvii}}