North Etruscan , or Alpine alphabets - 5 alphabets descended from Etruscan and used by various languages in the Alps .
| North Etruscan alphabets | |
|---|---|
| Type of letter | consonant vocal writing |
| Languages | retsky , lepontian , venetian |
| Place of occurrence | Northern Italy |
| Period | VI century BC e. (Venetian) - I century BC e. |
| Status | decrypted / partially decrypted (from Magre ) |
| Letter direction | left to right / right to left |
| Signs | 21 in the Venetian, 17 from Magre , 16 from Bolzano , 14 from Sondrio , 14 in Leonton |
| Origin | Northern Semitic Alphabet
|
| Developed in | runes |
Content
History
In total, 5 different North Etruscan alphabets are distinguished, according to the place where the inscriptions were found:
- the Leontine alphabet - inscriptions from Lugano ;
- alphabet from Sondrio ;
- alphabet from Bolzano ;
- the alphabet from Magre ;
- Venetian alphabet - inscriptions from Venice and Este .
The Venetian alphabet is considered to be the earliest, the inscriptions on which belong to the VI century BC. e. The most recent inscriptions date back to the 1st century BC. e. , that is, to the time when the Etruscan alphabet itself has long gone out of use. The North Etruscan alphabets take their origin from the early version of the Etruscan alphabet . The direction of the letter was diverse: from left to right, and from right to left.
Lepontian Alphabet
The Lepontian alphabet (inscriptions from Lugano , or, as it is also called, the Ligurian-Celtic, since the tribe of leptons was probably of mixed Celtic-Ligurian origin) consisted of 14 characters: A, E, I, K, L, M, N , KS, O, P, R, S, T, U. The inscriptions made by this alphabet are made in the Leonton language , one of the Celtic languages .
Sondrio Alphabet
The alphabet from Sondrio also consisted of 14 characters: A, B, C, E, Z, I, L, M, N, O, P, S, T, U. The inscriptions made by this alphabet were retro-lingual .
Bolzano Alphabet
The Bolzano alphabet consisted of 16 characters: A, E, V, I, K, L, M, N, P, Ś, R, S, T, U, Ф, Х.
Magre Alphabet
The alphabet from Magre (province of Vicenza ) is represented by extremely small inscriptions on fragments of deer horns. Also, a series of short inscriptions made by this variety of North Etruscan alphabets were discovered in Verona and Padua . The alphabet consisted of 17 characters: A, E, V, H, I, K, L, M, N, Ś, R, S, T, U, Ф, X,?. The meaning of the last character is unknown. The inscriptions made by this letter were retro-lingual .
Venetian alphabet
The Venetian language (not to be confused with the Wends - Western Slavs ) belonged to a separate disappeared branch of the Indo-European family . The alphabet consisted of 21 characters: A, E, V, Z, H, Θ, I, K, L, M, N, KS, O, P, Ś, R, S, T, U, Ф, X, sound f transmitted by a combination of W + H. Inscriptions from Este are equipped with a special “punctuation”, the meaning of which has not yet been established. According to one theory, these signs denoted stress, but, as the Austrian scientist Vetter noted, they could not convey stress, since most of these points are above consonant signs. Based on this, he suggests that the absence of a point means an open syllable, that is, a syllable ending in a vowel sound normal for the Venetian language, and the presence of a point is a closed syllable that differs from the norm.
Influence on other scripts
The most common theory of the origin of runes is the theory of their origin from North Etruscan alphabets; it was proposed in 1828 by the scientist Marstander.
Literature
Deeringer, David. Chapter IX. The Etruscan alphabet and its branches in ancient Italy: the Venedic alphabet, North Etruscan alphabets // Alphabet. - M .: Publishing house of foreign literature, 1963. - S. 571-574. - 655 s.