Denarius of Marsican Confederation with Oscan legend. The Roman Currency system included the denarius (plural denarii) after 211 BC a small Silver coin, The Marsi were an ancient people of Italy, whose chief centre was Marruvium, on the eastern shore of Lake Fucinus.

Approximate distribution of languages in Iron Age Italy during the sixth century BC. Italy (Italia officially the Italian Republic, (Repubblica Italiana is located on the Italian Peninsula in Southern Europe, and on the two largest

Oscan, the language of the Osci, is in the Sabellic branch of the Italic language family, which is a branch of Indo-European that also includes Umbrian, Latin, and Faliscan. The Osci, which may also be referred to by the names of Opici Opsci (for the fertility goddess Ops) and Obsci (Oscans or Opicans in English were historic inhabitants The Osco-Umbrian languages or Sabellic languages are a group of languages that belong to the Italic language family of the Indo-European languages. The Italic subfamily is a member of the Indo-European language family's Centum branch Umbrian is an extinct Italic language formerly spoken by the Umbri in the ancient Italian region of Umbria. Latin ( lingua Latīna, laˈtiːna is an Italic language, historically spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It was spoken in Samnium and in Campania, as well as in Lucania, Ager Bruttius (modern Calabria) and Abruzzo. Samnium ( Oscan: Safinim; Italian Sannio) is a historical region of the south central Apennines in Italy, that was home to the Campania is a region of Southern Italy in Europe. The region has a population of around 5 Lucania was an ancient district of southern Italy, extending from the Tyrrhenian Sea to the Gulf of Taranto. Calabria ( Latin: Brutium) is a region in southern Italy, south of Naples, located at the "toe" of Oscan is known from inscriptions beginning in the 5th century BC. Epigraphy (ἐπιγραφολογία from Greek ἐπιγραφή — "inscription" is the study of inscriptions or epigraphs engraved The 5th century BC started the first day of 500 BC and ended the last day of 401 BC. The most important Oscan inscriptions are the Tabula Bantina and the Cippus Abellanus. Oscan was written in the Latin and Greek alphabets, as well as in a variety of the Old Italic alphabet. The Greek alphabet (Ελληνικό αλφάβητο is a set of twenty-four letters that has been used to write the Greek language since the late 9th or early An alphabet is a standardized set of letters basic written symbols each of which roughly represents a Phoneme, a Spoken language, either Old Italic refers to several now extinct Alphabet systems used on the Italian Peninsula in ancient times for various Indo-European (predominantly Italic

Dialects of Oscan include Samnite, Marrucine, Paelignan, Vestinian, Sabine, and Marsian. The Sabines ( Latin Sabini, Singular Sabinus) were an Italic tribe that lived in ancient Italy, inhabiting The Marsi were an ancient people of Italy, whose chief centre was Marruvium, on the eastern shore of Lake Fucinus.

Oscan had much in common with Latin, though there are also many striking differences, and many common word-groups in Latin were absent and represented by entirely different forms. For example, Latin volo, velle, volui, and other such forms from the Proto-Indo-European root *wel ('to will') were represented by words derived from *gher ('to desire'): Oscan herest ('he wants, desires', English cognate 'yearns', Spanish quiere) as opposed to Latin vult (id. ). Latin locus (place) was absent and represented by slaagid (place).

In phonology, Oscan also showed differences from Latin: Oscan 'p' in place of Latin 'qu' (Osc. Phonology ( Greek φωνή (phōnē voice sound + λόγος (lógos word speech subject of discussion is the systematic use of sound to encode meaning pis, Lat. quis); 'b' in place of Latin 'v'; medial 'f' in contrast to Latin 'b' or 'd' (Osc. mefiai, Lat. mediae). This is like the P-Celtic/Q-Celtic rift in the Celtic languages. The Celtic languages are descended from Proto-Celtic, or "Common Celtic" a branch of the greater Indo-European Language family.

Oscan is considered the most conservative of all the known Italic languages, and among all Indo-European languages it is rivaled only by Greek in the retention of the inherited vowel system with the diphthongs intact. Greek (el ελληνική γλώσσα or simply el ελληνικά — "Hellenic" is an Indo-European language, spoken today by 15-22 million people mainly In Phonetics, a diphthong (also gliding vowel) (from Greek grc δίφθογγος "diphthongos" literally "with two sounds" or "with

Example of an Oscan text (the Cippus Abellanus)

ekkum[svaí píd heriesettrííbarak[avúm tereí púdliímítú[m] pernúm [púísherekleís fíísnú mefi[úíst, ehtrad feíhúss pú[sherekleís fíísnam amfr et, pert víam pússtíst paí íp íst, pústin slagímsenateís suveís tanginúd tríbarakavúm líkítud.  íním íúk tríbarakkiuf pam núvlanús tríbarakattuset íúk tríbarakkiuf íním úíttiuf abellanúm estud.  avtpúst feíhúís pús físnam amfret, eíseí tereí nep abellanús nep núvlanús pídumtríbarakattíns.  avt the savrúm púd eseí tereí íst,pún patensíns, múíníkad ta[n ginúd patensíns, íním píd e[íseí thesavreí púkkapíd ee[stit a]íttíúm alttram alttr[úsh]erríns.  avt anter slagím a]bellanam íním núvlanam s]úllad víú uruvú íst .  edú  e]ísaí víaí mefiaí teremen n]iú staíet.  

References

• Buck, Carl Darling. 1904. A Grammar of Oscan and Umbrian. With a Collection of Inscriptions and a Glossary. Reprinted by Evolution Publishing, 2005.

• Salvucci, Claudio R. 1999. A Vocabulary of Oscan. Evolution Publishing.

External links

• Oscan vocabulary.
• Electronic edition of Buck's Grammar of Oscan and Umbrian. Carl Darling Buck ( October 2, 1866 - February 8, 1955) American Philologist, was born in Bucksport Maine.