Old Italic alphabet

:"Italic script" redirects here. For the typeface, see italic type.

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Old Italic refers to several now extinct alphabet systems used on the Italian peninsula in ancient times for various Indo-European (predominantly Italic) and non-Indo-European (e.g. Etruscan) languages.

Related Topics:
Alphabet - Italic - Etruscan

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The alphabets derive from Euboean Greek Cumaean alphabet, used at Ischia and Cumae in the Bay of Naples in the eighth century BC. Cumaean, in turn showed strong similarities to the Phoenician alphabet, lending support to theories of Phoenician influence in the West-Central Mediterranean region.

Related Topics:
Euboean Greek - Cumaean alphabet - Ischia - Cumae - Bay of Naples - Eighth century BC - Phoenician alphabet - Mediterranean

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Various Indo-European languages belonging to the Italic branch (Faliscan and members of the Sabellian group, including Oscan, Umbrian, and South Picene, and other Indo-European branches such as Venetic and Messapic) originally used the alphabet. Faliscan, Oscan, Umbrian, North Picene, and South Picene all derive from an Etruscan form of the alphabet.

Related Topics:
Indo-European - Italic - Faliscan - Sabellian - Oscan - Umbrian - South Picene - Venetic - Messapic - North Picene

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The Germanic runes are most likely derived from one of these alphabets in ca. the 2nd century.

Related Topics:
Germanic runes - 2nd century

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