Venetic language

Venetic is an extinct Indo-European language that was spoken in ancient times in the North East of Italy (Veneto) and part of modern Slovenia, between the Po River delta and the southern fringe of the Alps.

The language is attested by over 300 short inscriptions dating from the 6th to the 1st century BC. Its speakers are identified with the ancient people called Veneti by the Romans and Enetoi by the Greeks. It became extinct around the 1st century when the local inhabitants were assimilated into the Roman sphere. Inscriptions dedicating offerings to Reitia are one of the chief sources of knowledge of the Venetic language.

Venetic should not be confused with Venetian, a Romance language presently spoken in the same general region.

Linguistic classification

Venetic is a centum language. The inscriptions use a variety of the Northern Italic alphabet, similar to the Etruscan alphabet.

The exact relationship of Venetic to other Indo-European languages is still being investigated, but the majority of scholars agree that Venetic, aside from Liburnian, shared some similarities with the Italic languages and so is sometimes classified as Italic. However, since it also shared similarities with other Western Indo-European branches (particularly Celtic languages and Germanic languages), some linguists prefer to consider it an independent Indo-European language. Venetic may also have been related to the Illyrian languages once spoken in the western Balkans, though the theory that Illyrian and Venetic were closely related is debated by current scholarship. Different scholars argued that Venetic may have been a transitional type between Celtic and Italic, with the same treatment of sonorants as in Celtic, and the same treatment of the mediae aspiratae and the voiceless occlusive labial (*p) as in Italic. The position of Venetic within Indo-European has been studied in detail by Lejeune.