Adaptations of the latin alphabet to write fragmentary languages

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to offer an overview of the use of the Latin alphabet to write the so-called fragmentary languages of Italy and Western Europe during Antiquity. The Latin alphabet was created from an Etruscan model to write Latin, but was also used to record texts in other languages: Etruscan, Oscan, Umbrian, the minor Italic dialects, Faliscan, and Venetic in Italy; Gaulish in the Gauls and other provinces in the north of Europe; and, finally, Iberian, Celtiberian, and Lusitanian in the Iberian Peninsula. The use of the Latin alphabet to write the so-called fragmentary languages represents a step before complete Latinisation. In some regions the types of inscriptions analysed here are not simply intermittent uses of the alphabet to write the local language, but rather, there was genuine thought about the appropriateness of the system and, consequently, some changes were made such as the creation of new signs, the use of others that come from the epichoric alphabet, and also the development of some distinctive orthographic norms.