Pre-Samnite was an ancient language spoken in southern Campania, in Italy. The name Pre-Samnite refers to the fact that the language was spoken in early times in an area that was later colonized by Samnites, who spoke Oscan.[2] Pre-Samnite is recorded in a few short inscriptions[2] dating from around 500 BC.[1] The language belongs to the Osco-Umbrian group of languages, and may be closely related to Oscan, but shows a number of archaic features which were lost from Oscan.[3] However, the material is too scant to enable a precise determination of the relation of Pre-Samnite either to Oscan or to the other Sabellian languages.
Sample text
The following text is a proposed reconstruction of a Pre-Samnite inscription found in Tortora:[4]
"Whenever one sacrificed (a yearling lamb) to Jovius, thus they very rightly decreed: no one shall observe this yearling lamb’s entrails by speaking; no one shall libate in the vase nor on the flawless roasted (entrails) by uttering words; and at this border sign before the city no one shall libate on these flawless (entrails) or pour broth on this vase."
Another proposed reconstruction of the Tortora inscriptions reads:[4]
[5]ειι[.]οϝιιοι…[--
--]fεfικεδ[.]κ[.]ρε.[--
--]ισυμαδαματεσ[--
--]επυσμοιαυνοιϝι[--
--]ντρο[.]δοσερϝια[--
[2]ενσ[.]ειϙοβετι[.]τοα[.]ιρνενι[
--]οιϝολαισυμοσfυfϝοδο(vacat)fρι[?]
ϙτο[..]αστεσ[.]ιτερμανι[--
--]τοϝτιδνεπιεσε[--
--]σ[.]εδϝολοσfυfυϝοδ
νεπιστα[.]ιοσϙτοδ[--
--]αα[.]ιρνενια
[4-5]νια[.]ε[.]ιι[?]υ[.]αμ[.]υουϝ[6-9]
Another possibly Pre-Samnite inscription which was probably from Capua reads:[5]
^ abPiwowarczyk, Dariusz R. (2011). "Formations of the perfect in the Sabellic languages with the Italic and Indo-European background". Studia Linguistica Universitatis Iagellonicae Cracoviensis. 128 (128): 103–126. doi:10.2478/v10148-011-0017-1.
^ abSabellian Languages, R. E. Wallace, in The Ancient Languages of Europe, Ed. R. D. Woodward.[page needed]
^Sabellian Demonstratives: Forms and Functions, Emmanuel Dupraz.[page needed]
