Old Italic refers to several now extinct alphabet systems used on the Italian Peninsula in ancient times for various Indo-European languages (predominantly Italic) and non-Indo-European (e.g. Etruscan) languages. The alphabets derive from the Euboean Greek Cumaean alphabet, used at Ischia and Cumae in the Bay of Naples in the eighth century BC.
Various Indo-European languages belonging to the Italic branch (Faliscan and members of the Sebellian 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.
The Germanic runic alphabet was most likely derived from one of these alphabets in about the 2nd century.[citation needed]
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Wed, 26 Aug 2009 15:26:42 GM
The runes developed centuries after the . Old Italic alphabets. from which they are historically derived. The debate on the development of the runic script concerns the question which of the . Italic alphabets. should be taken as their point ...
