User:Minervascripps/Oscan language

The Testament of Vibius Adiranus
In Oscan (?):

v(iíbis). aadirans. v(iíbieís). eítiuvam. paam

vereiiaí. púmpaiianaí. trístaa-

mentud. deded. eísak. eítiuvad

v(iíbis). viínikiís. m(a)r(aheis). kvaísstur. púmp-

aiians. trííbúm. ekak. kúmben-

nieís. tanginud. úpsannam

deded. ísídum. prúfatted

In English:

Vibius Adiranus, son of Vibius, gave in his will money to the Pompeian vereiia-. With this money, Vibius Vinicius, son of Maras, Pompeian quaestor, dedicated the construction of this building by decision of the senate, and the same man approved it.

Adapted from the Etruscan alphabet, the Central Oscan alphabet was used to write Oscan in Campania and surrounding territories from the 4th century BCE until possibly the first century CE.

From current article:

"A very strong piece of evidence is the presence of Oscan graffiti on walls of Pompeii that were reconstructed after the earthquake of CE 62, and must therefore have been written between CE 62 and 79." (Source: Cooley, Alison E. (2002). "The survival of Oscan in Roman Pompeii." Becoming Roman, writing Latin? : literacy and epigraphy in the Roman West. Journal of Roman Archaeology. ISBN 1-887829-48-2. OCLC 54951998. )

Other scholars argue that this is not strong evidence for the survival of Oscan, given the disappearance of public inscriptions in Oscan after Roman colonization. It is possible that both languages may have existed simultaneously under different conditions, in which Roman was given political, religious, and administrative importance while Oscan was considered a 'low' language. This phenomenon is referred to as diglossia with bilingualism. Some Oscan graffiti exists from the first century CE, but it is rare to find evidence from Italy of Latin-speaking Roman citizens representing themselves as having non-Latin-speaking ancestors.

Oscan speakers came into close contact with the Latium population. Early Latin texts have been discovered nearby major Oscan settlements. For example, the Garigliano Bowl was found close to Miturnae, less than 40 kilometers from Capua, which was once a large Oscan settlement.