Download Introduction to Venetic

Katherine McDonald km440
Venetic Seminar 2015-2016
Introduction to Venetic
1. Writing system
1.1 Basic summary
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Venetic is written in its own alphabet(s) and, later, in the Latin alphabet
The Venetic alphabet is written right-to-left, and is adapted from the Etruscan alphabet, with the
reintroduction of Greek letters in some instances
The some letters of the alphabet vary between the different cities where Venetic was used, but most of
the letter shapes are similar.
For most of its history, Venetic uses syllabic punctuation (see 1.3).
Venetic writing can be divided into four main stages:
o Archaic Venetic (c. 550-475 BC; no punctuation)
o Old Venetic (c. 475-300 BC; uses syllabic punctuation and h1)
o New Venetic (c. 300-150 BC; uses syllabic punctuation and h2-4)
o Veneto-Latin (c. 150-100; uses the Latin alphabet)
These correspond loosely to the archaeological phases Este-III (500-350 BC), Este-IV (350-175 BC) and
the Roman period (175 BC onwards).
1.2. Letters of the alphabet
(order from the Atestine abecedary)
<A> = a
<E> = e
<F> = v
<Z> = d (sometimes transcribed as z)
<H> = h
<θ> = θ (dead letter in some varieties)
<I> = i
<K> = k
<L> = l
<M> = m
<N> = n
<Π> = p
<M> = ś
<D> = r
<S> = s
<X> or <θ> = t
<Λ> = u
<Φ> = b (sometimes transcribed as φ)
<Ψ> = g (sometimes transcribed as χ)
<O> = o
1.2.1. Digraphs
 vh = /f/ (sometimes hv or h)
 ii or ij or jj = /y/
1.2.2. Local variation
 The most marked variation is in the letters t
d
Este
Vicenza
Notation of
/t/
X (t1)
X (t1)
and
Notation of
/d/
Z (d1)
T (d3)
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Katherine McDonald km440
Venetic Seminar 2015-2016
Padua
Lagole and Monte
Pore
Valle di Cadore
Carinthia
Friuli
Carso
θ (t2/3)
X (t1)
X (d4)
Z (d2)
X (t1)
X (t1)
T
X (t1)
Y (d5)
D
?
?
1.2.3. The Latin alphabet
 When written in the Latin alphabet, /k/ is mostly written as <C>, sometimes <K>.
 The cluster /kt/ is normally written as –gt- in Venetic but <CT> in the Latin alphabet.
 The digraph ij for yod is written <I> in the Latin alphabet.
 Otherwise the correspondences are straightforward.
1.3. Syllabic punctuation
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The most distinctive aspect of the Venetic alphabet is its system of syllabic punctuation
The general principle is that any letter which contravenes the CV syllable structure is marked
Letters which are “marked” usually have a dot or short line either side of them
Things which ARE marked:
o a vowel at the beginning of a syllable
o a consonant at the end of a syllable (i.e. all closed syllables are marked)
o the second element of a diphthong
There are some exceptions where consonant clusters are allowed without being marked
o Clusters where the first element is a fricative, stop or /m/ and the second element is /r/, /n/ or
/l/.
o /kv/ is also not marked
NB: The letter h and .i. look often look identical in “New Venetic”. In some cases, we are not sure which is meant.
For example, śa.i.nate.i. vs. śahnate.i. (cf. Latin sānus) and re.i.tia.i. vs. rehtia.i. (cf. Latin rectus) – in each of these
examples, the first variant is now the more common transcription, but lacks a good etymology.
2. Phonology
2.1. Vowels
2.1.1. Venetic appears to have a five-vowel system as follows:
/ī̆/
/ē̆ /
/ō̆ /
/ū̆ /
/ā̆ /
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Long vowels are not marked.
We have no evidence of a difference in quality between long and short vowels (e.g. little to no confusion
of /ĭ/ and /ē/).
In general we do not know if there were any changes to the length of inherited vowels (e.g. we do not
know if there was compensatory lengthening when consonants were lost, loss of length in non-initial
syllables, and so on).
2.1.2. Vowels
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Katherine McDonald km440
Venetic Seminar 2015-2016
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The letter <a> denotes a vowel from inherited *ă, *ā and *H. Also, *n̥  /an/.
o Examples of ă: *ghau-  ho.s.tihavo.s.; *alk-  alkomno; *ans-  .an.śore.s.; *anti-  a(n)tisteit
o Examples of ā: *bhrāt-ter-  vhratere.i.; *dōnā-  dona.s.to, donasan.
o Examples of h1: *dhh1-(k-)  vha.g.s.to (c.f. Latin facio, Oscan fakiiad).
o Examples of h2: *ph2ter-  pater; *sth2-ti-  stati.
o Examples of h3: not attested
o Examples of n̥ > an: *-s-n̥ t (3rd plural ending)  donasan; *antrā  .a.(n)tra
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The letter <e> denotes a vowel from inherited *ĕ and *ē. It is possible that *r̥ sometimes > /er/.
o Examples of ĕ: *ter-mon-  te.r.mon.io.s.; *ekwo-  .e.kvo.n.; suffix *-ter-  vhratere.i.;
conjunction –kve
o Examples of ē: *wlē-no-  leno; *ph2tēr  pater
o Example of r̥  /er/?: vo.l.te.r.kon (from adjective in –iko- from noun *wel-tro-)
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The letter <i> denotes a vowel from inherited *ĭ, *-yŏ- and *ī. There are occasional examples of the
closure of /ĕ/ to /ĭ/.
o Examples of ĭ: *tri-  tribus.iiate.i.; *ghosti-  ho.s.tihavo.s.; *anti  a(n)tisteit;
*wl̥-ti-  vo.l.tio Examples of ī: *gwīwo-  vivoi; *bhwī-  filia
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The letter <o> denotes a vowel from inherited *ŏ or *ō. Also, *l̥ > /ol/. There is at least one example of
the velarisation of /ĕ/ to /ŏ/.
o Examples of ŏ: *ost-  ostinobos; *ghosti-  ho.s.ti-; also in verb and noun endings.
o Examples of ō: *dō-  doto, dono.m., dona.s.to; *egō  .e.go
o Examples of l̥ > ol: *wl̥-ti-  vo.l.ti-; *pl̥-to-  poltos
o Velarisation: *weltro-  *woltro-  vo.l.te.r.kon
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The letter <u> denotes a vowel from inherited *ŭ, *-wŏ- or *ū. There is one example of *r̥ > /ur/. There
is late development of /ou/ > /ū/. One inscription from Lagole substitutes <u> for <o>.
o Examples of ŭ: fourth declension nouns; probably in the name klutiiari.s.
( *klŭto-); probably *bheug(h)-/*bhug(h)-  vhugo Examples of ū: maybe in the preposition .u. from *ŭd-/*ūd-, as in Latin ūsque
o Example of r̥ > ur?: *mr̥ -to-  murtuvoi. This could also be a change *r̥ > /or/ > /ur/.
2.1.3. Diphthongs
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Venetic has /ei/, /ai/, /oi/ and /eu/, /au/, /ou/
The second element is always spelled with a vowel and punctuated, e.g. a.u.
Venetic seems to preserve inherited diphthongs.
Some additional diphthongs are created by the gemination of intervocalic yod and w.
/eu/ is not lost but seems to be in the process of becoming /ou/ (especially at Este and Valle di Cadore;
this change is less advanced or the writing is more archaising in Padua and Lagole)
2.1.4. Syncope of short vowels
 Full details at Lejeune (1974: 111-125)
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Prehistorically, apocope of -ĭ in 3rd singular ending *-tĭ
Apocope of demonstrative enclitic *-ke in .e..i.k. cf. Latin hīc, Oscan eizeic, exeic.
Apocope of the final vowels in the preposition *opi  .o.p
Prehistorically, syncope affects final consonant + yod + ŏs, so that *yŏs  -is
During Este-IV or the Roman period, affects final –ŭs and -ĭs. E.g. .e.kupetari.s. becomes ecupetaris
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Katherine McDonald km440
Venetic Seminar 2015-2016
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Historically, syncope affects the second open syllable in words of three or more syllables. E.g. .e.kvopet .e.kupet-  .e.p.pet-  .e.pet- and .u.posed-  upsed-  used-
2.2 Consonants
2.2.1. At the end of the sixth century when Venetic first starts being written, its consonant phonology looks
something like this:
Labial Dental/Alveolar Palatal Velar
Glottal
plain labialised
Plosive
Affricate
Fricative
voiced
b
voiceless p
aspirated
voiceless
voiced
voiceless f
Nasal
Rhotic
Approximant
m
w
d
t
g
k
kw
ʦ
s
n
r
l
h
j
A number of changes then take place:
 During the period Este-III, there is a change of /h/  zero
 During the period Este-IV, /w/  /v/ and /kw/  /k/ + /v/ (Lejeune 1974, based on the consonant
clusters where these appear – may not be conclusive
 At some point late in Venetic, /ʦ/ (transliterated ś) merges with /s/
2.2.2. Key sound changes from PIE
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Many consonant phonemes continue without change from PIE
PIE *gw  /w/  /v/
PIE *bh, *dh, *gh  /b, d, g/ in non-initial syllables
PIE initial * bh and *dh  /f/ (spelled vh)
PIE initial *gh  /h/
The Venetic /ʦ/, spelled ś, derived from a number of sources
o Final postvocalic *-ts  ś
o Final postvocalic *-ns  ś
o Dissimilation of final –s when the syllable begins with /s/, e.g. vesos  vesoś
o During Este-IV, sporadic palatalization of –ty- > -tśo –st-  -ts-  ś. E.g. .an.śore.s.  *ans-tor-es
o –ps-  ś. E.g. .u.posed-  upsed-  uśedo Intial examples of ś are not well-understood, but at least one derives from swo Some other origins of /ʦ/ are not well understood
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Katherine McDonald km440
Venetic Seminar 2015-2016
2.2.3. Other important sound changes and notes
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Word-internal consonants are susceptible to gemination, especially “expressive gemination” in names
The difference between /m/ and /n/ seems to be neutralised before consonants and finally
/g/ is devoiced before /s/ and /t/, so that vhu.g.siia can also be found as vhu.k.siia
We have no attested examples of the outcome of /gw/
There are sporadic examples of assimilation of d…t…  t…t…
Final stops are lost prehistorically; the remaining stops are secondary as a result of apocope and other
changes
/h/ and /f/ are not found word-internally apart from in compounds
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More detail in Lejeune (1974:125ff)
3. Morphology
3.1 Nouns
3.1.1 Notes on nouns
 The ablative, locative and vocative are not attested
 Three numbers (singular, dual and plural) and three genders (masculine, feminine and neuter)
 Only attested forms are given in the tables below
3.1.2. a-stem nouns (first declension)
Singular
Dual Plural
animate nom. -a
animate acc.
-a.n. (-a.m.)
dative
-a.i.
instrumental
-a
3.1.3. o-stem nouns (second declension)
Singular
Dual Plural
animate nom.
-o.s.
-o
animate acc.
-o.n.
neuter nom./acc.
-o.n. (-o.m.)
genitive
-i
dative
-o.i.
-obo.s.
instrumental
-o
-obo.s.
instrumental adverbial -e
3.1.4. Post-consonantal -yo- nouns
Singular Dual Plural
animate nom. -i.s. > .s.
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-o.s.
Katherine McDonald km440
Venetic Seminar 2015-2016
animate acc.
-iio.s.
genitive
-i
dative
-iio.i.
instrumental
-iio
3.1.5. Post-vocalic -(y)yo- nouns (e.g. -e(y)yo-)
Singular Dual Plural
animate nom. -e.i.iio.s.
genitive
-e.i.
dative
-e.i.iio.i.
3.1.6. Post-consonantal -wo- nouns
Singular Dual Plural
animate nom. -vo.s.
animate acc.
-vo.s.
genitive
-vi
dative
-vo.i.
3.1.7. Post-vocalic -(w)wo- nouns
Singular Dual Plural
animate nom. -vo.s.
animate acc.
-vo.s.
genitive
-vi
dative
-vo.i.
3.1.8. i-stem nouns
Singular
animate nom.
-i.s. > -.s.
animate acc.
-i.n.
Dual Plural
neuter nom./acc. -(zero)
dative
-e.i.
instrumental
-i
3.1.9. u-stem nouns
Singular Dual Plural
animate acc. -u.n.
-u.ś. / -u.s.
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Katherine McDonald km440
Venetic Seminar 2015-2016
3.1.10. Nouns in *-ter-, *-tor-, -on-, -t-, -ntSingular Dual Plural
animate nom. -te.r.
-o
-e.ś.
-.n.t.s.
genitive
-no.s.
dative
-tere.i.
-tore.i.
-one.i.
-ete.i.
-.n.te.i.
-.n.te -tore.s.
3.2. Verbs
3.2.1. Attested verb forms
 atisteit “adstat”. 3rd singular. Only example with a preverb. Intransitive, with a dative complement.
 [d]ido.r. “dat”. Reading uncertain. With object dono.m.
 donasan “donauerunt”. With accusative object.
 dona.s.to “donauit”. 44 examples. Sometimes also found as tona.s.to. With accusative object.
 doto “dedit”. 20 examples. With accusative object.
 vha.g.s.to and hva.g.sto “fecit”, but with a meaning of “made a dedication”. Found at Padua, with
accusative object.
 la.g.[s.to], found at Este coordinating with dona.s.to, with accusative object and dative theonym at the
end of the text. Perhaps a connection with Latin lacio?
 tola.r. verb of dedicating, with accusative object.
 tole.r. verb of dedicating, with or without accusative object.
 ]tera.r. – may be a fragment of a verb
 te.u.te.r.s. may be a verb meaning something like “made public”, though morphology is unclear
 va.g.sont[ may be third-person plural verb, but the meaning is unknown
3.2.2. Known verb endings
 -eit  *-eiti, (with hypercharacterisation adding *-ti to *-ei, with later apocope), 3rd singular of the
thematic present active.
 -an  *n̥ t. 3rd plural of the sigmatic past active.
 -to 3rd singular of the past active, both in root pasts and sigmatic pasts
 -r 3rd singular, found in both a reduplicated present ([d]ido.r.) and in other verbs whose form is unclear
(tola.r./tole.r.). Comparitively, this ending should be medio-passive, but these verbs appear to be active
in meaning and take a direct object. Could this also be behind te.u.te.r.s.?
 perhaps –nti for va.g.sont[ ?
3.2.3. Known verbal stems
 *dō-  *deh3- “give”, found in donasan, dona.s.to, doto and (reduplicated) [d]ido.r.
 *stā-  *steh2- “stand”, found in ati-steit
 *tel- “carry”, found in tola.r. and tole.r.
 *fak- *dheh1-k- “make”, found in vha.g.sto
 *alke/o- found in alkomno
 *pel- found in a verbal adjective poltos  *pl̥-to Maybe *gher- in horvionte or hor<e>ionte
 Maybe teut-, “make public, from *teuta- “people”
 Maybe *wag- or *wak-, found in va.g.sont[. Connection with Latin uagari?
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Katherine McDonald km440
Venetic Seminar 2015-2016
3.2.4. Other attested forms
 Active participle in –nt-, found in horvionte
 Medio-passive participle in –mno-, found in alkomno
 Verbal adjective in –to-, found in poltos
4. Syntax
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Currently there is little to say about syntax.
Most inscriptions are short and many feature only personal names.
Most of the phrases we can say something about appear to be formulaic.
4.1. Dedicatory formulae
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Dedicatory inscriptions make up the bulk of the Venetic corpus
They can include the following elements:
o subject in the nominative
o verb in 3rd person
o object in the accusative
o recipient in the dative
o recipient in the accusative
o beneficiary in dative (“for/on behalf of X”)
o circumstances/motivation of dedication, usually a prepositional phrase
o abbreviated formulae
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Though the elements can appear in different orders and combinations, the following rules and
tendencies exist:
o where a verb is used, it always has a stated subject
o the verb is never the first word of the sentence
o the accusative pronoun mego is usually at the beginning of the sentence
o prepositional phrases are placed at the end of the sentence
o constituent parts of personal names normally appear together, but can occasionally be
separated by other words (may be due to a misengraving?)
4.2. Funerary formulae
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These inscriptions can include the following elements:
o (always) the name of the deceased in the nominative or dative
o the name of the person putting up the inscription in the nominative or genitive
o the nominative pronoun .e.go, referring to the tomb or monument
o a word denoting the tomb
Tombs are sometimes to multiple people, such as a married couple or three sisters; in this case the
names are joined by ke or –kve
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Katherine McDonald km440
Venetic Seminar 2015-2016
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Text 75 ter also includes a further sentence, which seems to say that the affection (karis) of the person
setting up the monument stays with (atisteit) the dead person in death as it did in life (vivoi oliialekve
murtuvoi)
4.3. Coordination and asyndeton
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Coordination can be marked either by the proclitic conjunction ke or the enclitic conjunctive –kve.
ke is found joining: two verbs, two nouns, and two letters of the alphabet (in the magical formula a ke o)
-kve is found joining: adjectives, three nouns (attached to the final one)
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We also find asyndeton in pairs or lists of personal names
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There are a couple of conjunctions in the Tavola d’Este, such as kude “where”, kvan “when”
4.4. Number
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Venetic has three numbers: singular, dual and plural
A patronymic adjective applying to three people can appear in the singular, in agreement with the
closest idionym only (text 63 and 123)
We can see that the dual may have been decreasing in use because of the use of a plural verb with two
subjects (which are described by participles in the dual) in the Archaic Venetic text 123
4.5. Case
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Uses of the nominative
o name of deceased on a gravestone
o name of person setting up a gravestone, in the formula “X for Y”
o name of the tomb, in the formula “tomb for X”
o nominative pronoun in the formula “I am for X”
o name of dedicator on a dedication
o other subjects of verbs on dedications, e.g. te.u.ta
o lists of personal names, e.g. text 149
Uses of the accusative
o the object of all verbs of giving
o with the preposition per.
o with the preposition .u.
o probably with the preposition .e..s.
Uses of the genitive
o property inscriptions reading “of X” i.e. “this belongs to X”
o name of person setting up a gravestone, in the formula “tomb of X, for Y”, where Y is the name of
the deceased
o sometimes to show the name of a woman’s husband
o ostinobos frivi “for the bones of F.” (possessive genitive)
o vineti karis “the affection of V.” (subjective genitive)
o with the preposition *entos
Uses of the dative
o name of the divinity to whom a dedication is made
o name of the person to whom a present is given
o name of the deceased for whom a tomb has been built
o name of the person on whose behalf a dedication has been made
o with the verb adsteit
Uses of the instrumental
o with the preposition .o.p “because of”
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Katherine McDonald km440
Venetic Seminar 2015-2016
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The ablative, locative and vocative are not attested.
5. The Position of Venetic
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Originally thought to be related to Illyrian and/or Messapic.
In 1940s, connection to Italic was put forward.
If the main criterion for inclusion in “Italic” is the treatment of the voiced aspirates, then Venetic does
seem to be Italic (and perhaps closer to Latin than to Oscan-Umbrian).
However, this is essentially arbritrary. We should also keep in mind that many of the similarities
between Latin-Faliscan and Oscan-Umbrian are probably the result of later convergence rather than
shared innovations.
List of all isoglosses and possible isoglosses in Lejeune (1974: 165ff)
5.1 Phonetic isoglosses
 *ŏ remains distinct from *ă, unlike in Messapic and Germanic
 *ō remains distinct from *ā, unlike in Messapic, Germanic and (in initial syllables) in Celtic
 *ē is preserved, as in Latin and Faliscan, and unlike the raising seen in Umbrian, Oscan and Celtic and
the lowering in Messapic
 *ai is preserved, as in Oscan, in contrast to the monophthongisation in Latin, Faliscan, Umbrian, Gaulish,
Lepontic and Celtiberian
 *l̥  /ol/, as in the Italic languages and unlike Germanic and Celtic
 *n̥  /an/, as in Oscan-Umbrian (in initial syllables) and in Gaulish and Celtiberian, but unlike OscanUmbrian (in non-initial syllables), Latin, Lepontic, Gaelic, Messapic and Germanic
 Conservation of intervocalic *-s-, as in Oscan, Continental Celtic and Germanic
 Conservation of *p, in contrast to Celtic
 Initial *bh *dh *gh do not merge with *b *d *g, with similar treatment to Latin and Oscan-Umbrian
 Medial *bh and *dh become /b/ and /d/, as in Latin
 Labiovelars *kw  /kv-/ and *gw  /v-/, as in Latin, in contrast to the preservation of the labiovelars in
Celtiberian and Germanic and the labialisation in Oscan-Umbrian, Lepontic and Gaulish.
 Assimilation *p…kw…  *kw…kw…, as in Latin and Gaelic, and probably also in Oscan-Umbrian and
Gaulish
 Initial *gwh  /f/, as in Latin and maybe also Oscan-Umbrian
 Non-assimilation of –nd-, as in Latin, Ligurian, Gaulish, Celtiberian, Gaelic, and in contrast with OscanUmrian, Lepontic and Brittonic
 Preservation of –st-, as in Latin, Oscan-Umbria, Ligurian, Celtiberian, Brittonic and Germanic
 Presevation of –kt-, as in Latin and Germanic, but in contrast to Oscan-Umbrian, Gaulish, Celtiberian,
Gaelic
 Preservation of inherited internal *-tl- as in Gaulish and Brittonic, against dissimilation in Latin and
Oscan-Umbrian
5.2 Morphological isoglosses
 Genitive singular in -ī in the second declension, as in Latin, Faliscan, Lepontic, Gaulish and Gaelic
 Dative plural in –bo.s. ( *bhos), as in Messapic (-bas), Oscan-Umbrian, Latin, Lepontic, Celtiberian, but
not Germanic
 Instrumental plural identical to dative plural in second declension, unlike Latin and Oscan-Umbrian
 Survival of the dual, found in Umbrian as an archaism
 Accusative pronoun mego, remodelled to match .e.go, as in Germanic
 Sigmatic past tense, found in Latin in a few verbs and more extensively in Celtic, but not found in OscanUmbrian or Germanic
 Medio-passive in –r, found in Latin, Oscan, Umbrian, Gaulish, Brittonic and Gaelic, but not found in
Germanic, Slavic and Greek
 Preservation of a passive participle in *-mno-, unlike almost everyone else
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Katherine McDonald km440
Venetic Seminar 2015-2016
5.3 Lexical isoglosses
 *aisu- “god”, found in Oscan-Umbrian, Gaulish (and Etruscan)
 *ans- also found in Germanic
 *aug- in religious vocab, also found in Latin
 *bhwīlyo- “son”, as in Latin, Faliscan, Umbrian?, Messapic and Albanian
 *dōno- “gift”, as in Hindi, Latin, Oscan, Umbrian and Celtic; the formation of a verb in -ā- is found in the
Italic languages
 *dhh1k- “make”, in Venetic “make a dedication”, found in Latin and Oscan-Umbrian, but not Celtic and
Germanic
 *entos is also found in Latin and Greek
 ghei(-ke) “here” is also found in Latin and Faliscan
 ghosti- is found in Latin, Lepontic, Ligurian, German and Slavic; it is not found in Insular Celtic; its
absence from Oscan-Umbrian may be due to chance
 *kāro- “dear” is found in Latin, Germanic and Baltic
 *leudhero- in the plural means “children” only in Venetic and Latin
 *mg- is used as a term of offering only in Venetic (magetlo.n.) and Latin (mactus)
 miles is found in both Latin and Venetic
 The refashioning of *mr̥ to- “dead” into *mr̥ two- to match *gwῖwo- is found independently in Slavic
(mrŭtvŭ) and Latin (mortuus). May be significant that this is also found in Venetic murtuvoi.
 The pronoun sselboisselboi “for himself” shows similarity with the Germanic pronouns of the type
Gothic silba, from *s(w)e The noun *teutā- for “people” is found in Messapic, Oscan-Umbrian, Venetic, Gaulish, Celtiberian,
Brittonic, Gaelic, Germanic and Baltic, but not Latin.
 *ū̆ d(s) functions as a preposition in Venetic, Germanic, Baltic and Slavic; in Latin it is only an adverb
(usque).
 The preverb *upo in Venetic does not show the prefix s- found in Latin, Oscan and Umbrian.
 The Latin uescor, which lacks a clear etymology, appears to correspond to Venetic ve.s.ke.ś.
6. Personal names
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About half of the Venetic material consists of personal names
Both male and female names are attested, though most of the female names are of a relatively recent
date
A list of the attested personal names is included in the “Venetic vocabulary” handout.
6.1. Men’s names
 Usually an idionym (ID) which may be followed optionally by a patronymic adjective derived from the
father’s name (PA)
 ID
o IDs can be compound names, in the manner of Greek and Celtic names, e.g. ho.s.tihavo.s.
o Most are not compounds but derived from stems using a number of different suffixes.
 PA
o The PA is most commonly an adjective in –yo- or in –ko-.
o A few PAs seem to be compounds with the second element –gno- or –k(e)no-, maybe from *genand meaning “born of X”.
o Patronymic adjectives can sometimes become “degraded” and are used as idionyms. This can
cause some ambiguity, especially in damaged inscriptions.
o names can include more than one PA, usually indicating the grandfather or the adopted father in
addition to the father
6.2. Women’s names
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Katherine McDonald km440
Venetic Seminar 2015-2016
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Some women’s names are ID + PA, just like men’s names – maybe unmarried women?
Other women’s names are ID + GA, where GA is a gamonymique adjective in -nā derived from their
husband’s name, e.g. vhugia .u.r.kle.i.na
The GA is not attested very early, and may be a relatively late innovation (around the end of Este-III?).
Like PAs, GAs can come to be used as idionyms.
One woman can have both a PA and a GA.
6.3. Filiation
 terms defining family relationships are not required as part of personal names
 familial relationships appear occasionally as extra information, particularly in later inscriptions and
those in the Latin alphabet
 named relationships include:
o filia “daughter”
o pater “father”
o ve.s.ke.ś. “adopted child”
o lo.u.dera.i. kane.i. “dear child”
Resources
Corpora, collections of new inscriptions and descriptions of the language
C. Pauli (1891) Die Veneter. [Approach with caution]
R.S. Conway (1933) The Prae-Italic dialects of Italy, vol. 1, London. [Approach with caution]
M.S. Beeler (1949) The Venetic Language, Berkeley.
G.B. Pellegrini and A.L. Prosdocimi (1967) La lingua venetica, Padova. [First corpus with pictures]
M. Lejeune (1974) Manuel de la langue Vénète, Heidelberg.
G. Fogolari and A.L. Prosdocimi (1988) I Veneti antichi. Lingua e cultura, Padova.
A. Marinetti (1999) Iscrizioni venetiche. Aggiornamento 1988-1998. In Studi Etruschi LXIII: 461-476.
A. Marinetti (2004) Venetico: rassegna di nuove iscrizioni. In Studi Etruschi LXX: 389-408.
Other key works
E. Vetter (1936) Zur Lesung einiger venetischen Inschriften. In Glotta 24: 114-133. [First to refute connection
with Illyrian]
J. Untermann (1961) Die venetischen Personennamen. Wiesbaden.
M. Lejeune (1978) Ateste à l'heure de la romanisation. Etude anthroponymique. Florence.
A. Marinetti(1998) Il venetico: bilancio e prospettive. In A. Marinetti, M.T. Vigolo and A. Zamboni (eds.) Varietà
e continuità nella storia linguisitca del Veneto. Padua/Venice: 49-98. [For the Tavola d’Este]
A. Marinetti (2008) Lo stato attuale dell’epigrafia venetica. In Quaderni di Archeologia del Veneto 24: 189-193.
A. Marinetti (2003) Il « signore del cavallo » e i riflessi istituzionali dei dati di lingua. Venetica ekupetaris. In G.
Cresci Marrone and M. Tirelli (eds.) Produzioni, merci e commerci in Altino preromana e romana. Rome:
143-160. [For the word ekupetaris]
Michael Weiss (2013 handout) Introduction to Venetic (Leiden Summer School in IE Linguistics 2013).
www.academia.edu/7894586/Introduction_to_Venetic_Leiden_Summer_School_in_IE_Linguistics_2013_
[with fuller bibliography, by subject]
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