Camunic language

Camunic is an extinct language once spoken by the Camunni tribe that dwelt in the Val Camonica, Brescia, Italy.

The language is of unknown classification.

Camunic writing is found mainly on rocks in the variety of the Old Italic alphabet that is sometimes termed the "alphabet of Sondrio." About 200 inscriptions, all dating from the first millennium BCE, are known. Most were found within the Val Camonica. The tongue likely died out some time in the 1st century BCE due to Latin expansion.
Note: This language should not be confused with the Camunic dialect that is a local variant of Eastern Lombard spoken at present days in Val Camonica beside Italian.

History

Local toponyms of Camonica valley and old words of Camunic Italian dialect play an important role in determining some words of the old Camunic language.

The main problem by analyzing nowaday's Italic Camunic dielect is that it is not uniquely identifiable as a dialect, rather as a family of similar dialects ("dialèt" is the local name of their "dialect").

These dialects, despite similarities to other dialects of neighboring areas, remain very different from one another.

A curious example is the vernacular languae of Prestine, where the "R" sound does not exist ("Prestine" itself is pronounced "Pgesten").

Local toponyms

ee also

*Camunni
*Val Camonica

References

*Mancini, Alberto. 1980. "Le iscrizioni della Valcamonica" in "Studi Urbinati di storia, filosofia e letteratura. Supplemento linguistico" 2, pp. 75-166.
*Mancini, Alberto. 1991. "Iscrizioni retiche e iscrizioni camune. Due ambiti a confronto" in "Quaderni del Dipartimento di Linguistica, Università degli studi di Firenze" 2, pp. 77-93.
*Tibiletti Bruno, Maria Grazia. 1990. "Nuove iscrizioni camune" in "Quaderni camuni" 49-50, pp. 29-171.
*Tibiletti Bruno, Maria Grazia. 1992. "Gli alfabetari" in "Quaderni camuni" 60, pp. 309-380.