| Group | Italic (with Latin etc.), Osco-Umbrian (with Oscan and Central Italic dialects). |
| Geography | Was spoken in the region of Umbria in Italy, northeast from Rome. Umbrian is rather close to Volscian and South Picene, two Central Italic dialects. |
| History | The seven bronze Tables of Iguvium were found in 1444, but for five centuries the language of the text was considered as Etruscan. In 1928, it was proved that the language is definitely Italic, and the other inscription in Umbrian (about 20 found by now) confirm this. They are all usually thought to have been written from 200 to 70 BC. Soon afterwards, the language was assimilated by Latin. |
| Phonetics | Umbrian phonetics lost some of the Indo-European vowels, practically all the diphthongs, and it had a strong tendency for dropping final consonants: the final -d was lost, -s- between vowels and in final position became r under the "rhotacism" process (it was much stronger than in Latin), the group -ns turned into f and later disappears. Two strange sounds were invented, which are still being discussed by linguists: a sibilant which was used instead of k between vowels, and a peculiar sound which was transliterated by Romans as rs - obviously another sibilant. This sound was sometimed used in intervocal position (between vowels) instead of the original d. |
| Nominal Morphology | Phonetic processes influence noun morphology much: nominal inflections coincide and become unnecessary for the speaker. A number of postpositions was developed: they join the noun forming a kind of agglutinative cases. |
| Verbal Morphology | There are some specific forms in the verb system: for example, the Perfect tense with suffixes -nki and -lo. The meaning of verb forms ending in -fi is uncertain. |
| Lexicon | There is a number of very archaic words, mainly from sacred prayers. A lot of Umbrian words still cannot be interpreted for sure. There were loanwords from Etruscan and Latin. |
| Writing | Umbrian alphabet, Latin alphabet |
| Close Contacts | Latin, Etruscan |
| Sample | Sve mestru karu fratru Atiier'iu, pure ulu benurent, prusikurent
kuratu rehte neip eru, enuk fratru ehvelklu feia fratreks ute kvestur,
panta muta ar'ferture si. Panta muta fratru Atiier'iu mestru karu, pure
ulu benurent, ar'ferture eru pepurrurent herifi, etantu mutu ar'ferture
si.
Latin:
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