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SABELLIC

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Originally appearing in Volume V23, Page 963 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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SABELLIC ,1 the name originally given by See also:

Mommsen in his Unteritalische Dialekte to the pre-See also:Roman dialects of Central See also:Italy which was neither Oscan nor Umbrian. The progress of study has, however, grouped them under more specific names, such as the " See also:North Oscan " See also:group (see PAEZIGNI) and the " Latinian " group (see LATIN See also:LANGUAGE), and the only content now See also:left for the See also:term Sabellic consists of a group of 8 or 9 See also:inscriptions to which it certainly cannot be applied with truth. They are probably, if not ,certainly, the most See also:ancient inscriptions in existence on See also:Italian See also:soil. Since they were all found on a See also:strip of the eastern See also:coast See also:running from the mouth of the Aternus on the See also:south to See also:Pesaro on the north, it is probably best to See also:call them simply " See also:East See also:Italic " or " Adriatic." Not even the transcription of their See also:alphabet has reached the See also:stage of certainty, for even in this small number of inscriptions the alphabet seems to vary. The See also:chief doubt is about the value of W and V (or A and A) which appear beside the See also:symbol A on the same inscriptions; and of the dots in the See also:middle of the Iine which are certainly not interpuncts. They may conceivably have some connexion with the dots in Venetic inscriptions, which R. S. See also:Conway has endeavoured to explain (see See also:VENETI). The most striking characteristic of the group of inscriptions is that the direction of the See also:writing in alternate lines is not merely reversed but inverted (" See also:serpentine boustrophedon " as on the See also:Etruscan See also:stele of See also:Capua of the 5th See also:century B.C.) (see See also:ETRURIA: Language). Thus if the first See also:line consisted of the letters See also:ABC. in that See also:order, the next would be . UQ, i.e. with each See also:letter turned so as to See also:face the left, and with its See also:head downwards. This arrangement appears in some of the Venetic inscriptions also.

The longest of the inscriptions is that from Grecchio, now preserved in the See also:

Naples Museum. The See also:probability is that this and all the See also:rest were epitaphs, but a See also:translation is as yet out of the question. The See also:stone from Castrignano gives us 1certain forms which seem to be recognizable as Indo-See also:European, namely paterefo, materefo, though it is far from certain that the symbol N, which is here represented by f, really has that value. See also:Pauli's conjecture that these inscriptions probably represented the language of some settlers from See also:Illyria has little support except that of some coincidences in tribal and See also:local names on the two sides of the Adriatic (e.g. " Truentum, quod solum Liburnorum in Italia relicuum est " (Plin. Nat. Hist. iii. 1 ro), -entum being a frequent Illyrian ending, and Liburni an Illyrian tribe), though it is a priori likely enough. For the authorities for the alphabets and the See also:text of the inscriptions as known down to 1897, see R. S. Conway's Italic Dialects 1 For the Sabellian tribes, see See also:SABINE.(See also:Cambridge, 1897), ii. 528; and nothing has yet (1908) been added to what was written about the alphabets by Karl Pauli (Altital.

See also:

Stud. iii., " See also:Die Venter,''. See also:Leipzig, 1891, pp. 220 seq. and p. 423). Some plausible (but wholly uncertain) conjectures by W. Deecke as to the meaning of some of the inscriptions may be sought in the appendix to Zvetaieff's Inscrr. Italiae inferioris dialecticae; and since 1897 a further inscription of this class has been found at Belmonte Piceno, which is preserved in the museum at See also:Bologna and reported by Brizio in Notiz. degli scavi, 1903, p. 104. It is to be noticed that a much longer and far more legible inscription from Novilara (now in the museum at Pesaro—a See also:cast of it is at Bologna) sometimes spoken of as Sabellic, whose first two words are mimnis et-id, is perhaps more probably to be regarded as containing some variety of Etruscan, though its See also:character is far from certain. Its alphabet closely resembles Etruscan of the 4th century B.C. It is a very interesting See also:monument both for its own See also:sake, since it is sculptured as well as inscribed (there is one—or more—See also:hunting or See also:pastoral See also:scene on the back), and because the archaeological stratum (See also:late See also:Bronze See also:period) of the See also:cemetery from which it is believed to have come is clearly marked. With a See also:companion fragment it is fully described by Brizio in Monumenti antichi, v.

(1895), and it has also been discussed by See also:

Ella Lattes in See also:Hermes (xxxi. 465 and xliii. 32). (R. S.

End of Article: SABELLIC

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