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Siculian
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<h2 id="classification">Classification</h2> <p>Ancient sources state that <a href="/facts/Siculians/3l4H6YEb">Siculians</a> entered Sicily from the Italian Peninsula either around the 13th century or the middle of the 11th century BCE (or in two waves), driving the prior inhabitants, the <a href="/facts/Sicani/39JRqcR1">Sicanians</a> and <a href="/facts/Elymians/BTH51Vgj">Elymians</a>, to the west of the island.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:2" href="#fn:2"><sup>2</sup></a> </p><p>Due to its limited attestation, it is difficult to determine much about this language beyond that it was Indo-European.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:3" href="#fn:3"><sup>3</sup></a> The prevalent modern view is that Siculian was an <a href="/facts/Italic_language/82W676n0">Italic language</a>, although the scarcity of sources and the difficulties in interpreting inscriptions and glosses make it impossible to come to a definitive conclusion.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:4" href="#fn:4"><sup>4</sup></a> </p><p>Some inscriptions may reveal Italic elements, such as <i>geped</i> ('had'), which is comparable to the <a href="/facts/Oscan_language/DnrwH4an">Oscan</a> <i>hipid</i>; <i>dedaxed</i> ('made' ?), perhaps a reduplicated <i>k</i>-extended form of the root *<i>dʰeh1</i>- similar to <a href="/facts/Volscian_language/HCtrS7Dw">Volscian</a> <i>fhe:fhaked</i> and Oscan <i>fefacid</i>; and the female name <i>Kup(a)ra</i>, which evokes the <a href="/facts/Sabellic_language/yGffDuqX">Sabellic</a> *<i>kupro</i>- ('good').<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:5" href="#fn:5"><sup>5</sup></a> </p><p>If Siculian is indeed classified as Italic, it would diverge from all its relatives in showing voiced reflexes of the Proto-Indo-European voiced aspirates in initial position, in contrast to the sound changes <i>f</i> < *<i>dʰ</i>, *<i>bʰ</i> and <i>h</i>- < *<i>gʰ</i>/*<i>g̑ʰ</i>, attested in Sabellic, in latin and Venetic.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:6" href="#fn:6"><sup>6</sup></a> </p> <h2 id="attestations">Attestations</h2> <p>They used the Greek alphabet, along with a native one based upon <a href="/facts/Archaic_Greek_alphabets/hkBDo1WD">Western Greek scripts</a>, probably the <a href="/facts/Euboea/YEvmF1Eb">Euboic</a>-<a href="/facts/Chalkidiki/kLo2hT0k">Chalkidic</a> version.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:7" href="#fn:7"><sup>7</sup></a> According to scholar Markus Hartmann, "of the fewer than thirty inscriptions in total, only six appear to be at least in part intelligible and to be Siculian (i.e., most certainly neither Greek nor belonging to some other Italic or pre-Italic language)."<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:8" href="#fn:8"><sup>8</sup></a> </p> <blockquote><p>ΝΕΝΔΑΣ Π̣Υ̣[----]Σ ΤΕΒΕΓ ΠΡΑΑΡΕΙ ΕΝ ΒΟ[.]ΡΕΝΑΙ ϜΙΔΕ ΠΑΓΟΣΤΙΚΕ ΑΙΤΕ[--]ΛΥΒΕnendas ˌ puṛẹṇọṣ ˌ tebeg ˌ praarei ˌ en ˌ bo?renai ˌ vide ˌ pagostike ˌ aite?ṇ?ụbe.</p>— Stele from Sciri Sottano (late 6th – early 5th century BCE)<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:9" href="#fn:9"><sup>9</sup></a><a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:10" href="#fn:10"><sup>10</sup></a></blockquote> <blockquote><p>tamuraabesakedqoiaves ˌ eurumakes ˌ agepipokedḷutimbe levopomanatesemaidarnakei- buṛeitaṃomịaetiurela</p>— Amphora from Montagna di Marzo (late 6th – early 5th century BCE)<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:11" href="#fn:11"><sup>11</sup></a></blockquote> <blockquote><p>ΙΑΜ ΑΚΑΡΑΜ ΕΠΟΠΑΣ ΚΑΑΓΙΙΕΣ ΓΕΠΕΔ ΤΟΥΤΟ FΕΡΕΓΑΙ ΕΣΗΕΙΚΑΔ[.] ΑΛΑiamˌakaramˌe?p??asˌkaag?esˌgẹpẹḍ2te?toˌveregai- es? ˌ eka ˌ doara[ịẹạḍ]</p>— Block of sandstone from Mendolito (late 6th century BCE)<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:12" href="#fn:12"><sup>12</sup></a><a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:13" href="#fn:13"><sup>13</sup></a></blockquote> <blockquote><p>nunus ˌ teṇti ˌ mím ˌ arustainam ˌ íemitom ˌ esti ˌ durom ˌ nanepos ˌ durom ˌ íemitom ˌ esti ˌ velíom ˌ ned ˌ emponitantom ˌ eredes ˌ vịino ˌ brtome</p>— Guttus (or <a href="/facts/Askos_(pottery_vessel)/UvVYugWk">askos</a>) from Centorbi (early 5th century BCE)<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:14" href="#fn:14"><sup>14</sup></a></blockquote><p>Some inscriptions, written in Sicilian <a href="/facts/Doric_Greek/QeIeRA9C">Doric Greek</a> and displaying lexical items that appear to match Latin, such as <i>lítra</i> (comparable to Latin <i>lībra</i> 'pound') and <i>kúbiton</i> (paralleling Latin <i>cubitum</i> 'elbow'), are also suspected to be of Siculian origin.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:15" href="#fn:15"><sup>15</sup></a> </p> <h2 id="bibliography">Bibliography</h2> <ul><li>Agostiniani, Luciano (1992). "Les parlers indigènes de la Sicile prégrecque". <i>Lalies</i>. 11: 125–157. <a href="/facts/ISSN_(identifier)/DPAflDvU">ISSN</a> <a href="https://search.worldcat.org/issn/0750-9170">0750-9170</a>.</li> <li><a href="/facts/Carlo_De_Simone_(linguist)/XKSup8GN">de Simone, Carlo</a> (1999). "L'epigrafia sicana e sicula". <i>Annali della Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa</i>: 499–507. <a href="/facts/ISSN_(identifier)/DPAflDvU">ISSN</a> <a href="https://search.worldcat.org/issn/0392-095X">0392-095X</a>.</li> <li><a href="/facts/Carlo_De_Simone_(linguist)/XKSup8GN">de Simone, Carlo</a> (2006). "Ancora su Siculo e Sicano". In Michelini, Chiara (ed.). <i>Guerra e pace in Sicilia e nel Mediterraneo antico (VIII−III sec. a.C.)</i>. Vol. 2. Pisa: Scuola Normale Superiore. pp. 689–692. <a href="/facts/ISBN_(identifier)/15AdSPa9">ISBN</a> 978-8876422102.</li> <li>Hartmann, Markus (2017). "Siculian". In Klein, Jared; Joseph, Brian; Fritz, Matthias (eds.). <i>Handbook of Comparative and Historical Indo-European Linguistics</i>. Vol. 3. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter. pp. 1854–1857. <a href="/facts/Doi_(identifier)/muM9Etpq">doi</a>:<a href="https://doi.org/10.1515%2F9783110542431-026">10.1515/9783110542431-026</a>. <a href="/facts/ISBN_(identifier)/15AdSPa9">ISBN</a> 978-3-11-054243-1. <a href="/facts/S2CID_(identifier)/ldJsHa2Y">S2CID</a> <a href="https://api.semanticscholar.org/CorpusID:242076323">242076323</a>.</li> <li><a href="/facts/Leonard_Robert_Palmer/raGtbanA">Palmer, Leonard Robert</a> (1988). <i>The Latin Language</i>. Norman, Oklahoma: University of Oklahoma Press. <a href="/facts/ISBN_(identifier)/15AdSPa9">ISBN</a> 978-0-8061-2136-9.</li> <li>Tribulato, Olga (2012). <i>Language and Linguistic Contact in Ancient Sicily</i>. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press. <a href="/facts/ISBN_(identifier)/15AdSPa9">ISBN</a> 978-1-139-85193-0.</li> <li>Weiss, Michael (2022). "Italic". In Olander, Thomas (ed.). <i>The Indo-European Language Family</i>. Cambridge University Press. <a href="/facts/ISBN_(identifier)/15AdSPa9">ISBN</a> 978-1-108-49979-8.</li></ul> <h2 id="further-reading">Further reading</h2> <ul><li>Agostiniani, Luciano (2012). "Alfabetizzazione della Sicilia pregreca". <i>Aristonothos. Rivista di Studi sul Mediterraneo Antico</i> (4): 139–164. <a href="/facts/Doi_(identifier)/muM9Etpq">doi</a>:<a href="https://doi.org/10.6092%2F2037-4488%2F1940">10.6092/2037-4488/1940</a>. <a href="/facts/ISSN_(identifier)/DPAflDvU">ISSN</a> <a href="https://search.worldcat.org/issn/2385-2895">2385-2895</a>.</li> <li>Agostiniani, Luciano; Cordano, Federica (2002). "L'ambiente siculo" [The Sicilian Environment]. In Cordano, Federica; Di Salvatore, Massimo (eds.). <i>Il Guerriero di Castiglione di Ragusa: Greci e Siculi nella Sicilia Sud-orientale: atti del Seminario, Milano, 15 maggio 2000</i> [<i>The Warrior of Castiglione di Ragusa: Greeks and Sicilians in south-eastern Sicily: proceedings of the Seminary, Milan, 15 May 2000</i>]. Hesperìa (in Italian). Vol. 16. Rome: L'Erma di Bretschneider. pp. 77–89. <a href="/facts/ISBN_(identifier)/15AdSPa9">ISBN</a> 88-8265-163-0.</li> <li>Ambrosini, Riccardo. 1984. Lingue nelle Sicilia pregreca. In Adriana Quattordio Moreschini (ed.), Tre millenni di storia linguistica della Sicilia, 13–36. Pisa: Giardini.</li> <li>Campanile, Enrico. 1969. Note sulle glosse sicule e sui rapporti linguistici fra siculo e latino. In Studia Classica et Orientalia Antonino Pagliaro oblata. Vol. 1, 293–322. Rome: Herder</li> <li>Dell'Oro, Francesca (2017). "Une Nouvelle Attestation du Substrat « sicule » en Sicile ?: Quelques Réflexions à Propos de la Légende Méconnue d'une Monnaie d'Himère" [A New Attestation of the 'Siculian' Substrate in Sicily?: Some Thoughts on the Unrecognized Legend of a Himeran Coin]. <i>Historische Sprachforschung / Historical Linguistics</i>. 130: 5–16. <a href="/facts/Doi_(identifier)/muM9Etpq">doi</a>:<a href="https://doi.org/10.13109%2Fhisp.2017.130.1.5">10.13109/hisp.2017.130.1.5</a>. <a href="/facts/JSTOR_(identifier)/YTeVmaJ7">JSTOR</a> <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/26532658">26532658</a>.</li> <li>Martzloff, Vincent (2011). <a href="https://www.persee.fr/doc/mom_0184-1785_2011_act_45_1_2010">"Variation linguistique et exégèse paléo-italique. L'idiome sicule de Montagna di Marzo"</a> [Linguistic variation and Paleo-Italic exegesis. The Sicilian idiom of Montagna di Marzo]. In van Heems, Gilles (ed.). <i>La variation linguistique dans les langues de l'Italie préromaine: Actes du IVe Séminaire sur les langues de l'Italie préromaine organisé à l'Université Lumière-Lyon 2 et la Maison de l'Orient et de la Méditerranée, 12 mars 2009</i> [<i>Linguistic variation in the languages of pre-Roman Italy: Proceedings of the 4th Seminar on the languages of pre-Roman Italy organized at the Université Lumière-Lyon 2 and the Maison de l'Orient et de la Méditerranée, March 12, 2009</i>]. Série philologique. Vol. 45. Lyon, France: Maison de l'Orient et de la Méditerranée. pp. 93–130. <a href="/facts/ISBN_(identifier)/15AdSPa9">ISBN</a> 978-2-35668-021-1.</li> <li>Martzloff, Vincent (2017). "Retour sur l'inscription sicule de Montagna di Marzo" [Return to the Sicilian inscription of Montagna di Marzo]. In Ancillotti, Augusto; Calderini, Alberto; Massarelli, Riccardo (eds.). <a href="https://en.lerma.it/libro/9788891304889"><i>Forme e strutture della religione nell'Italia mediana antica: III Convegno Internazionale dell'Istituto di Ricerche e Documentazione sugli antichi umbri 21–25 settembre 2011</i></a> [<i>Forms and Structures of Religion in Ancient Central Italy: 3rd International Conference of the Institute of Research and Documentation on Ancient Umbrians 21–25 September 2011</i>]. Studia Archaeologica. Vol. 215. Rome: L'Erma di Bretschneider. pp. 491–516. <a href="/facts/ISBN_(identifier)/15AdSPa9">ISBN</a> 978-88-913-0488-9.</li> <li>Poccetti, Paolo. 2012. Language relations in Sicily. In Olga Tribulato (ed.), Language and linguistic contact in ancient Sicily, 49–94. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.</li> <li>Prag, Jonathan (2020). <a href="https://doi.org/10.36707%2Fpalaeohispanica.v0i20.376">"The Indigenous Languages of Sicily"</a>. <i>Palaeohispanica</i> (20): 531–551. <a href="/facts/Doi_(identifier)/muM9Etpq">doi</a>:<a href="https://doi.org/10.36707%2Fpalaeohispanica.v0i20.376">10.36707/palaeohispanica.v0i20.376</a>. <a href="/facts/ISSN_(identifier)/DPAflDvU">ISSN</a> <a href="https://search.worldcat.org/issn/1578-5386">1578-5386</a>. <a href="/facts/S2CID_(identifier)/ldJsHa2Y">S2CID</a> <a href="https://api.semanticscholar.org/CorpusID:230709663">230709663</a>.</li> <li>Willi, Andreas. 2008. Sikelismos. Sprache, Literatur und Gesellschaft im griechischen Sizilien (8.–5. Jh. v. Chr.). Basel: Schwabe.</li></ul> <h2 id="references">References</h2> <ol> <li id="fn:1"><p>Hartmann 2017, p. 1854. - Hartmann, Markus (2017). "Siculian". In Klein, Jared; Joseph, Brian; Fritz, Matthias (eds.). Handbook of Comparative and Historical Indo-European Linguistics. Vol. 3. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter. pp. 1854–1857. doi:10.1515/9783110542431-026. ISBN 978-3-11-054243-1. S2CID 242076323. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1515%2F9783110542431-026" target="_blank">https://doi.org/10.1515%2F9783110542431-026</a> <a href="#fnref:1" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:2"><p>de Simone 1999, p. 500; de Simone 2006, p. 690; Hartmann 2017, p. 1854. - de Simone, Carlo (1999). "L'epigrafia sicana e sicula". Annali della Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa: 499–507. ISSN 0392-095X. <a href="https://search.worldcat.org/issn/0392-095X" target="_blank">https://search.worldcat.org/issn/0392-095X</a> <a href="#fnref:2" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:3"><p>Weiss 2022, pp. 115–116. - Weiss, Michael (2022). "Italic". In Olander, Thomas (ed.). The Indo-European Language Family. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-1-108-49979-8. <a href="#fnref:3" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:4"><p>Palmer 1988, pp. 43–45Agostiniani 1992, p. 538Tribulato 2012, p. 167Hartmann 2017, p. 1854 - Palmer, Leonard Robert (1988). The Latin Language. Norman, Oklahoma: University of Oklahoma Press. ISBN 978-0-8061-2136-9. <a href="#fnref:4" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:5"><p>Weiss 2022, pp. 115–116. - Weiss, Michael (2022). "Italic". In Olander, Thomas (ed.). The Indo-European Language Family. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-1-108-49979-8. <a href="#fnref:5" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:6"><p>Weiss 2022, pp. 115–116. - Weiss, Michael (2022). "Italic". In Olander, Thomas (ed.). The Indo-European Language Family. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-1-108-49979-8. <a href="#fnref:6" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:7"><p>Hartmann 2017, p. 1854. - Hartmann, Markus (2017). "Siculian". In Klein, Jared; Joseph, Brian; Fritz, Matthias (eds.). Handbook of Comparative and Historical Indo-European Linguistics. Vol. 3. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter. pp. 1854–1857. doi:10.1515/9783110542431-026. ISBN 978-3-11-054243-1. S2CID 242076323. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1515%2F9783110542431-026" target="_blank">https://doi.org/10.1515%2F9783110542431-026</a> <a href="#fnref:7" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:8"><p>Hartmann 2017, p. 1855. - Hartmann, Markus (2017). "Siculian". In Klein, Jared; Joseph, Brian; Fritz, Matthias (eds.). Handbook of Comparative and Historical Indo-European Linguistics. Vol. 3. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter. pp. 1854–1857. doi:10.1515/9783110542431-026. ISBN 978-3-11-054243-1. S2CID 242076323. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1515%2F9783110542431-026" target="_blank">https://doi.org/10.1515%2F9783110542431-026</a> <a href="#fnref:8" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:9"><p>"Inscribed Stele inscribed in the Sikel language". Voci di Pietra. Castello Ursino Civic Museum. <a href="http://epicum.istc.cnr.it/EPICUM/chiosco/kiosk_132.html?voci01p-eng.json" target="_blank">http://epicum.istc.cnr.it/EPICUM/chiosco/kiosk_132.html?voci01p-eng.json</a> <a href="#fnref:9" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:10"><p>Hartmann 2017, p. 1855. - Hartmann, Markus (2017). "Siculian". In Klein, Jared; Joseph, Brian; Fritz, Matthias (eds.). Handbook of Comparative and Historical Indo-European Linguistics. Vol. 3. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter. pp. 1854–1857. doi:10.1515/9783110542431-026. ISBN 978-3-11-054243-1. S2CID 242076323. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1515%2F9783110542431-026" target="_blank">https://doi.org/10.1515%2F9783110542431-026</a> <a href="#fnref:10" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:11"><p>Hartmann 2017, p. 1855. - Hartmann, Markus (2017). "Siculian". In Klein, Jared; Joseph, Brian; Fritz, Matthias (eds.). Handbook of Comparative and Historical Indo-European Linguistics. Vol. 3. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter. pp. 1854–1857. doi:10.1515/9783110542431-026. ISBN 978-3-11-054243-1. S2CID 242076323. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1515%2F9783110542431-026" target="_blank">https://doi.org/10.1515%2F9783110542431-026</a> <a href="#fnref:11" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:12"><p>Tribulato, Olga; Mignosa, Valetina (2021). "Marking identity through graphemes? A new look at the Sikel arrow-shaped alpha". In Boyes, Philip J.; Steeleand, Philippa M.; Astoreca, Natalia Elvira (eds.). The Social and Cultural Contexts of Historic Writing Practices. Oxford, England: Oxbow Books. p. 324. ISBN 978-1-78925-479-2. JSTOR j.ctv2npq9fw.21. OCLC 1243743745. <a href="978-1-78925-479-2" target="_blank">978-1-78925-479-2</a> <a href="#fnref:12" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:13"><p>Hartmann 2017, p. 1855. - Hartmann, Markus (2017). "Siculian". In Klein, Jared; Joseph, Brian; Fritz, Matthias (eds.). Handbook of Comparative and Historical Indo-European Linguistics. Vol. 3. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter. pp. 1854–1857. doi:10.1515/9783110542431-026. ISBN 978-3-11-054243-1. S2CID 242076323. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1515%2F9783110542431-026" target="_blank">https://doi.org/10.1515%2F9783110542431-026</a> <a href="#fnref:13" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:14"><p>Hartmann 2017, p. 1855. - Hartmann, Markus (2017). "Siculian". In Klein, Jared; Joseph, Brian; Fritz, Matthias (eds.). Handbook of Comparative and Historical Indo-European Linguistics. Vol. 3. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter. pp. 1854–1857. doi:10.1515/9783110542431-026. ISBN 978-3-11-054243-1. S2CID 242076323. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1515%2F9783110542431-026" target="_blank">https://doi.org/10.1515%2F9783110542431-026</a> <a href="#fnref:14" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:15"><p>Weiss 2022, pp. 115–116. - Weiss, Michael (2022). "Italic". In Olander, Thomas (ed.). The Indo-European Language Family. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-1-108-49979-8. <a href="#fnref:15" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> </ol>