UMBRIAN LANGUAGE. The dialect in which the Iguvine Tables (see Ictivium) are written is usually known as Umbrian, as it is the only monument we possess of any length of the tongue spoken in the Umbrian district before it was Latinized. The language is that of a certain limited area, which cannot yet be shown to have extended very far beyond the east ern half of the Tiber valley (from Interamna Nahartium to Urvinum Mataurense).
Umbrian has diverged from Oscan in the following matters: (I) The palatalization of k and g before a following i or e, or consonant i as in ticit (i.e., dicit)=Lat. decet; muieto past part. passive (pronounced as though the i were an English or French j) beside Umb. imperative mugatu, Lat. mugire.
(2) The loss of final -d, e.g., in the abl. sing. fern. Umb. t5ta=0sc. toutdd.
(3) The change of d between vowels to a sound akin to r, written by a special symbol q (d) in Umbrian alphabet and by RS in Latin alphabet, e.g., teda, in Umbrian alphabet=dirsa in Latin alphabet, "let him give," exactly equivalent to Paelignian dicta.
(4) The change of -s- to -r- between vowels as in erom, "esse"=Osc. ezunz, and the gen. plur. fern. ending in -aru=Lat.
-arum, Osc. -azum.
To this there are exceptions, e.g., asa= Lat. ara, which are generally regarded as mere archaisms. Unfortunately the ma jority of them are in words of whose origin and meaning very little is known, so that (for all we can tell) in many the -s- may represent -ss- or -ps- as in osatu=Lat. operato, cf. Osc. opsaom.
(5) The change of final -ns to -f as in the acc. plur. masc. vit/uf =Lat. vitulds.
(6) In the latest stage of the dialect the change of final -s to -r, as in abl. plur. arver, arviis, i.e., "arvorum frugibus." (7) The decay of all diphthongs.
(8) The change of initial 1 to v, as in vutu=Lat. lavito.
Save for the consequences of these phonetic changes, Umbrian morphology and syntax exhibit no divergence from Oscan that need be mentioned here, save perhaps two peculiar perfect formations with -1- and -nci-; as in ampelust, fut. perf. "im penderit," combifianciust, "nuntiaverit" (or the like).
See C. D. Buck, Oscan and Umbrian Grammar (Boston, 1904) ; R. von Planta, Oskischumbrische Grammatik (Strassburg, 1892-97) ; R. S. Conway, The Italic Dialects, vol. u. p. 495 seq.