ITALIC LANGUAGES, a group of lan guages supposed to have been at an date in their history, confined to Italy, and 'the group of languages developed out of these. It is usual to divide the Italic languages into two sub-groups, generally designated as the Latin Faliscan and the Oscan-Umbrian, both of which belong to the Indo-European or Aryan (Indo Germanic) family of languages. To a very con siderable extent most of these tongues have acted and reacted upon one another in recent times, within the boundaries of their original habitat in the regions to which they were sub sequently extended. The two great groups al ready mentioned seem also to have been influ enced or modified by more aboriginal languages that preceded them in the Italian territory. There is very much uncertainty still existing with respect to this very early period of the Italic languages, which belongs to the years following the time when their possessors first made their way into the Italic peninsula. But though much relating to this early period is left in obscurity, yet enough has been drawn out of the shadow of the past to show the relationship of the various Italic dialects to one another.
Not only were the two great groups of Italic tongues apparently modified by the lan guages existing in the country when they first entered it, but they were again subject to modi fications caused by influences exercised from without. So great was the introduction of Greek words at a certain period in the growth of the Italic languages that earlier philologists were led thereby to look upon Greek and Latin as very closely allied tongues, a conclusion not sustained by more recent investigations.
Throughout what is modern Italy there were, at the beginning of the earliest historical records of the country, various dialects. Two of these, approaching one another, formed the great Italic sub-division, Oscan-Umbrian. The Oscan tongue included the Samnite tribes the Campania country and southern portion of the Italic peninsula, with the exception of the ex time south.. Tee Umbrian tongue covered the greater part of the north and centre of Italy. The latter, though including a comparatively large extent of the isthmus, was much more homogeneous and much less dialectically in clined than the other local tongues of Italy. The Oscan-Umbrian group of Italic languages consisted of eight distinct dialects: the Oscan, Paelignian, Marrucinian, Marsian, 1Equtan, Sa bine, Volscian and Umbrian in the 4th century s.c. All these dialects, though differing' con siderably from one another, differed still more notably from the tongue of Classical Latin, which gradually came to dominate, in the course of time, all the other tongues of central Italy, and extended its influence well toward the north and the south. The evidence, however, does
not go to show that Classical Latin ever be came the speech of the masses of the inhabit ants of Italy to the south or the north though the literary tongue was everywhere the speech of the educated, especially when treating with the Roman officials or having intercourse with Roman society.
Latin-Faliscan.— This group of Italic lan guages is usually credited with being the mother of the Romance tongues. To a very great extent this is true yet there seems to be no doubt that all the dialects of Italy, every one of which furnished soldiers for the Roman army, con tributed some part to the upbuilding of the Romance languages which became heirs to the Latin official tongue throughout the Roman Empire. Yet the influence of the Oscan-Um brian dialects was probably greater on the pop ular speech of Italy in Roman days than upon the subsequent speech of any of the Roman provinces. In Italy, however, the result was quite different; for here the dialects remained the speech of the masses of the people long after Rome had become a great city and the centre of an extending empire; and so strong was their virility that they imposed many of their own tribal words on literary Latin, while hundreds of others passed current in the daily speech of the imperial city, where this vernacu lar became early known as Italian to distinguish it from Classical Latin. But to this popular tongue the dialects of Latin-Faliscan contrib uted very much more copiously than did those of the Oscan-Umbrian group. This was quite natural because the four sub-divisions of the Latin-Faliscan group (Latin, Lanuvian, Prsenes tine and Faliscan) were much more closely re lated to one another than to the Oscan-Umbrian dialects. Latin gradually absorbed the other three members of its own group, which may be said therefore to have dropped completely out of the linguistic theatre (except in so far as their influence on the popular Latin tongue is concerned) before the Romance languages be gan to differentiate themselves from Classical Latin, which had become the single representa tive of its group, and of Roman dominion, cul ture, organization and government. For this reason it has been called the mother of the Romance tongues, for out of it all of them have sprung. The Oscan-Umbrian group of Italic dialects, on the other hand, did not alto gether disappear in many districts; and even to-day their influence is seen in numerous local ities in the rural speech, more especially in the mountainous regions of the north. This influ ence extends very little beyond the borders of modern Italy, 'however; and that only in' the one direction already indicated, the mountain. ous country to the north, and perhaps parts of eastern France and Spain.