Old Italic refers to several now extinct
alphabet systems used on the
Italian Peninsula in ancient times for various Indo-European (predominantly
Italic) and non-Indo-European (e.g.
Etruscan) languages.The alphabets derive from
Euboean Greek Cumaean alphabet, used at
Ischia and
Cumae in the
Bay of Naples in the
eighth century BC. Cumaean, in turn showed strong similarities to the
Phoenician alphabet, lending support to theories of Phoenician influence in the West-Central
Mediterranean region.Various
Indo-European languages belonging to the
Italic branch (
Faliscan and members of the
Sabellian group, including
Oscan,
Umbrian, and
South Picene, and other Indo-European branches such as
Venetic and
Messapic) originally used the alphabet. Faliscan,
Oscan,
Umbrian,
North Picene, and
South Picene all derive from an Etruscan form of the alphabet.
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