in Campania, all of which places were inhabited for some ages
by the O pier race, are in Greek'letters: they were perhaps engraved
by artists from the cities of Magna Graecia, But all
the most considerable inscriptions found in the Opic countries
are either in Latin characters or in those usually termed Oscan,
which are but a modification of the Etruscan letters, and as
Gesenius has lately observed, remarkably similar to the-Celti-
berian characters found on the coins and in the inscriptions in
Spain. These Oscan characters were still in use at Pompeii
at the period when that city was destroyed ;* they are seen on
the majority of the coins found in Campania, and in all the
inscriptions found on stone in that country, as well as in Sam-
nium, including that of the Abellane table... A specimen of
O scanrwritingm Latin characters occurs in the earthen tabl|g
of Bantia. In this last inscription the orthography of Oscan
words is different from that which appears in the proper Oscan
alphabet; As this alphabet is only the Etruscan slightly
modified, it wants, like the Etruscan system of characters,
signs for the vowel o, as well as those expressive of all the
soft consonants or middle class of mutes, with the single exception
that b is in some instances represented. This difference
however, and the defect pointed out, belong on'ly.to thfe
mode of writing, and not to the Oscan language, as is proved
by other written monuments, in which the letters 0, d, and g
are not unfrequefitly discovered. Those inscriptions written
in Oscan letters present, on the other hand,—%s in thq._word
meddis or meddiw, which means a. magistrate,—instead of
dd an rr, whence it must be concluded that d and r, consonants
which appear-in sound sufficiently remote from each
other, were in this language easily confounded. Now this was
precisely the case in Latin, as the old aroehere and arfuisse
for advehere and adfuisse, the derivation of meridies from
medius dies, the connection of auris and audio, and the
change of the Greek word KapvKwv into caducous fully prove.
Nearly as the Oscan and Latin articulation approached, in these
instances, the whole alphabetic systems of the two languages,
* They are to be seen in the inscriptions copied from the ruins of Pompeii and
Herculaneum by Gell, Micali, and others.' (SeeGrotefend, Rudim. Ling. Osc.) •
f K, O. Muller’s Etrusker, Einleitung, s. 29.
are equally proximate to each other; at least we discover all
the Latin characters'- in the Oscan, with the single exception
of q. * 'With respect to this letter a remarkable permutation
takes place bêtwèfen the two languages, the< Oscan presenting
th e ’Consonant p in wordt in which the Latin has gw. The
following, specimen exhibits- th ï s*‘rèl&fefoMbetween the Latin
and O sCkhdrthbgra-phy, as well aS that between both of these
“feng‘üa!g|'s‘êand thé Greek :
Greek. _ Oscan. wLatini
Hg P,
r(, quid.
‘ petora, quatuór'.
' B ;pe, • ’ ' que.# .
To 'these are ^k&ded^fr'ótn the same^Monuments The*4“following
expressions1 in*Osbam:’ Sitae pis, for si q u is; pot pis
dat, Tor quod qfyis d a t; pis ceus B antina fu s t, for qui civis
B tm êm ts fa e iit. A simila^fè^iprd'catóomjÖff edhsonahtS êk-
^Pl^as-Miiller has 'plfplted outphetWèen-c6|naiifWaTêcts of
well-khow^ mnguap#4, as bétweerithM^sn and Welsh*,,
m 'r a ^ ^ ltic ' family'of ahd iri'part bltween“the dif-
'fi'/fciit’dialeOts^n the GreékS.*f*
,J Thé ÜËffombf tli’ë /Oséhïi to the’ Latin ['prevails through
4ffflthe grammatical forms of th&|||friner langüU|^ as far
as^lKey w è ' kdown. The masculin^^mihatiohs; in us and
os are fofi^d in Oscan as in Greek and Latih^i an apparently
‘ dialec^iavlViety grinds wrinstëad o f wil Thus tffëfeèins found
in'i ^ ^ t e ^ h e ^ t h e f ^ ê a n was?^pokenhave/!partly in Greek
''charaeter;l, tHe'inMrfftwi Loukanos, Ar panos, Afipos/T/ari*-'
fibs, arid Larinor, and partly in O&bafi characters those' of
Tianur, felBikinur,’ Vitelliur. As this^ehding of the nominative
m ns or os indicates ari analogy 'Between the’ declenëidris^ih the
Greek, Latin, and ©teCkh, it is‘probable that th#whoïè4systeth
of'tKè inflecïM of rioims last-meiMdried idiom will be
Sund to'coincide with thosébf the Classical langüd|e%f' In the
frequently occurring names, Muïukës or Mulukis, T intiris,
* This last instance is proved by the Ahellanian stQne ipscription, and the table
of Bantia.
f ] take the liberty of referring lriy readers here for a more copious illustration
iof Milds subject to my little work on Celtidma’tions and their languages.