Old Italic (Etruscan, Oscan, etc.)

Etruscan inscription

Script details

See all script details: code, region, status and more

Code	Ital
Script type	alphabet
Region	European
Status	Historical
Direction	LTR
Baseline	bottom
Case	yes
White space	unspecified
Complex behaviors
OpenType code	ital
ISO 15924 Number	210 (left-to-right alphabetic)

Explanation of script details

Script description

The Old Italic scripts are a group of alphabets descended from Greek which were used for writing a number of languages spoken in what is now Italy.

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The exact relationship of the Old Italic scripts to one another is uncertain. The most notable among them are Etruscan, Oscan, Faliscan, (ancient) Latin, Umbrian and Messapic. Scripts including the ancient Raetic, Venetic, Lepontic and Gallic scripts were previously termed the Alpine (or North Italic) scripts; these are now considered to belong to the Old Italic scripts.

The Runic and modern Latin scripts were based on the Old Italic alphabets.

Languages that use this script

Note

A status of obsolete indicates that the writing system is no longer in use for that language; the language may still be spoken.

Language	Writing System Code	Writing System Status	SLDR/CLDR locale	Regional variants
Etruscan	ett-Ital	obsolete		ett-Ital-IT (Italy)
Hernican	xhr-Ital	in use		xhr-Ital-XX
Marrucinian	umc-Ital	in use		umc-Ital-XX
Oscan	osc-Ital	obsolete		osc-Ital-IT (Italy)
Paelignian	pgn-Ital	in use		pgn-Ital-IT (Italy)
See complete list

Unicode status

In The Unicode Standard, Old Italic implementation is discussed in Chapter 8 Europe-II: Ancient and Other Scripts and in UTN 40: Old Italic Glyph Variation. Language-specific fonts are required for processing text, as some of the common glyphs may differ slightly from language to language.

• Full Unicode status for Old Italic

Resources

• ScriptSource page for Old Italic script - all about scripts, languages, and writing systems