Old Italic (Etruscan, Oscan, etc.)
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 Numeric Code / Key | 210 (left-to-right alphabetic) |
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
| 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.
Resources
- ScriptSource page for Old Italic (Etruscan, Oscan, etc.) - all about scripts, languages, and writing systems
- Wikipedia article on Old Italic (Etruscan, Oscan, etc.)