Alphabet Key To History Of Mankind

Author(s): David Diringer
Publisher: Hutchinsons Scientific and Technical Publications

Page 505

504
THE ALPHABET The most important documents extant are the famous Eugubine or Iguvine Tables, containing parts of the liturgy of a sacred brotherhood of Iguvium, the modern Gubbio. They are seven in number, of which the tables I-IV and part of the Vth are written in Umbrian script, while the rest are written in Roman character. While the latter were in part written as late as the first century B.C., the earliest tablets belong perhaps, partly at least, to the fourth or even to the fifth century B.C. Some other Umbrian inscriptions are written in a slightly different script termed Umbro-Felsinian, Felsina being the ancient name of Bologna.
The Umbrian script (Fig. 226) is not only an offshoot of the Etruscan alphabet, but it is very close to its classical form. The main features of the Umbrian writing agree with this assertion, the direction of writing is from right to left, there are no signs for g and d (the Etruscan f which as already mentioned, has the form of figure 8, is employed to represent the sound d) and although there is a sign for b its use is uncertain, and it often alternates with p.
Siculan Alphabet
"The problem of the Siculi (who gave the name to Sicily) is similar to that of the Umbri (see above): according to tradition they once inhabited parts of central Italy and migrated into Sicily some centuries before the Greek colonization, but we do not know whether the tribes called Siculi who inhabited Sicily in historical times, and who-as far as we can judge from the scanty documents extant-spoke the Indo-European dialect termed Siculan, were the direct descendants of the ancient Siculi or Sicani. The terms Siculi and Sicani do not Seern to indicate different peoples, 235 some ancient and modern scholars bave suggested, but are adjectives of the same ethnic name.
From the linguistic point of view, however, and from that of the history of writing, the term Siculan is applied to the non-Greek documents, very few in number, which have come to light in Sicily, two short inscriptions found at Adrano (now in the Syracuse museum and the fairly long inscription on an askos (a kind of vase) found at Centuripe, in the province of Enna, the ancient Centuripa (now in the Karlsruhe museum). The Centuripa inscription, written boustrophedon, contains 99 letters and may be dated in the fifth century B.C. A fourth inscription, on a stele discovered at Sciri between Caltagirone and Cómniso, has been published recently.
The Siculan alphabet (Fig. 226) seems to have descended from an early Etruscan sub-species. The letters kh, ph and ps are missing as in the western Greek alphabets, but the shapes of the letters 1, p and 4 show that the Siculan script has nor descended directly either from the Chalcidian alphabet of Cumæ, or from other Greek varieties in use in Magna Græcia.