The Old Italic reference article from the English Wikipedia on 24-Apr-2004 (provided by Fixed Reference: snapshots of Wikipedia from wikipedia.org)

Old Italic

The Old Italic script used for Etruscan and other languages derives from the Greek, it is however not clear whether the process of adaptation took place in Italy or in Greece/Asia Minor. The Etruscan was mostly written from left to right. It was in any case a Western Greek alphabet. In the alphabets of the West, X had the sound value [ks], Psi stood for [k_h]; in Etruscan: X = [s], Psi = [k_j] or [k_X] (Rix 202-209). Is this supposed to be Psi or Chi? An additional sign, 8, was present in both Lydian and Etruscan (Jensen 513) Its origin is disputed; it may be an altered B or H or an "ex novo" creation (Rix 202). Its sound value was /f/ and it replaced the Etruscan FH.

External link

• The Etruscan alphabet

This is the "Old Italic" reference article from the English Wikipedia. All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License. See also our Disclaimer.