GRICE E DONATELLI: AMBI

 The Italic branch consists of Latin on the one  hand and of the Urabrian-Samnitic dialects, on the other.   Latin, with which the little known dialect Sf Falerivwas  closely related, is known to us from about 300 B. C. onwards.  So long as the language was confined to Latium, there existed  no dialectical differences of any importance. The contrast bet-  ween the popular and the literary language, which had already  arisen at the beginning of the archaic period of literature (from  Li vius Andronicus to Cicero), became still sharper in the classical  period, and the further development of the former is almost  entirely lost to our observation until the Middle Ages, when  the popular Latin of the various provinces of the Roman  empire meets us in a form more or less changed and with a  rich development of dialects (Romance languages: Portuguese,  Spanish, Catalanian, Provencal, French, Italian, Raetoromanic  and Roumanian)*).   We shall only consider the development of the Latin of,  antiquity.   Cp. Corssen Uber Aussprache, Vocalismus und Betonung  der lateinischen Sprache, 2 vols., Leipzig 1858. 1859, edit. 2.,  1868. 1870. R. Kuhner Ausfiihrliche Grammatik der lateinischen  Sprache, 2 vols., Hannover 1877. 1879. F. Stolz and J. G.  Schmalz Lateinische Grammatik, in Iw. Muller’s Handbuch  der klass. Altertumsw. II (1885) p. 127 — 364.   The Umbrian-Samnitic dialects are known to a certain  extent through inscriptions, which for the most part belong to  the last centuries before our era , and through words quoted  by Roman writers. We are best acquainted with Umbrian  (Breal Les tables Eugubines, Paris 1875, Biichelor Umbrica,  Bonn 1883) andOscan (Zvotaieff Sylloge inscriptionumOscarum,  PeterSburg-Leipzig 1878). Of the Volscian, Picentine* Sabine,   1) Cp.* Budinszky Die Ausbreitung der lat. Sprache uber Italicn  und die Provinzen des rSmisohen Reiches, Berlin 1881, Cirober in the  Archiv fur lat. Lexikographie I 35 ff., 204 ff.     g KeUio;^ 9   Aequiculau , Yestinian, Marsian, Pelignian and Marrucinian  dialects we have only very scanty remains (Zvetaieff In-  scriptiones Italiae Mediae dialecticae, Leipzig 1884). All *tliese  dialects were ^forced •into the background at an early period by  the ifitrusion of Latin. The Sabines, who received citizenship  in 267 B. C., seem to have been the first to become romaniscd.  The s^west to give way was Oscan, which in the mountains  did not perhaps become fully extinct for centuries after the  Christian era.   Cp. further Bruppacher Osk. Lautlehre, Zurich 1869,  Endoris Yersuch einer Formenlehro der osk. Sprache, Zurich  187L