OSCO-UMBRIAN LANGUAGES

language group proposed by some scholars to be included in the Italic branch of Indo-European languages. The group includes Oscan, Umbrian, and the minor dialects of central ItalyMarsian, Marrucinian, Paelignian, Sabine, Vestinian, and Volscian. Oscan, the language imposed by the Samnites on the Osci of Campania, is known from over 200 inscriptions dated between 400 and 89 BC. Umbrian, known chiefly from the Iguvine Tables (q.v.), diverges from Oscan in several phonological features. The Osco-Umbrian languages have much in common with the Latin-Faliscan languages (q.v.), the other subdivision of Italic.