Lepontic

Lepontic was an ancient Celtic language of the Continental Celtic branch of Indo-European, spoken in the Alpine region around Lugano and in parts of Cisalpine Gaul in what is now northern Italy between roughly 550 and 100 BC. It is known from about 140 inscriptions written in the Lugano alphabet, a local variant of the Old Italic script ultimately derived from Etruscan writing. Scholars debate whether Lepontic should be treated as a distinct Continental Celtic language in its own right or as an early form of Cisalpine Gaulish, a question complicated by the fact that its earlier inscriptions cluster around Lugano while later ones appear further south. The language eventually disappeared, first losing ground to Gaulish as Gallic tribes settled north of the Po river and then, along with Gaulish itself, being absorbed by Latin as Rome extended its control over northern Italy.