Origin from 700 BCE
A family of closely related alphabets used in pre-Roman Italy to write Etruscan and several other Italic languages including Oscan, Umbrian, Venetic and Faliscan, adapted from the Euboean Greek alphabet by around the eighth or seventh century BCE through Greek colonies in southern Italy. The Etruscan variety is the best attested and best understood member of the family, and it is the direct source of the Latin alphabet, which the Romans developed from it (with further Greek influence) in the seventh and sixth centuries BCE. A separate Old Italic-derived tradition is also proposed, more speculatively, as a possible ancestor or relative of the Germanic runic alphabets.
Facts
Directionalityright-to-left (early inscriptions vary, including boustrophedon) 1 In Use Since (Year) Old Italic Script
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Connections
Ancestor Of
Descends From
Source Wikipedia: Old Italic Script
Script Of
The Old Italic scripts were a family of ancient writing systems used in the Italian Peninsula from about 700 to 100 BC for various languages; Etruscan, the best-attested of them, was written in the Etruscan alphabet, which was imported from the Euboean Greek colonies of Cumae and Ischia in the 8th century BC.
Sources
1. Wikipedia: Old Italic Script
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