Raetic language

For the modern Romance languages spoken in Switzerland and North-Eastern Italy, see Rhaeto-Romance languages. Raetic or Rhaetic is an obscure language of antiquity, which used to be spoken in the province of Raetia, in the Eastern Alps, to the north and west of Venetic. It is sparsely attested, in inscriptions in various Old Italic alphabets, leaving room for much speculation on its ancestry. For a research history see Schumacher (1992) and Schumacher (1992) and Morandi (1999) for editions of the inscriptions. All recent authorities have stressed a connection with Etruscan (Rix 1998, Schumacher 1998).

Raetian became extinct by the 3rd century, after the speakers were assimilated and adopted Latin (in south) and German (in north). Many inscriptions are known, but most of them are short votive texts, written with the Etruscan alphabet.

References

Morandi, Alessandro. (1999). Il cippo di Castelciès nell’epigrafia retica (Studia archaeologica, 103). Rome: Bretschneider
Rix, Helmut. (1998). Rätisch und Etruskisch (Innsbrucker Beiträge zur Sprachwissenschaft; Vorträge und kleinere Schriften, 68). Innsbruck: Institüt für Sprachwissenschaft der Universität Innsbruck.
Schumacher, Stefan. (1992). Die rätischen Inschriften. Geschichte und heutiger Stand der Forschung (Innsbrucker Beiträge zur Kulturwissenschaft; Sonderheft, 79). Innsbruck: Institut für Sprachwissenschaft der Universität Innsbruck, 2nd ed. 2004.
Schumacher, Stefan. (1998). 'Sprachliche Gemeinsamkeiten zwischen Rätisch und Etruskisch'. Der Schlern 72.90-114.

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