Rhaetic or Raetic (/ˈriːtɪk/), also known as Rhaetian,[3] was a Tyrsenian language spoken in the ancient region of Rhaetia in the eastern Alps in pre-Roman and Roman times.

It is documented by around 280 texts dated from the 5th through the 1st century BC, which were found through northern Italy, southern Germany, eastern Switzerland, Slovenia and western Austria,[4][2] in two variants of the Old Italic scripts.

[12] Rix's Tyrsenian family is supported by a number of linguists such as Stefan Schumacher,[13][14] Carlo De Simone,[15] Norbert Oettinger,[16] Simona Marchesini,[7] and Rex E.

On the other hand, few lexical correspondences are documented, at least partly due to the scanty number of Rhaetic and Lemnian texts and possibly to the early date at which the languages split.

[23] Carlo De Simone and Simona Marchesini have proposed a much earlier date, placing the Tyrsenian language split before the Bronze Age.

[citation needed] In his Natural History (1st century AD), Pliny wrote about Alpine peoples: ... adjoining these (the Noricans) are the Rhaeti and Vindelici.

The spelling as Raet- is found in inscriptions, while Rhaet- was used in Roman manuscripts; it is unclear whether this Rh represents an accurate transcription of an aspirated R in Rhaetic, or is merely an error.