Venetic language

Venetic (/vɪˈnɛtɪk/ vin-ET-ik) is an extinct Indo-European language, most commonly classified into the Italic subgroup, that was spoken by the Veneti people in ancient times in northeast Italy (Veneto and Friuli) and part of modern Slovenia, between the Po Delta and the southern fringe of the Alps, associated with the Este culture.

Its speakers are identified with the ancient people called Veneti by the Romans and Enetoi by the Greeks.

Inscriptions dedicating offerings to Reitia are one of the chief sources of knowledge of the Venetic language.

[8] During the period of Latin-Venetic bilingual inscriptions in the Roman script, i.e. 150–50 BCE, Venetic became flooded with Latin loanwords.

The shift from Venetic to Latin resulting in language death is thought by scholarship to have already been well under way by that time.