Cubellian

Cubellian
Faƨ Totas, (Faƨ) Cubrio
Pronunciation	[faːt͡s ˈto̞ː.taːs]
Created by	Krissm
Date	2025
Setting	Alternative history, central classical era Italy
Native to	Cubrio Toto (Cubellian State)
Ethnicity	Cubelli / Cibellini / Cubrii
Extinct	~ 150 CE as a spoken language
Language family	Indo-European Italic Sabellic Umbrian? or South Picene? Cubellian
Early form	Early Cubellian
Writing systems	Latin

Cubellian (Faƨ Totas or simply Cubrio), also known as Cibellinian or Cubrian is an extinct Sabellic language attested in central Italy. Historically a language of interest for scholars, who couldn't seem to agree wether Cubellian belonged to the Oscan or Umbrian dialect group, as it exhibits features found in both languages as well as some interesting innovations. The modern academic consensus views Cubellian as more closely related to Umbrian than to Oscan, mainly due to similarities in vocabulary and certain aspects of the verbal and nominal systems, though it might still represent an early split from core-Umbrian. Given its geographical position, It was thought in the past that Cubellian might have represented an intermediate language between Oscan and Umbrian, however this is no longer believed to be true. It has also been controversially suggested that Cubellian might be most closerly related to South Picene.

History

Cubellian is known from inscriptions dating as far back as the first half of the 4th century BCE. These early inscriptions written in the Etruscan and Oscan alphabets are sometimes labeled "Early Cubellian" or "Old Cubellian". The most important Early Cubellian inscriptions are the Inscription of Fortius Apalius, the Funerary inscription of Porius Tenius, and the Kubrias inscription. Following Roman conquest and the adoption of the Latin alphabet, the corpus of Cubellian texts expanded greatly. Still to this day, hundreds of examples of Cubellian writing survive; from plays to prose to poetry and religious texts making Cubellian, besides Latin, by far the best attested Italic language.

Demise

Cubellian continued to be spoken well into the Roman empire, though evidence shows that it was being slowly replaced by Latin already by the 1st century. Cubellian remained spoken as a native language at least until around the 2th century when the youngest non-religious Cubellian text is dated to. Cubellian remained in limited use as a religious language by some for at least a couple of centuries, as works from the 3th century describe ritual songs and prayers in Cubellian, by then known as Lingua Civa. It is however likely that at that point knowledge of the language was limited and fading. The last known attestation of Cubellian in any form is from an 5th century text.

Phonology

Due to the relatively large size of the Cubellian corpus, the pronunciation of Cubellian has been largely reconstructed; among the data used for reconstruction are explicit statements about pronunciation within the corpus, various common misspellings, and the spelling of loanwords in Cubellian as well as comparative linguistics.

Cononants

The consonant phonemes of Cubellian are as follows:

Consonant phonemes

		Labial	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Plosive	voiceless	p	t		k
	voiced	b	d		g
Affricate	voiceless		t͡s
	voiced		d͡z
Fricative		f	s			h
Nasal		m	n
Liquid			l
Rhotic			r
Glide				j	w

Vowels

Vowel phonemes

	Front	Central	Back
High	i iː		u uː
High-mid	e eː		o oː
Low-mid	ɛ ɛː
Low		a aː

Example texts

Document keeping track of the montly offerings to various gods, dated ~ 30 CE.

Sadrei Farazicei ospentinƨ duas mestreim uoreim Arfineipem datas. Heƨie Hortine ospentinƨ tres datas sent mestreim uoreim. Netunei Celie ospenƨiuh ono op fontlu mefim herfier est dato. Ƨiuide Deinei ospentinƨ pompe op sacraclu su datas sent. Martei Deinei ospentinƨ tres datas op sacracleis suis mestreir etei menƨtreis sent. Cubrie Deine ospentinƨ otu datas sent, op solleir uoreis Cubries Herfies. Honƨie Amme ospentinƨ duas datar am feihos herfies sent, ono ancaro fufe, nofaƨienno ant nesimum menƨem. Menƨe Deine ospentinƨ petur datas sent sacracleim suim. Sulei Uocinei ospenƨiuh ono dato, memo sacradris sulio ospentinum caram fufum dedece naraclu. Imfrei Bitarei eseiscem menƨneim ospentinƨ nei datas sent. Pleiƨiuh deino neest. Ospentins duas ostennennas sent ant nesimam menƨarem feiziam.

"Tabula Cibellina" (1st century CE)

Enetorunƨ faƨienneis faƨies sup uamenƨie apatinareis terƨies. Eneitu eizu: ponepei sacrim premum oneis menƨneis natum fust, perspeiturum encaleitu puƨ seitinum sacries pereitei perspexi. Ponei seiƨiuh perspeito perspeituru fust, trah matatinus uaceispe, sue neral, uafeium uiceitu. Ostenƨinis cohuegatu, einum azamem ƨiohiam menƨtramem pe Arfineim est eitu, eispenniescom uineis unneispe, ostenƨineispecom eƨies, fareis, adepeispe hatuim manus tuis. Idec sacrim sobra presetum empir dotu saltorunei totar etei pleitinei Deinum. Faƨim comfeitum fust, seto arcanio ecaneituim mestrumemar uorumem totas podatu, rei temepe deineis coratuim, Ƨiuide Deinei Deineispe op memu ƨiohiu sacraturu toticu conƨeriupe procaneituim. Itumei ƨiohiamar azam mestram, menƨtrum sacraturum caleitu, puh pretra sollas speinas reim temampe deinas seritu, es pamar speinam uorfaclum caneizi uoleitu, einum careintatum ancareintatum uorfacleis deictu naraclu. Postim eƨ fus uorumem mestrumemar totas, teneituim sacrim manusem tuirem deictu ezoc esuh uorfo: "Ƨioda Deine tefi pru solleis humunus Herfies Cubrias ecoc sacrim duhu, tui numnei, tui saltorunei, tui pleitinei. Tefi doms trah matatinus, trah uedeiteis ahuedeiteispe uaceis, trah cazemnu. Tefi doms Tote Cubrie, poplei cubrie, forƨie nerum, bite pecos, cohuerie conƨerie, sacraturus sacradricus. Bratu tua eco toto saluo si". Einum dotu eispenƨio unnario, faralio, melaziope Deineis, saltorunei totar etei pleitinei Deinum. Eitumei faƨim feitum fust, ostenƨinƨ farales, eƨiarespe eispenƨiope unneis, meleis, uineispe Deineis nofeiƨiantor; saltorunei totar etei pleitinei Deinum. Itumei ƨeicos post tris, reihuortu azamem fertuim ostenƨinis nui. Nofactu idedum faƨim; nui, saltorunei totar etei pleitinei Deinum. Taceih uorfatuim uefei factu.