A new assessment of Messapic vocalism: sound change, script adaptation, and synchronic phonology

Journal article

This article re-examines the vowel system of Messapic, an Indo-European language attested from the sixth to the second century BCE in Apulia. Given the limited corpus of inscriptions, written in a local script derived from Greek, the phonology of Messapic remains difficult to understand. Through a critical reassessment of the literature and a first-hand analysis of vowel alternations, this study offers a new chronology for some sound changes: namely, it challenges the widely accepted theory of a prehistoric across-the-board *o > a shift, drawing the possible inference that this sound change was still on-going within the historical period; in addition, in exploring the synchronic values and diachronic developments of back vowels and diphthongs, particularly within key morphological classes such as the *-tor‑ and *-on‑stems, it suggests that the monophthongization of certain diphthongs may have triggered other sound changes. This approach offers a more nuanced understanding of the evolution of Messapic vowels and attempts to unify previous phonological models.

Authors: Bianconi, M; Capano, M; Sabattini, P

• Publication status: Published
• Peer review status: Peer reviewed
• Publisher: Brill Academic Publishers
• Journal: Indo-European Linguistics
• Publication date: 2025-05-21
• Acceptance date: 2025-03-02
• DOI: 10.1163/22125892-bja10039
• EISSN: 2212-5892
• ISSN: 2212-5884
• Language: English
• Keywords: Messapic; phonology; Indo-European; alphabets; back vowels; language contact