Eastern and Western Italics

[julius antony]

My understanding is that the Samnites were a branch of the Eastern Italics called the Sabines,and these Samnites had settled in and around modern day Molise,which formed a large part of Samnium.

 

On the other hand,my understanding is that the Romans were from the Latin tribes which were a branch of the Western Italics,who were in Latium.

 

Were the Latins and the Samnites related by blood or language ,etc?

 

Would modern day Italians in Molise share more DNA with the Romans,Samnites,both or neither?

[danrelle]

My understanding is that the Samnites were a branch of the Eastern Italics called the Sabines,and these Samnites had settled in and around modern day Molise,which formed a large part of Samnium.

 

On the other hand,my understanding is that the Romans were from the Latin tribes which were a branch of the Western Italics,who were in Latium.

 

Were the Latins and the Samnites related by blood or language ,etc?

 

Would modern day Italians in Molise share more DNA with the Romans,Samnites,both or neither?

 

yes same question Julius... I am not really sure of it that latins and the Samnites are somewhat related. I am still looking for a proof in order for me to complete my history essay[/url].

Edited April 14, 2010 by Nephele
Spam link removed.

[docoflove1974]

By language at least, yes, the Latins and the Samnites were related. The Italic branch of the Indo-European language family is broken up into two major groups:

 

--Latino-Faliscan: which has two major daughter languages, Latin and Faliscan, which was spoken by a tribe to the north of Rome; and

--Sabellian: which is the branch of Umbrian (spoken in Central-Eastern Italy, they originally lived in what is now Tuscany, but were pushed east by the Etruscans), and Oscan (the language of the Samnites)

 

We have quite a few inscriptions of both Oscan and Umbrian, mostly from 400-150 BCE, some even in the Latin alphabet. But it seems as the Romans took a stronghold over the region, the other Italic tribes and the Etruscans assimilated or perished.

 

(For more, see Carl Darling Buck's A Grammar of Oscan and Umbrian, with various editions still in print. Info above taken from Robert S. P. Beekes (1995) Comparative Indo-European Linguistics: An Introduction. Amsterdam and Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing.)