Raetic Language

Raetic Language

Raetic (also Rhaetic, Rhaetian) is an extinct language spoken in the ancient region of Raetia in the Eastern Alps in pre-Roman and Roman times. It is documented by a limited number of short inscriptions (found through Northern Italy and West Austria) in two variants of the Etruscan alphabet. Its linguistic categorization is not clearly established, and it presents a confusing mixture of what appear to be Etruscan, Indo-European, and uncertain other elements.

The ancient Raetic language is not the same as one of the modern Romance languages of the same Alpine region, known as Rhaeto-Romanic—although both are sometimes referred to as "Rhaetian".