Ἰταλία

See also: Ιταλία

Ancient Greek

Etymology

Uncertain.

According to the most widely accepted explanation, is an early borrowing from Oscan 𐌅𐌝𐌕𐌄𐌋𐌉𐌞 (Víteliú, “land of young cattle”) or a related Italic language with /w/ in the anlaut disappearing in Greek before the classical period, and later re-analyzed as Ῑ̓τᾰλός (Ītalós) +‎ -ῐ́ᾱ (-íā).

In such case, derived from Proto-Italic *wet-elo- (“yearling, calf”), from Proto-Indo-European *wet- (“year”).

Pronunciation

 

• IPA^(key): /iː.ta.lí.aː/ → /i.taˈli.a/ → /i.taˈli.a/

• (5^th BCE Attic) IPA^(key): /iː.ta.lí.aː/
• (1^st CE Egyptian) IPA^(key): /i.taˈli.a/
• (4^th CE Koine) IPA^(key): /i.taˈli.a/
• (10^th CE Byzantine) IPA^(key): /i.taˈli.a/
• (15^th CE Constantinopolitan) IPA^(key): /i.taˈli.a/

Proper noun

Ῑ̓τᾰλῐ́ᾱ • (Ītalíā) f (genitive Ῑ̓τᾰλῐ́ᾱς); first declension

1. (classical) southernmost Italy, roughly corresponding to modern Calabria
2. Italy

Inflection

First declension of ἡ Ῑ̓τᾰλῐ́ᾱ; τῆς Ῑ̓τᾰλῐ́ᾱς (Attic)

Case / #	Singular
Nominative	ἡ Ῑ̓τᾰλῐ́ᾱ hē Ītalíā
Genitive	τῆς Ῑ̓τᾰλῐ́ᾱς tês Ītalíās
Dative	τῇ Ῑ̓τᾰλῐ́ᾳ têi Ītalíāi
Accusative	τὴν Ῑ̓τᾰλῐ́ᾱν tḕn Ītalíān
Vocative	Ῑ̓τᾰλῐ́ᾱ Ītalíā
Notes:	This table gives Attic inflectional endings. For declension in other dialects, see Appendix:Ancient Greek dialectal declension.

Derived terms

• Ῑ̓τᾰλῐώτης (Ītaliṓtēs)

Descendants

• Albanian: Italia
• Catalan: Itàlia
• Corsican: Italia
• Emilian: Itâglia
• English: Italy
• French: Italie
• Friulian: Italie
• German: Italien
• Greek: Ιταλία (Italía)
• Italian: Italia
• Latin: Ītalia
• Ligurian: Italia
• Lombard: Itàlia
• Maltese: Italja
• Neapolitan: Italia
• Occitan: Itàlia
• Piedmontese: Italia
• Romagnol: Itâglia
• Sardinian: Itàlia
• Serbo-Croatian: Italija
• Sicilian: Italia
• Slovene: Italija
• Venetian: Itałia

References

• “Ἰταλία”, in Liddell & Scott (1940) A Greek–English Lexicon, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “Ἰταλία”, in Liddell & Scott (1889) An Intermediate Greek–English Lexicon, New York: Harper & Brothers
• G2482 in Strong, James (1979) Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance to the Bible
• Woodhouse, S. C. (1910) English–Greek Dictionary: A Vocabulary of the Attic Language‎^[1], London: Routledge & Kegan Paul Limited, page 1,014