Old Latin

Old Latin
𐌔Ⲟᚾ𐤠𐌋ᚾ𐌔
The Duenos inscription, one of the earliest Old Latin texts
Native to	Latium, later the Roman Kingdom and Republic
Region	Italy
Ethnicity	Latins, Romans
Era	Attested since 7th century BC. Developed into Vulgar Latin as colloquial form, and Classical Latin as literary form, around 75 BC.
Language family	Indo-European Italic Latino-Faliscan Old Latin
Early forms	Proto-Indo-European Proto-Italic Proto-Latino-Faliscan
Writing system	Etruscan, Latin
Official status
Official language in	Rome
Regulated by	Schools of grammar and rhetoric
Language codes
ISO 639-3	None (mis)
Linguist List	qbb
Glottolog	oldl1238
Expansion of the Roman Republic during the 2nd century BC. Very little Latin is likely to have been spoken beyond the green area, and other languages were spoken even within it.

Old Latin, also known as Early, Archaic or Priscan Latin (Classical Latin: prīsca Latīnitās, lit. 'ancient Latinity'), was the Latin language in the period roughly before 75 BC, i.e. before the age of Classical Latin. It descends from a common Proto-Italic language; Latino-Faliscan is likely a separate branch from Osco-Umbrian with possible further relation to other Italic languages and to Celtic; e.g. the Italo-Celtic hypothesis.

The use of "old", "early" and "archaic" has been standard in publications of Old Latin writings since at least the 18th century. The definition is not arbitrary, but the terms refer to spelling conventions and word forms not generally found in works written under the Roman Empire. This article presents some of the major differences.