Convergences métriques méconnues entre la poésie vénète et la poésie paléo-sabellique: inscriptions paléo-vénètes de Lozzo Atestino et de Pernumia/Cartura, stèles sud-picéniennes de Crecchio et de Bellante, guerrier de Capestrano

In spite of numerous publications devoted to the ancient Italic verse, the study of the verbal art in some Venetic inscriptions has been largely neglected by scholars. This lack of attention paid to poetical features is in part closely tied to the obvious limitations in our understanding of the Venetic language: the rich harvest of new inscriptions contributed only marginally to improving our knowledge of the grammar and lexicon. However, according to a view first expressed by Aldo Luigi Prosdocimi (1972), a metrical structure can be discerned in two archaic texts from Lozzo Atestino and Pernumia / Cartura, dated by their letter-forms and the use of scriptio continua (without syllabic punctuation) to the sixth century BCE. Prosdocimi's proposal is corroborated not only by an internal analysis of the texts, but also by comparative evidence from the Paleo-Sabellian epigraphic records. Both the text from Lozzo Atestino and the South Picene inscription TE 2 (Bellante) consist of three groups of seven syllables (7+7+7). Whereas TE 2 exhibits clear alliterations in Anlaut, there are no repetitions of word initial sounds on the kantharos of Lozzo Atestino. Nevertheless, a Jakobsonian approach reveals (among other poetical properties of the text) that the vowel qualities ('timbres') of the first and third heptasyllables are arranged in a chiastic order, since the timbres [a-(o-o)-e-o-i-o] (alkomno metlon śikos) are mirrored in the last sequence horvionte donasan [o-i-o-e-o-(a-a)] (the correction *horeionte is unnecessary). The Venetic inscription from Pernumia / Cartura consists of three heptasyllabic sequences (each with a dative ending -oi in rhyming position) followed by a trisyllabic extension (referred to as 'rallonge' in French). Again, the South Picene corpus offers two metrical compositions displaying a similar metrical structure. It has hitherto remained unnoticed that the famous inscription of the Warrior of Capestrano and the shorter inscription on the stele from Crecchio (CH 1b) may have exactly the same syllable count, with word divisions after the seventh and the fourteenth syllables. The structures of the two South Picene texts (7+7+3) may be compared to the Venetic inscription (7+7+7+3). The trisyllabic words kduíú in Crecchio (cf. Latin clueō), pomp[úne]í in Capestrano (longer supplements are precluded by the size of the lacuna) and atisteit in Cartura fulfil the function of the extension. The remarkable resemblances between the metrical compositions are the result either of a common inheritance from the Proto-Italic stage or (perhaps more reasonably) of cultural contacts in the archaic period between Venetic and 'Paleo-Sabellian' literate people or 'poets'. This hypothesis is supported by the striking similarities between the Venetic forms puponei and rakoi (Camin) on the one hand and South Picene púpúnis (Loro Piceno) and raki()neX1íX2 (Capestrano) on the other hand.