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Samnium
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==Etymology== Etymologically the name Samnium is generally recognized to be a form of the name of the [[Sabines]], who were [[Umbria]]ns.<ref>{{harvnb|Salmon|1967|p=29}}.</ref> From Safinim, Sabinus, Sabellus and Samnis an [[Indo-European language|Indo-European]] root can be extracted, *{{lang|ine|sabh}}-, which becomes Sab- in [[Latino-Faliscan]] and Saf- in [[Osco-Umbrian]]: Sabini and *Safineis. The eponymous god of the Sabines, Sabus, seems to support this view. The Greek terms, Saunitai and Saunitis, remain outside the group. Nothing is known of their origin. At some point in prehistory, a population speaking a common language extended over both Samnium and [[Umbria]]. Salmon conjectures that it was common Italic and puts forward a date of 600 BC, after which the common language began to separate into dialects. This date does not necessarily correspond to any historical or archaeological evidence; developing a synthetic view of the ethnology of proto-historic Italy is an incomplete and ongoing task. The linguist [[Julius Pokorny]] carries the etymology somewhat further back. Conjecturing that the -a- was altered from an -o- during some prehistoric residence in [[Illyria]] he derives the names from an o-grade extension *swo-bho- of an extended e-grade *swe-bho- of the possessive adjective, *s(e)we-, of the reflexive pronoun, *se-, "oneself" (the source of English self). The result is a set of Indo-European tribal names (if not the endonym of the Indo-Europeans): Germanic [[Suebi]] and [[Semnones]], Suiones; Celtic [[Senones]]; Slavic [[Serbs]] and [[Sorbs]]; Italic [[Sabelli]], [[Sabini]], etc., as well as a large number of kinship terms. The general concept is "our own kith and kin", Pokorny's {{lang|de|von eigener Art}} ("of our own kind"), {{lang|de|Gesamtheit der eigenen Leute}} ("the totality of our own people"), {{lang|de|Liebe}} ("love"), {{lang|de|Sippegenossen}} ("clan comrades"), {{lang|de|Sippenangehörigen}} ("clan members"), and the like.<ref>{{harvnb|Pokorny|1959|pp=882–884}} under se.</ref>
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