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 reanalyzed as Ῑ̓τᾰλός (Ītalós) +‎ -ῐ́ᾱ (-íā).

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

Pronunciation

(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

(Classical Ancient Greek) southernmost Italy, roughly corresponding to modern Calabria
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, London: Routledge & Kegan Paul Limited, page 1,014