(ḍ) in Umbrian alphabet and by RS in Latin alphabet, e.g. teḍa in Umbrian alphabet = dirsa in Latin alphabet (see below), “let him give,” exactly equivalent to Paelignian dida (see [Paeligni]).
(4) The change of -s- to -r- between vowels as in erom, “esse” = Osc. ezum, and the gen. plur. fem. ending in -aru = Lat. -arum, Osc. -azum.
To this there appear a long string of exceptions, e.g. asa = Lat. ara. These are generally regarded as mere archaisms, and unfortunately the majority of them are in words of whose origin and meaning very little is known, so that (for all we can tell) in many the -s- may represent -ss- or -ps- as in osatu = Lat. operato, cf. Osc. opsaom.
(5) The change of final -ns to -f as in the acc. plur. masc. vitluf = Lat. vitulōs.
(6) In the latest stage of the dialect (see below) the change of final -s to -r, as in abl. plur. arver, arviis, i.e. “arvorum frugibus.”
(7) The decay of all diphthongs; ai, oi, ei all become a monophthong variously written e and i (rarely ei), as in the dat. sing. fem. tote, “civitati”; dat. sing. masc. pople, “populo”; loc. sing. masc. onse (from *om(e)sei), “in umero.” So au, eu, ou all become ō, as in ote = Osc. auti, Lat. aut.
(8) The change of initial l to v, as in vutu = Lat. lavito.
Owing to the peculiar character of the Tables no grammatical statement about Umbrian is free from difficulty; and these bare outlines of its phonology must be supplemented by reference to the lucid discussion in C. D. Buck’s Oscan and Umbrian Grammar (Boston, 1904), or to the earlier and admirably complete Oskischumbrische Grammatik of R. von Planta (Strassburg, 1892-1897). Some of the most important questions are discussed by R. S. Conway in The Italic Dialects, vol. ii. p. 495 seq.
Save for the consequences of these phonetic changes, Umbrian morphology and syntax exhibit no divergence from Oscan that need be mentioned here, save perhaps two peculiar perfect-formations with -l- and -nçi-; as in ampelust, fut. perf. “impenderit,” combifiançiust, “nuntiaverit” (or the like). Full accounts of the accidence and syntax, so far as it is represented in the inscriptions, will be found in the grammars of Buck and von Planta already mentioned, and in the second volume of Conway, op. cit.