Chronology. (I.) The Relative Dates of the Tables.—At least four periods in the history of the dialect can be distinguished in the records we have left to us, by the help of the successive changes (a) in alphabet and (b) in language, which the Tables exhibit. Of these only the outstanding features can be mentioned here; for a fuller discussion the reader must be referred to The Italic Dialects, pp. 400 sqq.
(a) Changes in Alphabet.—Observe first that Tables I., II., III. and IV., and the first two inscriptions of V. are in Umbrian character; the Latin alphabet is used in the Claverniur paragraph (V. iii.), and the whole of VI. (a and b) and VII. (a and b).
What we may call the normal Umbrian alphabet (in which e.g. Table I. a is written) consists of the following signs, the writing being always from right to left:
ḍ (i.e. a sound akin to r derived from d),
and
