Lombardic or Langobardic is the extinct language of the Lombards (Langobardi), the Germanic speaking settlers in Italy in the 6th century.

The language declined from the 7th century, but may have been in scattered use until as late as ca. AD 1000. The language is only preserved fragmentarily; in the absence of Lombardic texts, it is not possible to draw any conclusions about the language's morphology and syntax.

Phonologically, Lombardic is now classified as an early High German dialect. This is based on the evidence that Lombardic participated in, and indeed shows some of the earliest evidence for, the High German consonant shift. The Historia Langobardorum of Paulus Diaconus mentions a duke Zaban of 574, showing /t/ shifted to /ts/. The term stolesazo (the second element is cognate with English seat) in the Edictum Rothari shows the same shift. Many names in the Lombard royal families show shifted consonants, particularly /p/ < /b/ in the following name components:

pert < bert: Aripert, Godepert
perg < berg: Perctarit, Gundperga (daughter of King Agilulf)
prand < brand: Ansprand, Liutprand

It has been suggested that the consonant shift may even have originated in Lombardic.

Formerly, Lombardic was classified as Ingaevonian (North Sea Germanic), but this classification is considered obsolete. The classification of Lombardic within the Germanic languages may be complicated by issues of orthography. According to Hutterer (1999) it is close to Old Saxon. According to Paulus Diaconus (8th century) and the Codex Gothanus (9th century), the Lombards were of Scandinavian origin ultimately, but they had settled at the Elbe before entering Italy, and Tacitus counts them among the Suebi.

Longbardic fragments are preserved in runic inscriptions, in latinized forms, and in transcriptions influenced by Old High German orthography.

Sound Shifts

Some of the consonant shifts resulting from the second and third phases appear also to be observable in Lombardic, the early mediaeval Germanic language of northern Italy, which is preserved in runic fragments of the late 6th and early 7th centuries. Unfortunately, the Lombardic records are not sufficient to allow a complete taxonomy of the language. It is therefore uncertain whether the language experienced the full shift or merely sporadic reflexes, but b→p is clearly attested. This may mean that the shift began in Italy, or that it spread southwards as well as northwards. Ernst Schwarz and others have suggested that the shift occurred in German as a result of contacts with Lombardic. If in fact there is a relationship here, the evidence of Lombardic would force us to conclude that the third phase must have begun by the late 6th century, rather earlier than most estimates, but this would not necessarily require that it had spread to German so early.

If, as some scholars believe, Lombardic was an East Germanic language and not part of the German language dialect continuum, it is possible that parallel shifts took place independently in German and Lombardic. However the extant words in Lombardic show clear relations to Bavarian. Therefore Werner Betz and others prefer to treat Lombardic as an Old High German dialect. There were close connections between Lombards and Proto-Bavarians: the Lombards settled until 568 in 'Tullner Feld' (about 50 km west of Vienna); some Lombard graves (excavated a few years ago when a new railway line was built) date after 568; evidently not all Lombards went to Italy in 568. The rest seem to have become part of the then newly formed Bavarian groups.

When Columban came to the Alamanni at Lake Constance shortly after 600, he made barrels burst, called cupa (English cup, German Kufe), according to Jonas of Bobbio (before 650) in Lombardy. This shows that in the time of Columban the shift from p to f had occurred neither in Alemannic nor in Lombardic. But Edictus Rothari (643; extant manuscript after 650; see above) attests the forms grapworf (throwing a corpse out of the grave, German Wurf and Grab), marhworf (a horse, OHG marh, throws the rider off), and many similar shifted examples. So it is best to see the consonant shift as a common Lombardic - Bavarian - Alemannic shift between 620 and 640, when these tribes had plenty of contact.

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