Like Umbrian also, but unlike Latin and Oscan, it has degraded all the diphthongs into simple vowels (Volscian se parallel to Oscan svai; Volscian deue, Old Latin and Oscan deivai or deiuoi).

This phenomenon of what might have been taken for a piece of Umbrian text appearing in a district remote from Umbria and hemmed in by Latins on the north and Oscan-speaking Samnites on the south is a most curious feature in the geographical distribution of the Italic dialects, and is clearly the result of some complex historical movements.

Most of the movable paintings have since 1863 been collected in the Pinacoteca Vannucci, established in the Palazzo del Municipio; besides a considerable number of pieces by Perugino, there are specimens of Niccolo Alunno, Bonfigli, Pinturicchio, &c. A very interesting and important exhibition of Umbrian art was held here in 1907.

The Umbrian town had three gates only, and probably lay on the steep mountain side as the present town does, while the Roman city lay in the lower ground.

The first real advance towards their interpretation was made by Otfried Muller (Die Etrusker, 1828), who pointed out that though their alphabet was akin to the Etruscan their language was Italic. Lepsius, in his essay De tabulis Eugubinis (1833), finally determined the value of the Umbrian signs and the received order of the Tables, pointing out that those in Latin alphabet were the latest.