an Italic language closely related to Latin and more distantly related to Oscan (Oscan language) and Umbrian (Umbrian language) languages (qq.v.). Faliscan was spoken by the Falisci in central Italy in a small region northwest of the Tiber River. Falerii, the Faliscan capital, was destroyed by the Romans in 241 BC, and it is likely that the Faliscan language was completely displaced by Latin in the following century. Modern knowledge of Faliscan comes from a small number of inscriptions written in a native Faliscan alphabet derived from Etruscan.