SL-2.3

The inscription SL-2.3, together with the other three inscriptions on the Negau helmet A, was included in the Raetic corpus by Schumacher 2004: 329–331. Schumacher acknowledged that the Raeticness of the inscriptions' linguistic content was doubtful, but included them on the grounds of the Raetic characters (particularly Sanzeno "retrograde pi" in SL-2.4). SL-2.3, however, is the odd one out both alphabetically and linguistically. While Schumacher's rationale concerning the Raetic characters holds up for the legible inscriptions SL-2.1 and SL-2.4, the alphabet used in SL-2.3 is most probably Venetic rather than Raetic. Furthermore, while the language of all four inscriptions has been repeatedly analysed as Celtic, only SL-2.3 zuφniφanuaφi has a convincing Celtic etymology dubnī banuabī 'of Dubnos Banuabios' (Marstrander 1925: 44–51), while the other three remain obscure and may well be Raetic as the alphabet suggests. All four inscriptions were originally included in TIR, but SL-2.3 was transferred to the Cisalpine Celtic corpus in accordance with Marstrander's reading and interpretation in April 2020. The inscription is now filed in Lexicon Leponticum with the new siglum PD·1.