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Rh p, ' r, Ƨ s, X t and d, V u and o, f, ' s  (i.e. a voiceless palatal consonant.)

In the Latin alphabet, in which Tables VI. and VII. and the third inscription of Table V. are written, d is represented by RS, g by G, but k by C, d by D, t by T, v and u by V but o by O, s by S  , though the diacritic is often omitted. The interpunct is double with the Umbrian alphabet, single and medial with the Latin.

Tables VI. and VII., then, and V. iii., were written later than the rest. But even in the earlier group certain variations appear.

The latest form of the Umbrian alphabet is that of Table V. i. and ii., where the abbreviated form of m (Λ) and the angular and undivided form of k ( not I) are especially characteristic.

Nearest to this is that of Tables III. and IV., which form a single document; then that of I. (a) and (b); earliest would seem that of II. (a) and II. (b). In II. a, 18 and 24, we have the archaic letter san (M = s) of the abecedaria (E. S. Roberts, Int. Gr. Epig. pp. 17 ff.), which appears in no other Italic nor in any Chalcidian inscription, though it survived longer in Etruscan and Venetic use. Against this may be set the use of ⵙ for t in I. b 1, but this appears also in IV. 20 and should be called rather Etruscan than archaic. These characteristics of II. a and b would be in themselves too slight to prove an earlier date, but they have perhaps some weight as confirming the evidence of the language.

(b) Changes in Language.—The evidence of date derived from changes in the language is more difficult to formulate, and the inquiry calls for the most diligent use of scientific method and critical judgment. Its intricacy lies in the character of the documents before us—religious formularies consisting partly of matter established in usage long before they were written down in their present shape, partly of additions made at the time of writing. The best example of this is furnished by the expansion and modernisation of the subject-matter of Table I. into Tables VI. and VII. a. Hence we frequently meet with forms which had passed out of the language that was spoken at the time they were engraved, side by side with their equivalents in that language. We may distinguish four periods, as follows:

1. The first period is represented, not by any complete table, but by the old unmodernised forms of Tables III. and IV., which show the original guttural plosives unpalatalized, e.g. kebu = Lat. cibum.

2. In the second period the gutturals have been palatalized, but there yet is no change of final s to r. This is represented by the rest of III. and IV. and by II. (a and b).

3. In the third period final s has everywhere become r. This appears in V. (i. and ii. and also iii.). Table I. is a copy or redraft made from older documents during this period. This is shown by the occasional appearance of r instead of final s.

4. Soon after the dialect had reached its latest form, the Latin alphabet was adopted. Tables VI. and VII. a contain an expanded form of the same liturgical direction as Table I.

It is probable that further research will amend this classification in detail, but its main lines are generally accepted.

(II.) Actual Date of the Tables.—Only the leading points can be mentioned here.

(i.) The Latin alphabet of the latest Tables resembles that of the Tabula Bantina, and might have been engraved at almost any time between 150 and 50  It is quite likely that the closer relations with Rome, which began after the Social War, led to the adoption of the Latin alphabet. Hence we should infer that the Tables in Umbrian alphabet were at all events older than 90

(ii.) For an upper limit of date, in default of definite evidence, it seems imprudent to go back beyond the 5th century, since neither in Rome nor Campania have we any evidence of public written documents of any earlier century. When more is known of the earliest Etruscan inscriptions it may become possible to date the Iguvine Tables by their alphabetic peculiarities as compared with their mother-alphabet, the Etruscan. The “Tuscan name” is denounced in the comprehensive curse of Table VI. b, 53-60, and we may infer that the town of Iguvium was independent but in fear of the Etruscans at the time when the curse was first composed. The absence of all mention of either Gauls or Romans seems to prove that this time was at least earlier than 400 ; and the curse may have been composed long before it was written down.

The chief sources in which further information may be sought have been already mentioned.

IJOLITE (derived from the first syllable of the Finnish words Jiwaru, Jijoki, &c., common as geographical names in the Kola peninsula, and the Gr. , a stone), a rock consisting essentially of nepheline and augite, and of great rarity, but of considerable importance from a mineralogical and petrographical standpoint. It occurs in various parts of the Kola peninsula in north Finland on the shores of the White Sea. The pyroxene is morphic, yellow or green, and is surrounded by formless areas of nepheline. The accessory minerals are apatite, cancrinite, calcite, titanite and jiwaarite, a dark-brown titaniferous variety of melanite-garnet. This rock is the plutonic and holocrystalline analogue of the nephelenites and nepheline-dolerites; it bears the same relation to them as the nepheline-syenites have to the phonolites. It is worth mentioning that a leucite-augite rock, resembling ijolite except in containing leucite in place of nepheline, is known to occur at Shonkin Creek, near Fort Benton, Montana, and has been called missourite.

 IKI, an island belonging to Japan, lying off the north-western coast of Kiushiu, in 33° 45′ N. lat. and 129° 40′ E. long. It has a circumference of 86 m., an area of 51 sq. m., and a population of 36,530. The island is, for the most part, a tableland about 500 ft. above sea-level. The anchorage is at Gonoura, on the south-west. A part of Kublai Khan’s Mongols landed at Iki when about to invade Japan in the 13th century, for it lies in the direct route from Korea to Japan via Tsushima. In the immediate vicinity are several rocky islets.

 ILAGAN, the capital of the province of Isabela, Luzon, Philippine Islands, on an elevated site at the confluence of the Pinacanauan river with the Grande de Cagayan, about 200 m. N.N.E. of Manila. Pop. (1903) 16,008. The neighbouring country is the largest tobacco-producing section in the Philippines.

 ILCHESTER, a market town in the southern parliamentary division of Somersetshire, England, in the valley of the river Ivel or Yeo, 5 m. N.W. of Yeovil. It is connected by a stone bridge with the village of Northover on the other side of the river. Ilchester has lost the importance it once possessed, and had in 1901 a population of only 564, but its historical interest is considerable. The parish church of St Mary is Early English and Perpendicular, with a small octagonal tower, but has been largely restored in modern times. The town possesses almshouses founded in 1426, a picturesque cross, and a curious ancient mace of the former corporation.

Ilchester (Cair Pensavelcoit, Ischalis, Ivelcestre, Yevelchester) was a fortified British settlement, and subsequently a military station of the Romans, whose Fosse Way passed through it. Its importance continued in Saxon times, and in 1086 it was a royal borough with 107 burgesses. In 1180 a gild merchant was established, and the county gaol was completed in 1188. Henry II. granted a charter, confirmed by John in 1203, which gave Ilchester the same liberties as Winchester, with freedom from tolls and from being impleaded without the walls, the fee farm being fixed at £26, 10s. 0d. The bailiffs of Ilchester are mentioned before 1230. The borough was incorporated in 1556, the fee farm being reduced to £8. Ilchester was the centre of the county administration from the reign of Edward III. until the 19th century, when the change from road to rail travelling completed the decay of the town. Its place has been taken by Taunton. The corporation was abolished in 1886. Parliamentary representation began in 1298, and the town continued to return two members until 1832. A fair on the 29th of August was granted by the charter of 1203. Other fairs on the 27th of December, the 22nd of July, and the Monday before Palm Sunday, were held under a charter of 1289. The latter, fixed as the 25th of March, was still held at the end of the 18th century, but there is now no fair. The Wednesday market dates from before the Conquest. The manufacture of thread lace was replaced by silk weaving about 1750, but this has decayed.

 ÎLE-DE-FRANCE, an old district of France, forming a kind of island, bounded by the Seine, the Marne, the Beuvronne, the Thève and the Oise. In this sense the name is not found in written documents before 1429; but in the second half of the 15th century it designated a wide military province of government, bounded N. by Picardy, W. by Normandy, S. by Orléanais and Nivernais, and E. by Champagne. Its capital was Paris. From the territory of Île-de-France were formed under the Revolution the department of the Seine, together with the greater part of Seine-et-Oise, Seine-et-Marne, Oise and Aisne, and a small part of Loiret and Nièvre. (The term Île-de-France is also used for, q.v.).

See A. Longnon, “L’Île-de-France, son origine, ses limites, ses gouverneurs,” in the Mémoires de la Société de l’histoire de Paris et de l’Île-de-France, vol. i. (1875).