Basic Facts

Veneti were ancient settlers of several European Regions.

They populated:
- the Alpine region as well as the northern Adriatic (the Adriatic Veneti),
- the region of the Baltic (the Baltic Veneti),
- the region between rivers Visla (Vistula) and Dnieper (Veneti - Sarmati),
- the region of Brittany in France (the Brittany Veneti),
- the region of Anatolia (the Paphlagonian Veneti),
as well as some other territories.

Their roots were Indo-European; they seemed to be one of the largest branches of the Indoeuropeans settling Europe.

Yes, although many of them are merely derivative names, such as Venedi, Vendi (Vends), Vindelicians, Vindischars, etc. To some authors they were known also as Sclaveni and Antes.

This is disputable, though as pointed out before, they shared a common IE (Indo-European) origin.
- Although the language of the Adriatic Veneti itself is declared as Italic, this doesn't indicate, that it was a language similar to Latin (or Italian). There are also studies indicating that the languge was a form of a Protoslavic conversation form.
- The language of the Baltic Veneti was not really classified, due to the lack of written data, though one may see the so-called Germanic runic inscriptions as a remnant of this ancient culture. Some suppose that it was the Baltic Venetic that influenced the lingual-genesis of the Slavic languages mostly.
- The Veneti Sarmati most probably spoke a Slavic language.
- The Brittany Veneti are supposed to have spoken a Gaellic language, though some argue, that continental Gaellic (Gallic, Celtic) was very similar to west-Slavic languages.
- The Paphlagonian Veneti spoke a language different from the Greek, probably a similar language to the Adriatic Veneti.