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If you mean in Italy, many languages were spoken before Latin became dominant.

Etruscan was a major language - it is apparently unrelated to any other, whereas many other pre-Latin languages were related to each other. They include Oscan, Umbrian, Marsian and Marrucinian, but there were many more.

Latin absorbed a few words of Etruscan and the Romans wrote dictionaries preserving the ancient Etruscan language.

As a comparison here are a few words in some of these languages:

Latin ................Oscan .....................Etruscan ................ English

Arae ..................Aasas .......................sacni .....................altars

Hae ....................ekask .......................ica ........................these

filia .....................fuutrei .....................sech ......................daughter

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14y ago

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