Lombardic or
Langobardic is the extinct language of the
Lombards (
Langobardi), the
Germanic-speaking people who settled in
Italy in the 6th century. It was already rapidly declining by the 7th century because the invaders quickly adopted the
Latin vernacular spoken by the local Roman population. Lombardic may have been in scattered use until as late as ca. AD 1000. A number of Italian place names and items of
Italian vocabulary derive from Lombardic. Some linguists have argued that the modern
Cimbrian and
Mocheno dialects in Northeastern Italy, usually classified as Austro-Bavarian, are in fact surviving Lombard remnants.