People speaking these dialects probably arrived on the west coast of Italy around 2000 BCE.

Links have been postulated between other Indo-European languages in the north of Italy and in the Alpine region which could point to the approach route used.

At a date that is highly controversial, Etruscan speakers arrived on the coast and occupied the Toscana thus isolating the Latin and Faliscan speakers. This isolation may explain why Latin-Faliscan did not adopt the "q" to "p" sound change evidenced by Osco-Umbrian.