Etruscans (was: minimal pairs)

[Rick Mc Callister]

	A very good question
	Adolfo Zavaroni posits that Etruscan mangling of Greek names and
places is at least partially due to folk etymology
	In books on Greek myth, I've seen a wide gamut of possible origins
for names appearing in Greek myth.
	To give an example, Robert Graves linked almost every Greek deity
and mythic character to Greek. Off the top of my head, he, and many other
general writers linked Apollo to a word meaning "to destroy"; while Steven
Zimmer, in Markey & Greppin [1990: 311 ff] offers the following

	Pelasgian, non Greek IE of Greece and Balkans
Uranos "rainer" [Greek], see OI vars-
Kronos, probably Pelasgian corresponding to Greek géron; relationship to
khrónos is folk etymology
Zeus "bright, daylight sky" see OL Dyaus, Latin dius
Hera pre-IE
Athene pre-IE
Aphrodite pre-IE
Hermes pre Greek
Apollo pre-IE Anatolian; see Lydian PLdans, Hittite Ap-pa-li-u-na-as^,
Luwian Apulunas
Artemis < ? "bear goddess"; see Lydian Artimus^, ArtimuL, Artimu-k
Dionysus < ? Thracian "Son of Zeus"
Poseidon < Poteidáwon "Lord, Husband of the Earth" < ? Pelasgian
Ares < arê: < pre-IE
Hephaistos pre-Greek, probably pre-IE
Demeter "Earth Mother" < ? Messapic, see Messapic damatura [321-22]

	I suspect that Graves's etymologies are amateurish but I plead the
5th, on the grounds that any testimony I may give may reveal my ignorance :>
	But I'd like to hear from those in the know


>> Like the Germans who must have spoken PIE with a terrible
>> brogue, the Etruscans seem to have done great phonetic violence to Greek
>> words they imported.  Klytaimnestra = Clutmsta,  Herakles = Hercle,
>> Menelaos = Menle, Polydeuces = Pulutuk, Diomedes = Zimite.

>        Also "Aplu".  But are these names really Greek, in the sense of
>having IE etymologies?  I have heard that of the Greek gods only Zeus is IE.
>Perhaps we have (in some cases) not mangling but borrowing from a common
>source.
>
>Dr. David L. White

Rick Mc Callister
W-1634
Mississippi University for Women
Columbus MS 39701