Latin perfects and Fluent Etruscan in 30 days!

[Damien Erwan Perrotin]

>From Eduard Selleslagh
Sent : Tue, 3 Aug 1999 20:35

>Ed wrote
>Has it been proven that the Breton afan was  derived from an originally

>Brythonic *ama? (I have no problem with the reconstruction itself, I even
>mentioned it in a different way).  Brythonic languages like Welsh contain
>large numbers of words that are most likely loans from Latin. It's all a
>matter of timing, of course.

It is difficult to be sure in that matters (the result would have been
the same), but if Brythonnic had borrowed Latin Amare, it would be with
its first meaning (to love), and would have replaced the indigenous term
(*car) still in use in Welsh, Breton and Cornish. Moreover, the Breton
term suggests that the original word was not a verb but the noun af
(kiss), wich does descent from an older *av, itself from *am (albeit *ab
is not phonetically impossible), all of this fairly regular in Breton
(if the verb had been first, and not derivated from the noun, it would
have been, regularly *avan). This noun cannot be a Latin loanword, as
there is nor corresponding word in Latin (the equivalent is amor, which
would have yielded *aver, or *avor).

>According to M.Carrasquer's Stammbaum, which I subcribe to, IE and Etruscan
>(and the like)are cousins.

I definitely aggree, this the thesis of my new published book (in
French, sorry), and the basis of the handbook I am working on.

>The only thing I'm pretty convinced of is that the Etr. and Lat. am- and
>the Lat. amb- (IE m.b-) roots are related, the problem is 'how?'

There I am quite dubious. If we assume that the oldest form of Latin
amb- and the like is H2e-mbhe or H2-mbhe, the second member of which is
a particle meaning beside, and which is at the origin of English by and
of the Sanskrit dative plural in -bh- (Martinet, 1986), what seems quite
acceptable. If we suppose this root began with a prenasalized *mbh
(Martinet too), which is still the best hypothesis to explain such
alternations as Greek nephos (cloud), Welsh nef (from *nemos, sky) or
Breton env (he, from Celtic *emo) and Hittite abas (this). The we could
draw possible hypothesis.
When stressed the prenasalized becomes am- in Etruscan at the initial :
thus
am(u) (to be) from *mbheu (to be, to become).
ame (with) from *mbhe (beside) (Old English be)
amake (wife) from *mbhendhto- (bound)
When unstressed,at the initial it remains unchanged or become a /m/
mulch (beautiful) from *mbhleg- (to shine) : the Etruscan word was
written with a m but was borrowed by Latin as pulcher, hence the
possibility of
mutu (thyme) from *mbhent- (mint) (Breton bent).
At the interior of a word, it seems that it become a p (which in turn
can become a spirant, but the value of "aspirated" consonnants in
Etruscan is not clear).
snuiaph (probably heavenly, as it is associated with pulumchva - stars -
in the Tablets of Pyrgi) from (s)nembh- (cloud, sky) : Greek nephos,
Breton nenv.
ipa (which, this) from *embho- (this) : Hittite apas, Breton env, Celtic
*emo
In that view the reflex of *H2e-mbhe would be something like *ep or *ap.

It is however possible that Etruscan am (which is known through the very
Indo-European looking proper name aminth (eros)) is the result of an
Anatolian adstrat, perhaps the famous Twrs of the Egyptian inscription.
As we are sure that the root is present in Anatolian (c.f Lydian) that
is even relatively likely.

Of course, all my analysis of Etruscan does only reflect my personnal -
an much in working - opinion an theory. c.f Geocities/Athens/Crete/4060
for very provisionnal details.

Damien Erwan Perrotin