Etruscans (was: minimal pairs)

[Steve Gustafson]

Rick McCallister wrote:

> I'd like to see some sort of chronology regarding
> aspiration/friciativization or if it was just a case of better writing
> conventions

The example Diomedes > Zimite suggests that these changes were present in
pre-Roman times, though I don't have a date for the inscription in which
Zimite appears.  Since Etruscan seems to have had an unwritten schwa, or at
least syllabic nasals and liquids (spellings like Clutmsta leave little
option otherwise) it may be that "Zimite" represents something like /(d?)zi:
m. i te/, with something like syllabic /m./ as the second syllable,
preserving the four syllables of the borrowed Greek word.  Like in Coptic,
they may have written the syllabic liquids and nasals without a vowel.

According to Sihler's Comparative Grammar of Greek and Latin, assibilization
of T and D is attested by the 3d century A.D. in spellings like
"Marsianenses." for "Martianenses."

--
    We will walk into the snow, and we will keep walking, until
    we reach the grey horizon.

    Ceterum censeo sedem Romanam esse delendam.