Etruscans (was: minimal pairs)

[Douglas G Kilday]

>> [ Moderator's note:
>>   The hypothesis that the Etruscans may have originated in Anatolia appears
>>   to be supported by the presence on the island of Lemnos of a stele
>>   inscribed in a language clearly related to but differing from the Etruscan
>>   of Italy.
>>   --rma ]

>[Ed Selleslagh]

>I thought this was something of majority view. Of course, final proof is hard
>to get by, and one should keep an open mind. I'll give you some arguments, but
>I don't intend to start a new thread on this.

>The moderator's note is indeed the main argument. The stele found near Kaminia
>on Lemnos (by G. Cousin and F. D|rrbach in 1885) dates from the 6th or 7th c.
>B.C. The spelling differences (with Etruscan) can probably be explained by the
>different alphabet and the phonetic evolution during several centuries of
>separation (the date of arrival of the Etruscan's forefathers is rather
>unclear: the estimates vary from the 13th to the 6th c. B.C. But they seem to
>have arrived after the Umbrians had already established themselves in the
>later Etruria: the river now called Ombrone seems to bear their name).
>Example:  Etr.  <auils> - Lemn. <awidz> (probably meaning 'year(s)').

Examination of the Lemnian stele does not favor the hypothesis of Etruscan
emigration from Anatolia. The alphabet of the stele and similar minor
inscriptions found on Lemnos belongs to the Euboico-Chalcidian family, not
directly related to the Phrygian alphabet used in NW Anatolia and Gordium,
and out of place among the East Ionian and Cycladic alphabets typical of the
Aegean. Features include the Lemnian use of the zigzag sign as a sibilant
(not a vowel as in Phrygian), the fricative value of H (vocalic in East
Ionian), the psi-shaped chi (X-shaped in Cycladic and EI), and the existence
of vau (digamma, already extinct in EI). The Lemnian alphabet is clearly an
intrusion from the West. Indeed it is difficult to derive this alphabet
directly from Euboea without going through the Chalcidian models of Greek
communities in Italy. For details see Carlo de Simone, "I Tirreni a Lemnos:
l'alfabeto" in Studi Etruschi LX, 1994, pp. 145-63.

The stele contains the phrase <holaies' naphoth> which is plausibly
'grandson of Holaie'; Lemn. Holaie = Hylaeus (A. Trombetti, "La lingua
etrusca", Firenze 1928, pp. 188-92). <Naphoth> corresponds to Etr. <nefts>,
<nef(i)s'> which is a loanword from Umbrian (A.J. Pfiffig, "Die etruskische
Sprache", Graz 1969, p. 297). The stele also contains <aker tavars'io
vanalasial>, evidently the name of the honored/deceased in regular Etruscan
form: Aker = praenomen, Tavars'io = gentilicium, Vanalasial = metronymic. To
my knowledge *Acer is unattested as a praenomen in Etruria, but its former
existence is indicated by the gentilicia Acri (TLE 618; CIE 3987,4257),
Acrie (CIE 5039), and Acrni (TLE 442). For parallel derivation see the
gentilicia Veli (CIE 3421,3933,4322 etc.), Velie (TLE 7; CIE 752,2702), and
Velni (CIE 4335,4682/3), all formed from the common praenomen Vel.

This PN-GN-MN naming system originated in central Italy with the Etruscans
and Italics before 700 BCE, though it took some 200 years to become
established in Campania (M. Cristofani et al., "Il sistema onomastico" in
AA. VV. "L'Etrusco arcaico", Firenze 1976, pp. 92-134). Aker's metronymic is
based on the feminine gentilicium *Vanalasi. The feminine name-suffix <-i>
was borrowed into Etruscan from Italic (de Simone op.cit. note 78). These
points strongly suggest that the Etruscan community which left the stele and
other inscriptions on Lemnos emigrated from Italy, probably around 650 BCE.
The emigration must be dated after the development of the Italo-Etruscan
gentilician naming system, but before the establishment of standard writing
systems throughout the Etruscan-speaking parts of Italy.

Other features of the inscription indicate that "Lemnian" should be regarded
as a dialect of Archaic Etruscan, not a separate language, and hence not
sufficiently remote from mainland Etruscan to serve for reconstruction of
"Uretruskisch" or "Proto-Tyrrhenian". The Lemnian phrase <sialchveis' avis'>
corresponds to Recent Etr. <s'ealchls avils> 'of sixty years (of age)' (or
40 if you follow Torp's numeral scheme; cf. TLE 98). Note that Etr. <avils>
is a genitive sg./pl. 'of year(s)'. The Lemnian dative phrase <holaies'i
phokiasiale> 'to Hylaeus the Phocaean' corresponds in form to Recent Etr.
<larthiale hulchniesi> (TLE 84) and several Arch. Etr. dedicatory
inscriptions. The mention of a Phocaean Greek, of course, says nothing about
the provenance of these or any other Etruscan-speakers.

As for your Ombrone (anc. Umbro), there are two rivers by that name as well
as a Calabrian stream formerly called Oumbros. The stem Umbr- has no
plausible Umbrian or other IE etymology. It was probably applied to certain
rivers by non-Etruscan pre-IE substrate-speakers, then to dwellers in or
across a particular river-valley (G. Alessio, "Mediterranei ed Italici
nell'Italia centrale" in St. Etr. XXIX, 1961, pp. 191-217). The Umbrians
themselves used <naharkum numem> (Lat. *Narcum nomen) to denote the nation
of dwellers in the valley of the Nar (mod. Nera), probably Sabines. There
are good reasons to believe that Umbrians antedated Etruscans in this corner
of the world, but the hydronym Ombrone is not one of them.

>The general aspect of the language is flecting, with elements that recall
>(P)IE (e.g. -c, Lat. -que, Greek -te, but that could be contamination), but
>more similar to e.g. Lydian (-l, -s genitives), apparently with a strong
>initial accent and pileups of consonants. In short: like a cousin rather than
>a descendant of ('narrow') PIE.

Etruscan nominal morphology is agglutinative and allows redetermination: an
oblique case may be substantivized and may serve as the base for further
inflection. E.g.:

  tus'  n. 'niche'
  tus't(h)i  loc. 'in the niche' TLE 630,631,655
  tus'ur  pl. 'niches'
  tus'urthi  loc. 'in the niches' TLE 586,627
  tus'urthir  pl. 'those (dead spouses) in the niches' TLE 587

  papa  n. 'grandfather'
  papals  abl. 'from the grandfather' = 'grandchild' TLE 437
  papalser  pl. 'grandchildren (of male)' TLE 169; Tab. Cort.

  Calu  n. 'god of Death'
  Calus  gen. 'belonging to Calu' cf. TLE 642
  Calusur  pl. 'those belonging to Calu' = 'the dead'
  Calusurasi  dat. 'to those etc.' = 'to the dead' TLE 172

Can your favorite IE language do that?

>A few years ago, M. Carrasquer made a tentative family tree I will send you
>privately since this list doesn't allow it.

Thank you. I don't dispute the outline of this tree (other than the position
of Gmc. which is not presently under discussion). What is needed for serious
assessment of Proto-Indo-Tyrrhenian is a table of sound-changes between PT
and PIE or PIH (other than the work of certifiable kooks, who are attracted
to Etruscan like fruit flies to a banana display). This in turn requires a
deeper knowledge of native Etruscan vocabulary. Attempting to reconstruct
PIT with current data would be premature at best.

If we take the date of 1200 BCE for the presumed Etruscan emigration, and
regard the Etruscans of Lemnos as a relict population, we are confronted by
the absence of corroboration in the classical authors. Homer does not
mention Etruscans (Turse:noi, "Tyrrhenians") on Lemnos; his inhabitants of
Lemnos are Sinties (Il. I.593-4; Od. VIII.294). These were Thracians
according to Strabo (Geog. VII fr. 45; XII.3.20). Early references to
Tyrrhenians (Hesiod, Theog. 1016; "Homeric" Hymn to Dionysus HH 7.8) do not
involve Lemnos. Later tradition has the Minyae, descended from the
Argonauts, expelled from Lemnos by Pelasgians (Hdt. IV.145; Paus. VII.2.2).
The island was eventually taken over by the Athenians (Hdt. VI.139-40).
Thucydides, in listing bilingual barbarians living near Athos some years
afterward (IV.109.4), mentions Tyrrhenians formerly inhabiting Lemnos and
Athens. It is hardly likely that a substantial population of Etruscans lived
on Lemnos for several centuries. More probable is a small colony of
Etruscans (retired pirates?) between ca. 650-450 BCE, with the majority of
the island's inhabitants being Pelasgians at that time.

The source of the Anatolian-Etruscan hypothesis is of course the story
related by Herodotus (I.94). The Lydians claimed to have colonized Etruria
during a long famine, having sent half the population away under the king's
son Tyrsenus, whose name was then taken by the colonists. The whole story is
presented in indirect discourse depending on <phasi de autoi Ludoi> 'and the
Lydians themselves say...' indicating that Herodotus does not attach factual
weight to it. As the historian admits elsewhere (VII.152) <ego: de opheilo:
legein ta legomena, peithesthai ge men ou pantapasi opheilo:> 'I am obliged
to tell the stories, but I am not obliged to believe them unconditionally'.

Among later authors Velleius Paterculus took this story at face-value, but
Dionysius Halicarnassius, who spent years actually studying the Etruscans in
Etruria, rejected it. VP has had no shortage of successors, even now, who
blithely ride the Anatolian-Etruscan bandwagon.

>There are also non-linguistic arguments, like the bronze liver of Piacenza,
>used as a model by Etruscan fortune tellers, which has N. Mesopotamian
>characteristics. Or the considerable Greek content of Etruscan culture.

The bronze liver is rather late as Etruscan artefacts go. Greeks had a
considerable presence in Italy from early times; the Greek inscription of
Gabii is dated to ca. 770 BCE; we can infer that most if not all of the
Greek content was transferred to Etruscan culture on Italian soil.

A powerful "argumentum ex silentio" against Etruscans coming from Anatolia
in the late II-early I mill. BCE is the absence of Mesopotamian deities and
motifs in early (un-Hellenized) Etruscan religion.

>Although this isn't really an argument, I would like to add this:

[snip of material on Aeneid]

>All this means is that probably some people from the north-eastern
>Mediterranean arrived in Latium or thereabout in or before the earliest
>days of
>the Roman tradition.

I don't dispute the last point. A lot of things happened in the aftermath of
the Trojan War. I just don't find it plausible that Etruscan emigration from
Anatolia was one of them.

DGK