Post by Kior Olfaa on Dec 13, 2011 20:01:44 GMT -5
Etruscan was a language spoken and written in the ancient region of Etruria (current Tuscany) and in what is now Lombardy (where the Etruscans were displaced by Gauls), in Italy. However, Latin superseded Etruscan completely, leaving only a few documents and a few loanwords in Latin (e.g., persona from Etruscan phersu), and some place-names, like Roma and Parma.
The Etruscan language is not related to any other language in the world, except Raetic, recorded in the Alps, which was clearly related to Etruscan judging by a few inscriptions found. Most Etruscan texts are from tombstones: genealogical words, personal titles and brief dedicatory sentences. Bilingual texts with Phoenician are short and few in number. As a consequence, the Etruscan language remains poorly understood.
The alphabet they used is basically the Euboean Greek alphabet. The "archaic" alphabet was used between the 8th and 4th century BCE, before the Etruscans were part of the Roman Empire. The "late" version was used from the 4th century BCE to the 1st century CE, at a time when Etruscan as a language was rapidly being replaced by Latin. The Germanic Runes (the Futhark) are now thought to derive from the Northern Etruscan alphabet, a fact which supports the existence of a vast Etruscan trading network. The knowledge of Etruscan finally died out by the 1st century CE.
An Etruscan religious literature did exist, and evidence suggests that there was a body of historical literature and drama as well. Etruscan ceased to be spoken in the time of imperial Rome, though it continued to be studied by priests and scholars. The emperor Claudius (d. 54 CE) wrote a history of the Etruscans in 20 books, now lost, based on sources still preserved in his day. The language continued to be used in a religious context until late antiquity; the final record of such use relates to the invasion of Rome by Alaric, chief of the Visigoths, in 410 CE, when Etruscan priests were summoned to conjure lightning against the barbarians.
The Etruscans were known as seafarers in the ancient world - the myth of Dionysus speaks of his kidnapping by Tyrrhenian (Etruscan) pirates. They had (no doubt long-standing) trade relationships with Phoenicia and Egypt, as well as Western European Celts and Iberians. They became a center in mining and trading iron and may very well have aquired iron smelting technology from Anatolia. They also were known for their workmanship in gold, the raw material of which they may have gotten from Iberian, Thracian, Anatolian, British and Egyptian resources.
There is a corpus of over 10,000 known Etruscan inscriptions, with new ones being discovered each year. These are mainly short funerary or dedicatory inscriptions, found on funerary urns, in tombs or on objects dedicated in sanctuaries. Others are found on engraved bronze Etruscan mirrors, where they label mythological figures or give the name of the owner, and on coins, dice, and pottery. Finally, there are graffiti scratched on pottery; though their function is little understood, they seem to include owners' names as well as numbers, abbreviations, and non alphabetic signs.
Of the longer inscriptions, the most important is the Zagreb mummy wrapping or "Liber Lintaeus", found in Egypt in the 19th century and carried back to Yugoslavia by a traveler (National Museum, Zagreb). It had originally been a book of linen cloth, which at some date was cut up into strips to be wrapped around a mummy. With about 1,300 words, written in black ink on the linen, it is the longest existing Etruscan text; it contains a calendar and instructions for sacrifice, sufficient to convey some idea of Etruscan religious literature.
The Etruscan consonant system primarily distinguished between aspirated and non-aspirated stops. There were no voiced stops and loanwords with them were typically devoiced, e.g. Greek thriambos was borrowed by Etruscan, becoming triumpus and triumphus in Latin.
Etruscan was inflected, varying the endings of nouns, pronouns and verbs. It also had adjectives, adverbs, and conjunctions, which were uninflected. But it was mainly agglutinative, with some nouns bearing two or three agglutinated suffixes.
No distinction is made between nominative and accusative of nouns. Common nouns use the unmarked root. Names of males may end in -e: Hercle (Hercules), Achle (Achilles), Tite (Titus); of females, in -i, -a or -u: Uni (Juno), Menrva (Minerva), Zipu. Names of gods may end in -s: Fufluns, Tins; or they may be the unmarked stem ending in a vowel or consonant: Aplu (Apollo), Pakha (Bacchus).
Examples of Etruscan words:
apa = father (Latin: pater)
ati = mother
tiu = moon, month
clan = son
Rasena = Etruscans
leu = lion (Latin: leo)
tul = stone
usil = sun (Latin: sol)
am- = to be
The Etruscan language is not related to any other language in the world, except Raetic, recorded in the Alps, which was clearly related to Etruscan judging by a few inscriptions found. Most Etruscan texts are from tombstones: genealogical words, personal titles and brief dedicatory sentences. Bilingual texts with Phoenician are short and few in number. As a consequence, the Etruscan language remains poorly understood.
The alphabet they used is basically the Euboean Greek alphabet. The "archaic" alphabet was used between the 8th and 4th century BCE, before the Etruscans were part of the Roman Empire. The "late" version was used from the 4th century BCE to the 1st century CE, at a time when Etruscan as a language was rapidly being replaced by Latin. The Germanic Runes (the Futhark) are now thought to derive from the Northern Etruscan alphabet, a fact which supports the existence of a vast Etruscan trading network. The knowledge of Etruscan finally died out by the 1st century CE.
An Etruscan religious literature did exist, and evidence suggests that there was a body of historical literature and drama as well. Etruscan ceased to be spoken in the time of imperial Rome, though it continued to be studied by priests and scholars. The emperor Claudius (d. 54 CE) wrote a history of the Etruscans in 20 books, now lost, based on sources still preserved in his day. The language continued to be used in a religious context until late antiquity; the final record of such use relates to the invasion of Rome by Alaric, chief of the Visigoths, in 410 CE, when Etruscan priests were summoned to conjure lightning against the barbarians.
The Etruscans were known as seafarers in the ancient world - the myth of Dionysus speaks of his kidnapping by Tyrrhenian (Etruscan) pirates. They had (no doubt long-standing) trade relationships with Phoenicia and Egypt, as well as Western European Celts and Iberians. They became a center in mining and trading iron and may very well have aquired iron smelting technology from Anatolia. They also were known for their workmanship in gold, the raw material of which they may have gotten from Iberian, Thracian, Anatolian, British and Egyptian resources.
There is a corpus of over 10,000 known Etruscan inscriptions, with new ones being discovered each year. These are mainly short funerary or dedicatory inscriptions, found on funerary urns, in tombs or on objects dedicated in sanctuaries. Others are found on engraved bronze Etruscan mirrors, where they label mythological figures or give the name of the owner, and on coins, dice, and pottery. Finally, there are graffiti scratched on pottery; though their function is little understood, they seem to include owners' names as well as numbers, abbreviations, and non alphabetic signs.
Of the longer inscriptions, the most important is the Zagreb mummy wrapping or "Liber Lintaeus", found in Egypt in the 19th century and carried back to Yugoslavia by a traveler (National Museum, Zagreb). It had originally been a book of linen cloth, which at some date was cut up into strips to be wrapped around a mummy. With about 1,300 words, written in black ink on the linen, it is the longest existing Etruscan text; it contains a calendar and instructions for sacrifice, sufficient to convey some idea of Etruscan religious literature.
The Etruscan consonant system primarily distinguished between aspirated and non-aspirated stops. There were no voiced stops and loanwords with them were typically devoiced, e.g. Greek thriambos was borrowed by Etruscan, becoming triumpus and triumphus in Latin.
Etruscan was inflected, varying the endings of nouns, pronouns and verbs. It also had adjectives, adverbs, and conjunctions, which were uninflected. But it was mainly agglutinative, with some nouns bearing two or three agglutinated suffixes.
No distinction is made between nominative and accusative of nouns. Common nouns use the unmarked root. Names of males may end in -e: Hercle (Hercules), Achle (Achilles), Tite (Titus); of females, in -i, -a or -u: Uni (Juno), Menrva (Minerva), Zipu. Names of gods may end in -s: Fufluns, Tins; or they may be the unmarked stem ending in a vowel or consonant: Aplu (Apollo), Pakha (Bacchus).
Examples of Etruscan words:
apa = father (Latin: pater)
ati = mother
tiu = moon, month
clan = son
Rasena = Etruscans
leu = lion (Latin: leo)
tul = stone
usil = sun (Latin: sol)
am- = to be