Etruscan non legatur etruscan is not read

Etruscan in Italy

Despite many bright statements which can be found on the Web nowadays, the Etruscan problem remains with us, and their origin and their language classification are still unknown. If we summarise all that has been said and found about Etruscans, we can see that the majority of discoveries confirm ancient theories of their Asiatic home land. Several historical facts, archaeological relics, words from Egyptian, and finally the problem of the Lemnos Stele - all these are in favour of Asia Minor as the original land of Etruscan.

They came to Italy and occupied northern and central districts of the peninsula. Soon, due to overseas trading and contacts with the higher civilisations of the Phoenicians, Greeks and Egyptians, Etruscans acquired writing, invented their own alphabet and brought up their original culture, so unlike other cultures of that time in Europe.

Linguists have been studying the links between Etruscan and other language families for many centuries, but still little progress has been made. One of the great mysteries of Europe still fascinates.

The Problem of Ancient Minor Languages and their Origin

There are languages that are historically evident; they existed, they were used, maybe, by powerful and numerous people, but the civilization on their speakers passed away, or was destroyed, and the languages disappeared from the Earth leaving just a few signs of their existence - words or inscriptions - to remind about the past.

Such ancient languages are called Minor (compared to Latin, Greek, Sanskrit and other Major ancient tongues) and require rather more attentive study because scientist still doubt of their origin, the structure and the very type of many of them.

And sooner or later the question arises: maybe, they are Indo-European?

Identification of the Etruscan language

First about theories.

We saw two versions of Indo-European roots of Etruscans in literature. The firs (popular in Europe and America) regarded them as the representatives of the so-called "first wave" of Indo-European migration from Central Asia to Europe. They went through Anatolia first to Aegean Islands, then to Italy where they occupied the Central and Northern parts of the peninsula. They acquired their alphabet from Phoenicians and Greeks but Etruscan language was not similar to theirs, though it was a distant relative to Greek. But Etruscan was much older than both Greek and Italic and therefore did not look like them.

The second theory was published in Moscow in a book by G.Grinevich called "Proto-Slavic Script' and that  is why did not gained popularity around the world. It explained the "Etruscan mystery" simply as a branch of Slavic civilisation in Italy. The Etruscan alphabet was interpreted as Slavic, but proof and facts were too weak to take this theory seriously into consideration.

Now the facts which are accepted by majority of scientists around the world.

Etruscan came to Italy somewhere from Asia Minor in the early 9 century. They are described as dark-haired and brown-skinned people; Greeks called them "Tyrsen" or "Tyrrhen", Italics (Indo-Europeans who lived in Southern and Eastern Italy) knew them as "Tusci" or "Etrusci"; they called themselves "Resena". No archeologists or historians (except Dionysius of Halicarnassus) looked  at Etruscan culture and customs as similar to those of Italic people. Religion was different as well, though some gods were borrowed by Indo-Europeans from Etruscan cults, but they were given different names - which proves somehow that Etruscan names were hard for them to pronounce and to remember.

Let us go through the principles of language identifying to (see) to decide whether Etruscan language can be Indo-European.

Romans used to say: "Etruscan non legatur"("Etruscan is not read"), and that was true, they could not read Etruscan words though alphabets were similar. Romans acquired their alphabet from both Etruscans and Greeks as well as they acquired some words (mainly cult terms), but to speak with Etruscans they definitely needed an interpreter. And the same thing shows our Etruscan Glossary composed of both words and names.

Etruscan                English                Italic

ais, aisar                god                deus

am                to be                es-

an                he, she ille, ul

apa     father pater

Aplu     Apollo Apollo

Ati     mother mater

Avil     year annus

Catha     sun got Apollo

Cezp     eight octo

Ci     three tres

Clan     son filius

eca     this is, izic

fler     offering sacrodhot-, sacrifice

Fuflans     Bacchus Bacchus

garuspic     priest sacer

hinthial     ghost effigia

huth     six sex

in     it eks, hic

lauchum     king rex, regs

lautun     family familia

lucumon     magistrate, governor magistratus

mach, makh     five quinque, pompe

Menrva     Minerva Minerva

mi, mini     I, me me, mihi

mul-     to offer, to dedicate consecrare

nefts     grandson nepot

nurph, nutph     nine novem

personna                face                facies

puia                wife                femina

rasenna, rasna                Etruscan                etruscan

ruva                brother                frater

semph                seven                septem

Sethlans                Vulcan                Vulcanus

spur-, spur                city                urbs

sren, sran                figure in a picture                figura

sa, sa                four                quattuor, petir

sar                ten                decem

suthi                tomb                sepulchrum

Thesan                dawn dog

thu                one                unus

tin-                day                dies
Tinis                Jupiter                Juve

Tiv                moon god

tular                boundaries                orae

tur-                to give                dare

Turan                Venus                Venus

Turms                Mercury                Mercurius

Uni                Juno                Juno

zal                two                duo

zich-                to write                scribere

zilach                a type of magistrate                magistratus

There we see that practically no Etruscan and Italic words match with each other. Just personal names (which were just borrowings), personal pronoun mi-me-mihi and the word nefts - nepot ("grandson") are similar, but also can have been borrowed. Once we saw a comparison of the word clan ("son") with Irish clann ("children"), but the Irish word goes from Latin plantare, which has nothing in common with Etruscan. The lexical comparison does not show any relations.

Phonetical structures also differ. For example, there were no voiced stops in Etruscan: no [b], [d], or [g], so common in Indo-European tongues: when these sounds occured in foreign words they were usually written P, T and K. Etruscan distinguished  between aspirated and unaspirated unvoiced stops: [p] from [ph], [c] from [ch], [t] from [th], which was common only in Greek or Italian languages but not in Italic. The vowel system of Etruscan is believed to have been quite simple, consisting of [a], [e], [i] and [u] with no distinction between long and short: and Italic - Latin, Oscan, Umbrian - language all had both long and short vowels. He sound [o] did not occur in the Etruscan language at all. Medial vowels tended to be dropped in the later phases of the language: e.g. ATLANTA ("Atlanta"). And though this process is known in early Latin, it was not so deep there as in Etruscan.

The specific phonetic structure of the Etruscan language was the main reason for the failure of many linguists trying to decipher the Etruscan alphabet. Ut looks quote like Greek but words are unknown. The distinguished Russian linguist V.Ivanov wrote: "The situation with research of Etruscan texts look like paradox. the studies of them and their possible phonetic interpretation does not arouse difficulties because of the sufficient clearness of Etruscan graphic system... nevertheless the understanding of Etruscan texts is extremely slow except some very small burial inscriptions, standard in their content and consisting usually of personal names and relations between their owners. All complicated texts still cannot be translated".

Very little - if not nothing  - is known about Etruscan morphological structure. The only noun plural form we know is ais - aisar ("a god" - "gods") which absolutely does not correspond to Indo-European flexions. The same is with the numbers, of which only semph - septm ("seven") can correspond to each other.

All this proves a sort of version that we are pleased to introduce here.

Etruscans must have been the representatives of the so-called Mediteranean race which lived here before Indo-Europeans came to Europe. Etruscan lived in Asia Minor, somewhere between Syria and the Hellespont, and when the pressure of wary Hittites (who had arrived here form Central Asia) became intolerable, they had to go to the West and soon through Aegean Islands began inhabiting Italy. The fact is that some ancient historians (e.g. Herodotus, Polibius and Tit Livy) noticed that the language of old inhabitants of Lemnos island in the Aegean Sea was similar to Etruscan. We have no inscriptions in Lemnos language, that is why we cannot check this fact but it just fits our version. ETRUSCAN HAD NO CONNECTION WITH INDO-EUROPEAN FAMILY OF LANGUAGES, they spoke a language that was, maybe, the last survived from Pre-Indo-European population of Mediterranean region.

There is one more proof. We know quite a little about some Minor languages (e.g. Venetic or Tocharic) but we can be sure they are Indo-European. We know enough about Etruscan and don't find anything Indo-European about it. Sometimes several words is enough to define - but if the language is not related to our Indo-European, there is nothing to do but to admit it was not. 




The above stated informamation about the Etruscans is gained by us from the Internet, and, from it problems, that the Etruscan language is not the Indo-European language without analogies, and the solution for science is not clean to date as proof of these statements there is a small Etruscan-Anglo-Italic glossary according to which English-speaking propagandists of non-Indo-European Etruscan origin advocate their own correctness in dogmatic form . However, with us, Russian-speakers, after we have become familiar with the dictionary, there were certain doubts as to the trustworthmen of the «Western Version». Not being linguists by profession and naturally not having an opportunity to discuss the essence of the question with specialists, we shall only try to comment on a number of the given Etruscan words, comparing their with Russian words. We can hear derisive objections like: that a dilettantes, by calling to his aid the elements of his imagination, if he wishes can find similarity between Etruscan words and others from and language group. Nevertheless, the consonance of many Etruscan and Slavic expressions is too obvious. This was noted by an Italian linguistic scientist as long ago as the end of the sixties (we don’t remember now his name, because we not assume at the time, that it could be of any use for future reference), who set himself a task in life to decode Etruscan inscriptions. He investigated them in comparison with all the known European  languages and he was discouraged by the findings, discovering that the Etruscan language in a 70% Slavic language. The publication of this fact became available from the International-Express-Information somewhere in the interval between 1967-69, and was also equated in its importance to the decoding of the ancient Egyptians Hieroglyphs. Undoubtedly, only the discovery of the Italian scientist has served as a scientific basis for the works of A.Grinevich, who developed the “Proto-Slavic” version, as it is now called in the West. Below, using Russian language, we bring our own explanation of making sense of a string of Etruscan words.

Etruscan                Russian                English   

an                on (он)                he

apa                papa (папа)                father

ati                mati (мати)                mather

eca                eco (эко, это)                this

Fuflans                fuflan, fuflo (фуфлан, фуфло)   Bahus, fool

In                on (он)                it

mi, mini                mi, mine (мы, мине, т.е, мне)    we, me

Menrva                merva (мерва)–sacred oil           Minerva (god)

Rasna, Rasena                rusina (русины)–Slavic tribe     Etruscan

semph                sem (семь)                seven

ruva                orava (орава)–fraternity           brother

sar                shar (шар)–the sphere that        ten
                embraced by ten fingers
tin                din (динь)–old Russian              day

Tiv–the god of the moon           divo (диво)–the night god          moon god

zich                sich (сичь)–old Russian             write

zilach                silach (силач)–strong man        a type of   
                magistrate



A superficial analysis has surprised us already 16 words have a rather precise analogy with Russian and it is about more than 30% of the above-stated fond, in 51 words. It still makes sense in at least 16such words, as “ais, am, Catha, garuspic, lauchum, makh, mul-, puia, spur, sran, sa, suthi, thu, tular, tur, Turms, zal”, although, be it more vaguely, but they are explained from the Slavic point of view, which on the whole in impossible to do, if you make use of other languages (perhaps to the exclusion of only one or two words.). 

And thus by optimistic forecasts, in about 64% of the Etruscan terms given here as a visual proof, in which a connection with the Slavic language can be traced.

And now we shall glance into Ancient history, as far as we know, an Etruscan tribe of Slavens lived in the region of Rome. It was enslaved by Latins and the word “slave” in Latin language means slave. And the Etruscan war cry “Ara!”. It seems from this originates the Russian word “Hura!” In the Slavic language the word “arati” or “orati” means to shout loudly. Now, before we conclude our comments on the Etruscan glossary, we want to draw our reader’s attention to the fact that between the modern Slavic and the ancient inhabitants of central Italy there exists a gap of 2.5 thousand years, and, therefore a concurrence of a large number of the words is more than amazing
               

2004