Golden
plaque from Pyrgi with text in EtruscanEtruscan Language
Golden
plaque from Pyrgi with text in Etruscan
This page reviews what is now known of the Etruscan Grammar. I would like to express my gratitude to the source of the information provided here, prof.dr. R.S.P. Beekes and dr. L.B. van der Meer who are both connected with the University of Leiden, The Netherlands, and whose student I have been. The review of the Etruscan Grammar is, in fact, a translation from the Dutch language of Chapter 7 of the book "De Etrusken Spreken" by R.S.P. Beekes and L.B. van der Meer (Coutinho, Muiderberg 1991).
Introduction
Many aspects of the Etruscan language are still unclear. The most recent discussions of Etruscan prove this, not only on Ancient Sites, but especially in Etruscan science: the biggest and most far going book on Etruscan language is that of A.J. Pfiffig, die Etruskische Sprache, Graz, 1969 and the most recent but also shortest one is by H. Rix, La scrittura e la lingua, 1985, in: M.Cristofani, Gli Etruschi, una nuova immagine, pp. 210-238. The theories brought forward by Pfiffig are highly discutable and not very safe. Beekes and van der Meer follow Rix, who has a much more scientific and safe view on the Etruscan language and its interpretation. Beekes agrees with Rix on many point, except his sound system.
The Etruscan Sound System
This can be presented as the following:
labials p ph f
dentals t th s s' z("ts")
velars k ch h
sonants r l m n i v/u
vocals i e a u ("ou"/"oe")
ph, th and ch were aspirated, like in classic Greek. The f was (in South Etruria) formerly noted as "vh" or "hv": thavhna = thafna "bowl". The z had the sound of "ts". The link between s and s' is not perfectly clear. In North Etruria s and s' are (mainly!) used adversary to the use in th South. h came only at the beginning of a word. The consonant i was written as "i", but sounded like "j" or "y" (like in latin at the beginning of a word and with another sonant following): iucurte , Lat. Iugurtha; puia "wife". The Etruscan language didn't have the letter/sound "o". It is thought that u sounded more or less like "o", because the Latin version of a word with -u- often has the sound "o" in it: nufurznei , lat. Noborsinia. Essential in the system is, that u refers to only one sound, so there was no "o" adversary to a "u" sound. Not certain is whether there have been long vocals or whether they have existed in an earlier stage. Diphtongs existed, like ai, ei, ui, au/av, eu, uv (pronounced like "ou"?).
Historical Development
Over the seven centuries that the Etruscan language can be followed, some changes over the periods of time have been encountered. Here are some of these developments:
syncope: between 500 and 450 B.C. all vocals in the syllable that was not the first of a word dissappeared, except for a vocal at the end of a word: aranth>arnth, achile>achle, tinas>tins. Often vocals were repared after the example of other forms. In reverse, in syncopated forms, new vocals are found (later on): thactra>thactara.
Some other developments are the following:
i>e before e or a: ika, eca "this"
ai>ei: kaiknas'>ceicna
ei (also ei from ai)>e before u/v: cnaive>cneive
-ei>-e: caine(i)
f->h around Clusium: fasti>hasti (female name)
f>p before sonant: thufltha>thupltha
Nouns
First of all, again we must say that a lot about the nouns is uncertain. For example, it is highly discussed whether there actually is an accusative and dative in Etruscan! How the two genitive forms are used is unclear. One might accept only three things as clear about the flection system in Etruscan: the genitive is -s/-l; the locative is a form ending with -i (often with suffix -thi, -t(e)); the plural has -r (Beekes states that there is no ending in the nominative and accusative plural forms).
Genitive
There are some stems in Etruscan nouns. Nouns ending with a vocal in the nominative, get -s or -l in the genitive; nouns ending with a consonant in the nominative, get -s or -l (see 2a) or vocal + -s/-l (see 2b); which vocal appears in the last option cannot be predicted. For example:
1 apa gen. apa-s rasna gen. rasna-l
suthi gen. suthi-s suthi gen. suthi-l
avile gen. avile-s
2a avil gen. avil-s mech gen. mech-l
cilth gen. cilth-s' cilth gen. cilth-l
2b laris gen. laris-a-l
methlum methlum-e-s selvans gen. selvans-e-l
sech sech-i-s
vel vel-u-s lethams lethams-u-l
At the genitive -l, we can find furthermore -al after a vocal in female names on -i:
Latini gen. Latini-a-l
Next to Arnthal and Larthal we also find Arth-i-al/Larth-i-al. There are archaic forms on -a instead of -al: arch. aranthia recc. arnthial arch. larisa rec. larisal
There has not yet been sufficient research to the historical and dialect-geographical development of these forms. A plausible assumption is that the vocal appearing before -s/-l would belong to the noun's stem, but has "fallen off" in the nominative: *methlume>methlum
There is little to say about the diversion of -s and -l. as far as names are concearned, there appear to be the following rules:
FAMILY NAMES: masculin names---> genitive: -s feminin names---> genitive: -l
Tutna: m/gen. Tutna-s f/gen Tutna-l
Other names have -l after -th or -s, or else they have -s.
The Flection of the Noun
noun-stems on -a &nbbsp; -u &nbbsp; -e &nbbsp; -i -C &nbbsp; plur.
nom. -a,- & -u,- & -e,- & -i,- -C &nbbsp; -r
s-gen. -as &nnbsp; -us &nnbsp; -es -is &nnbsp; -Cs &nnbsp; -ras
s-abl. -es &nnbsp; -uis -e(i)s p; -is &nnbsp; -Cs
s-dat. -asi & -usi -Csi & -rasi
l-gen. -al &nnbsp; -ul -el &nnbsp; -Cl
l-abl. -al(a)s
l-dat. -ale, -althi
loc. -e &nbbsp; -e(i) ;
loc.+thi -ethi, -aithi &nbssp; -ethi ; -rthi
The Ablative
The ablative was formed by adding the genitive's -s to the genitive. -l gen.+ -s became -ls (arch. -las; so the -l genitive must have developed from *-la). This is the so-called "double genitive". In the case of the -s genitive (probably developed from *-si) this became *-si-s; syncope rendered -Cs-s, f.e. -uis; -ais became -es.
The Dative
Another from, called "pertinentivus" by Rix, but "dativus" by most linguists, developed from adding the locative -i to the genitive: -s-i; but -la-i>-le. Both ablative and dative are easily to understand if we bare in mind that the genitives on -s and -l originally were adjectives (f.e. not "from/of school" but "school(i)s(h)". By the way, cases from cases do appear more often than one might think, especially in the case of the genitive (f.e. in the Caucasus).
The Locative
The locative ending was -i; together with -a, this became -ai>-ei>-e. -thi and -t(e) were postpositions, which could be added after the ending -i, hence -aithi>-ethi.
The Plural
The plural was formed by adding -r to the stem: ais (god), ais-e-r (gods)). After this -r came the same endings as in the singular. Thereby, before the genitive -s, an -a appears (probably belonging to the -r, so -r<-ra). Another suffix, pointing out the plural, probably a collective form, was -chva, also known as -cva or -va/-ua: f.e. marunuchva "college of maru's"
Prenouns
These have a separate accusative.
a) personal prenouns: only the forms for "I" and "me" are known:
nom. mi "I" acc. mini "me" (also: "mine"/"mene")
b) demonstrative prenouns: we know of two: ika>(e)ca and ita>(e)ta. Here's the flection:
arch. rec. rec. arch. rec. rec.
nom. ika eca ca ita eta ta ipa
acc. ikan ecn cn/cen ita/-un etn tn inpa
gen. icas' ecs cs' itas' ts' ipas'
abl. cs'/ces' teis'
gen. cla ita/-ula tle
abl. clz?
dat. cle ita/-ule tle
loc. cei tei ipei
(e)clthi
celthi, calthi
The a/u is probably a recent epenthetic vocal (so *itla is realized as [itela]; cf. tla and is'a further on). These prenouns could be used encliticly as an article: rithna-ita, cinthiuna-itula, tamerescas<*-as-icas, with umlaut a>e and syncope of the i). -is'a is used after a genitive and means "that of/belonging to". -is'a can be put in the genitive itself: -(i)s'la: "of that of/of belonging to" or the dative (-is'ule):
gen. velthur-us +nom. velthurus'a +gen. velthurus'la
gen. arnthal +nom. arnthal-is'a +gen. anthal-is'la
c) anaphoric prenouns are: an and in ("he"/"she"/"this"/"that").
d) interrogative and relative prenoun was ipa (probably in + pa): "which?" and "which".
Numerals
adverbial distributives
1 thu thunz thunur
2 zal/esal eslz zelur
3 ci ciz(i)
4 huth(?) huthz
5 mach
6 s'a
7 semph
8 cezp cezpz
9 nurph nurphzi
10 *s'ar (gen.s'aris)
14 huthzar?
17 ciem zathrum
18 eslem zathrum
19 thunem zathrum
20 zathrum
30 cialch
40 ?
50 muvalch
60 sealch
70 semphalch
80 cezpalch
Some think that s'a means "four" and huth means "six". 17 , "ciem zathrum" means "three off twenty", idem 18 and 19 (cf. Lat. duo-de-viginti, un-de-viginti); the genitive of the numerals is formed by -s: thuns', esals, cis', huth(i)s, machs, zathrum(i)s, cialchls (developed from -alchlus?). Adverbs are:
thunz one time etc.
thunur (distr.) "one by one" etc.
The Verb
The known verbal endings are (always the 3rd person singular):
ind.praes. -a &nbbsp; tva "he shows"
coni.?/fut.? -a &nbbsp; tur-a "he giveth/shall give"
imp.praes. -X &nbbsp; tur "give!"
ind.perf.act. -ce &nnbsp; turu-ce "he has given"
ind.perf.pass. -che & zichu-che " it is written"
injunctive?? -e &nbbsp; zilachnv-e "he was zilach"
ptc.praes.act. -th? & nunthen-th "sacrificing"
-as(a) p; sval-as "living"
ptc.perf.act. -thas(a) sval-thaas "having lived"
-anas(a) acn-anas(a) &qquot;having archieved"
ptc.perf.pass. -u &nbbsp; mul-u "given"
intrans. -u &nbbsp; zilachn-u "having been zilach"
gerundivum -ri &nnbsp; theze-ri "having to be placed"
infinitive? -e?
-ce is the 3rd person singular, but maybe it is also a plural form (vide CIE 6213a: laris avle larisal clenar sval cn suthi cerichunce---> "Laris and Aule, sons of Laris, have this grave built during their life"). NB: also sval ("living") has no plural ending.
A 1st person singular is maybe: inpa thapicun ("that I curse"), TLE 380.
Formation of the words: frequent is a suffix with -n-:
mulu-eni-ce: "he has given" (mulu= "given")
cerichu-n-ce: "he has built"
zilach-n-u: "having been zilach"; zilach-nu-ce: "he has been zilach"
Maybe the -n- has developed by syncope from -eni-.