Etruscan (/ɪˈtrʌskən/ih-TRUSK-ən)[3] was the language of theEtruscan civilization in the ancient region ofEtruria,[a] inEtruria Padana[b] andEtruria Campana[c] in what is nowItaly. Etruscan influencedLatin but was eventually superseded by it. Around 13,000 Etruscaninscriptions have been found so far, only a small minority of which are of significant length; some bilingual inscriptions with texts also in Latin,Greek, orPhoenician; and a few dozen purportedloanwords. Attested from 700 BC to 50 AD, the relation of Etruscan to other languages has been a source of long-running speculation and study. Nowadays, it is generally agreed to be in theTyrsenian language family,[4] but before it gained currency as one of the Tyrsenian languages, it was commonly treated as anisolate,[5] although there were also a number of other less well-known hypotheses.
The Etruscan alphabet derived from theGreek one, specifically from the Euboean script that Greek colonists brought to southern Italy.[18] Therefore, linguists have been able to read the inscriptions in the sense of knowing roughly how they would have been pronounced, but have not yet understood their meaning.[19] However, by usingcombinatory method, it was possible to assign some Etruscan words to grammatical categories such as noun and verb, to identify some inflectional endings, and to assign meanings to a few words of very frequent occurrence.[20]
A comparison between the Etruscan andGreek alphabets reveals how accurately the Etruscans preserved the Greek alphabet. The Etruscan alphabet contains letters that have since been dropped from the Greek alphabet, such as thedigamma,sampi andqoppa.[19]
Etruscan appears to have had a cross-linguistically commonphonological system, with fourphonemicvowels and an apparent contrast betweenaspirated and unaspiratedstops. The records of the language suggest thatphonetic change took place over time, with the loss and then re-establishment of word-internal vowels, possibly due to the effect of Etruscan's word-initialstress.
Etruscan religion was influenced bythat of the Greeks, and many of the few surviving Etruscan-language artifacts are ofvotive or religious significance.[21] Etruscan was written inan alphabet derived from theGreek alphabet; this alphabet was the source of theLatin alphabet, as well as other alphabets in Italy and probably beyond. The Etruscan language is also believed to be the source of certain important cultural words ofWestern Europe such asmilitary andperson, which do not have obviousIndo-European roots.
Etruscan literacy was widespread over theMediterranean shores, as evidenced by about 13,000inscriptions (dedications,epitaphs, etc.), most fairly short, but some of considerable length.[22] They date from about 700 BC.[23][1]
The Etruscans had a rich literature, as noted by Latin authors.Livy andCicero were both aware that highly specialized Etruscan religious rites were codified in several sets of books written in Etruscan under the generic Latin titleEtrusca Disciplina. TheLibri Haruspicini dealt withdivination byreading entrails from a sacrificed animal, while theLibri Fulgurales expounded the art of divination by observinglightning. A third set, theLibri Rituales, might have provided a key to Etruscan civilization: its wider scope embraced Etruscan standards of social and political life, as well as ritual practices. According to the 4th-century AD Latin writerMaurus Servius Honoratus, a fourth set of Etruscan books existed, dealing with animal gods, but it is unlikely that any scholar living in that era could have read Etruscan. However, only one book (as opposed to inscription), theLiber Linteus, survived, and only because the linen on which it was written was used asmummy wrappings.[24]
By 30 BC,Livy noted that Etruscan was once widely taught to Roman boys, but had since become replaced by the teaching of Greek, whileVarro noted that theatrical works had once been composed in Etruscan.[2]
The date of extinction for Etruscan is held by scholarship to have been either in the late first century BC, or the early first century AD. Freeman's analysis of inscriptional evidence implies that Etruscan was still flourishing in the 2nd century BC, still alive in the first century BC, and surviving in at least one location in the beginning of the first century AD;[2] however, the replacement of Etruscan by Latin likely occurred earlier in southern regions closer to Rome.[2]
In southernEtruria, the first Etruscan site to beLatinized wasVeii, when it wasdestroyed and repopulated by Romans in 396 BC.[2]Caere (Cerveteri), another southern Etruscan town on the coast 45 kilometers from Rome, appears to have shifted to Latin in the late 2nd century BC.[2] InTarquinia andVulci, Latin inscriptions coexisted with Etruscan inscriptions in wall paintings and grave markers for centuries, from the 3rd century BC until the early 1st century BC, after which Etruscan is replaced by the exclusive use of Latin.[2]
In northern Etruria, Etruscan inscriptions continue after they disappear in southern Etruria. AtClusium (Chiusi), tomb markings show mixed Latin and Etruscan in the first half of the 1st century BC, with cases where two subsequent generations are inscribed in Latin and then the third, youngest generation, surprisingly, is transcribed in Etruscan.[2] AtPerugia, monolingual monumental inscriptions in Etruscan are still seen in the first half of the 1st century BC, while the period of bilingual inscriptions appears to have stretched from the 3rd century to the late 1st century BC.[2] The isolated last bilinguals are found at three northern sites. Inscriptions inArezzo include one dated to 40 BC followed by two with slightly later dates, while inVolterra there is one dated to just after 40 BC and a final one dated to 10–20 AD; coins with written Etruscan nearSaena (Sienna) have also been dated to 15 BC.[2] Freeman notes that in rural areas the language may have survived a bit longer, and that a survival into the late 1st century AD and beyond "cannot wholly be dismissed", especially given the revelation ofOscan writing inPompeii's walls.[25]
Despite the apparent extinction of Etruscan, it appears that Etruscan religious rites continued much later, continuing to use the Etruscan names of deities and possibly with someliturgical usage of the language. In lateRepublican and earlyAugustan times, various Latin sources includingCicero noted the esteemed reputation of Etruscansoothsayers.[2] An episode where lightning struck an inscription with the name Caesar, turning it into Aesar, was interpreted to have been a premonition of the deification ofCaesar because of the resemblance to Etruscanaisar, meaning 'gods', although this indicates knowledge of a single word and not the language. Centuries later and long after Etruscan is thought to have died out,Ammianus Marcellinus reports thatJulian the Apostate, the last pagan Emperor, apparently had Etruscan soothsayers accompany him on his military campaigns with books on war, lightning and celestial events, but the language of these books is unknown. According toZosimus, when Rome was faced with destruction byAlaric in 408 AD, the protection of nearby Etruscan towns was attributed to Etruscan pagan priests who claimed to have summoned a raging thunderstorm, and they offered their services "in the ancestral manner" to Rome as well, but the devout Christians of Rome refused the offer, preferring death to help by pagans. Freeman notes that these events may indicate that a limited theological knowledge of Etruscan may have survived among the priestly caste much longer.[2] One 19th-century writer argued in 1892 that Etruscan deities retained an influence on early modern Tuscan folklore.[26]
Around 180 AD, the Latin authorAulus Gellius mentions Etruscan alongside theGaulish language in an anecdote.[27] Freeman notes that although Gaulish was clearly still alive during Gellius' time, his testimony may not indicate that Etruscan was still alive because the phrase could indicate a meaning of the sort of "it's all Greek (incomprehensible) to me".[28]
At the time of its extinction, only a few educated Romans with antiquarian interests, such asMarcus Terentius Varro, could read Etruscan. The Roman emperorClaudius (10 BC – AD 54) is considered to have possibly been able to read Etruscan, and authored theTyrrhenika, a (now lost) treatise onEtruscan history; a separate dedication made by Claudius implies a knowledge from "diverse Etruscan sources", but it is unclear if any were fluent speakers of Etruscan.[2]Plautia Urgulanilla, the emperor's first wife, had Etruscan roots.[29]
Etruscan had some influence on Latin, as a few dozen Etruscan words and names were borrowed by the Romans, some of which remain in modern languages, among which are possiblyvoltur 'vulture',tuba 'trumpet',vagina 'sheath',populus 'people'.[30]
Maximum extent of Etruscan civilization and the twelve Etruscan League cities
Inscriptions have been found in northwest and west-central Italy, in the region that even now bears the name of theEtruscan civilization,Tuscany (from Latintuscī 'Etruscans'), as well as in modernLatium north of Rome, in today'sUmbria west of theTiber, in thePo Valley to the north of Etruria, and inCampania. This range may indicate a maximum Italian homeland where the language was at one time spoken.
Common features between Etruscan, Raetic, and Lemnian have been found inmorphology,phonology, andsyntax, but only a few lexical correspondences are documented, at least partly due to the scant number of Raetic and Lemnian texts.[39][40] On the other hand, the Tyrsenian family, or Common Tyrrhenic, is often considered to bePaleo-European and topredate the arrival of Indo-European languages in southern Europe.[41][9] Several scholars believe that theLemnian language could have arrived in theAegean Sea during the LateBronze Age, when Mycenaean rulers recruited groups of mercenaries fromSicily,Sardinia and various parts of the Italian peninsula.[42] Scholars such as Norbert Oettinger, Michel Gras and Carlo De Simone think that Lemnian is the testimony of an Etruscan commercial settlement on the island that took place before 700 BC, not related to the Sea Peoples.[38][43][44]
A 2021 archeogenetic analysis of Etruscan individuals, who lived between 800 and 1 BC, concluded that the Etruscans were autochthonous and genetically similar to the Early Iron AgeLatins, and that the Etruscan language, and therefore the other languages of the Tyrrhenian family, may have been a surviving language of the ones that were widespread in Europe from at least the Neolithic period before the arrival of the Indo-European languages,[45] as already argued by German geneticistJohannes Krause who concluded that it is likely that the Etruscan language (as well asBasque,Paleo-Sardinian andMinoan) "developed on the continent in the course of theNeolithic Revolution".[46] The lack of recent Anatolian-related admixture and Iranian-related ancestry among the Etruscans, who genetically joined firmly to the European cluster, might also suggest that the presence of a handful of inscriptions found at Lemnos, in a language related to Etruscan and Raetic, "could represent population movements departing from the Italian peninsula".[45]
For many hundreds of years the classification of Etruscan remained problematic for historical linguists, though it was almost universally agreed upon that Etruscan was a language unlike any other in Europe. Before it gained currency as one of the Tyrrhenian languages, Etruscan was commonly treated as alanguage isolate. Over the centuries many hypotheses on the Etruscan language have been developed, most of which have not been accepted or have been considered highly speculative since they were published. The major consensus among scholars is that Etruscan, and therefore all the languages of the Tyrrhenian family, is neither Indo-European nor Semitic,[47] and may be a Pre–Indo-European and Paleo-European language.[9][10] At present the major consensus is that Etruscan's only kinship is with the Raetic and Lemnian languages.[47][48]
The idea of a relation between the language of theMinoanLinear A scripts was taken into consideration as the main hypothesis byMichael Ventris before he discovered that, in fact, the language behind the laterLinear B script wasMycenean, aGreek dialect. It has been proposed to possibly be part of a wider Paleo-European "Aegean" language family, which would also includeMinoan,Eteocretan (possibly descended from Minoan) andEteocypriot. This has been proposed by Giulio Mauro Facchetti, a researcher who has dealt with both Etruscan and Minoan, and supported by S. Yatsemirsky, referring to some similarities between Etruscan and Lemnian on one hand, andMinoan and Eteocretan on the other.[49][50]It has also been proposed that this language family is related to the pre-Indo-European languages of Anatolia, based upon place name analysis.[41] The relationship between Etruscan and Minoan, and hypothetical unattested pre-Indo-European languages of Anatolia, is considered unfounded.[47][48]
Some have suggested that Tyrsenian languages may yet be distantly related to earlyIndo-European languages, such as those of theAnatolian branch.[51] More recently,Robert S. P. Beekes argued in 2002 that the people later known as the Lydians and Etruscans had originally lived in northwestAnatolia, with a coastline to theSea of Marmara, whence they were driven by thePhrygianscirca 1200 BC, leaving a remnant known in antiquity as theTyrsenoi. A segment of this people moved south-west toLydia, becoming known as theLydians, while others sailed away to take refuge in Italy, where they became known as Etruscans.[52] This account draws on the well-known story byHerodotus (I, 94) of the Lydian origin of the Etruscans or Tyrrhenians, famously rejected byDionysius of Halicarnassus (book I), partly on the authority of Xanthus, a Lydian historian, who had no knowledge of the story, and partly on what he judged to be the different languages, laws, and religions of the two peoples. In 2006, Frederik Woudhuizen went further on Herodotus' traces, suggesting that Etruscan belongs to theAnatolian branch of the Indo-European family, specifically toLuwian.[53] Woudhuizen revived aconjecture to the effect that the Tyrsenians came fromAnatolia, includingLydia, whence they were driven by theCimmerians in the early Iron Age, 750–675 BC, leaving some colonists onLemnos. He makes a number of comparisons of Etruscan toLuwian and asserts that Etruscan is modified Luwian. He accounts for the non-Luwian features as aMysian influence: "deviations from Luwian [...] may plausibly be ascribed to the dialect of the indigenous population of Mysia."[54] According to Woudhuizen, the Etruscans were initially colonizing the Latins, bringing the alphabet from Anatolia. For historical, archaeological, genetic, and linguistic reasons, a relationship between Etruscan and the Indo-European Anatolian languages (Lydian or Luwian) and the idea that the Etruscans initially colonized the Latins, bringing the alphabet from Anatolia, have not been accepted, since the account by Herodotus is no longer considered reliable.[38][45][55][56][57][58]
The interest in Etruscan antiquities and the Etruscan language found its modern origin in a book by a Renaissance Dominican friar,Annio da Viterbo, acabalist andorientalist now remembered mainly for literary forgeries. In 1498, Annio published his antiquarian miscellany titledAntiquitatum variarum (in 17 volumes) where he put together a theory in which both theHebrew and Etruscan languages were said to originate from a single source, the "Aramaic" spoken byNoah and his descendants, founders of the Etruscan cityViterbo.
The 19th century saw numerous attempts to reclassify Etruscan. Ideas ofSemitic origins found supporters until this time. In 1858, the last attempt was made byJohann Gustav Stickel,Jena University in hisDas Etruskische durch Erklärung von Inschriften und Namen als semitische Sprache erwiesen.[59] A reviewer[60] concluded that Stickel brought forward every possible argument which would speak for that hypothesis, but he proved the opposite of what he had attempted to do. In 1861,Robert Ellis proposed that Etruscan was related toArmenian.[61] Exactly 100 years later, a relationship withAlbanian was to be advanced byZecharia Mayani,[62] a theory regarded today as disproven and discredited.[63]
Several theories from the late 19th and early 20th centuries connected Etruscan toUralic or evenAltaic languages. In 1874, the British scholarIsaac Taylor brought up the idea of a genetic relationship between Etruscan andHungarian, of which alsoJules Martha would approve in his exhaustive studyLa langue étrusque (1913).[64] In 1911, the French orientalist Baron Carra de Vaux suggested a connection between Etruscan and theAltaic languages.[64] The Hungarian connection was revived byMario Alinei, emeritus professor of Italian languages at theUniversity of Utrecht.[65] Alinei's proposal has been rejected by Etruscan experts such as Giulio M. Facchetti,[66][67] Finno-Ugric linguist Angela Marcantonio,[68] and by Hungarian historical linguists such as Bela Brogyanyi.[69] Another proposal, pursued mainly by a few linguists from the former Soviet Union, suggested a relationship withNortheast Caucasian (or Nakh-Daghestanian) languages.[70][71] None of these theories has been accepted nor enjoys consensus.[47][48]
Etruscan dedication to the "sons ofTinia" (Dioscuri) made by Venel Apelinas (or Atelinas), and signed by the potter Euxitheos and the painter Oltos, on the bottom of anAttic red-figurekylix (c. 515–510 BC). Inscription:itum turnce venel apelinas tinas cliniiaras.
The Etruscans recognized a 26-letter alphabet, which makes an early appearance incised for decoration on a smallbucchero terracotta lidded vase in the shape of a cockerel at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, c. 650–600 BC.[74] The full complement of 26 has been termed the model alphabet.[75] The Etruscans did not use four letters of it, mainly because Etruscan did not have the voiced stopsb,d andg; theo was also not used. They innovated one letter forf (𐌚).[73]
Writing was from right to left except in archaic inscriptions, which occasionally usedboustrophedon. An example found atCerveteri used left to right. In the earliest inscriptions, the words are continuous. From the 6th century BC, they are separated by a dot or a colon, which might also be used to separate syllables. Writing was phonetic; the letters represented the sounds and not conventional spellings. On the other hand, many inscriptions are highly abbreviated and often casually formed, so the identification of individual letters is sometimes difficult. Spelling might vary from city to city, probably reflecting differences of pronunciation.[76]
Speech featured a heavy stress on the first syllable of a word, causingsyncopation by weakening of the remaining vowels, which then were not represented in writing:Alcsntre forAlexandros,Rasna forRasena.[73] This speech habit is one explanation of the Etruscan "impossible" consonant clusters. Some of the consonants, especiallyresonants, however, may have been syllabic, accounting for some of the clusters (see below underConsonants). In other cases, the scribe sometimes inserted a vowel: GreekHēraklēs becameHercle by syncopation and then was expanded toHerecele. Pallottino regarded this variation in vowels as "instability in the quality of vowels" and accounted for the second phase (e.g.Herecele) as "vowel harmony, i.e., of the assimilation of vowels in neighboring syllables".[77]
The writing system had two historical phases: the archaic from the seventh to fifth centuries BC, which used the early Greek alphabet, and the later from the fourth to first centuries BC, which modified some of the letters. In the later period, syncopation increased.
The alphabet went on in modified form after the language disappeared. In addition to being the source of the Roman and earlyOscan andUmbrian alphabets, it has been suggested that it passed northward intoVeneto and from there throughRaetia into theGermanic lands, where it became theElder Futhark alphabet, the oldest form of therunes.[78]
The Pyrgi Tablets, sheets of gold with a bilingual treatise in Etruscan (center and right) andPhoenician, at theEtruscan Museum in Rome
ThePyrgi Tablets are a bilingual text in Etruscan andPhoenician engraved on three gold leaves, one for the Phoenician and two for the Etruscan. The Etruscan language portion has 16 lines and 37 words. The date is roughly 500 BC.[80]
The tablets were found in 1964 by Massimo Pallottino during an excavation at the ancient Etruscan port ofPyrgi, nowSanta Severa. The only new Etruscan word that could be extracted from close analysis of the tablets was the word for 'three',ci.[81]
According to Rix and his collaborators, only two unified (though fragmentary) long texts are available in Etruscan:
TheLiber Linteus Zagrabiensis, which was later used for mummy wrappings inEgypt. Roughly 1,200 words of readable (but not fully translatable) text, mainly repetitious prayers probably comprising a kind of religious calendar, yielded about 50 lexical items.[80]
TheTabula Capuana (the inscribed tile fromCapua) has about 300 readable words in 62 lines, dating to the fifth century BC. It again seems to be a religious calendar.
Some additional longer texts are:
Sarcophagus of Arnth Churcles, a magistrate holding the titlemarunuch inNorchia (c. 300–270 BC), with the horizontal inscription between the lid and siderelief[82]
The inscription of 59 words on theSarcophagus of Laris Pulenas, also known as The Magistrate, dating from the third century BC, discovered inTarquinia, now residing in Museo Nazionale Archeologico (Tarquinia, Viterbo, Lazio, Italy).[83][84][85]
The lead foils of Punta della Vipera have about 40 legible words having to do with ritual formulae. It is dated to about 500 BC.[86]
TheCippus Perusinus, a stone slab (cippus) found atPerugia, which probably functioned as a border marker, contains 46 lines and about 130 words. The cippus is assumed to be a text dedicating a legal contract between the Etruscan families of Velthina (from Perugia) and Afuna (from Chiusi), regarding the sharing or use of a property, including water rights, upon which there was a tomb belonging to the noble Velthinas.[87]
ThePiacenza Liver, a bronze model of a sheep's liver representing the sky, has the engraved names of the gods ruling different sections.
TheTabula Cortonensis, a bronze tablet fromCortona, is believed to record a legal contract between Cusu family and Petru Scevas and his wife concerning a real estate settlement of some sort, with about 200 words. Discovered in 1992, this new tablet contributed the word for 'lake',tisś, but not much else.[88]
The Vicchiostele, found in the 21st season of excavation at the Etruscan Sanctuary atPoggio Colla, is believed to be connected with the cult of the goddessUni, with about 120 letters. Only discovered in 2016, it is still in the process of being deciphered.[89][90] As an example of difficulties in reading this badly damaged monument, here is Maggiani's attempt at a transliteration and translation of a bit from the beginning of the third block of text (III, 1–3): (vacat) tinaś: θ(?)anuri: unial(?)/ ẹ ṿ ị: zal / ame (akil??) "for Tinia in the xxxx of Uni/xxxx(objects) two / must (akil ?) be..."[91][92]
The badly damaged Saint Marinella lead sheet contains traces of 80 words, only half of which can be completely read with certainty, many of which can also be found in theLiber Linteus. It was discovered during the 1963–1964 excavations at a sanctuary near Saint Marinella near Pyrgi, now in the Villa Giulia Museum in Rome.[93]
TheLead Plaque of Magliano contains 73 words, including many names of deities. It seems to be a series of dedications to various gods and ancestors.[94]
Tumulus on a street at Banditaccia, the main necropolis ofCaere
The main material repository ofEtruscan civilization, from the modern perspective, is its tombs, all other public and private buildings having been dismantled and the stone reused centuries ago. The tombs are the main source of Etruscan portables, provenance unknown, in collections throughout the world. Their incalculable value has created a brisk black market in Etruscanobjets d'art – and equally brisk law enforcement effort, as it is illegal to remove any objects from Etruscan tombs without authorization from the Italian government.
The magnitude of the task involved in cataloguing them means that the total number of tombs is unknown. They are of many types. Especially plentiful are thehypogeal or "underground" chambers or system of chambers cut intotuff and covered by atumulus. The interior of these tombs represents a habitation of the living stocked with furniture and favorite objects. The walls may display paintedmurals, the predecessor of wallpaper. Tombs identified as Etruscan date from theVillanovan period to about 100 BC, when presumably the cemeteries were abandoned in favor of Roman ones.[95] Some of the major cemeteries are as follows:
Caere orCerveteri, aUNESCO site.[96] Three completenecropoleis with streets and squares. Manyhypogea are concealed beneathtumuli retained by walls; others are cut into cliffs. The Banditaccia necropolis contains more than 1,000 tumuli. Access is through a door.[97]
Tarquinia, Tarquinii or Corneto, a UNESCO site:[96] Approximately 6,000 graves dating from theVillanovan (ninth and eighth centuries BC) distributed innecropoleis, the main one being the Monterozzihypogea of the sixth–fourth centuries BC. About 200 painted tombs display murals of various scenes with call-outs and descriptions in Etruscan. Elaborately carved sarcophagi of marble,alabaster, andnenfro include identificatory and achievemental inscriptions. TheTomb of Orcus at the Scatolini necropolis depicts scenes of theSpurinna family with call-outs.[98]
Inner walls and doors of tombs and sarcophagi, including theGolini Tomb and the Tomb of Orcus
The Orator is a bronze statue with a dedicatory inscription of about 13 words in Etruscan
Bronze plaque (300–100 BC) with dedication toCulsans. Inscribed right-to-left is 𐌂𐌖𐌋𐌑𐌀𐌍𐌑⁚𐌄⁚𐌐𐌓𐌄𐌈𐌍𐌔𐌀 (culśanś:e:preθnsa).
One example of an early (pre-fifth century BC) votive inscription is on a bucchero oinochoe (wine vase):ṃiṇi mulvaṇịce venalia ṡlarinaṡ. en mipi kapi ṃi(r) ṇuṇai = "Venalia Ṡlarinaṡ gave me. Do not touch me (?), I (am)nunai (an offering?)." This seems to be a rare case from this early period of a female (Venalia) dedicating the votive.[99]
Aspeculum (Latin; the Etruscan word ismalena ormalstria) is a circular or oval hand-mirror used predominantly by Etruscan women. Specula were cast in bronze as one piece with a tang which was fitted into a wooden, bone, orivory handle. The reflecting surface was created by polishing the flat side. A higher percentage oftin in the mirror improved its ability to reflect. The other side was convex and featuredintaglio orcameo scenes from mythology. The piece was generally ornate.[100]
About 2,300 specula are known from collections all over the world. As they were popular plunderables, the provenance of only a minority is known. An estimated time window is 530–100 BC.[101] Most probably came from tombs. Many bear inscriptions naming the persons depicted in the scenes, so they are often called picture bilinguals.[citation needed] In 1979,Massimo Pallottino, then president of theIstituto di Studi Etruschi ed Italici, initiated the Committee of theCorpus Speculorum Etruscanorum, which resolved to publish all the specula and set editorial standards for doing so. Since then, the committee has grown, acquiring local committees and representatives from most institutions owning Etruscan mirror collections. Each collection is published in its own fascicle by diverse Etruscan scholars.[102]
Acista (Latin for "basket") is a bronze container of circular, ovoid, or more rarely rectangular shape used by women for the storage of sundries. They are ornate, often with feet and lids to which figurines may be attached. The internal and external surfaces bear carefully crafted scenes usually from mythology, usually intaglio, or rarely part intaglio, partcameo.
Cistae date from theRoman Republic, mainly during the fourth and third centuries BC. They may bear various short inscriptions concerning the manufacturer or owner or subject matter. The writing may be Latin, Etruscan, or both. Excavations atPraeneste, a Latin city, turned up about 118 cistae, one of which has been termed "the Praeneste cista" or "the Ficoroni cista", with special reference to its Latin inscription which indicates that it was manufactured by Novios Plutius and given by Dindia Macolnia to her daughter. All of them are more accurately termed "the Praenestine cistae".[103]
Among the most plunderable portables from the Etruscan tombs ofEtruria are the finely engraved gemstones set in patterned gold to form circular or ovoid pieces intended to go on finger rings. Around one centimeter in size, they are dated to the Etruscan apogee from the second half of the sixth to the first centuries BC. The two main theories of manufacture are native Etruscan[104] and Greek.[105] The materials are mainly dark redcarnelian, withagate andsard entering usage from the third to the first centuries BC, along with purely gold finger rings with a hollow engravedbezel setting. The engravings, mainly cameo, but sometimes intaglio, depictscarabs at first and then scenes from Greek mythology, often with heroic personages called out in Etruscan. The gold setting of the bezel bears a border design, such as cabling.
Etruscan-minted coins can be dated between the 5th and 3rd centuries BC. Use of the 'Chalcidian' standard, based on the silver unit of 5.8 grams, indicates that this custom, like the alphabet, came from Greece. Roman coinage later supplanted Etruscan, but the basic Roman coin, thesesterce, is believed to have been based on the 2.5-denomination Etruscan coin.[106] Etruscan coins have turned up in caches or individually in tombs and in excavations seemingly at random, and concentrated, of course, inEtruria.
Etruscan coins were in gold, silver, and bronze, the gold and silver usually having been struck on one side only. The coins often bore a denomination, sometimes a minting authority name, and a cameo motif. Gold denominations were in units of silver; silver, in units of bronze. Full or abbreviated names are mainly Pupluna (Populonia), Vatl or Veltuna (Vetulonia), Velathri (Volaterrae), Velzu or Velznani (Volsinii) and Cha for Chamars (Camars). Insignia are mainly heads of mythological characters or depictions of mythological beasts arranged in a symbolic motif:Apollo,Zeus,Culsans,Athena,Hermes,griffin,gorgon, malesphinx,hippocamp, bull, snake, eagle, or other creatures which had symbolic significance.
Wallace et al. include the following categories, based on the uses to which they were put, on their site: abecedaria (alphabets), artisans' texts, boundary markers, construction texts, dedications, didaskalia (instructional texts), funerary texts, legal texts, other/unclear texts, prohibitions, proprietary texts (indicating ownership), religious texts, tesserae hospitales (tokens that establish "the claim of the bearer to hospitality when travelling"[107]).[108]
In the tables below, conventional letters used for transliterating Etruscan are accompanied by likely pronunciation inIPA symbols within the square brackets, followed by examples of the earlyEtruscan alphabet which would have corresponded to these sounds.[109][110]
The Etruscanvowel system consisted of four distinct vowels. The vowelso andu appear to have not been phonetically distinguished based on the nature of the writing system, as only one symbol is used to cover both in loans from Greek (e.g. Greekκώθωνkōthōn > Etruscanqutun 'pitcher').
Before thefront vowels⟨c⟩ is used, while⟨k⟩ and⟨q⟩ are used before respectively unrounded and roundedback vowels.
Etruscan also might have had consonants ʧ and ʧʰ, as they might be represented in the writing by using two letters, like in the wordprumaθś ('great-nephew' or 'great-grandson'). However, this theory is not widely accepted.
The Etruscan consonant system primarily distinguished between aspirated and non-aspirated stops. There were no voiced stops. When words from foreign languages were borrowed into Etruscan, voiced stops typically becametenuis stops; one example is Greekthriambos, which became Etruscantriumpus and Latintriumphus.[112]
Based on standard spellings by Etruscan scribes of words without vowels or with unlikely consonant clusters (e.g.cl 'of this (gen.)' andlautn 'freeman'), it is likely that/m,n,l,r/ were sometimes syllabicsonorants (cf. Englishlittle,button). Thuscl/kl̩/ andlautn/ˈlɑwtn̩/.
Rix postulates several syllabic consonants, namely/l,r,m,n/ and palatal/lʲ,rʲ,nʲ/ as well as a labiovelar fricative/xʷ/, and some scholars such asMauro Cristofani also view the aspirates as palatal rather than aspirated but these views are not shared by most Etruscologists. Rix supports his theories by means of variant spellings such asamφare/amφiare,larθal/larθial,aranθ/aranθiia.
Etruscan was anagglutinative language, varying the endings of nouns, adjectives, pronouns and verbs with discretesuffixes for each syntactic function. It also had adverbs and conjunctions, whose endings did not vary.[113]
Etruscan substantives had five cases—nominative,accusative,genitive,dative, andlocative—and two numbers: singular and a plural. Not all five cases are attested for every word. Nouns merge the nominative and accusative; pronouns do not generally merge these. Gender appears in personal names (masculine and feminine) and in pronouns (animate and inanimate); otherwise, it is not marked.[114]
Compared to manyIndo-European languages, Etruscan noun endings were moreagglutinative, with some nouns bearing two or three agglutinated suffixes. For example, where Latin would have distinct nominative plural and dative plural endings, Etruscan would suffix the case ending to a plural marker: Latin nominative singularfili-us, 'son', pluralfili-i, dative pluralfili-is, but Etruscanclan,clen-ar andclen-ar-aśi.[115] Moreover, Etruscan nouns could bear multiple suffixes from the case paradigm alone: that is, Etruscan exhibitedSuffixaufnahme. Pallottino calls this phenomenon "morphological redetermination", which he defines as "the typical tendency ... to redetermine the syntactical function of the form by the superposition of suffixes."[116] His example isUni-al-θi, 'in the sanctuary of Juno', where -al is a genitive ending and-θi a locative.
Steinbauer says of Etruscan, "there can be more than one marker ... to design a case, and ... the same marker can occur for more than one case."[117]
No distinction is made between nominative and accusative of nouns. The nominative/accusative could act as the subject of transitive and intransitive verbs, but also as the object of transitive verbs, and it was also used to indicate duration of time (e.g.,ci avil 'for three years').[113]
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), orZipu. Names of gods may end in-s:Fufluns,Tins; or they may be the unmarked stem ending in a vowel or consonant:Aplu (Apollo),Paχa (Bacchus), orTuran.
The genitive case had two main functions in Etruscan: the usual meaning of possession (along with other forms of dependency such as family relations), and it could also mark the recipient (indirect object) in votive inscriptions.[113]
Pallottino defines two declensions based on whether the genitive ends in-s/-ś or-l.[118] In the-s group are most noun stems ending in a vowel or a consonant:fler/fler-ś,ramtha/ramtha-ś. In the second are names of females ending ini and names of males that end ins,th orn:ati/ati-al,Laris/Laris-al,Arnθ/Arnθ-al. Afterl orr-us instead of-s appears:Vel/Vel-us. Otherwise, a vowel might be placed before the ending:Arnθ-al instead ofArnθ-l.
According to Rex Wallace, "A few nouns could be inflected with both types of endings without any difference in meaning. Consider, for example, the genitivescilθσ 'fortress (?)' andcilθl. Why this should be the case is not clear."[113]
There is apatronymic ending:-sa or-isa, 'son of', but the ordinary genitive might serve that purpose. In the genitive case, morphological redetermination becomes elaborate. Given two male names,Vel andAvle,Vel Avleś means 'Vel son of Avle'. This expression in the genitive becomeVel-uś Avles-la. Pallottino's example of a three-suffix form isArnθ-al-iśa-la.
Besides the usual function as indirect object ('to/for'), this case could be used as the agent ('by') in passive clauses, and occasionally as a locative.[113] The dative ending is-si:Tita/Tita-si.[114] (Wallace uses the term 'pertinentive' for this case.)[113]
Nouns semantically [+human] had the plural marking-ar :clan, 'son', asclenar, 'sons'. This shows bothumlaut and an ending-ar. Plurals for cases other than nominative are made by agglutinating the case ending onclenar. Nouns semantically [-human] used the plural-chve or one of its variants:-cva or-va:avil 'year',avil-χva 'years';zusle 'zusle (pig?)‐offering',zusle-va 'zusle‐offerings'.[113]
The first-person personal pronoun has a nominativemi ('I') and an accusativemini ('me'). The third person has a personal forman ('he'/'she'/'they') and an inanimatein ('it'). The second person is uncertain but some scholars, such as the Bonfantes, have claimed a dative singularune ('to thee') and an accusative singularun ('thee').[121]
The demonstratives,ca andta, are used without distinction for 'that' or 'this'. The nominative–accusative singular forms are:ica,eca,ca,ita,ta; the plural:cei,tei. There is a genitive singular:cla,tla,cal and pluralclal. The accusative singular:can,cen,cn,ecn,etan,tn; pluralcnl 'these/those'. Locative singular:calti, ceiθi, clθ(i), eclθi; pluralcaiti, ceiθi.
Adverbs are unmarked:etnam, 'again';θui, 'now, here';θuni, 'at first' (compareθu 'one'). MostIndo-European adverbs are formed from the oblique cases, which become unproductive and descend to fixed forms. Cases such as theablative are therefore called adverbial. If there is any such widespread system in Etruscan, it is not obvious from the relatively few surviving adverbs.
The negative adverb isei (for examples, see below in Imperative moods) .
The two enclitic coordinate conjunctions‐ka/‐ca/‐c 'and' and-um/‐m 'and, but' coordinated phrases and clauses, but phrases could also be coordinated without any conjunction (asyndetic).[113]
Adding the suffix-(a)ce' to the verb root produces a third-person singular active, which has been called variously a "past", a "preterite", a "perfect". In contrast to Indo-European, this form is not marked forperson. Examples:tur 'gives, dedicates' versustur-ce 'gave, dedicated';sval 'lives' versussval-ce 'lived'.
Verbs formed participles in a variety of ways, among the most frequently attested being-u inlup-u 'dead' fromlup- 'die'.
Participles could also be formed with‐θ. These referred to activities that were contemporaneous with that of the main verb:trin‐θ '(while) speaking',nunθen‐θ '(while) invoking', andheχσ‐θ '(while) pouring (?)'.[113]
Etruscan is considered to have been aSOV language with postpositions, but the word order was not strict and the orders OVS and OSV are, in fact, more frequent in commemorative inscriptions from the archaic period, presumably as a stylistic feature of the genre.[122] Adjectives were usually placed after the noun.[123]
Only a few hundred words of the Etruscan vocabulary are understood with some certainty. The exact count depends on whether the different forms and the expressions are included. Below is a table of some of the words grouped by topic.[124]
Some words with corresponding Latin or other Indo-European forms are likelyloanwords to or from Etruscan. For example,neftś 'nephew', is probably from Latin (Latinnepōs,nepōtis; this is a cognate of GermanNeffe, Old Norsenefi). A number ofwords and names for which Etruscan origin has been proposed survive in Latin.
In addition to words believed to have been borrowed into Etruscan from Indo-European or elsewhere, there is a corpus of words such asfamilia which seem to have been borrowed into Latin from the older Etruscan civilization as asuperstrate influence.[126] Some of these words still have widespread currency inEnglish andLatin-influenced languages. Other words believed to have a possible Etruscan origin include:
frombalteus, 'sword belt'; the sole connection between this word and Etruscan is a statement byMarcus Terentius Varro that it was of Etruscan origin. All else is speculation.[128]
from Latinsatelles, meaning 'bodyguard, attendant', perhaps from Etruscansatnal.[132] Whatmough considers Latinsatelles "as one of our securest Etruscan loans in Latin."[133]
Much debate has been carried out about a possibleIndo-European origin of the Etruscan cardinals. In the words ofLarissa Bonfante (1990), "What these numerals show, beyond any shadow of a doubt, is the non-Indo-European nature of the Etruscan language".[134] Conversely, other scholars, includingFrancisco R. Adrados, Albert Carnoy, Marcello Durante, Vladimir Georgiev, Alessandro Morandi and Massimo Pittau, have proposed a close phonetic proximity of the first ten Etruscan numerals to the corresponding numerals in other Indo-European languages.[135][136][137]
It is unclear which ofsemφ,cezp, andnurφ are 7, 8 and 9.Śar may also mean 'twelve', withhalχ for 'ten'.
For higher numbers, it has been determined thatzaθrum is 20,cealχ/*cialχ 30,*huθalχ 40,muvalχ 50,šealχ 60, andsemφalχ andcezpalχ any two in the series 70–90.Śran is 100 (clearly <śar 10, just as Proto-Indo-European*dḱm̥tom- 100 is from*deḱm- 10). Further,θun-z, e-sl-z, ci-z(i) mean 'once, twice, and thrice' respectively;θun[š]na and*kisna 'first' and 'third';θunur, zelur 'one by one', 'two by two'; andzelarve- andśarve are 'double' and 'quadruple'.[48]
girl, in the specific sense of "marriageable girl", or a proper name (attested only once in a mirror, 400–350 BC from Vulci. Likely a proper name rendering of the accusative case of the Greektalis,Τάλις. Greek:Talitha,ταλιθα)[141][142][143][144]
^Wallace, Rex (2024). "Alphabets, Orthography, and Literacy". In Maiuro, Marco; Botsford Johnson, Jane (eds.).The Oxford Handbook of Pre-Roman Italy (1000-49 BCE). Oxford: Oxford University Press. p. 76.ISBN978-0-19-998789-4.
^Campbell, Lyle (2018). "Language Isolates and Their History". In Campbell, Lyle (ed.).Language Isolates. Routledge language family series. New York City: Routledge. p. 7.As mentioned above, Etruscan, long considered an isolate, is related to Lemnian (Tyrsenian family) and so is not a true language isolate.
^abHarding, Anthony H. (2014). "The later prehistory of Central and Northern Europe". In Renfrew, Colin; Bahn, Paul (eds.).The Cambridge World Prehistory. Vol. 3. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. p. 1912.ISBN978-1-107-02379-6.Italy was home to a number of languages in the Iron Age, some of them clearly Indo-European (Latin being the most obvious, although this was merely the language spoken in the Roman heartland, that is, Latium, and other languages such as Italic, Venetic or Ligurian were also present), while the centre-west and northwest were occupied by the people we call Etruscans, who spoke a language which was non-Indo-European and presumed to represent an ethnic and linguistic stratum which goes far back in time, perhaps even to the occupants of Italy prior to the spread of farming.
^abSchumacher, Stefan (1994) Studi Etruschi in Neufunde 'raetischer' Inschriften Vol. 59 pp. 307–320 (German)
^abSchumacher, Stefan (1994) Neue 'raetische' Inschriften aus dem Vinschgau in Der Schlern Vol. 68 pp. 295-298 (German)
^abSchumacher, Stefan (1999) Die Raetischen Inschriften: Gegenwärtiger Forschungsstand, spezifische Probleme und Zukunfstaussichten in I Reti / Die Räter, Atti del simposio 23–25 settembre 1993, Castello di Stenico, Trento, Archeologia delle Alpi, a cura di G. Ciurletti – F. Marzatico Archaoalp pp. 334–369 (German)
^abSchumacher, Stefan (2004) Die Raetischen Inschriften. Geschichte und heutiger Stand der Forschung Archaeolingua. Innsbrucker Beiträge zur Kulturwissenschaft. (German)
^abNorbert Oettinger,Seevölker und Etrusker, 2010.
^abde Simone Carlo (2009)La nuova iscrizione tirsenica di Efestia in Aglaia Archontidou, Carlo de Simone, Albi Mersini (Eds.), Gli scavi di Efestia e la nuova iscrizione 'tirsenica', Tripodes 11, 2009, pp. 3–58. (Italian)
^abcCarlo de Simone, Simona Marchesini (Eds),La lamina di Demlfeld [= Mediterranea. Quaderni annuali dell'Istituto di Studi sulle Civiltà italiche e del Mediterraneo antico del Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche. Supplemento 8], Pisa – Roma: 2013. (Italian)
^Knodell, Alex R. (2021).Societies in Transition in Early Greece: An Archaeological History. Oakland: University of California Press. p. 217.ISBN978-90-50-63477-9.
^abRogers, Henry (2009).Writing systems: a linguistic approach. Blackwell textbooks in linguistics (Nachdr. ed.). Oxford: Blackwell Publ.ISBN978-0-631-23464-7.
^Van der Meer, L. Bouke, ed.Liber Linteus Zagrabiensis (=Monographs on antiquity, vol. 4). Peeters, 2007,ISSN1781-9458.
^Freeman, Philip. Survival of Etruscan. p. 82: "How much longer may have Etruscan survived in isolated rural locations? The answer is impossible to say, given that we can only argue from evidence, not conjecture. But languages are notoriously tenacious, and the possibility of an Etruscan survival into the late 1st century A.D. and beyond cannot be wholly dismissed. Oscan graffiti on the walls of Pompeii show that non-Latin languages well into the 1st century A.D., making rural survival of Etruscan more credible. But this is only speculation..."
^Leland (1892).Etruscan Roman Remains in Popular Tradition.
^Aulus Gellius,Noctes Atticae. Extract: 'ueluti Romae nobis praesentibus uetus celebratusque homo in causis, sed repentina et quasi tumultuaria doctrina praeditus, cum apud praefectum urbi uerba faceret et dicere uellet inopi quendam miseroque uictu uiuere et furfureum panem esitare uinumque eructum et feditum potare. "hic", inquit, "eques Romanus apludam edit et flocces bibit". aspexerunt omnes qui aderant alius alium, primo tristiores turbato et requirente uoltu quidnam illud utriusque uerbi foret: post deinde, quasi nescio quid Tusce aut Gallice dixisset, uniuersi riserunt.' English translation: 'For instance in Rome in our presence, a man experienced and celebrated as a pleader, but furnished with a sudden and, as it were, hasty education, was speaking to the Prefect of the City, and wished to say that a certain man with a poor and wretched way of life ate bread from bran and drank bad and spoiled wine. "This Roman knight", he said, "eats apluda and drinks flocces." All who were present looked at each other, first seriously and with an inquiring expression, wondering what the two words meant; thereupon, as if he might have said something in, I don't know, Gaulish or Etruscan, all of them burst out laughing.' (based on Blom 2007: 183.)
^M. G. Tibiletti Bruno. 1978.Camuno, retico e pararetico, inLingue e dialetti dell'Italia antica ('Popoli e civiltà dell'Italia antica', 6), a cura di A. L. Prosdocimi, Roma, pp. 209–255. (Italian)
^Comrie, Bernard (15 April 2008). Mark Aronoff, Janie Rees-Miller (ed.).Languages of the world, in "The handbook of linguistics". Oxford: Blackwell/Wiley. p. 25.
^abcWallace, Rex E. (2010). "Italy, Languages of". In Gagarin, Michael (ed.).The Oxford Encyclopedia of Ancient Greece and Rome. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. pp. 97–102.doi:10.1093/acref/9780195170726.001.0001.ISBN978-0-19-517072-6.Etruscan origins lie in the distant past. Despite the claim by Herodotus, who wrote that Etruscans migrated to Italy from Lydia in the eastern Mediterranean, there is no material or linguistic evidence to support this. Etruscan material culture developed in an unbroken chain from Bronze Age antecedents. As for linguistic relationships, Lydian is an Indo-European language. Lemnian, which is attested by a few inscriptions discovered near Kaminia on the island of Lemnos, was a dialect of Etruscan introduced to the island by commercial adventurers. Linguistic similarities connecting Etruscan with Raetic, a language spoken in the sub-Alpine regions of northeastern Italy, further militate against the idea of eastern origins.
^Simona Marchesini (translation by Melanie Rockenhaus) (2013)."Raetic (languages)".Mnamon – Ancient Writing Systems in the Mediterranean. Scuola Normale Superiore. Archived fromthe original on 2 February 2022. Retrieved26 July 2018.
^Kluge Sindy; Salomon Corinna; Schumacher Stefan (2013–2018)."Raetica".Thesaurus Inscriptionum Raeticarum. Department of Linguistics, University of Vienna. Retrieved26 July 2018.
^abMellaart, James (1975), "The Neolithic of the Near East" (Thames and Hudson)
^Carlo de Simone, La nuova Iscrizione 'Tirsenica' di Lemnos (Efestia, teatro): considerazioni generali, in Rasenna: Journal of the Center for Etruscan Studies, pp. 1–34.
^Robert Drews,The End of the Bronze Age: Changes in Warfare and the Catastrophe of ca. 1200 B.C, Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1995, p. 59,ISBN978-0-691-04811-6.
^Krause, Johannes; Trappe, Thomas (2021) [2019].A Short History of Humanity: A New History of Old Europe [Die Reise unserer Gene: Eine Geschichte über uns und unsere Vorfahren]. Translated by Waight, Caroline (I ed.). New York: Random House. p. 217.ISBN978-0-593-22942-2.It's likely that Basque, Paleo-Sardinian, Minoan, and Etruscan developed on the continent in the course of the Neolithic Revolution. Sadly, the true diversity of the languages that once existed in Europe will never be known.
^abcdBellelli, Vincenzo; Benelli, Enrico (2018). "Aspetti generali. 1.2 Lingua e origini".Gli Etruschi - La scrittura, la lingua, la società (in Italian). Rome: Carocci editore. pp. 18–20.ISBN978-88-430-9309-0.
^Shipley, Lucy (2017). "Where is home?".The Etruscans: Lost Civilizations. London: Reaktion Books. pp. 28–46.ISBN978-1-78023-862-3.
^Stickel, Johann Gustav (1858).Das Etruskische durch Erklärung von Inschriften und Namen als semitische Sprache erwiesen. Leipzig: Wilhelm Engelmann.
^Gildemeister, Johannes. In:ZDMG13 (1859), pp. 289–304.
^Ellis, Robert (1861).The Armenian origin of the Etruscans. London: Parker, Son, & Bourn.
^Mayani, Zacharie (1961).The Etruscans Begin to Speak. Translation by Patrick Evans. London: Souvenir Press.
^Shipley, Lucy (2023).The Etruscans: Lost Civilizations. Reaktion Books. pp. 183, 251.ISBN978-1-78023-862-3.Even into the 1960s, new language links were proposed and disproven: Albanian as Etruscan [...] This discredited idea was put forward in Z. Mayani, The Etruscans Begin to Speak (London, 1962).
^Facchetti, Giulio M."The Interpretation of Etruscan Texts and its Limits" (PDF)[permanent dead link]. In:Journal of Indo-European Studies33, 3/4, 2005, 359–388. Quote from p. 371: '[...] suffice it to say that Alinei clears away all the combinatory work done on Etruscan (for grammar specially) to try to make Uralic inflections fit without ripping the seams. He completely ignores the aforesaid recent findings in phonology (and phoneme/grapheme relationships), returning to the obsolete but convenient theory that the handwriting changed and orthography was not consolidated'.
^Marcantonio, Angela (2004). "Un caso di 'fantalinguistica'. A proposito di Mario Alinei: 'Etrusco: una forma arcaica di ungherese'." In:Studi e Saggi LinguisticiXLII, 173–200, where Marcantonio states that "La tesi dell'Alinei è da rigettare senza alcuna riserva" ("Alinei's thesis must be rejected without any reservation"), criticizes his methodology and the fact that he ignored the comparison with Latin and Greek words in pnomastic and institutional vocabulary. Large quotes can be read at Melinda Tamás-Tarr "Sulla scrittura degli Etruschi: «Ma è veramente una scrittura etrusca»? Cosa sappiamo degli Etruschi III". In:Osservatorio letterario. Ferrara e l'AltroveX/XI, Nos. 53/54 (November–December/January–February 2006/2007), 67–73. Marcantonio is Associated Professor of Historical Linguistics and Finno-Ugric Studies at the University of Rome "La Sapienza" (personal websiteArchived 2015-02-14 at theWayback Machine).
^Starostin, Sergei; Orel, Vladimir (1989). "Etruscan and North Caucasian". In Shevoroshkin, Vitaliy (ed.).Explorations in Language Macrofamilies. Bochum Publications in Evolutionary Cultural Semiotics. Bochum.
^The alphabet can also be found with alternative forms of the letters atOmniglot.
^Massimo Pallottino, Maristella Pandolfini Angeletti,Thesaurus linguae Etruscae, Volume 1 (1978); review by A. J. Pfiffig inGnomon 52.6 (1980), 561–563.Supplements in 1984, 1991 and 1998. A 2nd revised edition by Enrico Benelli appeared in 2009; review by G. van Heems,Bryn Mawr Classical Review 2010.01.05Archived 2013-10-22 at theWayback Machine.
^Roncalli, F. (1996) "Laris Pulenas and Sisyphus: Mortals, Heroes and Demons in the Etruscan Underworld,"Etruscan Studies vol. 3, article 3, pp. 45-64.
^Cataldi, M. (1988)I sarcofagi etruschi delle famiglie Partunu, Camna e Pulena, Roma.
^van der Meer, B. "The Lead Plaque of Magliano" in:Interpretando l'antico. Scritti di archeologia offerti a Maria Bonghi Jovino. Milano 2013 (Quaderni di Acme 134) pp. 323-341
^The words in this table come from the Glossaries of Bonfante (1990) and Pallottino. The latter also gives a grouping by topic on pages 275 following, the last chapter of the book.
^Brown, John Parman.Israel and Hellas. Vol. 2. Berlin/New York: Walter de Gruyter. 2000. p. 212 (footnote nr. 39).ISBN3-11-014233-3
^Sassatelli, Giuseppe, ed. (1981). "Collezione Palagi Bologna".Corpus speculorum Etruscorum: Italia. Bologna - Museo Civico. 1 (in Italian). Vol. 1. Rome: L'Erma di Bretschneider. pp. 57–58.ISBN978-88-7062-507-3.
^Thomson De Grummond, Nancy (1982).A Guide to Etruscan Mirrors. Florida: Archaeological News. p. 111.ISBN978-0-943254-00-5.The girl is inscribed taliṭha, which may be the Etruscan rendering of the accusative case of the Greek talis, "marriageable maiden," rather than the name of a particular girl. Taliṭha constitutes an interesting parallel to the figure of Malavisch (q.v.) who appears in grooming scenes and may also be a marriageable girl or bride, but who always appears fully dressed.
^Bouke van der Meer, Lammert (1995).Interpretatio Etrusca: Greek Myths on Etruscan Mirrors. Leiden: Brill. p. 183.ISBN978-90-50-63477-9.The name Talitha, as A.J. Pfiffig has pointed out, is derived from Gr. talida, acc. of talis (marriageable girl). Ancient literary sources do not relate any story on the Lydian king and an anonymous girl.
^Massarelli, Riccardo (University of Perugia): "Etruscan lautun: A (very old) Italic loanword?'". Poster presented at the Second Pavia International Summer School for Indo-European Linguistics. 9–14 September 2013.[5]
^abvan der Meer, B. "The Lead Plaque of Magliano" in: Interpretando l'antico. Scritti di archeologia offerti a Maria Bonghi Jovino. Milano 2013 (Quaderni di Acme 134) p. 337
^Liber Linteus Zagrabiensis. The Linen Book of Zagreb: A Comment on the Longest Etruscan Text. By L.B. VAN DER MEER. (Monographs on Antiquity.) Louvain: Peeters, 2007. pp. 171–172
Benelli, Enrico, ed. (2009).Indice lessicale. Thesaurus Linguae Etruscae. Vol. I (2nd ed.). Pisa/Rome: Fabrizio Serra Editore.ISBN978-88-6227-135-6.
Benelli, Enrico (2020).Etrusco. Lingua, scrittura, epigrafia [Etruscan. Language, Scipt, Epigraphy]. Aelaw Booklet (in Italian). Zaragoza: Prensas de la Universidad de Zaragoza.ISBN978-84-1340-055-6.
Bellelli, Vincenzo; Benelli, Enrico (2018).Gli Etruschi: la scrittura, la lingua, la società [The Etruscans: The Script, the Language, the Society] (in Italian). Rome: Carocci Editore.ISBN978-88-430-9309-0.
Cristofani, Mauro; et al. (1984).Gli Etruschi: una nuova immagine [The Etruscans: A new picture] (in Italian). Florence: Giunti Martello.
Facchetti, Giulio M. (2000).L'enigma svelato della lingua etrusca. Rome: Newton & Compton.ISBN978-88-8289-458-0.
Facchetti, Giulio M. (2002).Appunti di morfologia etrusca. Con un'appendice sulle questioni delle affinità genetiche dell'etrusco. Rome: Olshcki.ISBN978-88-222-5138-1.
Facchetti, G. (2000)Frammenti di diritto privato etrusco Florence: Olschki.
Hadas-Lebel, J. (2016).Les cas locaux en étrusque. Rome.
Maras, Daniele (2013). "Numbers and reckoning: A whole civilization founded upon divisions", inThe Etruscan World. Ed. Jean MacIntosh Turfa. Abingdon: Routledge, pp. 478–91.
Pallottino, M. (ed.) (1954)Testimonia Linguae Etruscae. Firenze.
Penney, John H. (2009). "The Etruscan language and its Italic context", inEtruscan by Definition. Eds. Judith Swaddling & Philip Perkins. London: British Museum, pp. 88–93.
Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco (2005). "El etrusco como indoeuropeo anatolio: viejos y nuevos argumentos" [Etruscan as an Indoeuropean Anatolian Language: Old and New Arguments].Emerita (in Spanish).73 (1):45–56.doi:10.3989/emerita.2005.v73.i1.52.hdl:10261/7115.
Steinbauer, Dieter H. (1999).Neues Handbuch des Etruskischen. Scripta Mercaturae.ISBN3-89590-080-X.
Torelli, Marco, ed. (2001).The Etruscans. London: Thames and Hudson.ISBN978-0-500-51033-9.
Wylin, Koen (2000).Il verbo etrusco. Ricerca morfosintattica delle forme usate in funzione verbale [The Etruscan Verb. Morphosyntactical Research of the Forms Used in Verbal Function] (in Italian). Rome: "L' Erma" di Bretschneider.ISBN88-8265-084-7.
"Etruscan–English Dictionary". Archived fromthe original on September 27, 2007. RetrievedMay 1, 2007. . An extensive lexicon compiled from other lexicon sites. Links to the major Etruscan glossaries on the Internet are included.
