The following are rough declension tables of the Etruscan language (verb conjugation tables to be added). As the glossary, grammar and declension tables are studied they will be corrected. For reference purposes we have included the Latin cases which may or may not apply. This document is to be used in connection with "Etruscan Phrases" spreadsheets, Etruscan_Grammar.xls and in particular the Etruscan_GlossaryA.xls, which are our working documents, since they most easily display the data we need to examine and sift.
Word definitions and their specific locations in the texts are in the spreadsheets – some definitions are in the Declension Table. Women's names from mirrors or paintings are highlighted in blue; men's names are red. The name TARKONOS is quite revealing, since it refers to Tarquin, a king from Tarquinia. The suffix, "os," is also in the name of Tarquin's wife, THANIKOILOS. Her name is in a short text, Script A, indicating the place of her tomb. His name is on a mirror, Script DL, that shows several people examining a liver. The script refers both to Tarkonos and the Tarquins (TARKIE), and the suffix, "ie," is common to other words that probably are of feminine gender, such as L. Achaia. Thus, we can see in both names that the suffix "os or us" is neuter singular, whereas "ie" appears to be feminine. "Os" and "on" are suffixes that mark the Second Declension of Greek; and "us" marks the Second and Fourth Declensions, nominative and genitive singular, in Latin.
Empirical investigation versus the Pallottino School
The Etruscan Glossary spreadsheet and the Declension Tables contain not only words – the words are data. And everyone, who chooses to do so, can independently, scientifically verify that the words are words (not particles of other words, etc.). To maximize this feature we include images of the original texts, whose words are assigned alphanumerical locators and catalogued through the "Etruscan Phrases" Glossary (spreadsheet). One can open the "Etruscan Phrases" website and the two spreadsheets and check every word location listed in the spreadsheets against the texts where the word is used. Critical to this process is the presentation on each text page an image of the original text. If an investigator cannot examine an image of the original text, then corroboration of a transcription of a text cannot be accomplished, and science then rests upon the credibility of the transcriber (i.e., accepting their word on faith – the "Etruscan Texts Project" by the University of Massachusetts illustrates the problem of relying on an Etruscologist's transcriptions alone, since its transliterations are not supported by images of the original texts.).
Our objective, of course, is to identify the grammatical relationships and meaning of the words. To do this we need images of the original texts and I thought that leading scholars including those particularly affiliated with the "Etruscan Texts Project" might facilitate this process. I thus contacted Rex Wallace, University of Massachusetts, who runs the "Etruscan Texts Project." There was a problem in obtaining his support from the outset, however, since Wallace propounds the ridiculous and particularly unschooled theory that the Etruscan language is not Indo-European and an isolate, unlike any language known to man. An October 5, 2006 press release from the University of Massachusetts on grants Wallace had received says: "According to Wallace, the Etruscan language, which was spoken during the 1st millennium BCE in ancient Etruria (modern Tuscany), was the most important non-Indo-European language of ancient Italy." [umass.edu]
Wallace's foundations on the nature of the Etruscan language are not original and follow an example of what has been expressed in an email to me (by an Italian journalist, Paolo Campidori) as the "Pallottino School" theory. The essence of the "Pallottino School" theory, though not identified as such on the site, is documented at wikipedia.org. We wonder who posted the preposterous data on the Etruscan language at wikipedia, with the comment: "The value of some words attested in many short inscriptions are known with certainty because the correctness of their meaning can be so easily cross-verified." It presents links to Wallace's site, "Etruscan Texts Project," as an authority for the wikipedia data, as well as Wallace's "Etruscan News Online." Thus, since Wallace and his associates are locked into what can be called the "Pallottino School" theory, prospects that he would cooperate with "Etruscan Phrases" were not auspicious. As it turns out other famous scholars whom I contacted fell into the same mold, of protecting their own investment in their phony theory, playing dumb and offering no help.
Abecedaria
Artisans' Texts
Boundary Markers
Construction Texts
Dedications
Didaskalia
Funerary Texts
Legal Texts
Other/Unclear Texts
Prohibitions
Proprietary Texts
Religious Texts
Tesserae Hospitales
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Wallace's "Etruscan Texts Project" categories
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Although Wallace wrote in his correspondence with me that the "Etruscan Texts Project" "does not attempt to translate the texts," his "categories" and his publications attempt to read and translate the texts. In his email of July 12, 2006, in response to my inquiry, whether he was familiar with the "Etruscan Phrases" site he said:
"I have. Etruscan Texts Project is, I suppose, less ambitious. We make texts available to the scholarly community. We leave it to the community to do linguistic analysis."
And in his email in response to my inquiry to obtain photos of the texts upon which he bases the "Etruscan Texts Project" Wallace said:
"I do not have photographs of inscriptions on the ETP database."
Wallace (who is also the "language editor" for "Etruscan News, according to its editor, noted author, Larissa Bonfante, "Etruscan Language," asks the scholastic world to accept his slight-of-hand offerings in translating the texts and his foundation that the Etruscan language is not Indo-European and unlike any language known to man. His "non-Indo-European Etruscan language, an isolate," which we classify as the "Pallotino School," can be traced to Massimo Pallottino's work, "The Etruscans," (first published by Ulrico Hoepli, 1942). I found Pallottino's work to be a good resource on the Etruscans, but his theory on the Etruscan language suffers from a lack of understanding of grammar; and his "translations," that have set standards for modern scholars, have no relationship to the grammatical data recorded in "Etruscan Phrases." Another scholar, Romolo Augusto Staccioli, "La Lingua degli Etruschi," 1970, etc., continued the same half-baked "translations," all of which claim to involve 200 words.
My first bad experience with the "Pallottino School" relates to Staccioli. In my first work, "Catalogue of Etruscan Words," 1981, I made comparisons between the "translations" of Staccioli to my data – updated and republished as "Etruscan Phrases." I sent and delivered the catalogue to several museum curators in the US and Europe and received from a cardinal in the Vatican a letter saying, "How dare you criticize my friend Staccioli..." This explains the principal problem I have seen in my inquiries with "Pallottino School" scholars. Their egos have gotten in the way of honest scholarship. One can hope that one of them will break rank, seeing that "Etruscan Phrases" can be of great scholastic and monetary benefit to them. After all, the data in "Etruscan Phrases" offers opportunities for new books and an abundance of articles, at least with the same vigor sent to the presses these past two hundred years. The empirical data and its implications foster new questions and new studies in many spheres.
That these proponents advertise that they have compiled a vocabulary of 200 words (have translated them) – without having any bearing to grammatical relationships – can only be described as complete idiocy. One cannot identify declension patterns based upon 200 words, nor can one identify verbs and their conjugations. In fact, anyone who has taken a language course will learn that a vocabulary of 1,200 - 1,500 words will allow one to acquire a proficiency of basically being able to read a newspaper, and most students would confess that a vocabulary of only 200 words would not facilitate any ability to converse. An American, for instance, who learns French, Spanish or Italian as a second language, will probably have two things handy when he/she acquires a basic 1,200 word vocabulary: 1) A dictionary with basic grammar, including declension tables, some commentary on verb conjugation, articles, pronouns, adverbs and prepositions etc.; and 2) a book on verbs – 500 word editions are popular –, "fully conjugated in all the tenses." This, of course, is what "Etruscan Phrases" intends to produce, using the 1,900 word vocabulary identified to date, half of which appears to be verbs.
We need more texts to reconcile to the "Etruscan Phrases" Etruscan Glossary and its Declension and Conjugation Tables on this site. I attempted to get the support of Wallace and Bonfante in this regard, without success. It's a pathetic situation, I confess, since the advertisements for Bonfante's book, "Etruscan Language," say:
"...Originally published in 1983 and translated into a number of other languages, the book is a standard historical reference and a popular textbook for students of languages, linguistics, ancient civilization and Etruscan studies.
This informative, scholarly and well-illustrated volume provides the best collection of Etruscan inscriptions and texts currently in print. The Etruscans were highly literate: approximately 13,000 Etruscan inscriptions have been researched and they, far from having to be deciphered, can be easily read. One reason for this accessibility is because the Etruscans used the Greek alphabet, and they in turn passed it onto the Romans. The language is, however, idiosyncratic, being non-Indo-European, and different in structure from any other known language, ancient or modern.
A substantial archeological introduction sets language and inscriptions in their historical, geographical and cultural context. The overview of Etruscan grammar, the glossary and chapters on mythological figures all incorporate the latest scholarship and innovative discoveries."
Those of you who have examined "Etruscan Phrases" and reached this point may wonder about this comment from Bonfante in response to my appeal:
November 26, 2006
Dear Etruscan enthusiast, I am sorry, the only help I can offer is Etruscan News, where we have a Language Editor, Rex Wallace.
I replied to her email as follows:
November 28, 2006
Dear Professor Bonfante,
Thank you for your reply. I am sorry you didn't check out the Etruscan Phrases website, since it contributes to the history of the Etruscans and you, as an Etruscan enthusiast, are so well recognized for your contributions to that history (though my work contradicts some of yours).
Etruscan Declensions
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The Latin and Greek Declension Tables above were taken from Cassell's and Divry's dictionaries respectively. Click on image for a larger view. We hope to meet these standards with regard to the "Etruscan Phrases" presentation on grammar.
– Nominative case: Of or designating a grammatical case that indicates the subject of a verb.
– Genitive case: Of or designating a grammatical case that indicates possession or source.
–Dative case: Designating or belonging to a grammatical case that principally marks the indirect object of a verb.
– Accusative case: Of or pertaining to the grammatical case of a noun, pronoun, adjective or particle that is the direct object of a verb or the object of certain prepositions.
– Ablative case: Designating a grammatical case indicating separation, direction away from, and sometimes manner or agency. |
As noted above, people who study a new language get introduced to the empirical process of grammar, particularly its declension and conjugation patterns. An American that only knows English will not in all probability know what I am talking about, so I enclose the Latin and Greek Declension charts for clarification. We can point out some common American grammatical errors to illustrate what's governed by such charts that set noun declensions:
– Agreement in number problem: One can think that they are...(One can think that one is, he/she is)
– Improper verb in subjunctive case: If I was you I would not think that way (If I were you I would not think that way)
– Incorrect use of objective case, adverb used instead of adjective: They bought the gift for him and I and we gave it to there kids (They bought the gift for him and me – i.e., it is for him, it is for me; – you do not say, "It is for I," do you? – and their kids).
– Incorrect verbs, use of double negative, wrong adjective and case: They says he don't know nothing about this data (They say he doesn't know anything about those data, or this datum). The double negative is common among rural Americans.
– Incorrect number, subject does not agree with verb: (from wilkipedia.org)The value of some words attested in many short inscriptions are known (The value of some words..is known)
These rudimentary grammatical errors and more can be pointed out as errors because English has rules (declension tables, etc.) and the violation of a rule can be empirically measured. Over time, languages relax their rules and errors can become commonplace and accepted. Vowels change, consonants are added and dropped and eventually a new dialect forms. As in the case of English and French, for example, words shift in pronunciation and no longer resemble the spelling. Foreigners may not know the proper pronunciation of a word and can mispronounce what they see written. Most Americans would not pronounce the French word épier correctly and if they were to make a close approximation the word might be mistaken for the French word for sword, "épée."
Words can be added to a language through commerce with foreign nations and other social intercourse. The English language is perhaps the best example of this characteristic of word acquisition. The reader may recall our comparison of the English vocabulary to that of French in the introduction of our Etruscan Grammar. And most importantly each of our readers has participated in the creation and addition of a new word, google, to the world dictionaries. When the search engine became popular conversations relating to web searches more than likely included such phrases (in most languages) as : Google it!, I am googling, I will google it, I googled it, I should have googled it, she googles it, actually, he and she google it and there are many googlers around the world. Notice how the new word, google, declines in English. To appreciate how the word would decline in Latin (Catholic priests probably have used the word) the reader may refer to the Latin Declension Table above and decline the word "googleus" [2nd Declension, nom.; Is it spelled correctly?]. Two thousand three hundered years ago the Etruscans might have applied a similar criteria. Finally, if you would you like to know how the Russians might be using the word, as in, "I googled, you google among the googlers," Google Translate has the answer.
These illustrate the problem in identifying and pronouncing Etruscan words. By comparison, knowing the correct pronunciation of the two French words, we can see that "ier" and "ée" carry a similar sound. One of them is the infinitive of the verb, "to spell." Knowing this we might anticipate that "er" suffixes in French could be indicators of verbs. In Indo-European languages the "suffix" indicates the meaning of a word together with the context in which it is used. The words decline. With this said, we can examine the declination of Etruscan words.
Straight away we can see an abundance of the following suffixes which we believe to be nouns or adjectives: as, ai, em, ia, ias, um, is, os (or us), er, o, ie, ei, ies, or, es, a, e, i, and some curious ones, av (au, ao?) ov, ev, and au (af). The value of "V" versus "F" is curious, and the two vowels might be revealed in the word OSUIS (VSFIS).
Before we can pursue this value we have to verify that OSUIS is a word, and this can be done by finding the locator in the Etruscan_glossaryA.xls. The glossary records these locators: Z47, Z681, Z834, TC201. Script Z, the Zagreb Mummy, and TC, the Tavola Cortonensis are listed. At first glance OSUIS looks like a word because of the several locators. The reader can ascertain the viability of this word for himself / herself (not their self, which is a common error in English having to do with agreement in "number"). As for the "V" and "F," it appears that the "V" as a vowel has a value of "o" and "u." The "F" is a "u" when used as a vowel. We tend to render "V" as an "o." It's a problem of distinction, as in pronouncing the words, put, foot, could, hood, shoot, chute, mute, debut, moat, note, cause, gnaws, laws, loss, boss, gauze, faucet, etc. We do hope, however, that the Etruscan spelling convention was a bit more rational. So far it seems to be so.
Note how the Etruscans made dist
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| Section of Schoyen Collection mirror, MS565/2 showing the word 8RATER, frater. |
inctions between ai and ia and ie and ei. The word FRATER (8RATER) seen in the Tavola Eugubine Script , and the Schoyen mirror MS 565/2, Script MS, is important, because of the suffix, os, and the consonant "8" which we usually render as "B" but in this case have applied the value of "F." The word "frater," of course is "brother" and we can see in the Indo-EuropeanTable.html that the word shifts from Sanskrit, bhratar and Persian baradar, to Greek phrater and Latin frater, French frère, Welsh friar, pracar in Tochaian, brathair in Irish, breudeur in Breton, brothor in Old English, and brother in modern English. We note that the "8" in most Etruscan words appears to be "V," as in vario, and is distinctly not an "F." This leads us to suspect that the Irish pronunciation, brathair (pl.), may be closer to the Etruscan pronunciation, which appears to be brater. Furthermore, if this indicates a trend or shift it may indicate a closer affinity of the Gaelic language(s) to Etruscan than found in that between Latin and Gaelic. Our investigation through the Indo-European Table, however, shows that the Etruscan language is closest to Latin, of all the Indo-European languages. Because of its declension characteristics – with its age, being of a people that are antecedent to the Romans / Latins – the Etruscan language may be in the nexus where Latin, Gaelic and Greek meet or began to differentiate.
Codes in the Declension Table are as follows: Words with question marks next to them may be verbs. Words with a "PL" number are probably nouns, found in the Picacenza Liver. Words in parentheses refer to a separate listing of the same word group in another declension. Colored characters, such as the green "S," are described in the first page of this grammar. As the "Etruscan Phrases" Glossary acquires more words so will our visibility of the Etruscan declensions improve. We expect in general that the Etruscan Declensions will resemble the Latin declensions, though we can't rule out any resemblance to the Greek, such as the "os" suffix.
Like Latin, Etruscan does not use the article. Thus, gender and number would be indicated through the suffix, just as the specific case would also be identified through the suffix. As we sift the data in these tables, we will also prepare separate Conjugation Tables for Etruscan verbs. The Etruscan_grammar.xls, of course, provides the essence of Etruscan conjugation, but I am anxious to see what the Conjugation Table will look like. I anticipate that it will have all of the Latin conjugation voices, Active and Passive: indicative, subjunctive, imperative, the infinitive and the participles. I believe that most of the verbs are Active, in the present, imperfect, perfect, future and a few of the words appear to be in the pluperfect tense. In any event the Conjugation Table and the process by which it will emerge has a life of its own, as it were, and it will take whatever form that is found in it. After all, we can't make up words to fit a theory, as the process compels us to understand the words as they fit within their bounds of grammatical rules.
Though a bit harsh, my complaint against the "Pallattino School" scholars is just, since it has to do with the future of Etruscan studies and the credibility of those teaching Etruscology. Students who invest their time and lives in the studies, and the people who have provided financial grants for research, should expect more than the "Pallattino School" promise "that Etruscan is like no language dead or living." On the contrary, its grammatical forms are akin to Latin and for starters we have ~1,900 words to prove it (and the glossary is growing). I shudder, wondering what those who have been funding "Pallottino School" research will say when they see that Etruscan is very much Indo-European, that it has been refined as such at "Etruscan Phrases" since 1998.
What will people do when they learn that some Etruscan scholars have made of them a fool? Some scholars have asked us (the world) to believe their translations (200 words) from what they don't know – the corpus of a language they cannot identify – without giving us the ability to audit their data. The concept is quite bothersome to me and no doubt offensive to the very meaning of scientific inquiry.
Mel Copeland
Berkeley, CA
February 11, 2007
This page reflects names shown in Etruscan mirrors, such as HERKLE (Heracles), etc.