Showing posts with label Etruscan. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Etruscan. Show all posts

20 October 2025

The Labyrinth (updated)



Greek labýrinthos (Mycenean 
DA-PU-RI₂-TO-JO 'of the labyrinth') designated an elaborated place built by the artificer Daedalus for the king Minos of Crete and whose function was to hold the Minotaur, a legendary creature half man and half bull. Although the Cretan labyrinth had a square or rectangular shape, there is an older circular version found in several ancient cultures, mostly in petroglyphs

From the Greek word, I'd reconstruct Minoan
abur 'fence, wall', with an initial voiced lateral represented as /d/ in Linear B. Seemingly related words are Etruscan spur 'city', Egyptian ʃzp(a) 'fence', Central Chadic *ɮabˁ- 'fence, to fence', Low East Cushitic (Afar) sabsab- 
'wall' (reduplicative). 
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The Pre-Greek language spoken at Crete, attested in Linear A tablets and loanwords to Greek.

13 March 2022

Etruscan φersu 'masked character (in games)' (updated)






















Latin persōna 'theatre mask' is a loanword from Etruscan *φersu-na > φersu 'masked character (in games)'. This can be analized as a derivative from an unattested form *φers 'husk', an agricultural term with correspondences in Hittite paršdu 'leaf, foliage'1, linked in turn by Alexei Kassian to Kartvelian *purtś 'husk, foliage' (Georgian purcel ’leaf, foliage', Megrel purča 'chaff, husk', Laz purča 'sweet corn ear', purčumale 'a k. of weed'), *prtś-wn- 'to husk, to scale'2.


Presumably related to this etymology is the Greek theonym Perséphonē (Etruscan Φersipnei, Latin Proserpina), attested on several Attic vases from the 5th century BC as Persóphatta, P(h)erséphatta, Pherréphatta. Rudolf Wachter analyzes it as a compound whose second member would be derived from Indo-European *-gʷhn-t-jā < *gʷhen- 'to beat, to kill', and the first one related to Sanskrit parṣá- 'sheaf, bundle', Young Avestan parša- 'ear (of corn)', to which Michael Weiss -in a personal communication to Wachter- also adds Latin porrum and Greek práson 'leek', from a supposed Indo-European lexeme *pr̥s-o-'3. Thus the reconstructed meaning of the theonym would be 'sheaf-beater', i.e. 'threshing maiden'4. 



However, like most Indo-Iranian lexicon related to agriculture, *parš appears to be a substrate loanword from the language spoken by BMAC people5. On the other hand, for Slavic *proso- 'millet', Georg Holzer posited a loanword from a substrate language he called Temematic (Temematisch in German) after its proposed sound correspondences with PIE and where *r̥ ro6. Although Holzer's theory has been discredited as a whole7 it could still explain the etymology of the Slavic word from I*bhar(e)s 'a k. of cereal (milletbarleyspelt)' (Latin far, farris), a remnant of the languages spoken by the Neolithic farmers who colonized Europe from the Near East.

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Wrongly translated by some authors as 'sprout, sprig'. See A. Kloekhorst (2008): Etymological Dictionary of Hittite, pp. 645-646. 
A. Kassian (2009): Anatolian lexical isolates and their external Nostratic cognates, in Orientalia et Classica, §48.
M. De Vaan (2008): Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the Other Italic Languages, pp. 481-482.
R. Wachter (2006): Persephone, the Threshing Maiden, in Die Sprache, vol. 47, no. 2 (2007-2008), pp.163-181.
5 M. Witzel (2003): Linguistic Evidence for Cultural Exchange in Prehistoric Western Central Asia, in Sino-Platonic Papers 129, p. 33.
G. Holzer (1989): Entlehnungen aus einer bisher unbekannten indogermanischen Sprach in Urslavischen und Urbaltischen, §2. See also F. Kortland (2003): An Indo-European substratum in Slavic?, in Languages in Prehistoric Europe, pp. 183-184.
R. Matasović (2013): Substratum words in Balto-Slavic, in Filologija 60, pp. 75-102.

07 October 2016

Latin voltur 'vulture' (updated)


Latin voltur, vultur 'vulture' is linked by scholars such as Mallory-Adams to Greek blosyrós 'terrible, fearsome' and blosyrōpis 'grim-looking' (seemingly from Aeolic in account of *w- > b-), thus reconstructing an IE protoform *gʷl̥tur-1.

However, the Latin word is most likely a loanword from Etruscan velθur 'hawk, falcon', attested in the gentilic Velθur-na, which is likely associated to the city of Capua (cfr. capys 'hawk, falcon'). On the other hand, if the ancient toponyms Vulturnum (Castel Volturno) and Vulturnus (Volturno)2 are actually related to vultur, then we could add too Etruscan velθ 'underground, netherworld', velθu-na 'human', velθ-ra 'infernal tunnel' (Moretti) to this etymology, pointing to a Tyrrhenian protoform *wVrd- 'underground'.

This would be also the origin of Greek Ōrth(r)os, the name of an infernal dog, although from a different substrate language.
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1 J.P. Mallory & D.Q. Adams (2006): The Oxford Introduction to PIE and the PIE World, p.145.
2 Hence (ventus) Vulturnus 'SE wind' > Spanish bochorno 'foehn, sirocco'.

18 May 2016

Snake eyes (updated)


The Etruscan numeral zal1, es(a)l '2' is attested in dice -Etruscans were affectionate of gambling- and inscriptions, and it's also part of esl-em zaθrum '18' (lit. '2 from 20'), where za-θ-r-um '20' can be analized as the concatenation of '2' with locative, plural and collective suffixes, i.e. 'collection of things in twos'2.

Although some amateur linguists have proposed links to either East Caucasian (Nakh-Daghestanian) or Hurrian, there're no obvious parallels elsewhere. However, Etruscan ci '3' is related (most likely due to borrowing) to Hurrian kig '3', a Hurro-Urartian isogloss shared with Nakh *qo-, with an optional suffix used for sheep counting. This is particulary interesting, because this numeral strongly resembles Daghestanian and West Caucasian (Abkhaz-Adyghe) '2' (NCED 2315)3, while at the same time both Hurro-Urartian and Nakh borrowed their numeral '2' from Semitic4.

As it happens, numerals aren't too much old (Neolithic at the most) and in many cases they're loanwords or even Wanderwörter4, so they're of little value for establishing distant language relationships.

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1 Etruscan z stands for an affricate /ts/.
2 E. Robertson (2006): Etruscan's Genealogical Linguistic Relationship with Nakh-Daghestanian: A Preliminary Evaluation.
3 IE *dwo '2' is likely a loanword from West Caucasian.
4 Some Semitic numerals, namely '7', spread as such to IE and other language families.

09 July 2015

Etruscan viscri 'penis' (updated)


Italian (Tuscan) bischero 'peg (on a string instrument); fool, idiot' derives from Etruscan viscri 'penis', attested in a votive inscription: eti viscri ture Arnθ Alitle Pumpuś (TLE 685) '... gives this penis', engraved on a figure of a man offering his male organ found at Paterno di Vallombrosa (Arezzo)

Although many specialists have linked the Etruscan word to Latin scus, vīsceris 'entrails' (itself a word of problematic etymology), I think the latter would correspond to Etruscan visc 'center' (see here). In my opinion, viscri would be an Italic loanword akin to Latin virga 'twig, rod' (with rhotacism) < *wizg-ā, from a lexeme *wizg- also attested in Germanic *wiskō 'bundle, besom'. The semantic shift 'rod' > 'penis' also happened in Spanish
verga < Latin virga.

24 June 2015

Basque ol(h)a 'forge, foundry'


Basque ol(h)a 'forge, foundry; workshop' is a word conflated with its homonymous 'hut; dwelling' (geographically restricted to a few dialects), a confusion also extending to the widespread toponymic suffix -ola1However, upon a closer scrutiny they reveal themselves as two different words. Firstly, Roncalese õla 'hut' has a nasal vowel, a remnant of a former initial nasal consonant. And secondly, the respective derivated verbs are different, as on the one hand we've got ol(h)atu (LN, Z) 'to hit with violence', and on the other, olhatü (Z) 'to stay on huts; to go to the pastures (in transhumance)'.

I think the Basque word would be a loanword from Celtic *ordā (f.) 'hammer' (Middle Welsh orth, Breton orz)2, possibly through retroflexion of the dental stop (as in Sweden and Norwegian), which ultimately evolved into a lateral. However, as no plausible IE etymology can be posited for the Celtic word, a non-IE origin is likely. A likely cognate would be Etruscan urθan- 'to make, to manufacture', attested in the past form urθanice '(he) made'. 

This way, we're left with a Tyrrhenian verbal root *ur-d- which I'd link on the one hand to IE *wer-g´- 'to work'3 (zero Ablaut), where IE *-g´- ~ Tyrrhenian *-d-, and on the other to Urartian ur-/or- 'to make, to work'4, which Diakonoff-Starostin4 relate in turn to Nakh-Daghestanian *=ahwV(r) 'to do' (NCED 1826).
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1 Compare for example Loiola 'pottery', from lohi 'mud', and Gisasola 'broom bush', from (g)isats 'broom'.
2 There's also a masculine form *ordo- (Old Irish ord, Gaulish Ordo-). See R. Matasović (2009): Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Celtic, p. 300.
3 Incidentally, the amateur linguist Gianfranco Forni (who regards Etruscan as an IE language) derives urθan from an IE participle *H3er-to- 'risen' < *H3er- 'to rise' (Latin orior). However, to me this is not only semantically questionable but also phonetically inconsistent, as it wouldn't explain the voiced stop in Celtic, of whose connection with the Etruscan verb he's of course unaware.
4 N. Diakonoff & S. Starostin (1986): Hurro-Urartian as an East Caucasian Language, §163.

05 August 2014

Gaulish *santikā 'ladle; milking vessel' (updated)



Gascon sanja, sansha, santja, sòntja, shansha, sancha, Aragonese sancha and dialectal Catalan sanxa (Cerdanya) designate a milking vessel carved in wood, often made by hollowing out a tree trunk1. On the other hand, dialectal Basque xantxa (L, Z), xaiñtxa (Z) designates a milking vessel with a long metal handle (kopetxa), and in the latter also 'ladle' (golhare), a meaning which in my opinion would be the original one2.


Although the Gaulish origin of this word seems undeniable, a Celtic etymology is more dubious. For example, Matasović proposes a Celtic femenine *sϕanjā corresponding to the masculine *sϕenjo- > Old Irish sine 'teat'3, in turn derived from IE *spen-, which is phonetically unacceptable, among other things because Celtic *sϕ- gives s- in Goidelic but f- in Britonic and probably also in Gaulish. For the same reason, Hubschmid's protoform *sand-ikā from IE *spdh- 'bucket'4 can't be accepted, although Celtic *sϕondā would be the origin of Romansh s(u)onna 'bucket', probably a Lepontic loanword.

Following Coromines5, I'd propose a Gaulish protoform *santi-kā as a Baltoid loanword corresponding to Baltic *samti-/semti- > Lithuanian sámtis 'spoon, ladle', sémti 'to pump, to scoop (a liquid)', from an IE root *semH- 'to pump, to scoop (a liquid)' also found in Latin sentīna 'bilge; sewer, drainage' and cognate to Altaic *ʃŏ́mo 'to dive; to summerge; to scoop (a liquid)' (EDAL 2193) > Turkic *tʃo:(m)- 'to diver; to swim; to scoop (a liquid); to immerse, to dip' (Turkish čömče 'spoon'6). On the other hand, Etruscan śanti (Tabula Capuana) probably designated some kind of vessel.
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1 G. Rohlfs (1970): Le Gascon. Etudes de phylologie pyrénéenne, § 59. It's likely the same kind of vessel called kaiku in Basque.
2 The oldest European metal ladlers are from the Hallstatt culture of the Early Iron Age.
R. Matasović (2009): Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Celtic, p. 333.
4 J. Hubschmid (1951): Alpenwörter. Ursprungs und vorromanischen Romanischen, p. 61.
5 DECLC, p. 667-668.
J. Hubschmid (1955): Schläuche und Fasser, p. 107, quotes čamča, čumča with a diminutive suffix -ča.