Etruscan genitives

How would you explain the complementary distribution of s- and l-genitives? The ending <-al> occurs after -s, -th and with feminine nouns in <-i>; <-(V)s> is found elsewhere:

Arnth, Arnthal

Laris, Larisal

Arnthi, Arnthial

Uni, Unial

Remznei, Remznal

ati, atial 'mother'

Vel, Velus

Velthur, Velthurus

Thankhvil, Thankhvilus

Remzna, Remznas

clan, clens 'son'

mlakh, mlakas 'beautiful'

The former type is more restricted, so -s can be regarded as the "default" genitive replaced by -al in some well-defined "declensions" only (with a few particular suffixes).

Aren't the occasional forms with -n connected with denominal possessive adjectives like aisna 'belonging to a god', laukhumna 'royal', tuthin(a) 'public' (= 'people's'), Rasna 'Etruscan' (related to North-Aegean -eno-?)?

Piotr

----- Original Message -----
From: Glen Gordon

To: cybalist@egroups.com

Sent: Thursday, January 04, 2001 8:55 AM

Subject: Re: [tied] Re: etruscan, Lydian and Greek inscriptions

At any rate, for those that are more serious about Etruscan, I finally found the reference that mentions the "archaic Etruscan genitive" in -n that Miguel was fighting against. "Etruscan Language - An Introduction" by Giuliano & Larissa Bonfante. Examples include lautn "family" (gen. lautun) and puia "wife" (gen. puian). It would appear to correlate best with Mid IE *-am (IE *-om). I also suspect that the s- and l- genitives might have had an internal and external meaning respectively in IndoTyrrhenian, if not in Etruscan itself.