Re: [tied] Lemnos stele

From: Piotr Gasiorowski
Message: 5689
Date: 2001-01-21

Miguel and Glen,
 
I have thought it prudent to keep out of this exchange so far, but may I suggest something to both of you?
 
avis shialchveis maras-m avis (sh = "sigma", s = "zeta")
 
Etruscan "avils" is a genitive meaning "in the [Nth] year (of his life)". The identification of shialchveis with shealch is secure, and comparison with Etruscan tombstone formulas virtually guarantees that avis = avils, but I think Glen is right in insisting that maras can't be a numeral. First, such a reading doesn't match Etruscan formulas syntactically; secondly, the poor wretch would have had to die twice if the expression "he died in the 40th year and in the X-th year" were to make sense.
 
But what about the following?
 
"He died in his fortieth year, (that is,) in the year of X"
 
where "of X" = maras ('of his investiture as a magistrate' -- or rather an office for which 40-year-olds became eligible)
 
So much speculation from me.
 
Piotr
 
 
 
----- Original Message -----
From: Glen Gordon
To: cybalist@egroups.com
Sent: Sunday, January 21, 2001 9:53 PM
Subject: Re: [tied] Lemnos stele


Miguel:
>I forgot to send this.  If anyone still cares, here it is...

I'm starting not to...

I had stated some hard problems that Miguel still refuses
to face rationally because he cannot accept the crisp knock of
Logic's gavel:
>>    - opposite of expected Etruscan number order
>>      (We find Etruscan /ci zathrum/ "23" not */zathrum ci/)
>>    - impossible sound correspondances
>>      ([kH] => [r]???  mach == mara-????)
>>    - impossible semantics when translated in context
>>      (/aviz/ repeated twice in same phrase!!?)

Miguel, I'm not interested in your insanity. I'm interested
in logic and credible viewpoints. The comparative phonetics,
word order, semantics AND strange, repeated usage of /avis/
in your translation are all so clearly contradictive to your
analysis despite your blindness that I must terminate this
fruitless discussion.

Your million-and-one patchwork assumptions and what-if's,
from a preEtruscan **mava to the unlikely IE dissection of
*penkWe that no IEist worth his weight in gold could swallow,
are truely an awe-inspiring masterpiece for those who
wish to follow in your antiestablishment footsteps but
these theories remain unremediable dislogic.