Etruscan and Anatolian

From: Glen Gordon
Message: 6503
Date: 2001-03-10

Mr Caws:
>Well, Etruscan certainly seems to have a lot to do with IE. Wouldn't
>an Anatolian explanation be just as easy, though?

It wouldn't seem so. While there are parallels especially between Anatolian
and Etruscan, most IEists feel confident that Etruscan is non-IE and
non-IndoAnatolian. I will have to agree here with the consensus. You have to
understand that Anatolian preserves archaisms in IE that other languages
don't preserve (like the heteroclitic -r/-n declension seen with *wodr, for
example). So, for a pro-IndoTyrrhenian, amateur-linguist-person-thing like
myself, I choose to interpret the similarities between Etruscan and
Anatolian partly through the slightly closer relationship between Tyrrhenian
languages and the archaistic Anatolian branch of IE and partly through
possible borrowings that could very well have occured between each other
given the geographical proximity of these two language groups after 4000
BCE. (Or at least, so say I.)

>The Anatolian Branch IE Speakers come in and their language combines >with
>earlier non-IE language related to Khattic, Hurro-Urartean and >who knows
>what else.

Actually Hittite /pir-/ and Luwian /parna/, meaning "house", smells rather
fishy when compared to Egyptian [pr]. Maybe Piotr knows the etymology of
this word (nudge, nudge)? I looked on this website ...

http://www.wordgumbo.com/ie/cmp/luwi.htm

... but alas, to no avail. The etymology remains hidden from my eyes and I
am filled with schoolgirl curiosity.

> These guys wre probably already in the sea somewhat, trading in the
>Aegean.

One would assume. If it had been done by earlier peoples then surely the sea
trade would have been taken up by later Anatolians as their languages spread
through to Anatolia.

>Certain mythological references point to them being pretty IE,

Be careful. Etruscan mythology may have common motifs with other IE peoples
(as well as Sumerians, Akkadians and Egyptians) not because of a genetic
relationship but because of later ties with the dominant Middle-East and
contact with a million-and-one peoples before arriving in Italy. Etruscan
mythology also has some querky features as well (eg: the 16 divisions of the
sky) and it's fun to think about how they might have arose when sipping a
nice tall glass of Iced Capp at a local cafe. (As you can see, I'm a
caffeine junky.)

- gLeN

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