Anne Lambert asks:
>I am new to this list: what's Tyrrhenian? What's Rhaetic?
Tyrrhenian is the name given to a language group consisting of
Etruscan, Lemnian and Rhaetic (possibly EteoCypriot, which we're
discussing). Etruscan was spoken in Central Italy, Rhaetic in
the north in Alp land, and Lemnian was spoken on the
isle of Lemnos in the Eastern Mediterranean where an inscription
called the "Lemnos Stele" was discovered. EteoCypriot is also
an Eastern Mediterranean language of which little is known. There
are various theories on its relation to other languages. The
first three languages are uncontroversially considered to be
related to each other.
The Proto-Tyrrhenian language, which may be reconstructed
from the above three (or four) languages, and Proto-IndoEuropean
dated to 4000 BCE may in fact be sister languages, in turn
derived from some earlier protolanguage called "IndoTyrrhenian".
I have many personal, ever-evolving theories about all stages
of the IndoTyrrhenian languages including the development and
origins of Proto-IndoEuropean itself. This is why this message
is marked "Glen's Strange Rule", refering to one mini-thought I
have about Proto-Tyrrhenian, concerning its accent on the
initial syllable which occasionally seems to shift to the second syllable,
based on what I've managed to reconstruct so far.
Since I gab a lot (too much), you can find lots of my previous
posts on Pre-IE in the cybalist archives as well as stuff at
my weird site which I need to update with new stuff pronto:
http://glen_gordon.tripod.com/LANGUAGE/
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gLeNny gEe
...wEbDeVEr gOne bEsErK!
home:
http://glen_gordon.tripod.com
email:
glengordon01@...
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