From: Mark Odegard
Message: 1580
Date: 2000-02-18
a bilingual Etruscan-Carthagenian was found in 1964 by the Italian archaeologist Maria Trersa Falconi at Pyrgi, the ancient harbour of the Etruscan town Caere (today Cerveteri). But it was on gold...
We know Etruscan words. Once you exclude proper names, however, the meaning of these words are at best obscure. The brevity of all the inscriptions (including the Pyrgi inscriptions), combined with the lack of a better-attested cognate does not give a sufficient basis to explicate its grammar.The problem would the be the same if you were to attempt to teach yourself Basque solely from what information you could gather from epitaphs on tombstones: names, dates, family terms and the such, together with some religious sentiments, all arranged in a rather telegraphic style. It would be as if you were completely ignorant of the existance of modern Basque and were attempting to decipher ancient Aquitanian inscriptions, or, similarly, as if you were making a pre-Ventris attempt to decipher Linear B with no knowledge of Greek.
Knowing the meanings of some words in a foreign language does not mean you speak that foreign language: a Berlitz phrase book does not make you fluent. We know some Etruscan words. We do not know Etruscan. Etruscan, then, remains undeciphered.
Greetings from frozen, snow-bound Iowa.
Mark.