Piotr:
>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.
Thanx, Piotr. Judging by Miguel's subsequent posting, he
still can't come to terms with this common-sense reasoning.
So be it. I'll advance without him. My impression of the
stele leads me to the following expectation of the
Lemnian numeral set:
1 *thu
2 *sal
3 *ci
4 *huth
5 *mach
6 *zai
7 *semph
8 *cesph
9 *nurph
10 *zar
20 *sathrum
30 *cialchvai
40 *huthalchvai
50 *muvalchvai
60 *zialchvai (gen. /zialchveis/)
70 *semphalchvai
... And I take it back: The differences between Etruscan
and Lemnian are more on the order of Parisian versus
Quebecois French!
While Miguel hopelessly compares Etruscan /mach/ & /muvalch/
to the wrong Anatolian numeral, the real answer might involve
an earlier Tyrrhenian vowel harmony difference between
*meke "5" and *mowa-la-kun "50" (< *moxa- < *maka-).
I'm starting to suspect that not only did IndoTyrrhenian
have vowel harmony in verb conjugation but that it spread
in Tyrrhenian grammar to include numerical and pronominal
_declension_ at least where the genitive ending *-la was
concerned. Thoughts, is all.
Piotr:
>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)
Hmm. "Of his investiture as a magistrate" seems like such a sesquipedalian
translation of /maras-/, no? I'm more tempted to
analyze the /-s-/ as an honorific (=IE nominative) rather than
a genitive, and take /maras-m/ to be the subject of a sentence
where /aumai/ is the verb.
Thus it was a /maras/ that /aumai/-ed "years" or rather an
official that dedicated (many) years. I doubt he dedicated
forty or even sixty years at his job nor could it take him
forty years to enter into his position but it does make sense
if you translate it such that /maras-m av[is] zialchveis/
means "He, as an official, was forty/sixty years old" and
not "Of years of his investiture as a magistrate were
forty/sixty". The latter sounds kinda funny. Can you explain
your version further?
We agree about the likely rough definition of /maras-/ at
least - something involving "office".
I've been tweaking my translation a bit further and have come
to a more reasonable proposal. I think I fully understand
now what happened and why the stele is so... well, crappy
looking - but this is to be seen. The stele is to be read best
in the following serpentine order:
FRONT FAR RIGHT & FAR LEFT
--------------------------
Hulaie-s nafuth, Sia-si Vanalazial, serunai Murinai-l
aker, tavars-iu.
By Hulaie's nephew, Sia of Vanal, the stele of the city
of Murina was to be made (Etruscan */ac-eri/ = aker), as
a small gift.
FRONT CENTER
------------
Maras-m avis zialchveis. Avis, evizthu serunai-th, sivai.
And the official was sixty years old. Years, it is written
on the stele, lived he.
SIDE (providing further detail of the Murina death)
---------------------------------------------------
1. Sivai avis zialchveis.
2. Maras-m, avis aumai.
3. Rum haral-iu sivai.
4. Eptes-iu arai tis Fuke.
5. Hulaie-si Fukiaziale, serunai-th evizthu, tuveru-na.
1. He lived to the age of 60.
2. And as an official, years dedicated he.
3. (In) Rome the dear servant lived.
4. As a dear pritane worked good Fuke.
5. (By) Hulaie of Fuke, on the stele it is written, shall
make offerings.
----------------------------------------------------------
So what's happening is that we have three characters, some
of which have "last names" if we can call them such:
- Fuke, the deceased, who lived in Rome for some reason
- Hulaie of Fuke, son of deceased
- Sia of Vanal, Hulaie's sister's son & grandson of Fuke
The family as mentioned on the stele is thus as follows:
Fuke
|
|
--------------------------------
| |
Hulaie Vanal === [HULAIE'S SISTER]
|
|
Sia
By equating the ending /-si/ with the English word "by"
or "by the act of", it appears now that Sia, the grandson of
Fuke through matrilineal descent, was involved in the
making of the stele for his maternal grandfather who died
at the age of sixty... Thus, /zialchveis/ can't reasonably
mean "of forty" because this is far too young for a
grandfather. The result of this interpretation is that
/nafuth/ might have a less "Omaha" definition, meaning just
"grandson". Question is, did Sia make the stele himself
at the age of about 20 years of age or younger? Why was he
put in charge of the stele-making? His young age would
explain the messy craftsmanship of the stele and
the occasional mistakes and omissions of terminating vowels.
"Hulaie of Fuke" (*/Hulaie Fuki-aziale/) is evidently the
son of Fuke, a big-wig who worked in Rome, probably speaking
the almost identical Etruscan, being that Rome was Etruscan
at the time. The double genitive gives me problems no longer
since it now makes sense that this was a Lemnian way of
making "last names", just like "O'Hearn". We should expect
that Sia's father was Vanal (*/Sia Vanal-aziale/) and
therefore, he could only be related to Fuke through
his mother. This style of naming seems to be a teensy bit
different from the Etruscan way, so no wonder I was confused.
Oh, almost forgot, despite Miguel's disgust for "Rome"
as having been mentioned on the stele or my identification
of it being the home of our deceased Fuke, it would appear
that this is quite an appropriate translation fitting
with the time period in question when the closely-related
Etruscans were still in power in this city:
http://www.sia.cc/magnagraecia/table4ma.htm
http://www.cgocable.net/~jstam/monarchy.html
http://ebooks.whsmithonline.co.uk/encyclopedia/70/M0020270.htm
etc, etc.
Everyone happy-happy now? The Lemnos Stele is now completely
undeciphered... Actually, if it's this damn easy, it must have
been deciphered already! Let's all go to sleep now and
rejoice in our new-found knowledge.
Gutennacht and may you all have logical dreams
- gLeN
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