Re: [tied] Apple is to Orange as Etruscan is to NEC

In a message dated 01/03/01 22:23:10 GMT Standard Time,
glengordon01@... writes:

> >What most of 'these books' do, in fact, is suggest that Etruscan
> >is an isolate. And while Etruscan is absolutely full of IE loanwords,
> >the problem is the core vocabulary just doesn't fit.
>
> I beg to differ. True, Etruscan is often viewed as an isolate, the lazy
> linguist's answer to a question that requires thought. Etruscan does

contain

> some relatively recent Latin loans (suplu "to blow", macstrev

"magristrate")

> and Greek loans (lechtum "vase", qutun "pitcher"). There are also Semitoid
> loans which I believe occured in prehistory (s'a "6", semph "7", s'ar

"10").

> Who knows, there may have even been Anatolian ones (mal- "offer") too.

I'm not saying it's an isolate either. But where is this proven
relationship with IE that you mentioned earlier? I agree with you on
all the words you mention, BTW.

> >BTW, isn't this just a little bit pot calling the kettle black? You
> >assert that there is a genetic relationship between Basque and NEC,
> >yet all experts in Basque reject this theory absolutely.
>
> Well if the Vasconicist Larry Trask is any indication, with whom I had a
> chance to speak on subjects like these, Vasconic studies close themselves
> prejudiciously to the thought of any outside relationships. He claimed

that

> zazpi "seven" could be better explained as a native compounding of
> *bortzaz-pi "five-two" even though a Semitic explanation is so much less
> troublesome (also Basque /sei/ "six", another clearly Semitic word). It
> still blows my mind to this day.

Maybe this is a bit like the reluctance of many Etruscologists,
especially Italian ones, to express unambiguously the truth about the
Etruscans: they were foreign immigrants.

> Certainly, any relationship between Basque and NEC must be seen as remote
> regardless - we're talking at least 10,000 years or more. However there do
> appear still to be some strong indications of this relationship:
>
> Basque pNakh | pDeneCaucasian
> (Starostin) | (me)
> --------------------------------------|----------------
> "eye" begi (Chechen b`ärg)| *m-xutL
> "ear" belarri (Chechen lerg) | *m-lir
> "I" -t *so: | *ti
> "we" gu *Lä | *tLu
> "you (pl)" zu- *s^u | *Lu
> "four" lau (AvarAn *l^ob- "3")| *limu
> "rodent" sagu *ca:rgWy: | *cark?u
> "mouse" "weasel" |

A couple of questions:
Isn't the /-g/ in Chechen /b`a"rg/ (and /lerg/) just the diminutive
suffix?
Where does PN *La" come from? Isn't /txwo/ borrowed from Kartvelian
and /vaj/ common Nakh-Daghestanian?

Interesting idea about the gender marking, though.


Ed. Robertson