David:
>I have two questions:
>1) Are the Tyrrhenian familiy formed by Etruscan, Rhetic and Lemnian?
>2) What can be said about the realtion of Tyrrhenian and IE?
The answer to 1) is "Yes". Camunic has also been mentioned as
another Tyrrhenian language on the List and I've suggested
the inclusion of EteoCypriot as well.
What can be immediately said about the relation of Tyrrhenian to
IE is that it is still something that many have a hard time
fully accepting. However, IE is the most likely connection to
Tyrrhenian than any other language group. There have been other
connections made to HurroUrartian and NEC, however these are highly
contraversial and even unlikely given the meager evidence for such
theories. The mainstream and safest view appears so far to be that
the Tyrrhenian languages are an isolate group.
Personally, I feel that proving the relationship between Tyrrhenian
and IE is tricky. One reason is that the conjugation of verbs in
these languages is not well known. In Etruscan, we know of some
suffixes such as /-che/ (passive), /-ce/ (perfect), /-ne/ (future)
and /-thi/ (imperative). Now, /-thi/ may be related to IE *-dhi
(as in *?s-dhi "be!"). Etruscan /-ne/ may be related to the IE
infix *-n- seen in some present stems. As for pronominal endings,
however, there is little to go on because the verb is invariably
found in the third person in Tyrrhenian texts. My suspicion is that
the conjugational system of Tyrrhenian had eroded in much the same
way as that of English has, to the point that seperate pronouns
rather than suffixes were used to convey the subject (eg: /mi
zinache/ "I was created").
So, at that, there may be more promise in relating the declensional
systems of the two groups. A genitive in *-Vse is common amongst
the Tyrrhenian languages, which is a perfect match for IE *-es/os/s
and more specifically Mid IE *-s�. We also find scanty use of an
*n-accusative in pronominal and declensional stems (Etr /ica-n/
"this" /mi-ni/ "me") which matches IE *-m nicely. There is also
almost a partitive usage of Etruscan /-th/ which may correspond
to the IE ablative *-et/ot. A second genitive in *-Vla (Etr /-al/)
especially provokes a connection to the Anatolian branch of IE.
Moreover, there appear to be vocabulary connections:
Etruscan IndoEuropean
cara *kWer- "to make"
za-, zal *dwo:u "two"
huth *kWetwores "four"
mach "five" *meg^x- "to be big, numerous"
sac- *sak^- "to sanctify"
nefts' (Lem. nafuth) *nepo:t "grandson/nephew"
Admittedly, the vocabulary connections are a little obscure until
I give my whacky intermediate reconstructions:
IndoTyrrhenian Tyrrhenian Old IE
*kW�r� *k:ere *kW�r� "to make"
*t:W� *ce *t:Wa "two"
*kWat:Wa *xotta *kWatW�-n "four"
*m�k:x� *mekke *m�k:x� "to grow, be big"
*s�k� *seke *s�k� "to sanctify"
*nep-at:a *nafotta *n�pat:� "grandson"
Note the immediate delabialisation and devoicing of all stops in
Tyrrhenian (*kW => *k/*x). The *x is a result of uvularisation of
velars next to IndoTyr *a. Palatalisation also occurs on dental
stops when next to Tyrrhenian *e (hence *t:W� > *t:e > *ce "two").
As for labial stops, *p => *f and *b becomes initial *p: or
mediofinal *p. In other words, Tyrrhenian found a nifty way to fill
in the gap of no IndoTyrrhenian **p: (which would have corresponded
with IE **b, if it had existed). The other stops behave more
normally such that a voiced stop is devoiced and remains "lenis"
while the fortis stops remain fortis. Labiovelars also become
fortis however. Here's the full picture of the development of
Tyrrhenian stops from IndoTyrrhenian as I sees it:
IndoTyr. Tyrrhenian IE
*b *p:-/*-p- *bh
*p *f *p
(**p:) -- --
*g *k/*x *gh/*gh^
*k *k/*x *k/*k^
*k: *k:/*x *g/*g^
*gW *k:/*x *gh/*gh^
*kW *k:/*x *k/*k^
*k:W *k:/*x *g/*g^
*d *t/*c *dh
*t *t/*c *t
*t: *t:/*c *d
*dW *t:/*c *dhw
*tW *t:/*c *tw
*t:W *t:/*c *dw
So, as you can see, Tyrrhenian has developped an extra fricative
series *[f, c, x] that is not found on the IndoEuropean side. Well,
I guess that's it for now...
Hope you enjoyed my psycho rantings.
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