Morten:
> Perhaps the first syllable "Zi-" is an onomatepoeia and means or is
> connected to breathe/breath?
Or maybe you need to get more familiar with Etruscan and what is known
about it. Granted, many things are not translated to 100% satisfaction
but Etruscan doesn't even have prefixes nor is it related to Sumerian.
You can't just say anything you wish about the language ignorantly like
you can for Minoan and get away with it.
The word /fler/ is known to mean 'offering' or something very similar.
It is evidently an inanimate noun because it has an inanimate plural
/fler-cHva/. Animate plural nouns are marked with -er, for your info,
and normally describe living things. A counterexample might be /spurer/
instead of *spurcHva but then again, a 'city' is a collection of living
things, nej?
The word /zivas/ means "living" and even has an oft-encountered suffix
-as. We know it to roughly correspond to English -ing... Although I would
like to call it a 3ps 'aorist', myself.
There's some good info on Etruscan grammar as we _actually_ know it from
this link:
http://www-unix.oit.umass.edu/~classics/Chap4.pdf
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That being said now, where do we find a sequence /fler zivas/? Something
must be missing in that phrase. The sequence would mean "The gift is
living." Rather odd. I'd expect that "living gift" would be better
translated as */fler zivana/.
= gLeN