Re: PIE voiced aspirates (?)

--- dgkilday57 <dgkilday57@...> wrote:

> --- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, Rick McCallister
> <gabaroo6958@...>
> wrote:
> >
> > [...]
> >
> > Although Etruscan had no voiced stops, or at least
> its
> > alphabet did not, there are Latin words with
> voiced
> > stops that purportedly came from Etruscan. Off the
> top
> > of my head, I can think of balteus, the source of
> > English belt. Would these words have been more
> likely
> > to have originally been aspirated or non-aspirated
> > stops in Etruscan or would it have been impossible
> to tell?
>
> <balteus> is a bad example because the ancients
> oscillated between
> Etruscan and Sabine in assigning it. In my opinion
> <barginna> and
> <balatro> are probably of Etruscan origin,
> <batillum> possibly. But
> the initial Etruscan sound here was /w/, which we
> transcribe <v>. In
> some dialects of Late Etruscan and Tuscan Latin, the
> approximant closed
> down to the voiced fricative [B] in initial
> position, represented as
> Latin <b>, while ordinary Latin still had [w]. Thus
> while Volaterrae
> (Etr. Velathri) is still Volterra, Volsinii Novi
> (Etr. Velznal) has
> become Bolsena, Vettona Bettona, and Visens
> Bisenzio. A stream in the
> Arno valley is called Biesina, from Etr. *Vlesina
> 'Vlesi's creek'. And
> a Latin inscription from Etruria, of the 1st cent.
> BCE, has Baleria for
> Valeria.

That's interesting. So could /w/ > /v/ in Latin have
originated under Etruscan influence?

>
> In recent Etruscan, there is no doubt that
> intervocalic simple stops
> had voiced allophones; we have Lat. Pabassa beside
> Etr. Papas^a, Grebo
> beside Crepu, Spedo beside Spitu, Gargossa for
> Carcus^a, etc. Lat.
> <agaso> 'donkey-driver, groom, lackey' is best
> understood as a recent
> loan from Etr. *acasu 'one who brings across' (the
> perfective
> <acasce> 'brought across' is attested). In archaic
> Etruscan, however,
> these stops were apparently unvoiced. Lat. <alapa>
> 'slap on the ear;
> paddle of a mill-wheel' is best understood as an
> archaic loan from Etr.
> *alapa 'palm of the hand'; we have recent
> derivatives <alpan>, <alp(a)
> nu> rendered 'libens, willingly', i.e. 'with palms
> out'.
>
> None of this is likely to help us with PIE voiced
> aspirates, however.

No, but you taught something fascinating to everyone

>
> Douglas G. Kilday
>
>
>