Newsgroups: sci.lang
Path: cantaloupe.srv.cs.cmu.edu!nntp.club.cc.cmu.edu!goldenapple.srv.cs.cmu.edu!rochester!cornellcs!newsstand.cit.cornell.edu!newstand.syr.edu!news-spur1.maxwell.syr.edu!news.maxwell.syr.edu!ix.netcom.com!netcom16!alderson
From: alderson@netcom16.netcom.com (Richard M. Alderson III)
Subject: Re: Origin of the Etruscans?
In-Reply-To: sarima@ix.netcom.com's message of Wed, 02 Apr 1997 05:15:48 GMT
Message-ID: <ALDERSON.97Apr2171952@netcom16.netcom.com>
Sender: alderson@netcom16.netcom.com
Reply-To: alderson@netcom.com
Organization: NETCOM On-line services
References: <3341ead8.890711257@nntp.ix.netcom.com>
Date: Thu, 3 Apr 1997 01:19:52 GMT
Lines: 20

In article <3341ead8.890711257@nntp.ix.netcom.com> sarima@ix.netcom.com
(Stanley Friesen) writes:

>I am reading Beeke's book on Indo-European, and at least twice he makes the
>statement that the Etruscans entered Italy from the are of the Aegean.

>Is this really as definite as he seems to imply?  If so when was this
>determined, and on what basis?

It's pretty definite.

There is a monolingual stele from Lemnos whose language is, if not Etruscan, a
very close relative.  It cannot, of course, be read any more than can Etruscan
remains, but because we know the writing system we can compare the content even
without knowing the meaning.
-- 
Rich Alderson   You know the sort of thing that you can find in any dictionary
                of a strange language, and which so excites the amateur philo-
                logists, itching to derive one tongue from another that they
                know better: a word that is nearly the same in form and meaning
                as the corresponding word in English, or Latin, or Hebrew, or
                what not.
                                                --J. R. R. Tolkien,
alderson@netcom.com                               _The Notion Club Papers_
