Which came first? The chicken or the egg

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Board: Etruria
Topic: Etruscan Language 
Topic Editor: Nesnut Hatshepsut
Topic Description: Little remains and little i...

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Message: Which came first? The chicken or the egg
Author: Sacerdos - Camitlnas Tullius, Patron 
Date: Dec 14, 2000 01:45
      Some interesting points in Tanaquil Sergius's last point. I would like to 
      add that although some words could be considered loanwords, there is also 
      the possibility, especially in Latin, that the Latin words are loanwords 
      from Etruscan. 
      This seems more likely when you consider the role of the Etruscans in the 
      urbanisation of Rome, and their dominant influence in the socio economic 
      sense. This is also an area of great controversy. 
      Generally there is more likelihood of borrowing from a Language when the 
      language is that of the rulers. 

      The grammar appears to be extremely complex, in that there is considerable 
      use of declensions in nouns and adjectives. This complexity is in common 
      with at least archaic latin. More modern latin tended to rely more on 
      prepositions etc than archaic latin. 
      There is a linguistic term for this which escapes my memory at present. 
      Perhaps Tuscus Sempronius could come to the rescue here :)  

      If we take the Etruscan root Tam to build, we get Tamara, a building  or 
      room ? Tamaresca, the building of the gods  or temple, and through Tamas, 
      possibly the latin word domus (house). 

      The Latin word Taberna may also be an Etruscan loan word from the same 
      root. 

      I should say that I understand that cases where a grammatical structure is 
      widespread among indo-european languages, the presence of the same 
      structure in Etruscan  would point to some similarities. 

      I sometimes get the feeling that the whole classification system of Indo 
      European languages is over simplified, although this is an area well 
      beyond my own knowledge. 

      The connection with Celtic languages has got my attention (being a gaelic 
      speaker). I can see the Latin connection, which I always took to be the 
      influence of early christian missionaries, but I wasn't aware of the 
      Etruscan connection (although such a connection would make perfect sense) 










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