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The Etruscan language ()〔Laurie Bauer, 2007, ''The Linguistics Student’s Handbook'', Edinburgh〕 was the spoken and written language of the Etruscan civilization, in Italy, in the ancient region of Etruria (modern Tuscany plus western Umbria and northern Latium) and in parts of Campania, Lombardy, Veneto, and Emilia-Romagna (where the Etruscans were displaced by Gauls). Etruscan influenced Latin, but was eventually completely superseded by it. The Etruscans left around 13,000 inscriptions which have been found so far, only a handful of which are of significant length, some bilingual inscriptions with texts also in Latin, Greek or Phoenician, and a few dozen loanwords, such as the name Roma (from Etruscan ''Ruma''), but Etruscan's influence was significant. Attested from 700 BC to AD 50, the language is not related to any living language, and has historically been referred to as an isolate, but some scholars now holds that it is one of the hypothetical Tyrsenian languages,〔Helmut Rix, 1998, ''Rätisch und Etruskisch'', Innsbruck〕〔Robert S. P. Beekes, 2003, ''The Origin of the Etruscans'', Amsterdam〕〔L. B. Van der Meer, 2004, ''Etruscan origins: Language and Archaeology'', in Bulletin antieke beschaving, Vol. 79〕〔(The Ancient Languages of Europe )'', Roger D. Woodard, ed., Cambridge University Press, 2008, "Etruscan", Helmut Rix, p 142.〕 along with the Raetic language of the Alps and the Lemnian language of the Aegean island of Lemnos. Lacking large corpora or extended texts, more distant relations of that family are unclear. A connection to the Anatolian languages, or at a further remove to Proto-Indo-European, has been suggested, while Russian scholars such as Sergei Starostin〔Sergei A. Starostin & Vladimir Orel, 1989. ''Etruscan and North Caucasian'', in ''Explorations in Language Macrofamilies'' Ed. V. Shevoroshkin, Bochum〕 have suggested a link to the speculative Dené–Caucasian macrophylum. Neither of these two hypotheses has widespread support. Grammatically, the language is agglutinating, with nouns and verbs showing suffixed inflectional endings and ablaut in some cases. Nouns show four cases, singular and plural numbers, and masculine and feminine genders. Phonologically, Etruscan appears uncomplicated, with a four-vowel system and an apparent contrast between aspirated and unaspirated stops. The language shows phonetic change over time, with the loss and then re-establishment of word-internal vowels due to the effect of Etruscan's strong word-initial stress. Etruscan religion influenced that of the Romans and many of the few surviving Etruscan language artifacts are of votive or religious significance. Etruscan was written in an alphabet derived from the Greek alphabet; this alphabet was the source of the Latin alphabet. The Etruscan language is also believed to be the source of certain important cultural words of Western Europe such as 'military' and 'people', which do not have obvious Indo-European roots. ==History of Etruscan literacy== Etruscan literacy was widespread over the Mediterranean shores, as evidenced by about 13,000 inscriptions (dedications, epitaphs, etc.), most fairly short, but some of considerable length.〔Bonfante (1990), page 12〕 They date from about 700 BC.〔Bonfante (1990) page 10.〕 The Etruscans had a rich literature, as noted by Latin authors. However, only one book (mostly undeciphered) has survived. By AD 100, Etruscan had been replaced by Latin. Around AD 180, the Latin author Aulus Gellius mentions Etruscan alongside Gaulish in an anecdote.〔Aulus Gellius, Noctes Atticae, Extract: ueluti Romae nobis praesentibus uetus celebratusque homo in causis, sed repentina et quasi tumultuaria doctrina praeditus, cum apud praefectum urbi uerba faceret et dicere uellet inopi quendam miseroque uictu uiuere et furfureum panem esitare uinumque eructum et feditum potare. “hic”, inquit,“eques Romanus apludam edit et flocces bibit”. aspexerunt omnes qui aderant alius alium, primo tristiores turbato et requirente uoltu quidnam illud utriusque uerbi foret: post deinde, quasi nescio quid Tusce aut Gallice dixisset, uniuersi riserunt. ‘For instance in Rome in our presence, a man experienced and celebrated as a pleader, but furnished with a sudden and, as it were, hasty education, was speaking to the Prefect of the City, and wished to say that a certain man with a poor and wretched way of life ate bread from bran and drank bad and spoiled wine. “This Roman knight”, he said, “eats apluda and drinks flocces.” All who were present looked at each other, first seriously and with an inquiring expression, wondering what the two words meant; thereupon, as if he might have said something in, I don’t know, Gaulish or Etruscan, all of them burst out laughing.’(based on BLOM 2007: 183)〕 Only a few educated Romans with antiquarian interests, such as Varro, could read Etruscan. The last person known to have been able to read Etruscan was the Roman emperor Claudius (10 BC – AD 54), who authored a treatise in 20 volumes on the Etruscans, ''Tyrrenikà'' (now lost), and compiled a dictionary (also lost) by interviewing the last few elderly rustics who still spoke the language. Urgulanilla, the emperor's first wife, was Etruscan.〔For Urgulanilla, see Suetonius, ''Life of Claudius'', Section 26.1; for the 20 books, same work, Section 42.2.〕 Livy and Cicero were both aware that highly specialized Etruscan religious rites were codified in several sets of books written in Etruscan under the generic Latin title ''Etrusca Disciplina''. The ''Libri Haruspicini'' dealt with divination from the entrails of the sacrificed animal, while the ''Libri Fulgurales'' expounded the art of divination by observing lightning. A third set, the ''Libri Rituales'', might have provided a key to Etruscan civilization: its wider scope embraced Etruscan standards of social and political life, as well as ritual practices. According to the fourth-century AD Latin writer Servius, a fourth set of Etruscan books existed, dealing with animal gods, but it is unlikely that any scholar living in the fourth century AD could have read Etruscan. The single extant Etruscan book, ''Liber Linteus'', which was written on linen, survived only because it was used as mummy wrappings. Etruscan had some influence on Latin, as a few dozen Etruscan words and names were borrowed by the Romans, some of which remain in modern languages, such as: columna (column), voltur (vulture), tuba (trumpet), vagina (originally meaning 'sheath'), populus (people).〔Ostler, Nicholas. Ad Infinitum: A Biography of Latin and the World It Created. London: HarperPress, 2009. pp. 323-325.〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Etruscan language」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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