| e.g. | Tite or Vipi or Tetna, of men. |
| Titi or Vipinei or Tetinei, of women. |
(3) cognomen = additional family name.
e.g. Faru or Petru of men, Farui, Vetui of women.
(4) agnomen = special cognomen derived from the cognomen of the father.
e.g. Hanusa (in Latin spelling Hannossa) or Pultusa (also Pultus) of a man; Hanunia of a woman.
All these are commonly in the “nominative” (as the examples just quoted from Schulze, pp. 316–327) in sepulchral inscriptions.
Besides these, we have certain other descriptions used in forms which may be called a “genitive-dative” case, or a “derivative possessive” Adjective. These may be entitled:—
(5) paternum (a) = praenomen of father, used generally after the nomen of son or daughter.
e.g. arnθal “of Arnθ.” more commonly simply ar, so ls for Laris-al, to which clan “son,” often abbreviated c, and seχ or sec (abbrev. s) “daughter,” are sometimes added.
paternum (b) = nomen of father, used only after the praenomen of a daughter (e.g. θana velθurnas, “Thana daughter of Velthurna”), to which seχ “daughter,” often abbreviated s, is sometimes added.
(6) maternum (a) = nomen of mother.
e.g. pumpunial, “of Pumpuni” (in Lat. form Pomponia); alfnal “of Alfnei” (Lat. Alfia); hetarias, “of Hetaria.”
maternum (b) = cognomen of mother.
e.g. vetnal, “of Vetui,” or “of Vetonia,” hesual, “of Hesui.”
maternum (c) = agnomen of mother.
e.g. cumeruniaś, “of Cumerunia,” i.e. “of a daughter of the cumeru-family.”
(7) maritale—(i.) nomen, or (ii.) cognomen, or (iii.) agnomen of husband, used directly after the nomen of the wife, the word puia, “wife,” being often added.
e.g. (i.) larθi cencui larcnasa, “Larthia Cenconia, wife of a Largena”; (ii.) larθia pulfnei spaspusa, “Larthia Pulfennia, wife of a Spaspo”; this form being the same as that used for the agnomen of a man (see above)—(iii.) hastia cainei leusla, “Hastia Caia, wife of a son of a Leo”; and with a longer and possibly not synonymous form of suffix, θania titi latinial śec hanuslisa, “Thania Titia, daughter of Latinia, wife of a Hanusa”—these secondary derivatives in -sla, &c., being an example of what is called genetivus genetivi, a characteristic Etruscan formation, not confined to this feminine use.
These examples will probably enable the reader to interpret the great mass of the names on Etruscan tombs. It should be added (1) that no clear distinction can be drawn between the use of the cognomina and the nomina, though it is probable that in origin the cognomen came from some family connected with the gens by marriage; and (2) that the praenomen generally comes first, but sometimes second (especially when both nomen and praenomen are added in the genitive to the name of a son or daughter).
9. The examples given illustrate also the few principles of inflexion and word-formation that are reasonably certain, for example, the various “genitival” endings. Those in -ś and -l are also found in dedications where in Latin a dative would be used:—e.g. (mi) θuplθaś alpan turce “(hoc) deae Thupelthae donum dedit,” where turce shows the only verbal inflection yet certainly known; cf. amce, “was,” arce, “made,” zilacnuce, “held the office of a Zilaχ,” lupuce, “passed away.” More important are the formative principles which the proper names display. Endings -a, -u, -e and -na are common in the “Nominative”—and in Etruscan there appears to be no distinction between this case and the Accusative—of men’s names; the endings -i, -ei, -nei, -nia and -unia are among the commonest for women’s names. But no trace of gender has yet been observed in common nouns or adjectives. Nor is it always easy to distinguish a “Case” from a noun-stem. The women’s names corresponding to the men’s names in -u are sometimes -ui, sometimes -nei, sometimes longer forms (ves-acnei, beside ves-u, hanunia from hanu). And the so-called Genitives can themselves be inflected, as we have seen. The form neθunsl “of Neptune,” may even have swallowed up the nominatival -s of the Italic Neptunus.
10. In view of the protracted discussion as to the numerals and the dice on which the first six are written, it should be added that only the following points are certain: (1) that maχ = one; (2) that the next five numbers are somehow represented by ci, θu, huθ, sa and zal; (3) and the next three somehow by cezp-, semφ- and muv; (4) that the suffix -alχ- denotes the tens, or some of them, e.g. cealχ- beside ci (? 50 and 5); (5) that the suffix -z or -s is multiplicative (es(a)ls from zal). It is almost certain that zal must mean either 2 or 6, and of these a stronger case can, perhaps, be made for the latter meaning. Zathrum appears to be the corresponding ten (? 60). Skutsch’s article in Indogerm. Forschungen, v. p. 256, remains the best account.
In close connexion with the numerals on sepulchral inscriptions appear the words ril, “old, aged,” avils, “annorum,” or “aetatis,” and tivr, “month” (from tiv, “moon”).
11. Schulze has shown (e.g., p. 410) that a large number of familiar endings (e.g. those which when Latinized become -acius, -alius, -annius, -arius, -asius, -atius, -avus, -avius, -ax, and a similar series with -o-, -ocius, &c.), and further those with the elements, -lno-, -lino-, -enna, -eno-, -tern-, -turn-, -tric-, &c., exhibit different methods by which nomina were built up from praenomina in Etruscan. Finally it is of considerable historical importance to observe that a great mass of the praenomina used for this purpose are clearly of Italic origin, e.g. Helva, Barba, Vespa, Nero, Pedo, from all of which (and many more) there are derivatives which at one stage or other were certainly or probably Etruscan. It is this incorporation of Italic elements into the Etruscan nomenclature—itself a familiar and inevitable feature of the pirate-type of conquest and settlement, under which many women who bear and nurse and first name the children belong to the conquered race—that has entrapped so many scholars into the delusion that the language itself was Indo-European.
12. So far the language has been discussed without any reference to ethnology. But the facts stated above in regard to the extension of the language in space and time are clearly adverse to the hypothesis that it came into Italy from the north, and fully bear out Livy’s account (v. 33. 11) that the Etruscans of the Alpine valleys had been driven into that isolation by the invasion of the Gauls (beginning about 400 B.C.). And the accumulating evidence of a connexion with Asia Minor (see e.g. above § 3) justifies confidence in the unbroken testimony of every Roman writer, which cannot but represent the traditions of the Etruscans themselves, and the evidence of similar traditions from the Asiatic side given by Herodotus (i. 97) to the effect that they came to Italy by sea from Lydia. Against this there has never been anything to set but the silence of “the Lydian historian Xanthus” (Dion. Hal. i. 28; cf. 30) who may have had many excellent reasons for it other than a disbelief of the tradition, and of whom in any case we know nothing save the vague commendation of Dionysius. And it is not merely the miscellanies of Athenaeus (e.g. xii. 519) but the unimpeachable testimony of the Umbrian Plautus (Cistellaria, 2. 3. 19), singularly neglected since Dennis’s day, that convicts the Etruscans of an institution practised by the Lydians and other non-Indo-European peoples of Asia Minor, but totally repugnant to all the peoples among whom the Etruscans moved in their western settlement. The reader may be referred to Dennis’s introductory chapter for a very serviceable collection of the other ancient testimony as to their origin. In the present state of our knowledge of the language it is best to disregard its apparent or alleged resemblances to various features of various Caucasian dialects pointed out by Thomsen (see above) and Pauli (Altit. Forsch. ii. 2, p. 147 ff.), and to acquiesce in Kretschmer’s (op. cit. p. 408) non liquet as to the particular people of Asia Minor from whom the Etruscans sprang. But meanwhile it is clear that such evidence as has been obtained by epigraphic and linguistic research is not in any sense hostile but distinctly favourable to the tradition of their origin which they themselves must have maintained.
Authorities.—Beside those mentioned in the text, see Professor F. Skutsch’s article “Etruskisch,” in the new current (1908) edition of Pauly-Wissowa’s Encyclopaedia; A. Torp’s Etruskische Beiträge, and other shorter writings; E. Lattes’s Correzioni, giunte, postille al C.I. Etrusc. (Florence, 1904), and his most valuable Iscriz. paleolatine di provenienza Etrusca (1895); Schaefer’s articles in Pauli’s Altitalische Studien (see above), and, with caution, Deecke’s revision of Müller’s Etrusker (Stuttgart, 1877). Some account of the relations of Etruscans with different Italic communities will be found in the relevant chapters of R. S. Conway’s edition of the remains of The Italic Dialects (1897). Newly discovered Etruscan inscriptions are regularly published in the Notizie degli scavi di antichità, the official Italian journal of excavations (published by the Reale Accad. dei Lincei, but procurable separately). Fabretti’s Corpus Inscc. Italicarum with its supplements was formerly useful, but in any doubtful reading its authority is worth little, and its commentary and glossary represent the epoch of Corssen. The regular contributions of Prof. Skutsch (under the general heading “Lateinische Sprache”) to Vollmer’s Jahresbericht f. d. Fortschritte der romanischen Sprachwissenschaft; and of Prof. Herbig to Bursian’s Jahresbericht über die Fortschritte der classischen Altertumswissenschaft will both be of service. The present writer is indebted to both Professor Skutsch and Professor Torp for valuable guidance and instruction. (R. S. C.)
ETTENHEIM, a town of Germany, in the grand-duchy of
Baden, pleasantly situated on the Ettenbach, under the western
slope of the Black Forest, 7 m. E. from the Rhine by rail. Pop.
(1900) 3106. It has a handsome Roman Catholic church, with
ceiling frescoes, and containing the tomb of Cardinal Rohan,
the last prince bishop of Strassburg, who resided here from
1790 till 1803; a Protestant church and a medieval town-hall.
