Where Does the Etruscan Language Fit into Known Reconstructed Families of Language?

By Dig Labs Contributors

Source: Dig Labs Project

The Etruscan language, spoken in central Italy from at least the eighth century BCE until its gradual absorption by Latin during the first century BCE, occupies a singular position in the linguistic history of the Mediterranean. Despite a corpus of approximately 13,000 inscriptions — including the longest known Etruscan text, the Liber Linteus preserved as mummy wrappings in Zagreb — and a well-understood alphabet derived from a Greek model, the Etruscan language does not belong to the Indo-European family that encompasses virtually all other historically attested languages of Italy and most of Europe.

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SOURCE

Dig Labs Project

Introduction

The Etruscan language, spoken in central Italy from at least the eighth century BCE until its gradual absorption by Latin during the first century BCE, occupies a singular position in the linguistic history of the Mediterranean. Despite a corpus of approximately 13,000 inscriptions — including the longest known Etruscan text, the Liber Linteus preserved as mummy wrappings in Zagreb — and a well-understood alphabet derived from a Greek model, the Etruscan language does not belong to the Indo-European family that encompasses virtually all other historically attested languages of Italy and most of Europe.