The Tyrsenian languages, also called Tyrrhenian or Common Tyrrhenic, were a proposed family of languages spoken in Europe. The Tyrsenian languages, all three of which that have been identified, are all now long extinct. They are Etruscan, Rhaetian, and Lemnian.
The grouping was first put forward by linguist Helmut Rix in 1998. It was named after the ancient Tyrrhenians or Tyrsenians, known in different types of Greek as Τυῤῥηνοί Turrhēnoi (Attic Greek), Τυρσηνοί Tursēnoi (Ionic) and Τυρσανοί Tursānoi (Doric). References to Tyrsenians, presumably the Proto-Tyrsenian ancestors of the Etruscans, Rhaetians and Lemnians, appear in Ancient Greek texts. They are referenced as “the famous Tyrsenians” by the poet Hesiod, and in the Homeric hymn to Dionysus as pirates: “Presently there came swiftly over the sparkling sea / Tyrsenian pirates on a well-decked ship – a miserable doom led them on.” Later references come via Strabo, Pindar, Sophocles, Herodotus and Thucydides, mentioning their pirating activities; the Teresh people -one of the Sea Peoples- who appeared in Ancient Egyptian inscriptions from 1200 to 1150BC may have been the Tyrsenians.
The central name “Tyrsenian” has been applied to the ancient Lemnian language of the Greek island of Lemnos, which remained relatively free of Greek influence until Hellenistic times (after Alexander the Great). Lemnian would come to be replaced by Attic Greek after the island was conquered by Athenians in the latter half of the 6th century BC. The Lemnos stele, the principal resource of attestation for the Lemnian language, was inscribed in the 6th century BC in a language bearing close similarity to the Etruscan language of the Italian peninsula. This led to postulation about a relationship between Lemnian, Etruscan and also the Rhaetian/Rhaetic language of the Alps via a proposed Tyrrhenian/Tyrsenian family. While the circumstances of the relationship are debated, with the details of who migrated where and when up for clarification, there is evidence for a linguistic tie between the Lemnians and the Etruscans.
Lemnian is largely accepted as being a close relative of Etruscan, spoken in ancient Italy. The Etruscan civilisation was a major civilisation of pre-Roman Italy. The Etruscans were close neighbours of the ancient Romans, and spoke a language normally considered a language isolate. The Romans called them Etrusci or Tusci and their country Tuscia or Etruria; in Greek they were known as Tyrsenoi or Tyrrhenoi, and in Umbrian by the adjective turskum. They called themselves 𐌓𐌀𐌔𐌄𐌍𐌍𐌀 / Rasenna, later shortened to rasna / raśna. They inhabited what is now called Tuscany, in an area bordered by the Arno River to the north, the Tiber to the southeast, and the Tyrrhenian Sea to the west. The thousands of inscriptions in Etruscan that exist are mainly funerary epitaphs or dedicatory formulas, and votive or owner’s inscriptions on paintings in tombs, as well as accompanying engraved figures on small artefacts such as metal mirrors – mostly rather brief. Attempts have been made at decipherment with only some claims of success and much of the recorded material remaining enigmatic. The Etruscan language was written in a Greek-derived alphabet, a variant of which, in turn, the Romans would adapt to create their alphabet – now used the world over, and even to write English.
In pre-Roman Italy, the Etruscans actually presided over the most powerful civilisation. Their culture would greatly influence the Roman civilisation that would absorb it. Evidence indicates that it was the Etruscans who imparted upon the Romans the alphabet and numerals, along with many aspects of architecture, art, religion, and dress. The toga is understood to be of Etruscan origin. Earliest evidence of identifiable Etruscan culture dates from about 900BC, the earliest Iron Age phase of Etruscan culture known as the Villanovan culture. At the civilisation’s height, Etruscan families were very rich thanks to trade with Celts to the north and Greeks to the south, filling their large, extravagant family tombs with imported luxuries. The Etruscans were moreover known for their maritime exploits, dominating the western coast of Italy and garnering infamy for themselves as pirates. Assimilation by the Romans would begin from the late 4th century BC with the Roman-Etruscan Wars, and became complete in 27BC when their territory was officially incorporated into the new Roman Empire.
The Rhaetic language was spoken in the ancient region of Rhaetia in the eastern Alps in pre-Roman and Roman times. It is documented by about 280 texts dating from the 5th to the 1st century BC, found over northern Italy, southern Germany, eastern Switzerland, Slovenia and western Austria.
An additional member of the family, Camunic, has been suggested via relation to Rhaetian. Other suggestions indicate that it is Celtic, or another unknown Indo-European language. Its extant corpus is mostly carved on rock, and there are at least 170 known inscriptions, written in an Etruscan script, mostly only a few words long.
The German linguist Helmut Rix would first propose the connection between the three aforementioned yet unclassified ancient languages in 1998. In the family he called Tyrrhenian, he placed the Etruscan language of Etruria, the Rhaetic language of the southern Alps, and the Lemnian language as attested by only a minimal number of inscriptions found on the Aegean island of Lemnos. Common features having been identified in morphology, phonology and syntax, many other linguists have come to support Rix’s Tyrsenian family, including the likes of Stefan Schumacher, Carlo De Simone, Norbert Oettinger, Simona Marchesini, and Rex E. Wallace.
Because of their distinctly refined morphology, I have assigned the Tyrsenian languages to my proposed primary language family of the Nostratic languages (although I stole this name from a previous proposal originally attributed to Holger Pedersen in the 20th century). The Nostratic family also includes the Indo-European languages, the Uralic languages, the Caucasian (Northeast/Northwest/South) languages, the Vasconic languages and the Hurro-Urartian languages. These languages are highly refined, dynamic, rewarding systems of communication with robust structures and transcendent essences. Within the Nostratic family, we have two principal branches, Indo-European being divergent from the rest – I am yet to come up with a name for “the rest”.
Rix posits that a Proto-Tyrsenian language would have been spoken up until the last quarter of the 2nd millennium BC. Carlo De Simone and Simona Marchesini have proposed a much earlier date, suggesting that the Tyrsenian languages might have split away from each other before the Bronze Age. In 2004 L. Boulke van der Meer proposed Rhaetic to have split from Etruscan around 900 BC or earlier – no later than 700 BC.
Otherwise, these languages are considered generically Pre-Indo-European or Paleo-European, terms used to refer to languages that were spoken in Europe prior to Indo-European expansion and migration. Other theories include that of a larger Aegean family also including Eteocretan, Minoan and Eteocypriot, as proposed by G. M. Facchetti. Relations to the Anatolian branch within the Indo-European family have been proposed but rejected. Post-Soviet linguists including Sergei Starostin have proposed a link between Tyrrhenian, Northeast Caucasian and Hurro-Urartian languages to form an Alarodian family.
The Etruscan language has been attested by around 13,000 inscriptions found mostly in Italy, dating from the 8th century BC to the 1st century AD. The Rhaetic language, meanwhile, is attested by around 300 found in the Central Alps, dating as far back as the late 6th century BC. Lemnian is attested by 2 inscriptions and a few fragmented ones, also dating back to the 6th century BC. Camunic, which may be related to Rhaetic, is attested by 170 inscriptions found in the Central Alps dating back the 5th century BC.
Evidence for the relationships:
Between Rhaetic and Etruscan…
- zal / zal = ‘two’
- –(a)cvil / akvil = ‘gift’
- zinace / t’inaχe = ‘he made’
- –s / –s = -‘s (genitive suffix)
- –(i)a / –a = -‘s (second genitive case suffix)
- –ce / –ku = -ed (past active participle)
Between Etruscan and Lemnian…
- shared dative case suffixes, appearing as aule-si ‘to Aule’ in Etruscan on the Cippus Perusinus inscriptions, versus Hulaie-ši ‘for Hulaie’ in Lemnian (also Φukiasi-ale ‘for the Phocaean’ on the Lemnos Stele).
- a past tense suffix *-a-i: -⟨e⟩ as in ame ‘was’ ( ← *amai) in Etruscan; -⟨ai⟩ as in šivai ‘lived’ in Lemnian
- two cognate words for ages: avils maχs śealχisc Etruscan ‘and aged sixty-five’; aviš sialχviš Lemnian ‘aged sixty’
Sample text in Etruscan, courtesy of omniglot.com:
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