a dozen Etruscan words and a couple of names in the light of Magdalenian
(una, thi, tiur, thevru, ushil, zeri, caper, tupi, leu, mi, netshvis,
Tages, ais, Tinia, TYRSANOS, Arno)
Una 'to flow, (water-)course' may be a strongly polished version of the
generic river formula AD DA naming a river that flows toward AD the sea
while coming from DA hills or mountains, also a trading route or a person
going to one place while coming from another; with a nasal infix in
the river name Indus, in Italian andare 'to go', in Latin unda 'wave'
- losing the D in Etruscan una, while the second DA of AD DA may have
become Etruscan thi 'water'. Proto-Indo-European derives Latin unda from
*wodr- that accounts for English water Hittite watar Lithuanian vanduo ...
This means that also *wodr- goes back to AD DA (or perhaps AD DA REO,
REO meaning river, Greek hydor 'water').
Tiur 'moon' might refer to the moon bull, from TOR for bull in motion,
also present in thevru 'bull'.
More demanding is ushil 'sun' and maybe 'south'. The summer sun horse
of Lascaux was called CA BAL, sky CA hot BAL, Spanish caballo 'horse'.
As means upward. AS CA BAL, up with you, (summer) sun horse, rise toward
the south! AS CA BAL ushil ? (I see a main problem of Etruscan in strongly
polished forms.)
Zeri 'bright, clear (sky, weather)' is akin to Serri of the Hurrites,
the Serri bull of the day sky, from TYR for the one who overcomes in the
double sense of rule and give, emphatic Middle Helladic Sseyr (Phaistos
Disc, Derk Ohlenroth) Doric Sseus (Wilhelm Larfeld) Homeric Zeus, Greek
sky and weather god.
Caper 'coat' has cognates in English cape and cap that somehow capture
body and head, from very ancient *KAPA 'hand, palm, finger, to take,
also bite', with derivatives in way more than one hundred languages
(Merritt Ruhlen et al.).
Tupi 'punishment' evokes DAP for the activity of hands, French tapper
'to knock, beat', suggesting a beating as early punishment. English beat
derives from inverse PAD for the activity of feet, a word of very many
derivatives, among them paw, used by a bear to carry out a blow. DA PAD
David, he delivered out of the paws of the lion and the bear and Goliath.
(In sci.lang I am getting panushed for my wealth in ideas, a verbal beating.)
Leu 'lion' is an easy case, Magdalenian )EI or LEI for an attacking lion,
Swiss Leu for lion.
Another easy case is mi 'I' from the humming Mm that marks presence,
English me French moi (consider also my mine, mon ma mes, mio mia miei mie,
...).
A real challenge is netshvis 'reader of a sheep's liver, divinator'.
Conspicuous features of a liver were seen as divine messages. Along the
margin of the bronze model of a sheep's liver from Piacenza are sixteen
fields that correspond to the sixteen houses of gods and goddesses along
the horizon. I propose NOT PAS netshvis. NOT means knowledge acquired
via the senses, as verb to note or notice, while PAS means everywhere
(in a plain), here, south and north of me, east and west of me - further
subdivisions being the 8 and 16 heavenly sectors of Etruscan religion,
inhabited by deities who spoke via the liver of a sacrificed sheep.
Divination was introduced by the mythical boy Tages. Magdalenian DhAG
means able, good in the sense of able. (Tag-words for earth refer to the
ancient belief that our able ur-ancestors had been born from the earth.)
Ais 'good' may derive from AIS meaning fate, Greek aisa, indicating
deities as the ones who decide on the fate of people, a permutation of
AIS being SAI for life.
Tinia was the supreme Etruscan god, equivalent of the Greek Zeus. His name
might derive from TON for to make oneself heard (inverse of NOT). Among
the derivatives of TON are English tone German Ton 'sound', English din,
also tin as clanging metal (tin pan and sheet). Then there are thunder
German Donner. Tinia may may have made himself heard via thunder, on a par
with Zeus the thunderer.
SA TYR NOS Saturnus Saturn was the founder of the golden age in Latium.
He was mentioned in the form of TYRSANOS on an Etruscan shard found in
the agora of Athens: he overcomes in the double sense of rule and give TYR
from up above (in downward direction) SA and has a mind NOS of his own.
AAR RAA NOS, he of air AAR and light RAA with a mind NOS, had been the old
sky god and was implored for rain on the Göbekli Tepe. He became the Hurri
bull of the Hurrites, relegated to the night sky by the new god TYR Serri
in his guise of a bull. AAR RAA NOS implored for rain that fills river beds
would have named the main river of Etruria, Arnus Arno.
The polished forms might indicate a mixed population, basically
autochthonous, absorbing numerous migrants from northern Europe
(mitochondrial DNA), joined before 1 200 BC by an influential tribe
from Anatolia, mountain land of the many river valleys, AD DA being
the generic river formula, DAL meaning dale or valley
AD DA DAL An DA DAL An A DoL Anatolia
(Etruscan words from
http://www.etruskisch.de )
Are there cognates of Svan and Etruscan? If so, tell me a few examples
and I shall have a look at them from my vantage point.