Wacky theory on Basque.

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DV82LECM
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Wacky theory on Basque.

Post by DV82LECM »

What is there, if any, in the form of research done to suggest that Basque evolved from Etruscan?
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Re: Wacky theory on Basque.

Post by Salmoneus »

Basque did not evolve from Etruscan.
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Re: Wacky theory on Basque.

Post by Frislander »

Salmoneus wrote:Basque did not evolve from Etruscan.
Thank you Sal.
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KaiTheHomoSapien
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Re: Wacky theory on Basque.

Post by KaiTheHomoSapien »

Seems like there are a lot of theories out there that link the pre-Indo-European languages of Europe together, but there seems to be little evidence to support a link between Etruscan and Basque. I think Vasconic and Tyrsenian were distinct pre-IE families of Europe, two among probably more.
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sangi39
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Re: Wacky theory on Basque.

Post by sangi39 »

I think we can safely rule out Basque evolving directly from Etruscan simply on chronological grounds since Proto-Basque and Estruscan were likely spoken at roughly the same time.

Whether the Vasconic languages are in any way related to the Tyrsenian languages is another question and would be very hard, if not impossible, to answer on the basis of current evidence.
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DV82LECM
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Re: Wacky theory on Basque.

Post by DV82LECM »

Okay...cool. I never implied a direct link, though.
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elemtilas
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Re: Wacky theory on Basque.

Post by elemtilas »

Salmoneus wrote:Basque did not evolve from Etruscan.
Quite right. Anyway, it was long ago determined to be much more closely related to Dutch.
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Re: Wacky theory on Basque.

Post by alynnidalar »

DV82LECM wrote:Okay...cool. I never implied a direct link, though.
You asked about Basque evolving from Etruscan; that certainly implies a direct link. Not sure how a language could evolve from another language without there being a direct link!

(perhaps we're not using the same definitions of "evolve" and "direct link", though--if so, can you clarify what you meant?)
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Re: Wacky theory on Basque.

Post by Lambuzhao »

elemtilas wrote:
Salmoneus wrote:Basque did not evolve from Etruscan.
Quite right. Anyway, it was long ago determined to be much more closely related to Dutch.
Bad Boy Basque and Freaky-Deaky Dutch... knew it all along. [B)]
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elemtilas
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Re: Wacky theory on Basque.

Post by elemtilas »

Lambuzhao wrote:
elemtilas wrote:
Salmoneus wrote:Basque did not evolve from Etruscan.
Quite right. Anyway, it was long ago determined to be much more closely related to Dutch.
Bad Boy Basque and Freaky-Deaky Dutch... knew it all along. [B)]
Quite so. I for one was glad to hear the who sordid affair was at last put right!
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Re: Wacky theory on Basque.

Post by qwed117 »

I wouldn't be surprised if someone has linked Basque to Etruscan. Some believe that the Nuragic people are related to the Basque, and others to the Tyrrhenians. I don't find it unlikely that one person could see the two overlapping.
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Re: Wacky theory on Basque.

Post by Rheddie »

hoho this is wachy
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Re: Wacky theory on Basque.

Post by Dingleberry »

There's always room for debate but there is a possible genetic link (or perhaps a sprachbund) linking Iberian, Basque and Aquitanian.
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Re: Wacky theory on Basque.

Post by AlwaysForget »

I know I'm sorta necroing this thread, but I thought it'd be interesting to do a small comparison of some basic Etruscan and Basque vocabulary. I know this has probably been done before but I'll just do it myself for the fun of it and see what results I get. Most of the Etruscan inscriptions in my book are votary and / or funeral inscriptions so this can kind of limit my vocab. The list is in no particular order and all Basque words are cited without the singular article -a. Basque words are on the right side and Etruscan on the left.

ruva : anaia "brother"
apa : aita "father"
clan : seme "son"
ati : ama "mother"
θu : bat "one"
zal : bi "two"
ci : hiru "three"
śa : lau "four"
maχ : bost "five"
huθ : sei "six"
cezp : zazpi "seven"
semφ : zortzi "eight"
nurφ : bederatzi "nine"
śar : hamar "ten"
zaθrum : hogei "twenty"
cealx : hogei-ta hamar "thirty"
avil : urte "year"
ein : ez "not"
mi : ni "1st person singular"
θi : ur "water"
-śa : -a "definite suffix"
θui : hemen "here"
uśil : eguzki "sun"
meθlum(e) : hiri "city"
pulum : izar "star"
-r(a)- : -ak "plural suffix (animate)
-xva~-cva~-va : -ak "plural suffix (inanimate)
acil : lan "work"

This is my second write-up of this, because the page actually refreshed and I lost it all :mrred: . I had more comparisons in the original, so I hope this was good enough. Besides the words listed here there are various similarities and differences between the two grammatically. For example, both languages are predominantly SOV, genitives are positioned before nouns, adjectives follow the noun and there are postpositions. None of this really means anything, for those are all very common in languages in general and SOV constituent orders. In Basque numerals always come before nouns (except with the number one "bat" (and sometimes two "bi" in Bizkaian only, e.g. Gizon bat "a man" vs Bost gizon "five men"). In Etruscan numbers tend to follow the noun (e.g. clenar zal "two sons"). While all Basque nouns take the same suffix in the plural, Etruscan apparently has a difference in animacy which determines which plural suffix a noun gets (clan : clenar "sons" / pulum : pulumxva "stars" VS semea : semeak "sons" / izarra : izarrak "stars"). To finish this off, Etruscan is a nominative-accusative language while Basque is ergative-absolutive, not that syntactic alignment can't change diachronically. I could attempt to dive into this phonologically in order to further prove my point that they're not related at all, but if you really want to read about that just pick up a copy of R.L. Trask's The History of Basque.

Sources:
Zikh Rasna A Manual of the Etruscan Language by R.E. Wallace
Basque-English English-Basque Dictionary by Gorka Aulestia and Linda White
A Grammar of Basque by Jose Ignacio Hualde et al
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Re: Wacky theory on Basque.

Post by Iyionaku »

Although I totally agree on your general statement - Basque and Etruscan are not related - I find it really dubious to try and prove that with a seemingly random list of words. With the same method, one could try to prove that German and English are not related:
Edit: No, one could not. I went through your list and given the words you provided it would be 100% obvious that German and English are related. I take everything back I have said before.
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Re: Wacky theory on Basque.

Post by Frislander »

AlwaysForget wrote: 15 Nov 2017 03:47long list of obvious non-cognates
I think that pretty much settles it.

I think the only reason people are so keen to match them up is because humans don't like anomalies, and Basque and Etruscan are just such obvious anomalies in the sea of Indo-European that for some people it's almost like they're begging to be matched to something (similarly with some of the isolates/small language families of Africa for example).
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Re: Wacky theory on Basque.

Post by AlwaysForget »

Iyionaku wrote: 15 Nov 2017 15:37 Although I totally agree on your general statement - Basque and Etruscan are not related - I find it really dubious to try and prove that with a seemingly random list of words. With the same method, one could try to prove that German and English are not related:
Edit: No, one could not. I went through your list and given the words you provided it would be 100% obvious that German and English are related. I take everything back I have said before.
Ideally I would have had a better corpus to choose from, but unfortunately when you're limited to short funeral inscriptions, it's hard to find much more than religious words, kin terms and numbers. If only we could know more about Etruscan, not to mention Aquitanian, which would be a better comparison to do than with modern Basque [:(], not that I think it'd suddenly reveal a hidden relationship or anything
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Re: Wacky theory on Basque.

Post by ixals »

AlwaysForget wrote: 15 Nov 2017 16:59Ideally I would have had a better corpus to choose from, [...]
I think this is quite the good corpus so that one can see that these two are likely not related. Multiple words in your list are found in the Swadesh list as well which are lemmas that don't get replaced as often as others. The numbers from one to five are completely different, as well as word like "sun", "star" and "water". I don't think either Basque or Etruscan could change that much of its core vocabulary.
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Re: Wacky theory on Basque.

Post by AlwaysForget »

ixals wrote: 15 Nov 2017 17:09
AlwaysForget wrote: 15 Nov 2017 16:59Ideally I would have had a better corpus to choose from, [...]
I think this is quite the good corpus so that one can see that these two are likely not related. Multiple words in your list are found in the Swadesh list as well which are lemmas that don't get replaced as often as others. The numbers from one to five are completely different, as well as word like "sun", "star" and "water". I don't think either Basque or Etruscan could change that much of its core vocabulary.
I agree, the differences in the numbers alone convinced me that they were not related. This is obvious, but if we take the numbers 1-10 from several IE languages seperated by a few thousand years we can still detect what seems to be correspondances or similarities pretty easily.

një : eins : un
dy : zwei : deux
tre : drei : trois
katër : vier : quatre
pesë : fünf : cinq
gjashtë : sechs : six
shtatë : sieben : sept
tetë : acht : huit
nëntë : neun : neuf
dhjetë : zehn : dix
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Re: Wacky theory on Basque.

Post by KaiTheHomoSapien »

Frislander wrote: 15 Nov 2017 16:41
I think that pretty much settles it.

I think the only reason people are so keen to match them up is because humans don't like anomalies, and Basque and Etruscan are just such obvious anomalies in the sea of Indo-European that for some people it's almost like they're begging to be matched to something (similarly with some of the isolates/small language families of Africa for example).
I must be weird then, because I tend to like anomalies; I find them fascinating. I'm always disappointed when I find out that some "pre-IE" root in Greek or Latin might actually just be an odd outcome of an IE root. (I was even disappointed when the "Koreanic" family came about and no longer was Korean considered an isolate). I like mysteries. But I realize I'm an anomaly [:P]

That said, I'm not opposed to the idea of Etruscan being part of the "Tyrsenian family". But a link to Basque seems unlikely.
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