Editing Etruscan language (section)

==History of Etruscan literacy==
[[File:Haruspex.png|thumb|right|250px|Drawing of the inscriptions on the [[Liver of Piacenza]]; see ''[[haruspex]]'']]

Etruscan literacy was widespread over the [[Mediterranean Sea|Mediterranean]] shores, as evidenced by about 13,000 [[epigraphy|inscriptions]] (dedications, [[epitaph]]s, etc.), most fairly short, but some of considerable length.{{sfn|Bonfante|1990|p=12}} They date from about 700 BC.{{sfn|Bonfante|1990|p=10}}<ref name=Woodard2004/>

The Etruscans had a rich literature, as noted by Latin authors. [[Livy]] and [[Cicero]] were both aware that highly specialized Etruscan religious rites were codified in several sets of books written in Etruscan under the generic Latin title {{Lang|la|Etrusca Disciplina}}. The {{Lang|la|Libri Haruspicini}} dealt with [[divination]] by [[reading entrails]] from a sacrificed animal, while the {{Lang|la|Libri Fulgurales}} expounded the art of divination by observing [[lightning]]. A third set, the {{Lang|la|Libri Rituales}}, might have provided a key to Etruscan civilization: its wider scope embraced Etruscan standards of social and political life, as well as ritual practices. According to the 4th-century AD Latin writer [[Maurus Servius Honoratus]], a fourth set of Etruscan books existed, dealing with animal gods, but it is unlikely that any scholar living in that era could have read Etruscan. However, only one book (as opposed to inscription), the ''[[Liber Linteus]]'', survived, and only because the linen on which it was written was used as [[mummy]] wrappings.<ref>Van der Meer, L. Bouke, ed. ''Liber Linteus Zagrabiensis'' (= ''Monographs on antiquity'', vol. 4). Peeters, 2007, {{ISSN|1781-9458}}.</ref>

By 30 BC, [[Livy]] noted that Etruscan was once widely taught to Roman boys, but had since become replaced by the teaching of Greek, while [[Varro]] noted that theatrical works had once been composed in Etruscan.<ref name=PFreeman/>

===Demise===

The date of extinction for Etruscan is held by scholarship to have been either in the late first century BC, or the early first century AD. Freeman's analysis of inscriptional evidence implies that Etruscan was still flourishing in the 2nd century BC, still alive in the first century BC, and surviving in at least one location in the beginning of the first century AD;<ref name=PFreeman/> however, the replacement of Etruscan by Latin likely occurred earlier in southern regions closer to Rome.<ref name=PFreeman/>

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In southern [[Etruria]], the first Etruscan site to be [[Linguistic Latinization|Latinized]] was [[Veii]], when it was [[Battle of Veii|destroyed]] and repopulated by Romans in 396 BC.<ref name=PFreeman/> [[Caere]] ([[Cerveteri]]), another southern Etruscan town on the coast 45 kilometers from Rome, appears to have shifted to Latin in the late 2nd century BC.<ref name=PFreeman/> In [[Tarquinia]] and [[Vulci]], Latin inscriptions coexisted with Etruscan inscriptions in wall paintings and grave markers for centuries, from the 3rd century BC until the early 1st century BC, after which Etruscan is replaced by the exclusive use of Latin.<ref name=PFreeman/>

In northern Etruria, Etruscan inscriptions continue after they disappear in southern Etruria. At [[Clusium]] ([[Chiusi]]), tomb markings show mixed Latin and Etruscan in the first half of the 1st century BC, with cases where two subsequent generations are inscribed in Latin and then the third, youngest generation, surprisingly, is transcribed in Etruscan.<ref name=PFreeman/> At [[Perugia]], monolingual monumental inscriptions in Etruscan are still seen in the first half of the 1st century BC, while the period of bilingual inscriptions appears to have stretched from the 3rd century to the late 1st century BC.<ref name=PFreeman/> The isolated last bilinguals are found at three northern sites. Inscriptions in [[Arezzo]] include one dated to 40 BC followed by two with slightly later dates, while in [[Volterra]] there is one dated to just after 40 BC and a final one dated to 10–20 AD; coins with written Etruscan near [[Saena]] have also been dated to 15 BC.<ref name=PFreeman/> Freeman notes that in rural areas the language may have survived a bit longer, and that a survival into the late 1st century AD and beyond "cannot wholly be dismissed", especially given the revelation of [[Oscan language|Oscan]] writing in [[Pompeii]]'s walls.<ref>Freeman, Philip. Survival of Etruscan. p. 82: "How much longer may have Etruscan survived in isolated rural locations? The answer is impossible to say, given that we can only argue from evidence, not conjecture. But languages are notoriously tenacious, and the possibility of an Etruscan survival into the late 1st century A.D. and beyond cannot be wholly dismissed. Oscan graffiti on the walls of Pompeii show that non-Latin languages well into the 1st century A.D., making rural survival of Etruscan more credible. But this is only speculation..."</ref>

Despite the apparent extinction of Etruscan, it appears that Etruscan religious rites continued much later, continuing to use the Etruscan names of deities and possibly with some [[Liturgy|liturgical]] usage of the language. In late [[Roman Republic|Republican]] and early [[Augustus|Augustan]] times, various Latin sources including [[Cicero]] noted the esteemed reputation of Etruscan [[Divination|soothsayers]].<ref name=PFreeman/> An episode where lightning struck an inscription with the name Caesar, turning it into Aesar, was interpreted to have been a premonition of the deification of [[Caesar]] because of the resemblance to Etruscan {{Transliteration|ett|aisar}}, meaning 'gods', although this indicates knowledge of a single word and not the language. Centuries later and long after Etruscan is thought to have died out, [[Ammianus Marcellinus]] reports that [[Julian the Apostate]], the last pagan Emperor, apparently had Etruscan soothsayers accompany him on his military campaigns with books on war, lightning and celestial events, but the language of these books is unknown. According to [[Zosimus (historian)|Zosimus]], when Rome was faced with destruction by [[Alaric I|Alaric]] in 408 AD, the protection of nearby Etruscan towns was attributed to Etruscan pagan priests who claimed to have summoned a raging thunderstorm, and they offered their services "in the ancestral manner" to Rome as well, but the devout Christians of Rome refused the offer, preferring death to help by pagans. Freeman notes that these events may indicate that a limited theological knowledge of Etruscan may have survived among the priestly caste much longer.<ref name=PFreeman/> One 19th-century writer argued in 1892 that Etruscan deities retained an influence on early modern Tuscan folklore.<ref>Leland (1892). ''Etruscan Roman Remains in Popular Tradition''.</ref>

Around 180 AD, the Latin author [[Aulus Gellius]] mentions Etruscan alongside the [[Gaulish language]] in an anecdote.<ref>Aulus Gellius, ''Noctes Atticae''. Extract: 'ueluti Romae nobis praesentibus uetus celebratusque homo in causis, sed repentina et quasi tumultuaria doctrina praeditus, cum apud praefectum urbi uerba faceret et dicere uellet inopi quendam miseroque uictu uiuere et furfureum panem esitare uinumque eructum et feditum potare. "hic", inquit, "eques Romanus apludam edit et flocces bibit". aspexerunt omnes qui aderant alius alium, primo tristiores turbato et requirente uoltu quidnam illud utriusque uerbi foret: post deinde, quasi nescio quid Tusce aut Gallice dixisset, uniuersi riserunt.' English translation: 'For instance in Rome in our presence, a man experienced and celebrated as a pleader, but furnished with a sudden and, as it were, hasty education, was speaking to the Prefect of the City, and wished to say that a certain man with a poor and wretched way of life ate bread from bran and drank bad and spoiled wine. "This Roman knight", he said, "eats apluda and drinks flocces." All who were present looked at each other, first seriously and with an inquiring expression, wondering what the two words meant; thereupon, as if he might have said something in, I don't know, Gaulish or Etruscan, all of them burst out laughing.' (based on Blom 2007: 183.)</ref> Freeman notes that although Gaulish was clearly still alive during Gellius' time, his testimony may not indicate that Etruscan was still alive because the phrase could indicate a meaning of the sort of "it's all Greek (incomprehensible) to me".<ref name=Freeman78>Freeman. Survival of Etruscan. p. 78</ref>

At the time of its extinction, only a few educated Romans with antiquarian interests, such as [[Marcus Terentius Varro]], could read Etruscan. The Roman emperor [[Claudius]] (10&nbsp;BC – AD&nbsp;54) is considered to have possibly been able to read Etruscan, and authored the [[Tyrrhenika]], a (now lost) treatise on [[Etruscan history]]; a separate dedication made by Claudius implies a knowledge from "diverse Etruscan sources", but it is unclear if any were fluent speakers of Etruscan.<ref name=PFreeman/> [[Plautia Urgulanilla]], the emperor's first wife, had Etruscan roots.<ref>For Urgulanilla, see [[Suetonius]], ''Life of Claudius'', section 26.1; for the 20 books, same work, section 42.2.</ref>

Etruscan had some influence on Latin, as a few dozen Etruscan words and names were borrowed by the Romans, some of which remain in modern languages, among which are possibly {{Transliteration|ett|voltur}} 'vulture', {{Transliteration|ett|tuba}} 'trumpet', {{Transliteration|ett|vagina}} 'sheath', {{Transliteration|ett|populus}} 'people'.<ref>Ostler, Nicholas (2009). ''Ad Infinitum: A Biography of Latin and the World It Created.'' London: HarperPress, 2009, pp. 323 ff.</ref>

[[File:Etruscan civilization map.png|thumb|300px|Maximum extent of Etruscan civilization and the twelve Etruscan League cities.]]