1889.] ^-^ * [Brinton. 



The Etruscan alphabet, as I have already said, was derived from 

 the Greek. It represented twenty sounds, as follows: 



Vowels : a, e, i, u. 



Mutes: c (=k), p, f, t, 0, y (guttural). 



Linguals ; 1, r. 



Nasals: m, n. 



Sibilants: s', s, z (s'r=:soft s); (z, originally fs). 



Spirants: h (spiritus asper), v ("= u), f (the digamma). 



It will be noticed that the vowel o was not expressed, and that a 

 number of consonantal sounds found in Latin and Greek are absent. 



The orthography of the Etruscan inscriptions shows either that 

 these letters did not fully express the sounds of the language, or 

 else that it possessed many phonetic variations. The principal of 

 these are as follows : 



h into/, /, <f, 0, and vice versa. 



t into 0, h, d, and z, and v. v. 



s into c or z, and v. v. 



Initial e and terminal ;/ were often omitted. 



It is certain there were various vowel sounds which were not 

 written ; there is no doubt, for instance, of the identity of the 

 forms epl QX\6. pul ; of eprOne axidpurdne, etc. The extent of these 

 changes has very properly been made a subject of careful study by 

 the epigraphists.* 



Very little has been gleaned from the inscriptions as to the 

 grammar of the Etruscan. The best authorities on the subject are 

 Deecke and Pauli, and both agree that the Etruscan nouns have a 

 gender presenting masculine and feminine forms, by this cutting 

 the language off of all connection with the Turanian stock. 

 The nouns have also plural terminations, and both nominal and 

 verbal themes are modified by suffixes and less frequently by pre- 

 fixes. Pauli considers the demonstrative pronouns to be, " without 

 doubt," an, cen and mi(ji). 



Conjugations and declensions have not been fixed, though it is 

 believed that a terminal s, often attached to words, is the sign of 

 the genitive or possessive case ; and a terminal ce seems to indicate 

 a past tense in verbals. A terminal -c and -;// are supposed to be 

 suffixed copulative conjunctions, like the -que in Latin. f 



* On these phonetic variations, see Pauli in Elruskische Forschungen und SUidien, 1882, . 

 Heft iii, ss. 18, 23, 27, 28, etc., and elsewhere. Also Deecke, Appendix on the Etruscan 

 Language, in MUller's Die Etrusker, Bd. ii. 



t For these particulars, compare Deecke in Elruskishe Forschungen und Studien, 1S82, 

 Heft ii, s. 62, sq., and Pauli in the same, Heft iii, s. 146, and elsewhere. 



