ETRURIA CAPTA. 195 



The final en of Miukuturen is locative and dative. I have inserted 

 this tablet for the benefit of Basque students who assert that the 

 verbs iniratu, miretsi are borrowed from the Spanish mirarJ"^ 



43-5. LO • APNYNI • C ALES A • /AYISLANIA 



asma artukakukau Chirasane nora baraku unosaraka ura 

 asma artugogo kio Chirasane andre berek onetsirik aur 

 7'ranslation — Indication, hold in memory does Chirasaue's wife her 

 dearly beloved child 



Here we have a new but modern Basque word, not uncommon in 

 the inscriptions, asma, a sign, trace, indication. The sign of person, 

 and tense, kio, though following gogo, memory, belongs to the pre- 

 ceding verb artu, hold. The verb onetsi, to love, esteem, assumes an 

 attributive form in onetswikP 



441. OANIA/IEYPVI • /-LANCVPIA • S/lLAYVP 



maraka ura banekutupiu basarakachipituura nobasarakupitu 

 margaharri banekutupio fetchoraka chipitu aur ena fetchora Cupido 

 indication stone communicate to him does gentle little child to my 

 gentle Cupid '^ 



All the words in this inscription have already occurred with the 

 exception of the auxiliary termination pio. In modern Basque biu 

 means let him have. In Etruscan final j)'^ ov be means he has or 

 does. But the Basque, like the Iroquois, has a wonderfully complex 

 system of included pronouns combining with the auxiliaries or vei*b- 

 endings. Thus zayo signifies he to him has, dio, he it to him has 

 hau, he thee has, nau, he me has. According to all analogy, pio or 



modern Basque verb ekit, as numerous examples testify. It may be an old form of bakidatu, 

 to communicate, in the sense of offering, giving. Tlie analogy thus appears : Bas. one, bat ; 

 unite, batu; coraiiiunicate, bakidatu; separate, 6a?ifcft<u. Etr. one pimo; unite, banetu; com- 

 municate, banekutu; seiia,va.te, pimokuiu. These are among the comparatively rare instances 

 in which the ancient word is larger than the modern. 



7* It is natural that lexicographers should seek the relations of the words they gather. It is 

 also true that there are many French and Spanish words in Basque as now spoken and written. 

 Yet many have been erroneously regarded as loan-words which are pure Basque. Such is mira, 

 the Japanese tniru. The same language has so, regard, equally with the Basque. The Basque 

 ikhus is the Iroquois ikkens. 



75 See Van Eys, Dictionnaire Basque-Frangais, sub ik. United to verbal adjectives, it gives 

 them the value of an ablative absolute, but the signification of ik is not always equally clear. 

 When it is preceded by a vowel, euphonic r must intervene. If such explanatory notes are 

 elsewhere wanting, it is because I have all along had Basque scholars in view, to whom the 

 ultimate appeal must in any case be made. 



76 Fabretti reads V, the last letter but one of the inscription, as Y. There is much confusion 

 between these characters. Sometimes V is made Y, and Y is made T. Whether Kupido or 

 Kukuto, it makes little diflerence, as the word is a proper name. 



