for example became -Thethis-, Telephus -Thelaphe-,
Odysseus -Utuze- or -Uthuze-. Of the few terminations
and words, whose meaning has been ascertained, the
greater part are far remote from all Graeco-Italian
analogies; such as, all the numerals; the termination
-al employed as a designation of descent, frequently
of descent from the mother, e. g. -Cania-, which
on a bilingual inscription of Chiusi is translated
by -Cainnia natus-; and the termination -sa in the
names of women, used to indicate the clan into which
they have married, e. g. -Lecnesa-denoting the spouse
of a -Licinius-. So -cela- or -clan- with the
inflection -clensi- means son; -se(—chi)-
daughter; -ril- year; the god Hermes becomes -Turms-,
Aphrodite -Turan-, Hephaestos -Sethlans-, Bakchos
-Fufluns-. Alongside of these strange forms and
sounds there certainly occur isolated analogies between
the Etruscan and the Italian languages. Proper
names are formed, substantially, after the general
Italian system. The frequent gentile termination
-enas or -ena(4) recurs in the termination -enus which
is likewise of frequent occurrence in Italian, especially
in Sabellian clan-names; thus the Etruscan names -Maecenas-
and -Spurinna- correspond closely to the Roman -Maecius-and
-Spurius-. A number of names of divinities,
which occur as Etruscan on Etruscan monuments or in
authors, have in their roots, and to some extent even
in their terminations, a form so thoroughly Latin,
that, if these names were really originally Etruscan,
the two languages must have been closely related;
such as -Usil- (sun and dawn, connected with -ausum-,
-aurum-, -aurora-, -sol-), -Minerva-(-menervare-) -Lasa-(-lascivus-),
-Neptunus-, -Voltumna-. As these analogies, however,
may have had their origin only in the subsequent political
and religious relations between the Etruscans and
Latins, and in the accommodations and borrowings to
which these relations gave rise, they do not invalidate
the conclusion to which we are led by the other observed
phenomena, that the Tuscan language differed at least
as widely from all the Graeco-Italian dialects as did
the language of the Celts or of the Slavonians.
So at least it sounded to the Roman ear; “Tuscan
and Gallic” were the languages of barbarians,
“Oscan and Volscian” were but rustic dialects.
But, while the Etruscans differed thus widely from the Graeco-Italian family of languages, no one has yet succeeded in connecting them with any other known race. All sorts of dialects have been examined with a view to discover affinity with the Etruscan, sometimes by simple interrogation, sometimes by torture, but all without exception in vain. The geographical position of the Basque nation would naturally suggest it for comparison; but even in the Basque language no analogies of a decisive character have been brought forward. As little do the scanty remains of the Ligurian language which have reached our time, consisting of local and personal names, indicate any