Societas Via Romana - Discussion Archives

Has anyone read this book by Zacharie Mayani? He makes a very convincing argument that Etruscan is actually from the Illyrian/Thracian family, with the only modern descendant being Albanian. Anyone like to discuss this?

Salve Scerio,

No, I've never heard of this book, but could you summarise its main arguments?

Vale bene,
Draco

Salvete Amici,

I have read the book "La Vie quotidienne chez les Étrusques" by Jacques Heurgon, where he refers to the theory that the origin of the Etruscans is Oriental, maybe from Lydia. Their language is related to Lycian, Carian and Lydian dialects (I hope I put these names now in their correct English form because I have only a German translation of this book).

Salve Cleopatra,

I also read this book! I found it an enjoyable read, but I'm not a proponent of the Oriental theory. I should dig deeper into the material again to tell why precisely, but, at any rate, I'm not convinced of the Oriental origin. Another gripe I had with this excellent book was that Heurgon seems to draw the influence of Etruscans on Rome a bit too far when he starts suggesting that Maecenas's odd poetry and dressing habits were inherited from his Etruscan forebears. It would be like blaming all president Roosevelt's oddities on his Dutch ancestry, while afaik he spoke only English.

Optime vale,
Draco

As for the book, it just makes comparisons between Etruscan language and Albanian language, but something came to me today that I hadn't thought of before, the word for father in Etruscan is "at" and in Turkish, a Ural-Altaic language, who was the Father of the Turks but Attaturk, which in my opinion is more evidence for the tie, though probably mostly gone, of a parent language for the Ural-Altaic-Indo-European parent.