Romansh, spoken by two percent of the population in southeast Switzerland, is an ancient Rheato-Romanic language derived from Latin, remnants of ancient Celtic languages and perhaps Etruscan.

The Etruscan language was spoken and written by the Etruscan civilization, in what is present-day Italy, in the ancient region of Etruria ( modern Tuscany plus western Umbria and northern Latium ) and in parts of Lombardy, Veneto, and Emilia-Romagna ( where the Etruscans were displaced by Gauls ).

The last person known to have been able to read Etruscan was the Roman emperor Claudius ( 10 BC – AD 54 ), the author of a treatise in twenty volumes on the Etruscans, Tyrrenikà ( now lost ), who compiled a dictionary ( also lost ) by interviewing the last few elderly rustics who still spoke the language.

The Etruscan language has been difficult to analyze, due to its being an isolate.

Bonfante, a leading scholar in the field, says "... it resembles no other language in Europe or elsewhere ...." The ancients were aware that Etruscan was an isolate.

In the 1st century BC, the Greek historian Dionysius of Halicarnassus stated that the Etruscan language was unlike any other.

The majority consensus is that Etruscan is related only to other members of what is called the Tyrsenian language family which is an isolate family, that is, unrelated to other language groups by any known relationship ( see Language isolate ).

Another Aegean language which is possibly related to Etruscan is Minoan.

The interest in Etruscan antiquities and the mysterious Etruscan language found its modern origin in a book by a Dominican friar, Annio da Viterbo ( d. 1502 ), the cabalist and orientalist, now remembered mainly for literary forgeries.

Annio also started to excavate Etruscan tombs, unearthing sarcophagi and inscriptions, and made a bold attempt at deciphering the Etruscan language.

An Ural – Altaic connection with the Etruscan language has also been proposed.

In 1861, Robert Ellis proposed that Etruscan was related to Armenian, which is nowadays acknowledged as an Indo-European language.

The Pyrgi Tablets laminated sheets of gold with a treatise both in Etruscan and Phoenician language s in the Etruscan Museum in Rome

G. M. Facchetti has attempted to link Linear A to the Tyrrhenian language family comprising Etruscan, Rhaetic, and Lemnian.

G. M. Facchetti proposed some possible similarities between the Etruscan language and ancient Lemnian, and other Aegean languages like Minoan.

However, recent decipherment of Lydian and its classification as an Anatolian language mean that Etruscan and Lydian were possibly not even in the same language family.

The Etruscan alphabet was in turn adopted and further modified by the ancient Romans to write the Latin language.

The Sumerian and Etruscan languages, usually regarded as language isolates, are thought by some to be Nostratic languages as well.

Since some of the Roman months were named in honor of divinities, and as April was sacred to the goddess Venus, the Festum Veneris et Fortunae Virilis being held on the first day, it has been suggested that Aprilis was originally her month Aphrilis, from her equivalent Greek goddess name Aphrodite ( Aphros ), or from the Etruscan name Apru.

Giulio Mauro Facchetti, a researcher who has dealt with both Etruscan and Minoan put forward again this hypothesis, comparing some of the Minoan words of known meaning with some similar Etruscan words.

Historically, a connection from Etruscan to the Semitic languages has also been discussed.

Alinei's proposal has been rejected by Etruscan experts such as Giulio M. Facchetti, Finno-Ugric experts such as A. Marcantonio, and by Hungarian historical linguists such as Bela Brogyanyi.

Since then the committee has grown, acquiring local committees and representatives from most institutions owning Etruscan mirror collections.

Excavations at Praeneste, an Etruscan city which became Roman, turned up about 118 cistae, one of which has been termed " the Praeneste cista " or " the Ficoroni cista " by art analysts, with special reference to the one manufactured by Novios Plutius and given by Dindia Macolnia to her daughter, as the archaic Latin inscription says.

Though Etruscans preferred to show the goddess as a nurturer ( Kourotrophos ) rather than an abductor of young men, the late Archaic sculptural acroterion from Etruscan Cære, now in Berlin, showing the goddess in archaic running pose adapted from the Greeks, and bearing a boy in her arms, has commonly been identified as Eos and Cephalus.

The inscription in Etruscan letters reads eluveitie, which has been interpreted as the Etruscan form of the Celtic ( h ) elu ̯ eti ̯ os (“ the Helvetian ”), presumably referring to a man of Helvetian descent living in Mantua.

An Etruscan and Lydian connection has been a long-standing subject of conjecture.

The hill upon which Montalcino sits has been settled probably since Etruscan times.

The Sino-Caucasian hypothesis has been expanded by others to " Dené – Caucasian " to include the Na-Dené languages of North America, Burushaski, Basque and, occasionally, Etruscan.

* The former Etruscan King of Rome, Tarquinius Superbus, who has been exiled by the Romans in 508 BC, and his ally Lars Porsena, the King of Clusium, are defeated by the new Roman Republic army in the Battle of Lake Regillus, near Frascati.

The Etruscan language has a locative ending in-thi: velsnalthi, " at Velznani ", with reference to Volsinii.

Indeed, at some Etruscan tombs, such as those of the Tumulus di Montefortini at Comeana ( see Carmignano ) in Tuscany, physical evidence of trade has been found in the form of grave goods — fine faience ware cups are particularly notable examples.

On the east of the town, in the Patturelli property, a temple has been discovered with Oscan votive inscriptions originally thought to be Oscan, now recognized as Etruscan, some of them inscribed upon terracotta tablets, the most famous of which is the Tabula Capuana, conserved in Berlin, still, after more than a century of searching, the second-longest Etruscan text.

Within the Etruscan discipline, Jupiter has the power to wield three types of admonitory lightning ( manubiae ) sent from three different celestial regions.

Since Etruscan literature has not survived, the meaning of the scenes in which he appears can only be interpreted by comparison to Greek and Roman myths, through information about Etruscan myths preserved by Greek and Latin literature, or through conjectural reconstructions based on other Etruscan representations.

In fact, the god ( under the name Vetis ) is placed in the last case ( number 16 ) of the outer rim of the Piacenza Liver — before Cilens ( Nocturnus ), who ends ( or begins in the Etruscan vision ) the disposition of the gods.

Séville, 2 – 6 septembre 2003 ( University of Seville, 2006 ), p. 95, note 16 .</ ref > The Etruscan form of the name was Catmite, from an alternate Greek form of the name, Gadymedes.

Lydus had the advantage in credibility, even though late ( 6th century AD ), of stating that he read the part of the Etrusca Disciplina about Tages and that it was a dialogue with Tarchon's lines in " the ordinary language of the Italians " and Tages ' lines in Etruscan, which was difficult for him to read.

There may have been a balcony created above this space with an opening for public viewing but little is known about exactly what the rebuild may have looked like exactly, however it is believed the exterior may well have looked almost exactly the same as the Curia Julia as the classic lines of the simple structure match the lines of the Etruscan Temple.

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.

The phonology is known through the alternation of Greek and Etruscan letters in some inscriptions ( for example, the Iguvine Tables ), and many individual words are known through loans into or from Greek and Latin, as well as explanations of Etruscan words by ancient authors.

Few words of Etruscan entered the Latin language, but the names of at least two of the tribes — Ramnes and Luceres — seem to be Etruscan.

* List of English words of Etruscan origin

* List of Spanish words of Etruscan origin

As suggested by alternations in the Etruscan language such as θu " one " changing to θunśna " first ", lev " lion " ( from Greek leōn ) and Apulu ( from Greek Apóllōn ), words ending in-n after u were disappearing from the language which is why we see his name spelled Хarun and later Хaru.

It remains mostly untranslated because of the lack of knowledge about the Etruscan language, though the few words which can be understood indicate that the text is most likely a ritual calendar.

Though the Etruscan language is not fully understood, certain words can be picked out of the text to give us an indication of the subject matter.

( In ) arime and Pithekousai both appear to derive from words for " monkey " ( Etruscan arimos, Ancient Greek πίθηκος, píthēkos, " monkey ").

# redirect List of English words of Etruscan origin

Clevsin and Camars are more comfortable in their Etruscan milieu as Etruscan words.