The text of the Iguvine inscriptions |
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Common terms and phrases
accus appears arsmo become believe character clear comparable contrast correct corrupt dative Dersua dicito dictator Enom erar nomne erer nomneper erus esono Etruscan explained facito fact feitu ferto fertu fetu final follows fratrum frite fust give Grabouie Greek hence heri Iguvinā illis indn Inomec interpret Italy language Latin Martier mean meat Mefa ministrato narratu Nerf noun ocre Fisi ocriper Fisiu ostentu passage patricii perhaps pesnimu pihatu Pone pōni fetu popluper totar possible Postquam probably proponito propter Quum recurs render Roman root sacrum seems sense seritu sing sound suggests suppose TABLE thure tiom tiom subbocāu totam totāper Ijouinā totar Ijouinar totč Ijouinč Tunc turn Umbrian urbe verb vessels VIIa Welsh write
Popular passages
Page 35 - ... nome; nerf arsmo, ueiro pequo, castruo fri pihatu; futu fos pacer pase tua ocre fisi, \ si tote iiouine erer nomne, erar nomne.
Page xv - To aid readers, Lepsius often inserts m or f in brackets in his text ; and, again I say, it saves notes : an important matter, where all effort is needed to hinder the notes from swallowing up the text. I have imitated him, by printing small letters (m, f, s) above the line, at least in the earlier tables. Afterwards I presume often that a reader can supply them of himself. I may add, that the inconsistent efforts at concord of the Locative case imply the laws of grammar to be unformed on this head....
Page 52 - ... comparing la. 1, 2, with Via. 1 ; which seem to show Pernaie Postnaie as replaced by Dersua and Mersta. Now if the former mean Antica, Postica, how can the latter mean Dextra, Sinistra ? for what is in front is not at the right hand. If there were no other way of escape, I should render Pernaie, Postnaie, early and late (as I did in my first paper) rather than abandon the obvious sense of Dersua and Mersta, while unable to imagine any substitute ; for our proof that Antica, Postica are the truer...
Page xi - ... any previous intention, or any belief that it was possible. I began quite independently of help, except what Lepsius's edition gives. After I had composed my first paper, and laid it before the Philological Society of London, I received a great impulse on comparing it with Aufrecht and Kirchhoff's great work, which not merely sharpened my grammatical knowledge, and thereby put out many false lights which might have vexatiously misled me, but, what is still more important, communicated to me the...
Page xii - ... rejected as impossible. I may add, Esono, sacrum, which I since have entirely verified, though I long resisted it. After I had learned these, a mist cleared away ; things which I had previously suspected gained shape and coherence ; and by aid of these erudite and acute inquirers, I appeared suddenly lifted on to higher ground. There is no part of this translation in which I am not indebted to them, though I have in most places largely added, so that my translation is readable, where theirs is...
Page 51 - Dersuu and Mersua certainly mean something : yet Messrs. AK do not help us to guess what they can mean. They have no counter theory. "What is to be said against this obvious hypothesis, started (I learn from them) by Grotefend? 1. That we already have Destro for right, and Nertru for left. This is as though we refused to believe ķt{iój to mean right, and ipuntpos left, because ætt'Ttpos is right, and left.
Page xiii - ... will allow this to be adequate proof. Every such new acquisition strengthens us for fresh enterprise ; and side by side, we discover and develop laws of grammar. In my view, etymology (by which I here mean, recourse to other languages than Latin) is unsafe as a guide to the sense, but very valuable as a confirmation. I think we must generally employ first a process similar to that by which a child learns constantly to add to his knowledge of his native tongue : it is fundamentally a process of...
Page ix - ... Tergo in one direction, and Dorso in another. But this is only thrown out for inquiry. In a few cases I have wished to print z in the Roman tables, where, of course, the inscription has s ; yet thought it not worth while to provoke criticism. The Umbrian language, especially when written in Etruscan, shows a dislike to syllables that begin with a vowel, at least in the root-part of a word. To avoid it, they often have the consonant w, or a consonantal i (j = y) in excess of the Roman spelling...
Page 4 - Profanato, as Porricito, has a twofold appln. in Latin. Either of the two (or Communicate) is prima facie admissible. If Divide mean Dwi-de, "put in two," Purdowitu is close to pro-dividito ; possibly even should have tt, as meaning Purdowid-tu. (See Purdopite IV. 14). When a ceremony is ended, it is said to become Purdito, profanum. 34. In the...
Page v - Moreover Greek v being superfluous to Italy, o might (as probably in early Greek) do duty for Italian o and u. In that case evidently the defect of writing would not point to an unusual deficiency of sounds in the Italian language, but simply to a want of agreement between Italian sounds and those of the Greek alphabet. In like manner, the unsuitability of the Oriental alphabet is manifestly the cause of that phenomenon, which we see in Umbrian and Etruscan alike ; and what makes this interpretation...