Lemnian language

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Location of Lemnos.
Location of Lemnos.

The Lemnian language is a language of the 6th century BC spoken on the island of Lemnos. It is mainly attested by an inscription found on a funerary stele, termed the Lemnos stele, discovered in 1885 near Kaminia. However, fragments of inscriptions on local pottery show that it was spoken there by a community.[1] Lemnian is academically accepted as being closely related to Etruscan. After the Athenians conquered the island in the latter half of that century, Lemnian was replaced by Attic Greek.

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[edit] Writing system

The inscriptions are in an alphabet similar to that used to write the Etruscan language and the older Phrygian inscriptions, all derived from Euboean scripts (Western Greek alphabet, alphabets of Asia Minor). These scripts are ultimately of West Semitic origin and were adapted by various peoples from before the 8th century BC.

[edit] Classification

A relationship between Lemnian, Etruscan and Raetian, sometimes grouped together as the Tyrsenian language group, is largely accepted because of the strong connections between vocabulary and grammar. For example,

  • both Etruscan and Lemnian share two unique dative cases, masculine *-si and feminine-collective *-ale, shown both on the Lemnos Stele (Hulaie-ši "for Hulaie", Φukiasi-ale "for the Phocaean") and in inscriptions written in Etruscan (aule-si "To Aule" on the Cippus Perusinus as well as the inscription mi mulu Laris-ale Velχaina-si "I was blessed for Laris Velchaina").
  • They also share the masculine genitive in *-s and a simple past tense in *-a-i (Etruscan <-e> as in ame "was" (< *amai); Lemnian <-ai> as in šivai "lived").


[edit] Vowels

Like Etruscan, the Lemnian language appears to have had a four-vowel system consisting of "i", "u", "a" and "e". Having a contrast between front and back vowels, it would appear to lack a high back vowel (a "u"-like sound) which is curious because this defies the linguistic universal of contrast maximization. Since vowel systems such as these without "u" are rare, it is strongly likely that what we transliterate as "o" from the symbol omikron was in fact meant to record a high, back, rounded vowel instead (written in IPA as /u/). This is not unusual considering that different languages may take the same letter to transcribe different sounds. It is rather coincidental that the languages neighbouring this region, namely Hittite and Akkadian, also happen to have the same four-vowel systems lacking "o". This suggests early areal influence.


[edit] The Lemnos stele

The stele was found built into a church wall in Kaminia and is now at the National Archaeological Museum of Athens. The 6th century date is based on the fact that in 510 BC the Athenian Miltiades invaded Lemnos and Hellenized it. The stele bears a low-relief bust of a helmeted man and is inscribed in an alphabet similar to the western ("Chalcidian") Greek alphabet. The inscription is in Boustrophedon style, and has been transliterated but had not been successfully translated until serious linguistic analysis based on comparisons with Etruscan, combined with breakthroughs in Etruscan's own translation started to yield fruit.

The inscription consists of 198 characters forming 33 to 40 words, word separation sometimes indicated with one to three dots. The text consists of three parts, two written vertically and one horizontally. Comprehensible is the phrase avis sialchvis ("aged sixty", B.3), reminiscent of Etruscan avils maχs śealχisc ("and aged sixty-five").

Transcription:

front:
A.1. hulaieš:naφuθ:šiaši
A.2. maraš:mav
A.3. sialχveiš:aviš
A.4. evisθu:šerunaiθ
A.5. šivai
A.6. aker:tavaršiu
A.7. vanalasial:šerunai:murinaic
side:
B.1. hulaieši:φukiasiale:šerunaiθ:evisθu:tuveruna
B.2. rum:haraliu:šivai:eptešiu:arai:tiš:φuke
B.3. šivai:aviš:sialχviš:marašm:aviš:aumai

[edit] Translation of the Lemnos Stele

In order to properly translate the stele, one must sift through a sea of hearsay and speculation that abounds about this cloudy text. Some words attract an especially inordinate amount of controversy, yielding multiple and conflicting translations for the same word. We need to obtain a more accurate picture of what this text is telling us. The only way to do this is through a balanced analysis of the smallest details while keeping sight of the larger context at the same time.

[edit] Is <mav> a numeral?

One debated word is <mav>. The word is seen in A.2 and assumed by some to be part of a phrase <mav sialχveiš> identifying the age of a deceased person with further comparison to Etruscan . Thus <mav> is often translated as "five" with resemblance to Etruscan <maχ> 'five' and <muvalχ> 'fifty'. However this is probably incorrect because the age is repeated twice in the text, once on line A.3 and another on B.3 where <mav> is nowhere to be seen. Some claim that <marašm> must be a scribal error for *mavašm. However, this is unlikely because it occurs twice (<maraš> on line A.2). Whatever the value of <mav> really is, it is most likely not a number.

[edit] The value of <šivai>

Most have already seen that <šivai aviš sialχviš> is surely related to well-attested phrases in Etruscan, most notably <zivas avils LXXVI> 'lived 76 years' (inscription known as TLE 880). Since <ziv-> is without a doubt 'to die' in Etruscan, there is strong likelihood that Lemnian šivai means 'died' and thus the person to whom this stele is dedicated had died at the age of 60. But who then was this person?

[edit] The name of the person to whom this was dedicated

As one would expect, the person being celebrated is very likely at the beginning of the text on A.1 (<hulaieš>) with a genitive suffix -š attached, meaning 'of' as it does in Etruscan. The name is repeated again at the very beginning of line B.1 (<hulaieši>) with a dative suffix -ši meaning "to" or "for", which is again comparable to Etruscan <-si>. Immediately after we find <φukiasiale> with another recognizable dative suffix from Etruscan, -ale. Thus the name of the person deceased is most likely Hulaie Phukiasi. Both the first and last names are given the dative suffix on line B.2. This may seem odd to English speakers, but this is the pattern we see also in Etruscan -- <mi laris-al meminiie-s> means 'I am of Laris Meminiie', not 'I am of Laris of Meminiie', written on a cup in Campania (ETP 30). So this last name on the stele is then further compared with <φuke> (line B.2) presumed to mean Phocaea, an important region in Asia Minor in those times. This suggests that he was Phocaean, and thus called literally Hulaie the Phocaean.

[edit] Suffixes <-m> & <-c>

The comparison between the instances of both <marašm> and <maraš> helps us to properly identify a suffix -m which when compared to Etruscan is the phrasal conjunctive meaning 'and'. A phrasal conjunctive is a suffix used specifically to link two sentences together. An example of phrasal conjunction is "I went to school and I listened to the teacher". In Etruscan, phrasal conjunction is distinguished from nominal conjunction (eg: <apa-c ati-c> "both the father and the mother", Pillar of the tomb of Claudii in Cerveteri, 4th c.BCE) where two nouns, not two phrases, are linked with another suffix, <-c>. Surprisingly, we see that in Lemnian -c may indeed be also used as a second conjunction suffix (note line A.7 <murinai-c>)

[edit] Is Hulaie's age "60" or "40"?

Another important controversy involves the value of <sialχveiš> itself. Some say it's 'of 60'; some say it's 'of 40'. This confusion stems from the interpretation, or rather misinterpretation, of the Tuscania dice, an important Etruscan find. On the dice we find the numbers '1' to '6' just as we find on modern dice, except they have been kindly written out in letters for us by the person who made them long ago. Many presume that the pattern of the numbers as they are arranged on the six sides of the dice is such that the value for each side when added to the value on the opposite side equals seven. See Etruscan numerals for further information on this debate.

Assuming this pattern is real for a moment, if we find <ša> on one side and <ci> on the other, and if we are certain from other texts that <ci> is "three", then <ša> must be "four" since 3 + 4 = 7. Unfortunately, these are only assumptions based on even more assumptions. Other Etruscan dice have been found which do not show the same pattern. We can't assume. For all we know the Tuscania dice could in fact show another equally valid pattern: Maybe all the sides when subtracted give three (eg: <ša> "six" minus <ci> "three" perhaps).

Also, based on the first pattern, if <ša> is really "four", <huθ> must be "six" but it is known that the pre-Greek name of Tetrapolis (meaning 'Four-cities' in Greek) was <Υττηνια> "Yttenia", thought to be a Tyrrhenian name containing the numeral <huθ> and dating to a time when Etruscans were still in Asia Minor and the Aegean islands (nb. Herodotus' account in Histories). Thus some insist the opposite, that <huθ> means "four" and <ša> means "six". Which value should we give this number?

Some common sense is in order by directing our attention to the phrase <hulaieš naφuθ>. Since Etruscan <neftš> is known to mean 'grandson', it stands to reason that Hulaie is a grandfather. If he were truly '40', we can't explain the mention of his grandson here who is surely old enough to have participated in the funeral to have special mention! Further while there was much hardship in ancient times, nobility were known to live much longer than common folk. Forty would still be a little young for someone with enough money to erect a stele with his name on it.

So in all, it's more likely that Hulaie was in fact sixty at the time of his death, meaning that <sialχveiš> has the value of 'of 60' and that Etruscan <ša> must mean "six".

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ Bonfante, page 11.

[edit] References

  • Bonfante, Larissa (1990). Etruscan. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press. ISBN 0-520-07118-2.  Part of this book are displayed online at [1].
  • Steinbauer, Dieter H. (1999). Neues Handbuch des Etruskischen. St. Katharinen: Scripta Mercaturae Verlag. 

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