Books by Luca Rigobianco
5 Giustappongo all'etichetta 'metodo etimologico' l'indice 1 per distinguerlo da un 'metodo etimo... more 5 Giustappongo all'etichetta 'metodo etimologico' l'indice 1 per distinguerlo da un 'metodo etimologico 2 ', per cui rimando oltre ( § 1.1.1.1). 6 Sul concetto di 'koinè italica ' v. oltre, n. 345. c o p i a a u t o r e 13 Per una grammatica della lingua etrusca. Generalia sen (1874). 7 Poco più di cinquant'anni dopo Trombetti condensa nella prefazione al volume La lingua etrusca (1928) le critiche al 'metodo combinatorio': «Tale metodo ha dato quel poco che poteva dare, e bisogna confessare che esso è ormai esaurito. Già lo Skutsch riconosceva che «malgrado i nuovi materiali, le possibilità combinatorie, per lo meno le più facili, sono esaurite» e che «col materiale odierno difficilmente si potranno ottenere altri sicuri risultati col metodo delle combinazioni», il quale «non sempre è facile, e spesso non ci dà che una sicurezza relativa». Da parte sua Alf Torp osservava: «Die genaue Bedeutung eines Wortes lässt sich selten durch Vergleich der Belegstellen festsstellen. Im besten Fallen gelangt man gewöhnlich nur an einen Begriff von sehr weitem Umfange» (Etr. Beiträge I, IV). A ciò si aggiunge che, secondo il medesimo etruscologo, «die sakrale Sprache» del testo della Mummia «sich im festen und sehr knappen, durch uralte Ueberlieferung herkömmlichen und deshalb trotz aller Knappheit und Mehrdeutigkeit des Ausdruckes dem Eingeweihten sehr wohl verständlichen Wendungen bewegte» (Lemnos, 58). Credo che col solo metodo combinatorio l'interpretazione -ove non si accrescano di numero e d'importanza i testi (non occorrono bilingui) -non potrebbe riuscire completamente neppure nell'anno ventimila. Bisogna dunque cercare qualche altro ausilio.» 8 20 Su numerus, genus e sexus 20 wissenschaftlichen und legitimen Weg zur Bedeutungsbestimmung» 40 se non il 'metodo combinatorio'. 41 Secondo Pfiffig i tentativi di descrizione in termini strutturali dell'etrusco si limiterebbero all'applicazione di una terminologia di impronta saussuriana e praghese a un'operazione identificabile con il 'metodo combinatorio' stesso. Nello specifico Pfiffig rifiuta l'analisi fone(ma)tica (su base grafematica) di De Simone e, segnatamente, tenta di dimostrare l'insussistenza di un'opposizione di diatesi tra i morfemi di preterito -ce : -χe, 42 ipotizzando che c e χ non notino due fonemi distinti bensì due varianti posizionali del medesimo fonema.
Papers by Luca Rigobianco
Fragments of Languages. From "Restsprachen" to Contemporary Endangered Languages, 2024
The label 'fragmentary languages' is generally referred to ancient, long-dead languages whose rec... more The label 'fragmentary languages' is generally referred to ancient, long-dead languages whose records are very scanty and often repetitive, thus preventing modern scholars from reaching a satisfying comprehension of their grammar and lexicon. In the tradition of German historical linguistics, these languages are known as 'Restsprachen' , since their few attestations are interpreted as 'rests' of complete linguistic systems, now irretrievably lost in their global functioning. From this perspective, fragmentariness is a characteristic not of the languages themselves, but of the limited corpora of their records, mostly consisting of short inscriptions and/or place and person names, as well as loanwords in other languages (§1.2). As a result, languages of peoples once widespread in several regions of Europe, such as Etruscan, Gaulish, and Iberian, are fragmentary only in the sense of 'fragmentarily documented'. Their incomplete state is the effect of historical accidents, not of their structures and functions, which, at the synchronic phase of their documentation, must have been as fully developed as the ones of any other 'non-fragmentary' language, both extinct and alive. [...]
K. Lindén, T. Kontino, J. Niemi (a cura di), Selected papers from the CLARIN Annual Conference 2023, Linköping Electronic Conference Proceedings, 2024
This contribution illustrates how the definition of a Domain-Specific Language can support the ac... more This contribution illustrates how the definition of a Domain-Specific Language can support the activities of epigraphists and historical linguists. It presents and discusses a method and technological solution, based on Domain-Specific Languages, for facilitating scholars in digitally representing the available knowledge of archaic languages and cultures. This is achieved by increasing the human readability of the encoded data without sacrificing compliance with standard models and formats. The work is framed within the context of an Italian National collaborative research project devoted to the study of the languages and cultures of ancient Italy. The platform developed within this project offers an interesting use case and motivation for experimenting with Domain-Specific Languages for the creation of necessary digital critical editions of the inscriptions relevant for these languages. After explaining the definition process of the DSL grammar, we finally test the applicability of the DSL grammar to five example inscriptions in the Faliscan language.
T. Roth, E. Dupraz, V. Belfiore (a cura di), Schriftkonventionen in pragmatischer Perspektive, Lettres Orientales et Classiques, 22 Louvain, Peeters, 2023
Journal on Computing and Cultural Heritage, 2023
This article discusses the challenges addressed in the digital scholarly encoding of the fragment... more This article discusses the challenges addressed in the digital scholarly encoding of the fragmentary texts of the languages of Ancient Italy according to the TEI/EpiDoc Guidelines in XML format. It describes the solutions and customisations that have been adopted for dealing with the peculiarities of our epigraphical documentation and with the formalisation of epigraphical information deemed interesting for data retrieval in a historical linguistic perspective. The making of a digital corpus consisting of new critical editions of selected inscriptions is a work carried out in the context of the project “Languages and Cultures of Ancient Italy. Historical Linguistics and Digital Models”, which aims to investigate the languages of Ancient Italy by combining the traditional methods, proper to historical linguistics, with methods and technology proper to the digital humanities and computational lexicography. More specifically, the purpose of the project is to create a set of interrelated digital language resources which comprise: (1) a digital corpus of texts editions; (2) a computational lexicon compliant with the Web Semantic requirements; (3) a relevant bibliographic reference dataset encoded according to the FRBRoo/LRMoo specifications. Additionally, selected textual data and scientific interpretations will be encoded using CIDOC CRM and its extensions, namely CRMtex and CRMinf. The present contribution thus tackles one of the main aspects of the project, and proposes significant innovations in the encoding of critical editions for epigraphic texts of fragmentary languages, which will hopefully foster future interoperability and integration with other external datasets, a paramount concern of the project.
Scienze dell'Antichità, 2022
This paper focuses on the dedicatory inscriptions coming from the Faliscan territory and dating b... more This paper focuses on the dedicatory inscriptions coming from the Faliscan territory and dating back to the period following the destruction of Falerii Veteres by the Romans in 241 BC. Specifically, I will examine the dedications of the ququei (‘cooks’) to the i]nperat{.}oribus summeis (‘high emperors’) and of the Falesce quei in Sardinia sunt (‘Faliscans who are in Sardinia’) to [di]ouei, iunonei, and mineruai (‘Jupiter, Juno, and Minerva’), respectively engraved on the two sides of a bronze plate found in Falerii Novi. After discussing the problem of the relationship between the two texts, I will analyse their main linguistic and cultural aspects, also in comparison with other dedicatory inscriptions of the same period from Latium. Furthermore, I will propose some considerations on the possibility of recognizing in the two dedications, despite their evident Roman character, traces of local models, which are likely to be interpreted as the desire to connect with a disappearing local tradition.
Linguarum Varietas, 2022
This paper focuses on sabellicisms in Latin and Faliscan. Specifically, it aims to establish if a... more This paper focuses on sabellicisms in Latin and Faliscan. Specifically, it aims to establish if and how the possible identification of linguistic interference phenomena from Sabellian languages into Latin and Faliscan can contribute in defining Sabellian languages themselves. Firstly, I present some theoretical and methodological considerations on both the detectability of such phenomena and their use in reconstructing the source languages in the case of Corpus- or Restsprachen. I then analyse two possible sabellicisms in Latin and Faliscan respectively, namely popa and posticnu.
C. Meluzzi, N. Nese, Metodi e prospettive della ricerca linguistica, Consonanze, 29, Milano, Ledizioni, 2022
L'articolo si appunta sugli aspetti teorici e metodologici fondamentali della linguistica delle l... more L'articolo si appunta sugli aspetti teorici e metodologici fondamentali della linguistica delle lingue di attestazione frammentaria – o Restsprachen o meno comunemente Trümmersprachen –, ovverosia le lingue morte restituite da un corpus di testi limitato dal punto di vista quantitativo e/o qualitativo, sostanziandoli con esempi tratti dalle lingue dell’Italia antica.
A. Calderini, R. Massarelli (a cura di), EQO ⋮ DUENOSIO. Studi offerti a Luciano Agostiniani, Perugia, Università degli Studi di Perugia, 2022
Testualità magiche e plurilinguismo. I testi oschi di magia aggressiva nell'ambito occidentale an... more Testualità magiche e plurilinguismo. I testi oschi di magia aggressiva nell'ambito occidentale antico ……………………… 28. Anna Marinetti Annotazioni sull'iscrizione venetica con onomastica celtica da Bologna ………………………………………………………… 29. Vincent Martzloff Sicule epopaska et l'inscription du Mendolito (Adrano): aspects institutionnels et phraséologiques ……………………………… 30. Riccardo Massarelli Osservazioni sui cippi terminali iscritti da Cortona …………… 31. Angelo O. Mercado Rhythm in Some Prayers to Jupiter and Tefer Jovius ………… 32. Marco Montedori Il quton di Uoltenos: appunti per una rilettura ……………… 33. Filippo Motta Due iscrizioni parlanti in Gallia ………………………………… 34. Sergio Neri Alb. gur ‚Stein' und uridg. *g reh2-‚schwer, massiv sein' …… 35. Vincenzo Orioles Per una rivisitazione di Vetter 191. Contributo all'interpretazione della formula onomastica ………………………………………… 36. Paolo Poccetti "Siculo" Reses Anires ………………………………………… 37. Diego Poli Voce e fono-grafi: le scuole di scrittura, il cifrario di Polibio e la latinità ogamica ………………………………………………… Indice 38. Luca Rigobianco La morfonologia del genitivo II in etrusco: *-iala oppure *-la? … 39. Giovanna Rocca Errori grafici volontari, involontari e un possibile caso antico di dislessia (Eronda III) …………………………………………… 40. Domenico Silvestri Antrodoco, Introdacqua e toponimi affini. Indizi per un presumibile nome italico dell'acqua ……………………………… 41. Patrizia Solinas Sulle due iscrizioni in alfabeto leponzio dalla necropoli di Dormelletto ……………………………………………………… 42. Mario Torelli Riflessioni antiquarie e istituzionali sull'aequipondium di Caere …………………………………………………………… 43. Gilles van Heems Les épitaphes "parlantes" d'Étrurie …………………………… 44. Paolo Vitellozzi Amuleti astrologici nel Libro Sacro di Hermes ad Asclepio. Un aspetto della ricezione della tradizione astrologica egiziana nel mondo greco-romano …………………………………………
D. Bertocci, E. Castro, S. Rossi (a cura di), Corgnùi. Studi in onore di Maria Teresa Vigolo, Padova, CLEUP, 2022
In questa nota avanzerò qualche considerazione sulle forme dell’aggettivo latino derivato in -ico... more In questa nota avanzerò qualche considerazione sulle forme dell’aggettivo latino derivato in -ico- da poplo- (> popolo- > populo-) ‘popolo’, ovverosia poplico- e – per incrocio con pūbes – pūblico-, nonché poublico-, poblico-, puplico- ‘pubblico’, e su talune sue continuazioni romanze, nella fattispecie veneto piovego e friulano plovi. Tali continuazioni si distinguono per il vocalismo -o-, che non è l’esito atteso del latino standard pūblicum (> italiano piuvico e pubblico) e viene spiegato comunemente assumendo una forma alternativa con -ŭ- *pŭblicum. La problematicità delle trafile implicate dalle diverse forme latine e romanze si assomma a quella della ricostruzione dei contenuti istituzionali significati da tali forme nei diversi tempi, spazi e società. Pur tenendo conto di ciò, in quanto segue mi limiterò essenzialmente a qualche annotazione relativa agli aspetti formali. In particolare mi appunterò dapprima sulla alternanza pop-, pūb-, poub-, pob-, pup- del latino, con l’obiettivo di delineare quantomeno per sommi capi i processi che ne stanno alla base. L'esame di tale fenomenologia è rilevante per il côté romanzo, in quanto entro di essa potrebbero essere individuate le premesse formali di veneto piovego e friulano plovi. Susseguentemente, dopo una breve presentazione degli esiti romanzi riconducibili alla forma latina pūblicum o comunque a forme correlate ad essa con particolare riferimento all’area italoromanza, focalizzerò l’attenzione per l’appunto sul vocalismo -o- di veneto piovego e friulano plovi e sulle sue possibili ipotesi di spiegazione.
Proceedings of the Second Workshop on Language Technologies for Historical and Ancient Languages, Paris, European Language Resources Association (ELRA), 2002
Available language technology is hardly applicable to scarcely attested ancient languages, yet th... more Available language technology is hardly applicable to scarcely attested ancient languages, yet their digital semantic representation, though challenging, is an asset for the purpose of sharing and preserving existing cultural knowledge. In the context of a project on the languages and cultures of ancient Italy, we took up this challenge. This paper thus describes the development of a user friendly web platform, EpiLexO, for the creation and editing of an integrated system of language resources for ancient fragmentary languages centered on the lexicon, in compliance with current digital humanities and Linked Open Data principles. EpiLexo allows for the editing of lexica with all relevant cross-references: for their linking to their testimonies, as well as to bibliographic information and other (external) resources and common vocabularies. The focus of the current implementation is on the languages of ancient Italy, in particular Oscan, Faliscan, Celtic and Venetic; however, the technological solutions are designed to be general enough to be potentially applicable to different contexts and scenarios.
Archivio Glottologico Italiano, 2021
In questo articolo intendo tentare di ricostruire la storia dei fitonimi greci φέως, ἱππόφεως, ἱπ... more In questo articolo intendo tentare di ricostruire la storia dei fitonimi greci φέως, ἱππόφεως, ἱπποφαές e ἱππόφαιστον. Nello specifico dapprima indagherò la relazione tra tali fitonimi e le piante designate alla luce delle informazioni tradite dalle fonti greche e latine. Successivamente mi appunterò su una possibile etimologia di φέως, ἱππόφεως e ἱππόφαιστον da *bheh2-w- ‘brillare’, nonché su una possibile etimologia alternativa di ἱπποφαές da *gwhen- ‘colpire, uccidere’, che potrebbe spiegarsi come paraetimologia a partire da ἱππόφεως.
This paper deals with the history of the Greek plant names φέως, ἱππόφεως, ἱπποφαές, and ἱππόφαιστον. In particular, the paper aims to reconstruct the relationship between such names and between the plants designated by them in the light of the information conveyed by Greek and Latin sources. Furthermore, a possible etymology of φέως, ἱππόφεως, and ἱππόφαιστον from *bheh2-w- ‘to shine’ is investigated, as well as a possible alternative etymology of ἱπποφαές, which could originate as a folk etymology for ἱππόφεως, from *gwhen- ‘to hit, to kill’.
Scienze dell'Antichità, 2021
This paper deals with the freedmen in the Venetic world, focusing on the ways of expressing such ... more This paper deals with the freedmen in the Venetic world, focusing on the ways of expressing such a status in the inscriptions. Taking also into account some Venetic inscriptions recently found in Montebelluna, it seems possible to distinguish two systems for naming freedmen. Specifically, freedmen appear to be named either by using a second name derived from the patron’s second name with the suffixes -iaio-/-iako- < *-ia-io-/*-ia-ko- or by adding the Latin loanword libertos “freedman” – sometimes variously abbreviated – to the onomastic formula. Despite the fragmentary nature of the evidence, the use of a second name in -iaio/-iako can be considered as the original Venetic system for naming individuals previously not included in society, such as freedmen. Following cultural and linguistic contact with Rome, such a system of naming freedmen seems to have been replaced or accompanied by the Roman system, that is to say by the use of the patron’s second name (gentilicium) and possibly individual name (praenomen), which makes it necessary to add the term libertos for disambiguation.
Mélanges de l’École française de Rome – Antiquité , 2021
In questo lavoro intendo avanzare qualche considerazione linguistica ed ermeneutica sul testo del... more In questo lavoro intendo avanzare qualche considerazione linguistica ed ermeneutica sul testo del Cippo di Perugia e più dettagliatamente sul suo incipit a partire da un riesame delle forme analizzabili come dimostrativi (nominali) (tanna, eśtla, slel). In particolare mi sembra possibile sostenere che l’iscrizione non sia la trascrizione di un patto tra la famiglia dei Velθina e quella degli Afuna – o un Afuna –, come ritenuto comunemente, bensì di un atto in cui le due parti hanno un ruolo asimmetrico. Tale supposizione, fondata sui dati di lingua, avrebbe un riscontro sul piano storico-culturale nei processi che regolerebbero l’acquisizione di proprietà da parte di stranieri nelle città dell’Etruria.
My paper aims to offer some linguistic and interpretative considerations on the text of the Cippus Perusinus and, more in detail, on its incipit, starting from an examination of the forms which can be analysed as (nominal) demonstratives (tanna, eśtla, slel). In particular, it seems possible to argue that the text is not a pact between the Velθina family and the Afuna family – or an Afuna family member –, as commonly assumed. Rather, the text would be an act in which the two parties play an asymmetrical role. Such a hypothesis, based on linguistic data, agrees with historical considerations on the processes which regulated the acquisition of property by foreigners in the Etruscan cities.
Palaeohispanica, 2020
L'articolo è dedicato al falisco, una varietà indoeuropea appartenente al filone italico e affine... more L'articolo è dedicato al falisco, una varietà indoeuropea appartenente al filone italico e affine al latino attestata da circa 300 iscrizioni provenienti dall'agro falisco nel Lazio e datate dal VII al II secolo a.C. Nello specifico nella prima parte dell'articolo si offre un quadro di carattere generale relativo alla lingua e alla epigrafia falische aggiornato alla luce di una revisione della documentazione e degli studi sull'argomento. Nella seconda parte dell'articolo si prendono in considerazione taluni problemi e prospettive di carattere editoriale e linguistico con particolare attenzione rispettivamente alla iscrizione 'di Cerere' e alle iscrizioni capenati.
Parole chiave: lingua falisca; epigrafia falisca; alfabeto falisco; iscrizione 'di Cerere'; iscrizioni capenati.
The paper is devoted to Faliscan, an Indo-European language, belonging to the Italic branch and closely related to Latin, attested by approximately 300 inscriptions, coming from the ager Faliscus ('Faliscan territory') in Lazio and dating from the 7th to the 2nd century BC. Specifically, the first part of the paper offers an overview of Faliscan epigraphy and language, updated in light of a review of the documents and studies on this topic. In the second part of the article, editorial and linguistic issues and perspectives are taken into consideration, with particular attention to the 'Ceres-inscription' and the Capenate inscriptions, respectively.
Keywords: Faliscan language; Faliscan epigraphy; Faliscan alphabet; ‘Ceres-inscription’; Capenate inscriptions
AIΩN, 2019
In questo articolo affronto la questione della origine della uscita di genitivo singolare dei tem... more In questo articolo affronto la questione della origine della uscita di genitivo singolare dei temi in -o- in celtiberico. Al proposito avanzo l’ipotesi di una origine di tale uscita da una modalità di espressione del caso genitivo attraverso una configurazione sintattica associata a una realizzazione morfologica nulla in accordo a una fenomenologia attestata in altre varietà indoeuropee e non indoeuropee.
Parole chiave: Genitivo; indoeuropeo; temi in -o-; celtiberico; miceneo
This paper addresses the question of the origin of the o-stem genitive singular ending in Celtiberian. In this regard, I aim to demonstrate that this ending originated from a syntactic configuration for expressing genitive with no morphological realisation, which is attested elsewhere in Indo-European and non-Indo-European languages.
Keywords: genitive; Proto-Indo-European; o-stems; Celtiberian; Mycenaean
N. Holmes, M. Ottink, J. Schrickx (a cura di), Lemmata Linguistica Latina. Volume I: Words and Sounds, Berlin-Boston, Walter de Gruyter, 2019
The aim of this chapter is to propose an etymology of the Latin word dubenus, attested only in Pa... more The aim of this chapter is to propose an etymology of the Latin word dubenus, attested only in Paulus’ epitome of Festus as an archaic word meaning ‘dominus’. After showing the genuineness of the tradition, I intend to account for such a gloss from a linguistic point of view. Abstractly, dubenus can be analysed as a noun or a substantive adjective derived with the suffix -ēno- from a base *dubo-, nomen actionis in -bo- < *-bho- or in -mo- < *-mo- (with subsequent dissimilation of -m- to -b-) from the base du- < *deH3w- ‘to give’. As an alternative, dubenus can be a writing error for duhenus, i.e. duenos ‘bonus’ (< *deH3w-eno-) with h as a marker of hiatus and -us for -os as a normalized ending. In both cases, dubenus/duhenus would mean ‘dominus’ in relation to the notion of giving (*dubeno- ‘the one of the giving’, *dueno- ‘provided with gifts’), in accordance with a semantic evolution which can be suitably framed from a historical perspective. Specifically, it is possible to hypothesize that, in early Roman society, the dominus was the one who gave (and received) gifts in order to maintain both social relationships existing with his peers and hierarchies within society. More generally, dubenus/duhenus ‘dominus’ could be considered as a linguistic relic of an Indo-European ideological system in which, as shown by Benveniste, social status was determined by the exchange of gifts through a practice similar to the potlatch.
Mediterranea, 2017
This paper proposes some general methodological considerations regarding the grammatical descript... more This paper proposes some general methodological considerations regarding the grammatical description of Etruscan and, on the basis of these considerations, analyses the nominal derivational morphology in archaic Etruscan. Specific focus is upon the absence in the nominal derivational morphemes of prehistoric apocope (for example, latiθe < *lati(V)-θe instead of **latiθ), which is otherwise usually found in the absolutive case of lexical stems (for example, seχ < *seχi) and in the inflectional morphemes (for example, velus < *velu-si). Such a phenomenon, only partially recognized in the past, is usually explained through a paradigmatic pressure of the oblique cases – where the stem-final vowel is not deleted because of the following inflectional morphemes – on the absolutive case. The hypothesis here is that this phenomenon is prosodically grounded. More specifically, it is proposed that Etruscan nominal derivational morphemes are inherently stressed, at least in the protohistoric period, according to a typologically plausible stress system.
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Books by Luca Rigobianco
Papers by Luca Rigobianco
This paper deals with the history of the Greek plant names φέως, ἱππόφεως, ἱπποφαές, and ἱππόφαιστον. In particular, the paper aims to reconstruct the relationship between such names and between the plants designated by them in the light of the information conveyed by Greek and Latin sources. Furthermore, a possible etymology of φέως, ἱππόφεως, and ἱππόφαιστον from *bheh2-w- ‘to shine’ is investigated, as well as a possible alternative etymology of ἱπποφαές, which could originate as a folk etymology for ἱππόφεως, from *gwhen- ‘to hit, to kill’.
My paper aims to offer some linguistic and interpretative considerations on the text of the Cippus Perusinus and, more in detail, on its incipit, starting from an examination of the forms which can be analysed as (nominal) demonstratives (tanna, eśtla, slel). In particular, it seems possible to argue that the text is not a pact between the Velθina family and the Afuna family – or an Afuna family member –, as commonly assumed. Rather, the text would be an act in which the two parties play an asymmetrical role. Such a hypothesis, based on linguistic data, agrees with historical considerations on the processes which regulated the acquisition of property by foreigners in the Etruscan cities.
Parole chiave: lingua falisca; epigrafia falisca; alfabeto falisco; iscrizione 'di Cerere'; iscrizioni capenati.
The paper is devoted to Faliscan, an Indo-European language, belonging to the Italic branch and closely related to Latin, attested by approximately 300 inscriptions, coming from the ager Faliscus ('Faliscan territory') in Lazio and dating from the 7th to the 2nd century BC. Specifically, the first part of the paper offers an overview of Faliscan epigraphy and language, updated in light of a review of the documents and studies on this topic. In the second part of the article, editorial and linguistic issues and perspectives are taken into consideration, with particular attention to the 'Ceres-inscription' and the Capenate inscriptions, respectively.
Keywords: Faliscan language; Faliscan epigraphy; Faliscan alphabet; ‘Ceres-inscription’; Capenate inscriptions
Parole chiave: Genitivo; indoeuropeo; temi in -o-; celtiberico; miceneo
This paper addresses the question of the origin of the o-stem genitive singular ending in Celtiberian. In this regard, I aim to demonstrate that this ending originated from a syntactic configuration for expressing genitive with no morphological realisation, which is attested elsewhere in Indo-European and non-Indo-European languages.
Keywords: genitive; Proto-Indo-European; o-stems; Celtiberian; Mycenaean
This paper deals with the history of the Greek plant names φέως, ἱππόφεως, ἱπποφαές, and ἱππόφαιστον. In particular, the paper aims to reconstruct the relationship between such names and between the plants designated by them in the light of the information conveyed by Greek and Latin sources. Furthermore, a possible etymology of φέως, ἱππόφεως, and ἱππόφαιστον from *bheh2-w- ‘to shine’ is investigated, as well as a possible alternative etymology of ἱπποφαές, which could originate as a folk etymology for ἱππόφεως, from *gwhen- ‘to hit, to kill’.
My paper aims to offer some linguistic and interpretative considerations on the text of the Cippus Perusinus and, more in detail, on its incipit, starting from an examination of the forms which can be analysed as (nominal) demonstratives (tanna, eśtla, slel). In particular, it seems possible to argue that the text is not a pact between the Velθina family and the Afuna family – or an Afuna family member –, as commonly assumed. Rather, the text would be an act in which the two parties play an asymmetrical role. Such a hypothesis, based on linguistic data, agrees with historical considerations on the processes which regulated the acquisition of property by foreigners in the Etruscan cities.
Parole chiave: lingua falisca; epigrafia falisca; alfabeto falisco; iscrizione 'di Cerere'; iscrizioni capenati.
The paper is devoted to Faliscan, an Indo-European language, belonging to the Italic branch and closely related to Latin, attested by approximately 300 inscriptions, coming from the ager Faliscus ('Faliscan territory') in Lazio and dating from the 7th to the 2nd century BC. Specifically, the first part of the paper offers an overview of Faliscan epigraphy and language, updated in light of a review of the documents and studies on this topic. In the second part of the article, editorial and linguistic issues and perspectives are taken into consideration, with particular attention to the 'Ceres-inscription' and the Capenate inscriptions, respectively.
Keywords: Faliscan language; Faliscan epigraphy; Faliscan alphabet; ‘Ceres-inscription’; Capenate inscriptions
Parole chiave: Genitivo; indoeuropeo; temi in -o-; celtiberico; miceneo
This paper addresses the question of the origin of the o-stem genitive singular ending in Celtiberian. In this regard, I aim to demonstrate that this ending originated from a syntactic configuration for expressing genitive with no morphological realisation, which is attested elsewhere in Indo-European and non-Indo-European languages.
Keywords: genitive; Proto-Indo-European; o-stems; Celtiberian; Mycenaean
La tesi è articolata in tre capitoli. Il primo capitolo inizia con una sezione di carattere storiografico, in cui ho presentato un excursus delle riflessioni grammaticali sulla lingua etrusca; nello specifico ho ripreso e sviluppato un’ipotesi già avanzata da Prosdocimi (1985), secondo la quale il 1984 può essere assunto –pur con tutti i caveat sottesi a ogni periodizzazione- come anno di irruzione di nuovo paradigma (della grammatica) nell’ambito degli studi etruscologici: sono stati passati in rassegna gli studi sulla lingua etrusca degli ultimi venticinque anni, così da sondare, per quanto possibile, se e quanta sia stata l’influenza del nuovo paradigma individuato. Nella seconda sezione ho tentato di delineare alcuni fondamenti per una grammatica (= descrizione grammaticale) della lingua etrusca, tarando il modo di operare questa descrizione (al di là di generalia comunque validi) sull’oggetto, in conformità alla sua natura di lingua storica giunta a noi come Restsprache, testimoniata perlopiù da iscrizioni brevi e ripetitive, e per cui non sono evidenti affinità linguistiche se non con le varietà retica e lemnia.
Il secondo capitolo, strettamente linguistico, è dedicato al sintagma nominale in etrusco, in particolare alla morfologia di plurale e di femminile. Per quanto riguarda la morfologia di plurale ho tentato di rendere conto dei dati che paiono scostarsi dalla generalizzazione di Agostiniani (1992, 1993) secondo la quale il plurale sarebbe espresso da due morf(em)i, l’uno dedicato alla classe dei sostantivi animati, l’altro dedicato alla classe dei sostantivi inanimati. Nella seconda parte ho tentato invece di inquadrare l’ipotesi vulgata di una origine da (una varietà di) indoeuropeo dei morfemi di femminile –i, -ia (< i.e. *-j(e/o)H2(-)), sviluppando un tema che credo capitale per l’etrusco (e il suo ‘farsi’) e importante per il (pre)latino e il (pre)italico per la vastità delle sue implicazioni.
Nell’ultima sezione sono state offerte alcune considerazioni di massima sulla vexata quaestio delle affinità linguistiche dell’etrusco, alla luce di quanto è emerso nelle sezioni dedicate alla morfologia di plurale e di femminile.
The aim of this work is to provide a sample of Etruscan grammar.
The work is divided into three chapters. The first chapter begins with a historiographic section, in which I will present an excursus of the grammatical researches on Etruscan language; specifically, I will assume and develop the hypothesis (put forward by PROSDOCIMI 1985), according to which the year 1984 represents the introduction of a new theoretical and methodological paradigm. I will review all the studies on Etruscan language appeared over the past 25 years, in order to probe the influence of the new paradigm. Moreover, in the second section I will try to outline some considerations regarding the grammar (grammatical description) of the Etruscan language, taking into account the nature of Etruscan as Restsprache, known from short and repetitive inscriptions and without evident linguistic affinities with other varieties (except for Rethic and Lemnian).
In the second chapter I will deal with the noun phrase in Etruscan, in particular with the number and gender morphology. With regards to the plural morphology, I will endeavour to account for the data which appear not to match the generalization, according to which the plural was formed by means of two morphemes (*-r(a-) and *-(K)wa(-)), the former for animate nouns and the latter for inanimate (AGOSTINIANI 1992, 1993). Then, I will examine the question of the indoeuropean etymology of the Etruscan feminine morphemes –i, -ia (< i.e. *-j(e/o)H2(-)), since I think it is an extremely important topic for both Etruscan and Italic languages.
Finally, the third chapter is dedicated to the vexata quaestio of the linguistic relationship between Etruscan and other varieties: because of the breadth and the depth of the problem, I will confine myself to offering a brief account based on what the second chapter has brought out.
The project will investigate the cultures of ancient Italy on the basis of their linguistic documentation, only consisting in epigraphic evidence, by means of computational tools specifically developed for this purpose.
Poster presented at Epigraphy.info Workshop V (Leuven, November 3rd-6th, 2020)