Tyrsenian languages
hypothetical language family
Tyrsenian (also Tyrrhenian or Common Tyrrhenic) is a language family of closely related extinct ancient languages, proposed by linguist Helmut Rix in 1998, that has gained acceptance in scholarship. It is named after the Tyrrhenians (Ancient Greek, Ionic: Τυρσηνοί Tyrsenoi), an exonym used by the ancient Greeks to refer to the Etruscans.
The family would consist of the Etruscan language of northern, central and south-western Italy, and eastern Corsica; the Raetic language of the Alps, in northern Italy and Austria, named after the Rhaetian people; and the Lemnian language attested in Lemnos in the northern Aegean Sea. Camunic in northern Lombardy, between Etruscan and Raetic, may belong to the family as well, but evidence of such is limited. The Tyrsenian languages are Pre-Indo-European languages, and more specifically Paleo-European.
Classification
In 1998 the German linguist Helmut Rix proposed that three then unclassified ancient languages belonged to a common linguistic family he called Tyrrhenian: the Etruscan language spoken in Etruria, the Raetic language of the Eastern Alps, and the Lemnian language, only attested by a small number of inscriptions from the Greek island of Lemnos in the Aegean Sea.
Rix's Tyrsenian family is supported by a number of linguists such as Stefan Schumacher, Carlo De Simone, Norbert Oettinger, Simona Marchesini, and Rex E. Wallace. Common features among Etruscan, Raetic, Lemnian have been found in morphology, phonology, and syntax. On the other hand, few lexical correspondences are documented, at least partly due to the scant number of Raetic and Lemnian texts and possibly also to the early date at which the languages split.
History
Origin
Tyrsenian was probably a Paleo-European language family predating the arrival of Indo-European languages in Europe.
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