Etruscan language

High school (ages 12+)
History & Culture

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Date:

Step 1 · Read the article

Open the article and read it at the level above. Then answer the questions below in your own words.

https://smallwhale.org/articles/etruscan-language

Write what each word means, using the article.

Do not copy the article. Write two things you learned, the way you would explain them to a friend.

Answers below are taken from the article’s stored facts, so they match what the student read.

1. What is the primary geographic and temporal context?Etruria and associated regions, approximately 700 BC to 50 AD
2. What is the linguistic family consensus?Tyrsenian family, with proposed relatives Raetic and Lemnian
3. When did people speak Etruscan?They spoke it from about 700 BC until around 50 AD.
4. How do we know about Etruscan words?We find about 13,000 short inscriptions on stone and metal, and a few longer ones that help us learn its words.

Epigraphy: The study of inscriptions on stone, clay, or other hard surfaces.
Pre-Indo-European: Languages spoken in Europe before the arrival and spread of Indo-European languages.
Combinatory method: A linguistic technique for decipherment based on analyzing word patterns and frequencies.
Phonemic contrast: A difference in sound that distinguishes one word from another.