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Etruscan was an ancient language spoken in central Italy (modern-day Tuscany) by the Etruscan civilization before the Romans rose to power. It matters because studying it helps historians understand pre-Roman Italian culture and societies that influenced early Rome, though much about the language and civilization remains mysterious since most Etruscan texts are short inscriptions.
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Etruscan (/ɪˈtrʌskən/ ih-TRUSK-ən) was the language of the Etruscan civilization in the ancient region of Etruria, in Etruria Padana and Etruria Campana in what is now Italy. Etruscan influenced Latin but was eventually superseded by it. Around 13,000 Etruscan inscriptions have been found so far, only a small minority of which are of significant length; some bilingual inscriptions with texts also in Latin, Greek, or Phoenician; and a few dozen purported loanwords. Attested from 700 BC to 50 AD, the relation of Etruscan to other languages has been a source of long-running speculation and study. Nowadays, it is generally agreed to be in the Tyrrhenian language family, but previously, it was commonly treated as an isolate, although there were also a number of other less well-known hypotheses.
The consensus among linguists and Etruscologists is that Etruscan was a Pre-Indo-European and Paleo-European language, closely related to the Raetic language that was spoken in the Alps, and to the Lemnian language, attested in a few inscriptions on Lemnos.
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Etruscan languageExtinct languages of EuropeIll-formatted infobox-language imagesLanguage articles with Linglist codeLanguage articles with unreferenced extinction dateLanguages attested from the 7th century BCLanguages extinct in the 1st century BCLanguages of ancient ItalyPre-Indo-European languagesTyrsenian languages