The
Etruscan numerals were used by the ancient
EtruscanEtruscan civilization is the modern English name given to the culture and way of life of a people of ancient Italy and Corsica, residing between the Apennines and the River Tiber, whom the ancient Romans called Etrusci or Tusci...
s. The system was adapted from the Greek
Attic numeralsAttic numerals were used by the ancient Greeks, possibly from the 7th century BC. They were also known as Herodianic numerals because they were first described in a 2nd century manuscript by Herodian...
and formed the inspiration for the later
Roman numeralsRoman numerals are a numeral system of ancient Rome based on letters of the alphabet, which are combined to signify the sum of their values. The first ten Roman numerals are:...
.
(* approximate shape of the symbols, because these are not included in the standard set available on the computer. In addition, a second shape used for 100 is an X with a vertical line going through its center - the symbol for 50 is the bottom half of it)
There is very little surviving evidence of these numerals.
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The
Etruscan numerals were used by the ancient
EtruscanEtruscan civilization is the modern English name given to the culture and way of life of a people of ancient Italy and Corsica, residing between the Apennines and the River Tiber, whom the ancient Romans called Etrusci or Tusci...
s. The system was adapted from the Greek
Attic numeralsAttic numerals were used by the ancient Greeks, possibly from the 7th century BC. They were also known as Herodianic numerals because they were first described in a 2nd century manuscript by Herodian...
and formed the inspiration for the later
Roman numeralsRoman numerals are a numeral system of ancient Rome based on letters of the alphabet, which are combined to signify the sum of their values. The first ten Roman numerals are:...
.
| Etruscan |
Decimal |
Symbol * |
| θu |
1{| class="infobox" style="width: 20em;"|-! colspan="2" align="center" style="font: 10em times; background:#ccc;" | 1|-| colspan="2" | |-| Cardinal| 1 one|-| Ordinal| 1st first|-| Numeral system| unary|-| Factorization| |-...
|
I |
| maχ |
5 {| class="infobox" style="width: 20em;"|-! colspan="2" align="center" style="font: 10em times; background:#ccc;" | 5|-| colspan="2" | |-| Cardinal| 5
five|-| Ordinal| 5th
fifth|-| Numeral system| quinary|-| Factorization| prime|-| Divisors...
|
Λ |
| śar |
10 10 is an even natural number following 9 and preceding 11.-In mathematics:Ten is a composite number, its proper divisors being , and...
|
X |
| muvalχ |
50 This article discusses the number fifty. For the year 50 CE, see 50. For other uses of 50, see 50 50 is the natural number following 49 and preceding 51.-In mathematics:...
|
|
| ? |
100 100 is the natural number following 99 and preceding 101.- In mathematics :One hundred is the square of 10...
|
C or Ж |
(* approximate shape of the symbols, because these are not included in the standard set available on the computer. In addition, a second shape used for 100 is an X with a vertical line going through its center - the symbol for 50 is the bottom half of it)
There is very little surviving evidence of these numerals. Examples are known of the symbols for larger numbers, but it is unknown which symbol represents which number.
Thanks to the numbers written out on the Tuscania dice, there is agreement about the fact that
zal,
ci,
huθ and
śa are the numbers up to 6 (besides 1 and 5). The assignment depends on the answer to the question whether the numbers on opposite faces on Etruscan dice add up to seven, like nowadays. It is a fact that some dice found don't show this proposed pattern.
An interesting aspect of the Etruscan
numeral systemA numeral system is a writing system for expressing numbers, that is a mathematical notation for representing numbers of a given set, using graphemes or symbols in a consistent manner....
is that some numbers, as in the Roman system, are represented as partial subtractions. So "17" is not written *semφ-śar as users of the
Arabic numeralsThe Arabic numerals are the ten digits . They are descended from Indian numerals and the Hindu-Arabic numeral system developed by Indian mathematicians, by which a sequence of digits such as "975" is read as a whole number...
might reason. We instead find
-- literally, "three away from twenty". The numbers 17, 18 and 19 are all written in this way.
The general consensus
Despite the continuing debate specifically about which of huθ and śa are "four" and "six", the general agreement among Etruscologists nowadays is the following:
| Etruscan |
Decimal |
| θu |
one |
| zal |
two |
| ci |
three |
| huθ |
four |
| maχ |
five |
| śa |
six |
| semφ |
seven |
| cezp |
eight |
| nurφ |
nine |
| śar |
ten |
| *θuśar |
eleven |
| *zalśar |
twelve |
| *ciśar |
thirteen |
| huθzar |
fourteen |
| *maχśar |
fifteen |
| *śaśar |
sixteen |
| ciem zaθrum |
seventeen |
| eslem zaθrum |
eighteen |
| θunem zaθrum |
nineteen |
| zaθrum |
20 |
| cealχ |
30 |
| *huθalχ |
40 |
| muvalχ |
50 |
| śealχ |
60 |
| semφalχ |
70 |
| cezpalχ |
80 |
| *nurφalχ |
90 |
Note. Recently (2006) S. A. Yatsemirsky (PDF) has presented evidence that zar = śar meant ‘12’ (cf. zal ‘2’ and zaθrum ‘20’) while halχ meant ‘10’. According to his interpretation the attested form huθzar was used for ‘sixteen’, not ‘fourteen’.
The words for 17, 18, and 19 may have influenced Latin duodeviginti (18) and undeviginti (19), literally "two-from-twenty" and "one-from-twenty" (with Etruscan -(n)em apparently meaning "from"). Both these forms of 18 and 19 have disappeared from modern Romance languages.
The numerals seem to show that Etruscan is not an Indo-EuropeanIndo-European may refer to:* Indo-European languages** Aryan, a 19th century term for Indo-European speakers.* Proto-Indo-European language, the reconstructed common ancestor of all Indo-European languages....
language, because of the apparent impossibility in finding viable regular sound change correspondences between the Etruscan numerals and those in Proto-Indo-EuropeanThe numerals of the Proto-Indo-European language have been reconstructed by modern linguists based on similarities found across all Indo-European languages...
.
See also
- Etruscan civilization
Etruscan civilization is the modern English name given to the culture and way of life of a people of ancient Italy and Corsica, residing between the Apennines and the River Tiber, whom the ancient Romans called Etrusci or Tusci...
- Etruscan language
The Etruscan language was spoken and written by the Etruscan civilization in the ancient region of Etruria and in parts of Lombardy, Veneto, and Emilia-Romagna , in Italy...
- Old Italic alphabet
Old Italic refers to several now extinct alphabet systems used on the Italian Peninsula in ancient times for various Indo-European languages and non-Indo-European languages...
- Old Hungarian script
The Old Hungarian script...
External links
- http://users.tpg.com.au/etr/etrusk/tex/grammar.html#num
- http://www.mysteriousetruscans.com/language.html