Etruscan Numerals - The General Consensus

The General Consensus

The general agreement among Etruscologists nowadays is the following (except about which of huθ and śa were "four" or "six", which has always been under discussion, but see below the new results):

Etruscan Decimal
θu 1
zal 2
ci 3
śa 4
maχ 5
huθ 6
semφ 7
*cezp 8
nurφ 9
śar 10
*θuśar 11
*zalśar 12
*ciśar 13
huθzar 14
*maχśar 15
*śaśar 16
ciem zaθrum 17
eslem zaθrum 18
θunem zaθrum 19
zaθrum 20
cealχ 30
*huθalχ 40
muvalχ 50
śealχ 60
semφalχ 70
cezpalχ 80
*nurφalχ 90

Recently (fall 2011), Artioli and colleagues presented evidence from 93 Etruscan dice "allowing the firm attribution of the numeral 6 to the graphical value huth and 4 to sa". Citation: Artioli, G., Nociti, V., Angelini, I., "Gambling with Etruscan Dice: a Tale of Numbers and Letters", Archaeometry, Vol. 53, Issue 5, October 2011, pages 1031–1043 (Abstract).

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 numbers show no sign of Indo-European origin.

Read more about this topic:  Etruscan Numerals

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