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
Famous quotes containing the words general and/or consensus:
“What is written without effort is in general read without pleasure.”
—Samuel Johnson (17091784)
“To me, consensus seems to be the process of abandoning all beliefs, principles, values and policies. So it is something in which no one believes and to which no one objects.”
—Margaret Thatcher (b. 1925)