Originally posted by baracuda Thanks "Phallanx" it would be interesting to find some etrucan text and to sort of put it into readable latin form. Knowing that all altaic languages have similarities between them, whatever the time. example is the orkun writing above, apart from the fact how turkish has deviated with intruductions of grammer and words from persian and arabic,and how things have changed in the centuries, it isn't that difficult to understand Orkun for a turkish person, as there are many similarities. (once the the text has been put into the latin alphabet of course )

Yeah, you think these two dialects of Turkish are too similar:

1."Turk Oguz begleri budun esidin uzetenri basmasar asrayir telinmeser Turk budun ilinin torunun kimartati"

2."Turk, Oguz beyleri, kavmi, isitin yukarida gok basmasa, asagida yer delinmese Turk milleti ulkeni, tureni kim bozar?"

Orkhon

Gothic runes

Anglo-Saxon Futhorc

Danish Futhark

Swedish-Norwegian / Short-twig / R�k Runes

Norwegian Futhark

Gothenburg / Bohusl�n Runes

Archaic Etruscan alphabet (7th-5th centuries BC)

"The Lydians have very nearly the same customs as the Greeks, with the exception that these last do not bring up their girls in the same way. So far as we have any knowledge, they were the first nation to introduce the use of gold and silver coin, and the first who sold goods by retail. They claim also the invention of all the games which are common to them with the Greeks. These they declare that they invented about the time when they colonised Tyrrhenia, an event of which they give the following account. In the days of Atys, the son of Manes, there was great scarcity through the whole land of Lydia. For some time the Lydians bore the affliction patiently, but finding that it did not pass away, they set to work to devise remedies for the evil. Various expedients were discovered by various persons; dice, and huckle-bones, and ball, and all such games were invented, except tables, the invention of which they do not claim as theirs. The plan adopted against the famine was to engage in games one day so entirely as not to feel any craving for food, and the next day to eat and abstain from games. In this way they passed eighteen years. Still the affliction continued and even became more grievous. So the king determined to divide the nation in half, and to make the two portions draw lots, the one to stay, the other to leave the land. He would continue to reign over those whose lot it should be to remain behind; the emigrants should have his son Tyrrhenus for their leader. The lot was cast, and they who had to emigrate went down to Smyrna, and built themselves ships, in which, after they had put on board all needful stores, they sailed away in search of new homes and better sustenance. After sailing past many countries they came to Umbria, where they built cities for themselves, and fixed their residence. Their former name of Lydians they laid aside, and called themselves after the name of the king's son, who led the colony, Tyrrhenians."

Wasn't it Herodotus who mentioned that the Etruscans came from Lydia? Or was it Xenophon?...

I think they are a mixture of indigenous Italians and Aegeans. Surely Etruscan language does not belong to the great Indo-European family.

There has been an inscription found in 1885 at Kaminia on the northern Aegean island of Lemnos and dated to the late sixth century BCE (Before Common Era) which is written in an alphabet and language akin to Etruscan on a stele with the figure of a warrior. It has 98 letters, forming 33 words. In 1928 Italian archaeologists in Lemnos found similar fragmentary inscriptions on sherds of locally made pottery. These were of vital importance, for they showed that the language was actually spoken in Lemnos: the stele had not been imported from elsewhere in the Mediterranean.

We know, therefore, that a dialect close to Etruscan was spoken at Lemnos before the Athenian conquest of the island in the second half of the sixth century BCE. This dialect was different from all other languages spoken in the area. We do not know, however, how and when it came to be spoken there.

According to genetic studies conducted so far Etruscans are the closest people to Turks today.

http://dienekes.ifreepages.com/blog/archives/000522.html

 "In particular, the Turkish component in their gene pool appears three times as large as in the other populations. "

Status of an Etruscan

Another Etruscan

sh*tz cant edit my post (sorry)

I mean (phalanx) do you mean they where hellenic speaking people?