(EN) Zsolt Simon, The Alleged Anatolian Loanwords in Etruscan: A Reconsideration, in Federico Giusfredi e Zsolt Simon (a cura di), Studies in the Languages and Language Contact in Pre-Hellenistic Anatolia, collana Barcino Monographica Orientalia, vol. 17, Barcellona, Edicions de la Universitat de Barcelona, 2021, pp. 227-240, ISBN 9788491687382.
«One can conclude that the number of possible loans is extremely low: three verbal stems (but all with problematic semantics), four particles (two with problematic semantics), and two demonstrative pronouns or similar (but one is problematic), which also means that there are altogether only three impeccable parallels (and thus, Etruscan is hardly “a heavily ‘Anatolianized’” language, pace Watkins). The question is if they really represent borrowings, or more precisely, if we are forced to assume that they are borrowings. For that to be the case we have to exclude the possibility of coincidence. However, we are mostly dealing with particles and pronouns here and although the remaining items are verbal stems, they are all problematic. (...) In other words, the alleged evidence for loan contacts between Etruscan and the Anatolian languages consists of cases in which we cannot exclude the possibility that their similarity is mere coincidence. Accordingly, one has to conclude that Anatolian loanwords can currently not be demonstrated in Etruscan. Finally, this claim has serious historical consequences, since the theory of the Anatolian origin of the Etruscan language has lost the only compelling argument in its favour, thus solving the only serious problem of the autochthony theory.»
