The combinatorial method is a method of
linguistic analysis
In the study of language, description or descriptive linguistics is the work of objectively analyzing and describing how language is actually used (or how it was used in the past) by a speech community. François & Ponsonnet (2013).
All acad ...
that is used to study texts which are written in an unknown language, and to study the language itself, where the unknown language has no obvious or proven well-understood close relatives, and where there are few bilingual texts which might otherwise have been used to help understand the language. It consists of three distinct analyses:
* archaeological and antiquarian analysis,
*
formal-structural analysis, and
*
content
Content or contents may refer to:
Media
* Content (media), information or experience provided to audience or end-users by publishers or media producers
** Content industry, an umbrella term that encompasses companies owning and providing mas ...
and context analysis.
The method relies principally on information that is available in and about the language being studied, and has most famously been used for study of the
Etruscan language
Etruscan () was the language of the Etruscan civilization, in Italy, in the ancient region of Etruria (modern Tuscany, western Umbria, northern Latium, Emilia-Romagna, Veneto, Lombardy and Campania). Etruscan influenced Latin but was eventually co ...
. It has also been used for other languages, for example by
Yves Duhoux (1982) for
Eteocretan
Eteocretan ( from grc-gre, Ἐτεόκρητες, Eteókrētes, lit. "true Cretans", itself composed from ἐτεός ''eteós'' "true" and Κρής ''Krḗs'' "Cretan") is the pre-Greek language attested in a few alphabetic inscriptions of anc ...
. The method was first advocated by
Wilhelm Deeke in his 1875 refutation of
Wilhelm Corssen's attempt to demonstrate a supposed relationship between Etruscan and the
Indo-European languages
The Indo-European languages are a language family native to the overwhelming majority of Europe, the Iranian plateau, and the northern Indian subcontinent. Some European languages of this family, English, French, Portuguese, Russian, Dutc ...
by the
etymological method, which is based on perceived resemblances between words in the text in the unknown language and words existing in known languages.
The combinatorial method was developed to replace the etymological method because the latter bases itself on
circular reasoning
Circular may refer to:
* The shape of a circle
* ''Circular'' (album), a 2006 album by Spanish singer Vega
* Circular letter (disambiguation)
** Flyer (pamphlet), a form of advertisement
* Circular reasoning, a type of logical fallacy
* Circular ...
, in which the assumed relationship purportedly proves the interpretation of the text and vice versa, thus being inadequate for scientific study or proof. While mainstream specialists in
Etruscology
Etruscology is the study of the ancient civilization of the Etruscans in Italy, which was incorporated into an expanding Roman Empire during the period of Rome's Middle Republic. Since the Etruscans were politically and culturally influential in pr ...
have long since abandoned the etymological method in favour of the slow, rigorous work of the combinatorial method, the etymological method is still popular with
amateurs
An amateur () is generally considered a person who pursues an avocation independent from their source of income. Amateurs and their pursuits are also described as popular, informal, self-taught, user-generated, DIY, and hobbyist.
History
...
wishing to prove a relationship between ancient texts and an existing language.
Archaeological-antiquarian analysis
Archaeological-antiquarian analysis consists of using archaeological and antiquarian methods to determine the nature of the text, such as the nature of the object bearing the inscription, and the circumstances and location of its discovery. An example of ignoring this stage would be to describe the
Pyrgi Tablets
The Pyrgi Tablets (dated ) are three golden plates inscribed with a bilingual Phoenician–Etruscan dedicatory text. They are the oldest historical source documents from pre-Roman Italy and are rare examples of texts in these languages. They we ...
as part of a temple archive, as some commentators did when the tablets were found in 1964, when quite clearly the tablets had been nailed to a wall as a notice. Part of this stage is also rigorously checking the
epigraphic
Epigraphy () is the study of inscriptions, or epigraphs, as writing; it is the science of identifying graphemes, clarifying their meanings, classifying their uses according to dates and cultural contexts, and drawing conclusions about the wr ...
or
palaeographic
Palaeography ( UK) or paleography ( US; ultimately from grc-gre, , ''palaiós'', "old", and , ''gráphein'', "to write") is the study of historic writing systems and the deciphering and dating of historical manuscripts, including the analysi ...
details of the inscription concerned.
Vladimir Georgiev's claim that Etruscan is related to
Hittite was largely based on a non-existent word ''esmi'' which had been incorrectly read from an inscription, while
Mario Alinei
Mario Alinei (10 August 1926 – 9 August 2018) was an Italian linguist and professor emeritus at the University of Utrecht, where he taught from 1959 to 1987. He was founder and editor of ''Quaderni di semantica'', a journal of theoretical and ap ...
's 2003 claim that the word ''iθal'' means "drink" and that Etruscan is thus based on Hungarian is ruled out by the fact that ''iθal'' occurs in one single inscription and does not re-occur in the many hundreds of known inscribed Etruscan
symposium
In ancient Greece, the symposium ( grc-gre, συμπόσιον ''symposion'' or ''symposio'', from συμπίνειν ''sympinein'', "to drink together") was a part of a banquet that took place after the meal, when drinking for pleasure was acc ...
vessels which might be expected to contain the word "drink" if their Latin equivalents are anything to go by.
Formal-structural analysis
Formal-structural analysis consists of breaking down words into their component
morpheme
A morpheme is the smallest meaningful Constituent (linguistics), constituent of a linguistic expression. The field of linguistics, linguistic study dedicated to morphemes is called morphology (linguistics), morphology.
In English, morphemes are ...
s to form a hypothesis of the structure of the language, which must be consistent with that deduced from other interpreted or partly interpreted inscriptions, and with the features that might be expected in known languages. The point of this stage is to reveal the root words and their roles in the text. While establishing the meaning of the word or morpheme is not the key goal at this stage, it can however rule out potential meanings. For example,
Zacharie Mayani
Zacharie Mayani (Russia, 1899 – 1982)Bibliothèque nationale de FranceBnF Data/ref> was a French writer and author of Russian Jewish descent.
Education and publications
He was educated at Paris University, where he received his doctorate in 193 ...
's claim that Etruscan ''θu'' means "two" is ruled out by the fact that ''θu'' is the only Etruscan numeral which is never found with a plural referent, and in addition it does not have a derived multiple of 10 based on it, which points to it meaning not "two" but "one".
Content and context analysis
Once both the root form of a word and an idea of its role in the text and elsewhere are established, an analysis of content and context can be carried out to determine the word's part of speech, or whether it is part of a name, and if so, the sex of the person, and if an object or an action, its likely nature or general semantic area. This stage must also ensure that any proposed more definite meaning is consistent with all other instances, but must also allow for the possibility of
homonym
In linguistics, homonyms are words which are homographs (words that share the same spelling, regardless of pronunciation), or homophones (equivocal words, that share the same pronunciation, regardless of spelling), or both. Using this definition, ...
s with different meanings and morphemes with more than one purpose.
Meanings and interpretations established by the combinatorial method are not certain, for example, as meanings confirmed by a bilingual text or by a reliable ancient gloss, but are of variable reliability, and as provisional models. The understanding of the Etruscan language has gradually increased over the years, as new knowledge from the Etruscan texts themselves, and from research in other disciplines of Etruscology. Giulio Facchetti's research into
Etruscan private law __NOTOC__
Etruscan may refer to:
Ancient civilization
*The Etruscan language, an extinct language in ancient Italy
*Something derived from or related to the Etruscan civilization
**Etruscan architecture
**Etruscan art
**Etruscan cities
**Etruscan ...
(2000)
taken together with the publication of the text of the
Cortona tablet in 1999 is an example of where this has happened.
References
*
{{refend
Methods in linguistics
Historical linguistics
Etruscan language