Le parole etrusche <i>ame, amce</i> e la revisione di IE. *<i>yem</i>- ‘paaren’

The main purpose of this article is to demonstrate the groundlessness of the old and common thesis according to which Etr. ame, amuke, amce are parts of the verb “to be”. We can search for the true meaning of these words with the help of the so-called “comparative method”, a method that, in the last few decades, did not enjoy its due share of attention. My underlying thesis is that Etruscan, although not being an Indo-European language, has many IndoEuropean stems, which it acquired during many centuries of contacts. The comparative method might be of help just provided we strictly stick to the rules that define the phonological system of Etruscan (in the present work I present the system of the stops only). \ud\udThe term am(u)ce indicates ‘to be united, to make a pair with, co-’. In fact, amce is mainly found in connection with the words puia ‘wife’ and zilaθ (magistracy constituted by two or more persons). In extant inscriptions, we also find twice the word ame connected to puia, yet in most cases ame is a particle placed after the verb, where it fulfills the same function of the latin preverb cum, co-. As an example, in the Tabula Cortonensis the words eprus ame mean ‘co-operantur, (they) sacrifice together’. Moreover, there are five occurrences of the particle ama connected with the word ipa. In my view, ipa … ama can be interpreted as ‘simul… cum’ = ‘pariter… cum’.\ud\udThere are further Etruscan words beginning with *am -that belong to the same root of ame, am(u)ce. See for example amθuras, amaνunice, amnu, aminθ. There is also a personage represented in several engravings on mirrors the name of whom is amuke, which is said to echo Greek Αμυκος. Nonetheless, amuke has indeed an Etruscan meaning. \ud\udIn order to explain such Germanic words as Got. ibns ‘eben’, Ags. efn, emn etc. and Lat. imitor, aemulus etc. the I-E root *yem- ‘paaren; to pair, match, couple’ was assumed. Anyhow, it can be smoothly replaced with a hypothetic root *mbh-‘united, pair, together’ ≻ *H2embh- ≻ *amb(h)- ≻ *am- that could also explain such words as Lat. amb-, Gr. ἀμφ-, Gaul. amb-. Moreover, this root could be connected to Etr. ame, amce, Lat. amussis, amuletum, Amulius etc., together with words like Etr. ipa and inpa, Umbr. ife, ifont, Fal. efiles and Lat. ip(se). Such a hypothesis calls for an explanation of the reason why we find *ip- instead of *if- in Etruscan. This exchange is perhaps due to the fact that the borrowing took place when the principal stress was not yet on the initial syllable. \ud\udFor Etr. and Lat. par we could hypothesize the formation *par- ≺ *mp-ar- ‘to be with, par, similar’, by means of the suffix -ar- ≺ - er- which is to be found in IE *apero ‘ hinder, back’, *ndhero- ‘under, inferior’ etc. However it is hard to explain the presence of *mp from *mbh-