North Picene: An Analysis and a possible interpretation of parts

Starting with the Novilara Stele, let's highlight both possible endings, stems, and affixes. Note, I'm starting from the educated guess that this is, in fact, an IndoEuropean language, although this isn't yet proven.

Suggested roots will be in black, stems/affixes in (mainly) red, and endings in blue.

The Novilara Stele

mimniś erút gaareśtadeś

rotnem úvlin partenúś

polem iśairon tet

śút tratneši krúviś

tenag trút ipiem rotneš

lútúiś θalú iśperion vúl

teś rotem teú aiten tašúr

śoter merpon kalatne

niś vilatoś paten arn

úiś baleśtenag andś et

šút iakút treten teletaú

nem polem tišú śotriś eúś

While I don't particularly think that all of these represent how you could break this down, it does demonstrate the point that, structurally, it does seem IndoEuropeanish. Also, other than -ag and -p-, all of the endings do look like stems and endings that have other IndoEuropean counterparts.

The following fragment, I will skip, due to the difficulties that would occur in analyzing it, at least with what I know of it:

1^st Fragment

úpeś
mresveat

This next fragment is analyzeable:

2^nd Fragment

pa śatigot
kešoteri
amdet : nk
------ k --------

Other than the suffixes -ti- and -ter- (if that's how they're divided), and endings -ot and -i, this looks noteably less indoeuropeanish than the main stele.

And finally, the last text:

3^rd Fragment

tiperašθe raiup bav---
-----ipš---------------------

Counting this as indoeuropean, I've basically gone on the assumption that -a- might have been from e+Laryngeal>a. Though other possibilities exist.

As you can see, the fragments seem noteably less indoeuropean than the maintext. Whether this is due to the fragmentary nature of these short inscriptions, or due to this not being indoeuropean, is something that can be explored further.

Now that we've looked at how this could be analyzed, let's take a second look, shall we?

It seems that the longer words may be verbs.

The Novilara Stele (A closer look)

1. mimniś erút gaareśtadeś

2. rotnem úvlin partenúś

3. polem iśairon tet

4. śút tratneši krúviś

5. tenag trút ipiem rotneš

6. lútúiś θalú iśperion vúl

7. teś rotem teú aiten tašúr

8. śoter merpon kalatne

9. niś vilatoś paten arn

10. úiś baleśtenag andś et

11. šút iakút treten teletaú

12. nem polem tišú śotriś eúś

I find the end of line 2 and beginning of line 3 interesting. Last word in line 2 resembles vulgar latin "(nos) partimos ~ (nos) part(y)amos" or 1^st person present plural indicative~Subjunctive verb form of partire "to depart, leave".

Line 3 starts with what appears to be the Accusative singular form of the greek word polis "city", or in this case pol-em:

2. (...) partenúś

3. polem (...)

Perhaps, this part may be translated as:

2. (...) we left

3. the city (...)

The following word is less clear in meaning, but tentatively, we can view the -on as the genitive plural ending.

Iśairon

So, we have:

"(...) we left the city of Isair (...)"

If this is a proper interpretation of this section, this doesn't mean that this is an Italic nor Greek language that we're dealing with here. These could, in fact, be derived from words from those families, if not being direct loans themselves. In much the same way as terms like "ad hoc" and deja vu" from Latin and French are left untranslated, yet, form meaningful phrases in Modern English.

Lines 9 and 10 seem to have a plural personal pronoun + Verb combination:

niś vilatoś

úiś baleśtenag

Niś appears to be in the first person plural pronoun nes (Nominative nos) in the accusative case, and úiś appears to be the 2^nd person plural pronoun wes (Nominative wos) in the accusative case. The nes~nos and wes~wos coming from ProtoIndoEuropean. The only problem with this, is that they would be enclitic forms.

The verb balestenag can be interpreted as having the elements -est-en-ag in it. The ending -ag appears in multiple places, though what an IndoEuropean equivalent would be is wanting. Though the -este- ~ -est- ~ -ste- could be a realization of -st-, which may have come from the PIE suffix -skʲ-. This same cluster can be found in line one with gaarestades; which could be analyzed as gaare-sta-d-es (among other interpretations).

The above seems to have a perfect suffix -d- and a perfect/past 2^nd person singular ending -es, of which I'm not sure is supposed to occur in IndoEuropean. Or, perhaps, -des is meant, which may have come from the end person plural ending -tes (or perhaps, -ates). The later, though would require -t->-d-, seems more likely.

In line 6, iśperion seems to be conjugated like the greek name hyperion, but I'm not clear on what the root isper would represent.

Soter~sotri seems to be a greek loanword "savior", which can be an epithet for gods, heros, and kings.

For a broader look, to wrap this up for now, would give the following for case endings:

Nominative or Genetive singular, or Nominative and/or Accusative Plural (possibly all of the above) -(e/i)s

Accusative Singular -(e)m

Genetive Plural -(e)n