Etruscan Roman linguistics

[legumes]

Or alternatively, an empire based in Veii or another city. In a scenario where a militant Republican city in central Italy expands across first the peninsula, and then the whole Mediterranean, how would this affect the languages of the conquered regions?

IOTL, when Rome conquered Italy it took about 300 years for the various Italic languages to be absorbed by Latin, and similar processes came with their conquest of the Illyrian and Dacian Balkans, the Celts in western Europe, and the Punics in Africa. In the former two examples, Rome had the advantage of the natives speaking IE languages, making them slightly easier to absorb. So how would this go under an Etruscan empire? Would there be a greater amount of languages that manage to survive Roman influence?
In terms of other cultural things, I imagine this Rasnan state wouldn't be too alien from the one we all know. Similar pantheon with different names, and similar architecture, both deeply influenced by the Greeks, and a shared preference for land over wealth. Maybe it would be a bit more egalitarian towards women but that's probably the extent of it.

 

[Madhukar_Shah]

Or alternatively, an empire based in Veii or another city. In a scenario where a militant Republican city in central Italy expands across first the peninsula, and then the whole Mediterranean, how would this affect the languages of the conquered regions?

The first thing I'd look into is whether this Etruscan empire settles military veterans as privileged citizens in Colonia or Arab style amsar/ribat. If so then it's much more likely you'll get linguistic assimilation of the conquered peoples. An extra factor helping Etruscan assimilation is the strong influence of the Etruscan priesthood among italic people's at least, and potentially further north as well.

Id say they're likely to be less Roman than you'd think though- the religion seems to have had a much more specialised priesthood, and that would lead to a very different relationship between religious and political authorities. For example, unlike the Romans and Greeks, but more like Celts and Post Vedic people's, Etruscan sacred spaces seem to have been outside of cities.

 

[Fabius Maximus]

The uptake of Etruscan among the conquered peoples might be slightly slower than the uptake of Latin IOTL, but assuming this Veientine (or whatever) Empire lasts as long as OTL's Roman Empire, I expect everyone to be speaking Etruscan by the time it falls.