Where Did The Etruscans Come From?
Etruscology website | June 2002 | Dieter H. Steinbauer
Posted on 08/07/2005 12:08:13 AM EDT by SunkenCiv
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1458504/posts
I had forgotten that article. I think it is plausible that they came from Lemnos. The language variance could be due to being isolated from the original source and thus evolving differently. Ex. French Canadian from original French.
I'd say that they used to live in the Aegean, and that one of the inscriptions happened to survive at Lemnos. :') One probable problem with the Etruscan language (and therefore tracing origins) is that it seems likely that they used a number of different writing systems (possibly all of them borrowed) -- not to mention the other problem, which is more usually mentioned, that almost no long texts survive.