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| Region | Central Asia Minor |
| Extinct | Fifth century |
| Language family | Indo-European
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| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-2 | ine |
| ISO 639-3 | xpg |
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The Phrygian language was the Indo-European language of the Phrygians, a people from Thrace who later migrated to Asia Minor.
Inscriptions
Phrygian is attested by two corpora, one from around 800 BC and later (Paleo-Phrygian), and then after a period of several centuries from around the beginning of the Common Era (Neo-Phrygian). The Paleo-Phrygian corpus is further divided (geographically) into inscriptions of Midas (city) (M, W), Gordion, Central (C), Bithynia (B), Pteria (P), Tyana (T), Daskyleion (Dask), Bayindir (Bay), and "various" (Dd, documents divers). The Mysian inscriptions seem to be in a separate dialect (in an alphabet with an additional letter, "Mysian-s").
The last mentions of the language date to the 5th century AD and it was likely extinct by the 7th century AD. Some words can be reconstructed with the aid of inscriptions written in a script similar to the one used for Greek.
Classification
The Phrygian language was most likely close to Greek. In most cases the Phrygian language used an alphabet originating with the Phoenicians.
Grammar
Its structure, what can be recovered from it, was typically Indo-European, with nouns declined for case (at least four), gender (three) and number (singular and plural), while the verbs are conjugated for tense, voice, mood, person and number. No single word is attested in all its inflectional forms.
Many words in Phrygian are very similar to the reconstructed Proto-Indo-European language (PIE). Phrygian seems to exhibit an augment, like Greek and Armenian, c.f. eberet, probably corresponding to PIE *e-bher-e-t (Greek ephere with loss of the final t).
Vocabulary
A sizable body of Phrygian words are theoretically known; however, the meaning and etymologies and even correct forms of many Phrygian words (mostly extracted from inscriptions) are still being debated.
A famous Phrygian word is bekos, meaning "bread". According to Herodotus (Histories 2.2) Pharaoh Psammetichus I wanted to establish the original language. For this purpose, he ordered two children to be reared by a shepherd, forbidding him to let them hear a single word, and charging him to report the children's first utterance. After two years, the shepherd reported that on entering their chamber, the children came up to him, extending their hands, calling bekos. Upon enquiry, the pharaoh discovered that this was the Phrygian word for "wheat bread", after which the Egyptians conceded that the Phrygian nation was older than theirs. The word bekos is also attested several times in Palaeo-Phrygian inscriptions on funerary stelae. Many modern scholars suggest that it is cognate to Albanian bukë meaning "bread" and to English bake(PIE *bheHg-). Serb pekar means baker.
Hittite, Luwian (both also had an impact on Phrygian morphology), Galatian and Greek (which also exhibits a high amount of isoglosses with Phrygian) all had an impact on Phrygian vocabulary.
According to Clement of Alexandria, the Phrygian word bedu (Template:Polytonic) meaning "water" (PIE *wed) appeared in Orphic ritual.
Other Phrygian words include:
- anar, 'husband', from PIE *ner- 'man';
- attagos, 'goat';
- Bagaios, "Zeus", from PIE *bheh2gos "apportioner";
- cf. Doric Greek: bagos (βάγος) "leader", Kur: aga, agha, beg "name of prince and kings of towns", Alb: bekoj "bless", Avestan: baga "good fortune, share", Skt: bhága "the apportioner", Toch A: pāk "share, part", Toch B: pāke "share, part".
- balaios, 'large, fast', from PIE *bel- 'strong';
- cognate to Gk: bélteros (Template:Polytonic) "better", Rus: bol'šój "large, great", Welsh: balch "proud", Kur: balaz (belez) "fast", Fr: bélier "ram"
- belte, 'swamp', from PIE *bel-, 'to gleam';
- brater, 'brother', from PIE *brater-, 'brother';
- daket, 'does, causes', PIE *de-k-, 'to set, put';
- germe, 'warm', PIE *ger-, 'warm';
- kakon, 'harm, ill', PIE *kaka-, 'harm';
- cf. Gk: kakós (Template:Polytonic) "bad", Alb: keq "bad", Lith: keñti "to be evil", Arm: qaq "excretion".
- knoumane, 'grave', maybe from PIE *knu-, 'to scratch';
- cognate to Gk: knáō (Template:Polytonic) "to scratch", OHG: hnuo "notch, groove", nuoen "to smooth out with a scraper", Lith: knisti "to dig", Arm: qnel,qnum "to sleep", Rom: scormoni "to dig, to scrtach"
- manka, 'stela', Arm: manuk, mankakan "child, childish".
- mater, 'mother', from PIE *mater-, 'mother';
- meka, 'great', from PIE *meg-, 'great';
- zamelon, 'slave', PIE *dgom-, 'earth';
- Gk: chamēlós (Template:Polytonic) adj. "on the ground, low", Srb/Cro: zèmlja and Bulg: zèmya/zèmlishte "earth/land", Lat: humilis "low".
- tas, 'those'
- Gk: tas "those"
- ypsodan, 'above'
- Gk: hypsóthen (ὑψόθεν) "above"
- ke, 'and'
- gelaros, 'sister in law'
- Gk (Doric): gallaros "sister in law"
- tios, 'god'
References
- Swain, Simon; Adams, J. Maxwell; Janse, Mark (2002). Bilingualism in ancient society: language contact and the written word. Oxford : Oxford University Press. pp. 246–266. ISBN 0-19-924506-1.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - Brixhe, Cl. "Le Phrygien". In Fr. Bader (ed.), Langues indo-europeennes, pp. 165-178, Paris: CNRS Editions.
- Roger D. Woodard - 'The ancient languages of Asia Minor', Cambridge University Press, 2008,ISBN-10: 052168496X,page 72,"Unquestionably, however, Phrygian is most closely linked with Greek"
- The etymology is defended in O. Panagl & B. Kowal, "Zur etymologischen Darstellung von Restsprachen", in: A. Bammesberger (ed.), Das etymologische Wörterbuch, Regensburg 1983, pp. 186-7. It is contested in Benjamin W. Fortson, Indo-European Language and Culture: An Introduction. Blackwell, 2004. ISBN 1-4051-0316-7, p. 409.
- Brixhe, Cl. "Le Phrygien". In Fr. Bader (ed.), Langues indo-europeennes, pp. 165-178, Paris: CNRS Editions.
- Woodard, Roger D. The Ancient Languages of Asia Minor. Cambridge University Press, 2008, ISBN 0-521-68496-X, pp. 69-81.
- Clement. Stromata, 5.8.46-47.
See also
- Paleo Balkan languages
- Ancient Macedonian language
- Thracian language
- Greek language
- Alphabets of Asia Minor
External links
- Corpus of Phrygian inscriptions
- Lubotsky's Phrygian Etymological Database (incomplete)
- Phrygian language-Britannica.com
- Translation of Phrygian scripts-maravot.com/
- Linguistic Bibliography Online
- Dictionary, history and translations of the Phrygian language - www.palaeolexicon.com