Phrygian language
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The Phrygian language was the Indo-European language of the Phrygians, a people who probably migrated from Thrace to Asia Minor in the Bronze Age, possibly during the Sea Peoples migrations of ca 1200 BC.
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 Palaeo-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").
By the 6th century AD it was extinct, but we can reconstruct some words with the help of some inscriptions written with a script similar to the Greek.
It is believed that it was close to Thracian and maybe Armenian, mostly on grounds of classical sources. Herodotus recorded the Macedonian account that Phrygians emigrated into Asia Minor from Thrace (7.73). Later in the text (7.73), Herodotus states that the Armenians were colonists of the Phrygians, still considered the same ethnos in the time of Xerxes I. The earliest mention of Phrygian in Greek sources, in the Homeric Hymn to Aphrodite, depicts it as different from Trojan (of which, unfortunately, nothing is known).
Judging from linguistics, Phrygian appears closest to Greek, a language with which it was for some time in contact.
Grammar
Its structure, what can be recovered from it, was typically Indo-European, with nouns declined for case (at least 4), gender (3) 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 Phyrgian 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 epheret).
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 2.9) 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. It was suggested that it is cognate to English bake, from PIE *bheh3g (Greek phōgō "to roast", Albanian Bukë / Buka "bread").
Bedu according to Clement of Alexandria's Stromata, quoting one Neanthus of Cyzicus means "water" (PIE *wed). The Macedonians are said to have worshipped a god called Bedu, which they interpreted as "air". The god appears also in Orphic ritual.
Other Phrygian words include:
- anar, 'husband', from PIE *ner-, 'man', cognate to Ancient Greek aner (ανηρ) (man, husband) as well as Armenian "aner" (father in law)
- attagos, 'goat' (Greek τραγος}.
- balaios, 'large, fast'. (Latin velox or veloc), Macedonian "bala" (large piece of something)
- belte, 'swamp', from PIE *bhel-, 'to gleam', cognate to Albanian baltë (silt, mud), and Bulgarian "blato" (swamp), Modern-Macedonian "blato" (swamp) and Serbian and Croatian "blato" (swamp).
- brater, 'brother', from PIE *bhrater-, 'brother', cognate to Ancient Greek phrater (clansman, kin) and Bulgarian "brat" (brother), Macedonian "brat"(brother).
- daket, 'does, causes', PIE *dhe-k-, 'to set, put', cognate to Latin facere (to do, make), Macedonian "da-ke" (yes i would,i'll do,i'll make)
- germe, 'warm', PIE *ghwer-, 'warm'; Ancient Greek thermos, Armenian "germ" (warm).
- kakon, 'harm, ill', PIE *kaka-, 'to defecate', cognate to Ancient Greek kakôn (evil, ill), Armenian "kak" (shit, excrement), Macedonian "kakan" (ill,not as usual,shiting).
- knoumane, 'grave', maybe from PIE *knu-, 'to scratch', cognate to Ancient Greek knaô, 'to scratch' (English 'grave' is from PIE *grebh, which meant 'to dig, scratch').
- manka, 'stela', Macedonian "makara".
- mater, 'mother', PIE *mater-, 'mother', Croatian "mati" (mother), Macedonian "majka" (mother).
- meka, 'great', PIE *meg-, 'great'; Ancient Greek megas, 'great'; Armenian mets (big, great).
- zamelon, 'slave', PIE *dhghom-, 'earth'; Ancient Greek chamelosχαμηλος, 'on the ground, lowly', Modern Macedonian "zemialen" (on the groud, lowly).
See also
- Phrygian alphabet
- Greek language
- Paleo Balkan languages
- Ancient Macedonian language
- Thracian language
- Armenian language
External links
- [Corpus of Phrygian inscriptions]
- [Lubotsky's Phrygian Etymological Database (incomplete)]
- [Phrygia and Phrygians]
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