Phrygian language
|
Phrygian inscription in Midas City |
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.
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).
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", Latin
focus "fireplace", Armenian
bosor "red",
bots "flame", Irish
goba "smith").
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"; cf.
Ancient Greek an"r "man, husband", Armenian
ayr "father-in-law", Albanian
njeri "man, person".
attagos, '
goat' (Greek τραγος}, Armenian
tik "leather skin", German
Ziege "she-goat", Albanian
dhi "she-goat".
balaios, 'large, fast', from PIE
*bel- "strong"; cf. Greek
belteros "better", Russian
bol'shói "large, great", Welsh
balch "proud"
belte, '
swamp', from PIE
bhel-, 'to gleam', cognate to
Albanian baltë (silt, mud), Lith
baltas "white", Russian
bledny "pale".
brater, 'brother', from PIE
*bhrater-, 'brother', cognate to Ancient Greek
phrāt"r "clansman, kin", Armenian
ełbair "brother", Bulgarian "brat" (brother).
daket, 'does, causes', PIE
*dhe-k-, 'to set, put', cognate to
Latin facere "to do, make", Greek
tithénai "to put, place, set", Armenian
dnem "I place".
germe, 'warm', PIE
*ghwer-, 'warm'; Ancient Greek
thermos, Armenian
ĵerm "warm", Albanian
zjarm.
kakon, 'harm, ill', PIE
*kaka-, 'harm', cognate to Ancient Greek
kakós "bad", Albanian
keq "bad, evil", Lithuanian
keñti "to be evil".
knoumane, 'grave', maybe from PIE
*knu-, 'to scratch', cognate to Ancient Greek
knaô "to scratch", Albanian
krromë "scurf, scabies", Old High German
hnuo "notch, groove",
nuoen "to smooth out with a scraper", Lith
knisti "to dig".
manka, '
stela'.
mater, 'mother', PIE
*mater-, 'mother'; cf. Greek
mátér "mother", Armenian
mair, Albanian
motër "sister"
meka, 'great', PIE
*meg-, 'great'; Ancient Greek
megas "great"; Armenian
mets "big, great", Albanian
madh.
zamelon, 'slave', PIE
*dhghom-, 'earth'; Ancient Greek
chamai "on the ground, lowly", Serbo-Croatian
zèmlja "earth", Latin
humilis "low".
*
Phrygian alphabet*
Greek language*
Paleo Balkan languages*
Ancient Macedonian language*
Thracian language*
Armenian language*
Corpus of Phrygian inscriptions*
Lubotsky's Phrygian Etymological Database (incomplete)*
Phrygia and Phrygians
