THRACIAN LANGUAGE

The 'Thracian language' was the Indo-European language spoken in ancient times by the Thracians in South-Eastern Europe.

Contents

Geographic distribution

Sources

Inscriptions

Classification

Extinction

Notes

See also

Literature

External links

Geographic distribution

Excluding Dacian, whose status as a Thracian language is disputed^[1], Thracian was spoken in substantial numbers in what is now southern Bulgaria, parts of Serbia, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Northern Greece (especially prior to Ancient Macedonian expansion), throughout Thrace (including European Turkey) and in parts of Bithynia (North-Western Asiatic Turkey).
Including Dacian/Getian, it was spoken in Romania, northern Bulgaria, parts of Serbia, the Republic of Moldova, western-central Ukraine, and eastern Hungary and Slovakia as well.

Sources

As an extinct language with only a few short inscriptions attributed to it (see below), there is little known about the Thracian language, but a number of features are agreed upon. Some Thracian words can be found cited in ancient texts^[2] (this list excludes Dacian plant names which however are sometimes included):

★ ''asa'' — A Bessian word for the Coltsfoot; cf. Lithuanian dial. ''asỹs'' "horse-tail," Latvian. ''aši, ašas'' "horse-tail, sedge, rush," rel. to Latv. ''ašs, ass'' "sharp", Old-Bulgarian ''ostrǔ'' and Modern Bulgarian ''ostar'' "sharp", Lith ''aštrùs'' "sharp"

★ ''bolinthos'' — "wild bull", Bul. ''vol'' "a bull", bison", English ''bull''

★ ''bría'' — "town", fr. IE
★ wriyā; cf. Mycenean ''rijo'' "promontory", Greek ''ríon'' "id", Tocharian A ''ri'', Tocharian B ''rīye'' "town"

★ ''bríloun'' - "barber"; IE
★ bhrī-l, cf. Old Church Slavonic ''briti'' "to shave", Old Irish ''brissim'' "I shatter", English ''brine'', Latin ''friare'' "to rub, crumble", Albanian ''brej, brêj'' "to gnaw", Sanskrit ''bhrīn.anti'' "they injure, hurt"

★ ''bríza'' — "emmer-wheat, rye", which gave Bulgarian ''brica'' "type of summer grain"; IE
★ wrīg'h, cf. Sanskrit ''vrīhis'' "rice" OR IE
★ breg'h, cf. Norwegian ''brok'' "kind of grass"

★ ''brynchos'' — "guitar"; IE
★ bhrm.kos, cf. Greek (Eolian) ''phórmygx'', Old Church Slavonic ''brękati'' "to make a noise", Polish ''brzęk'' "ringing, tinkle", Bulgarian ''brumchi'' "a ringing sound", Russian ''brenčat'' "to play on a stringed instrument", Romanian ''broancă'' "a stringed instrument"

★ ''brytos'', ''bryton'', ''brutos'', ''bryttion'' — "a kind of ale made from barley"; IE
★ bhrūto, cf. E ''broth'', Welsh ''brwd'' "brewage", Lat ''defrutum'' "must boiled down", Greek ''apéphrysen'' "to seethe, boil", Slavic ''vriti'' "to seethe, boil" ''vrutok'' "strong spring, boiling water", Sanskrit ''bhurati'' "he quivers", Alb. ''brumë'' "dough"

★ ''dinupula'', ''
★ sinupyla'' — "wild pumpkin"; cf. Bul. ''dinya'' a watermelon, Lithuanian ''šúnobuolas'' wild pumpkin, Albanian ''thënukël'' dogberry

★ ''génton'' — "meat"; IE
★ g^whento "struck, cut", cf. Latin ''fendere'' "to strike, push", Old English ''gūth'' "combat", Welsh ''gwannu'' "to stab", Greek ''theínein'' "to strike, kill", Arm ''ganem'' "I strike", Sanskrit ''hánti'' "he strikes, kills", ''hatyá'' "stabbed, killed", Hittite ''kuenzi'' "he strikes", Old Church Slavonic ''žętva'' "harvest", ''žęteljĭ'' "harvester"

★ ''kalamindar'' — "plane tree"

★ ''kemos'' — "a kind of fruit with follicles"

★ ''ktistai'' — "Thracians living in celibacy, monks"

★ ''mendruta'' — a Moesian name for the beet or alternately the black hellebore, ''Veratrum nigrum''

★ ''póltyn'' - "a board fence, board tower, fortification of beams and boards"; English ''split'', Old Norse ''spjald'' "board", Old High German ''spaltan'' "to split", Latin ''spolium'' "rawhide", Greek ''aspalon'' "skin, hide", ''spolas'' "flayed skin", Old Irish ''sliss'' "slice", Lithuanian ''spaliai'' "sheaves of flax", Old Church Slavonic ''rasplatiti'' "to cleave, split", Sanskrit ''sphatayati'' "it splits"

★ ''rhomphaia'' — "a spear"; later the meaning "sword" is attested, dialect Bul. roféya, rufia "a thunderbolt", Alb. rrufë; cf. Latin ''rumpere'' "to break, tear", Old English ''reofan'' "to tear, break"

★ ''skálmē'' — "a knife, a sword"; IE
★ skolmā, cf. Old Norse ''skolm'' "short sword, knife"

★ ''skárke'' — "a coin"; IE
★ skerg "to jingle", cf. Old Norse ''skark'' "noise", Sanskrit ''kharjati'' "to creak, crunch"

★ ''spinos'' — "a stone which burns when water is poured on it"

★ ''torelle'' — "a lament, a song of mourning"

★ ''zalmós'', ''zelmis'' — "a hide, skin" ; IE
★ k'elm, k'olm, cf. G ''Helm'' "helmet", Lith ''šálmas'', OPruss ''salmis'' "helmet", OSl ''šlĕmŭ'', Skt ''śárman'' "cover"

★ ''zeira'', ''zira'' — "a type of upper garment"

★ ''zelas'' — "wine"; IE
★ g'hēlo, cf. Sanskrit ''hālā'' "brandy", Greek ''khális'' "pure wine", Russian ''zelye'' "a fermented or witch's brew",

★ ''zetraía'' — "a pot"; IE
★ g'heutr, Grk. ''khútra'' "pipkin"

★ ''zibythides'' — "the noble Thracian men and women", Lith. ''zhibut'' "fire, light", Serb. ''shibytsa "a lightening stick", Bul. ''shibam "to hit, to whip" .
In addition there are many words and probable words extracted from anthroponyms, toponyms, hydronyms, oronyms and other lexical elements found in ancient and Byzantine sources (see also List of ancient Thracian cities):

★ ''-disza'', ''-diza'', ''-dizos'' — "a fortified settlement" compare to Slavic ''zidati'', ''sozidati'', ''(po)dizati'' "to build"

★ ''-para'', ''-pera'', ''-paron'', etc. — "a town"
A number of probable Thracian words are found in inscriptions (most of them written with Greek script) on buildings, coins, and other artifacts (see inscriptions below).
Another source for the Thracian vocabulary are words of unknown or disputed etymology found in Bulgarian (see Bulgarian lexis)as well as Romanian (see Eastern Romance substratum). Albanian is sometimes regarded as a descendant of Dacian or Thracian, or as a descendant of Illyrian with a Daco-Thracic admixture; thus the Albanian lexis is another source.
Thracian words in the Ancient Greek lexicon are also proposed. Greek lexical elements may derive from Thracian, such as ''balios'' ("dappled"; < PIE ''
★ bhel-'', "to shine"; Pokorny also cites Illyrian as a possible source), ''bounos'', "hill, mound", etc.

Inscriptions

Only four Thracian insciptions have been found. One is a gold ring found in 1912 in the town of Ezerovo, Bulgaria. The ring was dated to the 5th century BC. On the ring is an inscription written in a Greek script which says:
:ΡΟΛΙΣΤΕΝΕΑΣΝ / ΕΡΕΝΕΑΤΙΛ / ΤΕΑΝΗΣΚΟΑ / ΡΑΖΕΑΔΟΜ / ΕΑΝΤΙΛΕΖΥ / ΠΤΑΜΙΗΕ / ΡΑΖ / ΗΛΤΑ
:'rolisteneasn/ereneatil/teanēskoa/razeadom/eantilezu/ptamiēe/raz/ēlta'
The meaning of the inscription is not known, and it bears no resemblance to any known language. Thracologists such as Georgiev and Dechev have proposed various translations for the inscription but these are just guesses.
A second inscription was found in 1965 near the village of Kyolmen, Preslav district, dating to the 6th century BC. It consists of 56 letters of the Greek alphabet, probably a tomb stele inscription similar to the Phrygian ones:
:ΕΒΑΡ. ΖΕΣΑΣΝ ΗΝΕΤΕΣΑ ΙΓΕΚ.Α / ΝΒΛΑΒΑΗΕΓΝ / ΝΥΑΣΝΛΕΤΕΔΝΥΕΔΝΕΙΝΔΑΚΑΤΡ.Σ
:'ebar. zesasn ēnetesa igek. a / nblabaēgn / nuasnletednuedneindakatr.s'
A third inscription is again on a ring, found in Duvanli, Plovdiv district, next to the left hand of a skeleton. It dates to the 5th century BC. The ring has the image of a horseman with the inscription surrounding the image. It is only partly legible (16 out of the initial 21)
:ΗΖΙΗ ..... ΔΕΛΕ / ΜΕΖΗΝΑΙ
:'ēziē ..... dele / mezēnai'
ΜΕΖΗΝΑΙ likely corresponds to Menzana, the Messapian "horse deity" to which horses were sacrificed, compared also to Albanian ''mëz, mâz'' "poney" (borrowed into Romanian as ''mânz'' "colt"), derived either from PIE "virile" or PIE "to suckle".
These are the longest inscriptions preserved. The remaining ones are mostly single words or names on vessels and other artefacts. In addition, Thracian lexical elements have been drawn from inscriptions in Greek or Latin.
In a Latin inscription from Rome discussing a citizen from the Roman province of Thracia, the phrase ''Midne potelense'' is found; this is interpreted as indicating the Thracian's place of origin, ''midne'' being seen as the Thracian equivalent of Latin ''vicus'', "village". If this is correct, the Thracian word has a close cognate (Latv. ''mitne'', "a dwelling") in Latvian, a Baltic language.It could be connected also to the Bulgarian term for dwelling place "mitnitsa".

Classification

Thracian was an Indo-European language, a satem language. The details of its affiliation and place within Indo-European remain unclear (see Classification of Thracian).

Extinction

Most of the Thracians were eventually Hellenized (in the province of Thrace) or Romanized (in Moesia, Dacia, etc.), with the last remnants surviving in remote areas until the 5th century.^[3]. Some Thracian tribes have probably been Slavicized, after the Slavic re-settlements to the south of the Danube river and eventually merged with the invading Slavs and Bulgars, to form the Bulgarian nation (8-10th century).

Notes

1. This is confirmed among others by Benjamin W. Fortson in his ''Indo-European Language and Culture'', when he states that "all attempts to relate Thracian to Phrygian, Illyrian, or Dacian ... are ... purely speculative" (p. 90)
2. The Language of the Thracians
3. A Concise History of Bulgaria, R. J. Crampton, , , Cambridge University Press, 1997, ISBN 0-521-56719-X

See also

★ Thraco-Illyrian

★ Greek language

★ Dacian language

★ Illyrian languages

★ Paionian language

★ Phrygian language

★ Ancient Macedonian language

★ Thraco-Roman

Literature

★ I. I. Russu, ''Limba Traco-Dacilor'' / ''Die Sprache der Thrako-Daker'', Bucharest (1967, 1969)

External links

★ The Language of the Thracians, an English translation of Ivan Duridanov's 1975 essay ''Ezikyt na trakite''

★ Thracian glossary

★ Zelas Wine