Thracian language

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

Geographic distribution

Excluding Dacian, whose status as a Thracian language is disputed, Thracian was spoken in substantial numbers in what is now southern Bulgaria, parts of Serbia, the Republic of Macedonia, Northern Greece (especially prior to Ancient Macedonian expansion), Albania, throughout European Turkey and in parts of North-Western Asiatic Turkey (e.g., Bithynia).

Including Dacian/Getian, it was spoken in Romania, northern Bulgaria, parts of Serbia, the Republic of Moldova, western-central Ukraine, and eastern Hungary and Slovak Republic 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 ^* (this list excludes Dacian plant names which however are sometimes included):

asa — A Bessian word for the Coltsfoot.
bolinthos — "wild bull, bison"
bria — "town"
brynchos — "guitar"; cf. Romanian broancă "a stringed instrument", Russian brenčat' "playing on a stringed instrument", Pol brzek "ringing, tinkle", Ukraine brjak "ringing, sound"
brytos, bryton, brutos, bryttion — "a kind of ale made from barley" ; cf. E broth, Welsh brwd "brewage", Lat defrutum "must boiled down", Gk apéphrysen "to seethe, boil", Skt bhurati "he quivers", Alb brumë "dough"
dinupula, *sinupyla — "wild pumpkin"; cf. Macedonian dinya a watermelon, Lith šúnobuolas wild pumpkin, Alb thënukël dogberry
genton — "meat"
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 false helleborine, Veratrum nigrum
rhomphaia — "a spear"; later the meaning "sword" is attested
skalme — "a knife, a sword"
skarke — "a coin"
spinos — "a stone which burns when water is poured on it"
torelle — "a lament, a song of mourning"
zalmos, zelmis — "a hide, skin" ; cf. G Helm "helmet", Lith šálmas, OPruss salmis "helmet", OSl šlĕmŭ, Skt śárman "cover"
zeira, zira — "a type of upper garment"
zelas — "wine"
zetraia — "a pot"
zibythides — "the noble Thracian men and women"

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"
-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), Romanian (see Eastern Romance substratum), and Macedonian. 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:

ΡΟΛΙΣΤΕΝΑΣΝ / ΕΡΕΝΕΑΤΙΛ / ΤΕΑΝΗΣΚΟΑ / ΡΑΖΕΑΔΟΜ / ΕΑΝΤΙΛΕΖΥ / ΠΤΑΜΙΗΕ / ΡΑΖ / ΗΛΤΑ

rolisteneasn /ereneatil / teanēskoa / razeadom / eantilezy / 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 Kjolmen, 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. ΖΕΣΑ ΑΣΝ ΗΝΕΤΕΣΑ ΙΓΕΚ.Α / ΝΒΛΑΒΑΗΕΓΝ / ΝΘΑΣΝΛΕΤΕΔΝΘΕΔΝΕΙΝΔΑΚΑΤΡ.Σ

ebar. zesa asn ēnetesa igek. a / nblabaēegn / 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 mes, mezi and Romanian mânz "colt", derived from PIE "horse".

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.). Small groups of Thracian speakers however may still have existed when the Slavs arrived in the Balkans in the 6th century, and theoretically some Thracians may have become Slavicized. Scholars have even proposed that the present-day Albanians may be direct descendants of Thracians who were not assimilated to an invading people, but this is controversial.

Notes

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)

Literature

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

External links