Thracian language

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

Geographic distribution

Limits of the (southern) Thracian linguistic territory according to Ivan Duridanov,1985

Thracian was spoken in what is now the southern half of Bulgaria, eastern Serbia, eastern Republic of Macedonia, Northern Greece, European Turkey and in parts of Bithynia (North-Western Asiatic Turkey). The Dacian-Getian language, the northern branch of Thracian, was spoken in Romania, the region of Dobrudja, the northern half of Bulgaria, north-eastern Serbia, the Republic of Moldova, western-central Ukraine, eastern Hungary, and in southern Poland and eastern Slovakia as well. Many Bulgarian Thracologists tend to consider Dacian and Thracian as distinct languages descending from an immediate common ancestor and group them together as Daco-Thracian or Thraco-Dacian.

Sources

Little is known for certain about the Thracian language beyond the fact that it was a member of the Indo-European language family. Thracian is attested only by a few short inscriptions and a few words cited in Ancient Greek texts^[1]. A few possible lexical items have been proposed on the basis of local anthroponyms, toponyms, hydronyms and oronyms mentioned in primary sources (see also List of ancient Thracian cities):

Thracian words in the Ancient Greek lexicon are also proposed, such as balios ("dappled"; < PIE *bhel-, "to shine". Pokorny also cites Illyrian as a possible source), bounos, "hill, mound", etc.

Inscriptions

The golden ring from Ezerovo.

Only four Thracian inscriptions of any length 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.

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 / ΝΒΛΑΒΑΗΓΝ / 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)

ΗΥΖΙΗ.....ΔΕΛΕ / ΜΕΖΗΝΑΙ

ēuziē.....dele / mezēnai

These are the longest inscriptions preserved. The remaining ones are mostly single words or names on vessels and other artifacts.

Classification

The classification of the Thracian language has long been a matter of contention and uncertainty, and there are widely varying hypotheses regarding the position of Thracian among the Paleo-Balkan languages. It may have been coterminous or closely related to Dacian, another Paleo-Balkan language from the region, though any relationship is speculative because both languages are minimally attested. ^[2]

Extinction

Most of the Thracians were eventually Hellenized or Romanized, with the last remnants surviving in remote areas until the 5th century.^[3]

See also

• Thraco-Illyrian
• Greek language
• Dacian language
• Illyrian languages
• Paeonian language
• Phrygian language
• Ancient Macedonian language
• Thraco-Roman

References

Further reading

• V.I. Georgiev, Introduction to the History of the Indo-European Languages, Sofia (1981).
• I.I. Russu, Limba Traco-Dacilor / Die Sprache der Thrako-Daker, Bucharest (1967, 1969).
• Paul Kretschmer, "Glotta", in: Zeitschrift für griechische und lateinische Sprache 7, 1915.
• Keith Massey, "Further Evidence for an "Italic" Substratum in Romanian," in Philologie im Netz 43/2008, pp. 11-16.

External links

• The Language of the Thracians, an English translation of Ivan Duridanov's 1975 essay Ezikyt na trakite
• Sorin Olteanu's Thraco-Daco-Moesian Languages Project (SoLTDM) (sources, thesaurus, textual criticism, phonetics and morphology, substratum, historical geography a.o.)
• Thracian glossary