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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 identification as a Thracian language is disputed by some authors, Thracian was spoken in substantial numbers in what is now most of Bulgaria, eastern Serbia, eastern Republic of Macedonia, Northern Greece (especially prior to Ancient Macedonian expansion), European Turkey and in parts of Bithynia (North-Western Asiatic Turkey).

Including Dacian-Getian it was spoken in Romania, the region of Dobrudja, north - eastern Serbia, the Republic of Moldova, western-central Ukraine, and eastern Hungary 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

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 (the list below excludes Dacian plant names which however are often included). In addition there are many words and probable words extracted from anthroponyms, toponyms, hydronyms, oronyms and other lexical elements found in the primary sources (see also List of ancient Thracian cities):

	attestation	English meaning	etymology	cognates
asa		A Bessian word for the Coltsfoot		Lithuanian dial. asỹs "horse-tail," Latvian. aši, ašas "horse-tail, sedge, rush," rel. to Latv. ašs, ass "sharp", , Lith aštrùs "sharp"
bolinthos		"wild bull"	PIE *bhel-, "to swell"	Bulgarian vol English bull
bria		"town, settlement"	1) after Pokorny, from PIE wriyā. 2)Olteanu, PIE gwer-, "heavy, strong"	1) Mycenean rijo "promontory", Bulgarian rid "promontory", Greek ríon "id", Tocharian A ri, Tocharian B rīye "town". 2) Greek barus, "heavy"
bríloun		"barber"	IE *bhrī-l	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"	1) PIE wrīg'h 2) PIE breg'h	1) Bulgarian brica "type of summer grain"; Sanskrit vrīhis "rice" 2) Norwegian brok "kind of grass"
brynchos		"guitar"	PIE *bhrm.kos	Greek (Aeolian) phórmynx; Romanian broancă, "a stringed instrument"; 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"
brytos, bryton, brutos, bryttion		"a kind of ale made from barley"	PIE *bhrūto	English 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"
deiza, disza, diza, dizos		"a fortified settlement"	PIE *dheigh-, "to knead clay"	Greek teichos ("wall"), Avestan daeza "wall", Slavic zidati, sozidati, (po)dizati "to build"
dinupula, *sinupyla (reconstructed from ms.), kinoboila (Dacian)		"wild pumpkin"		Lithuanian šúnobuolas wild pumpkin, Albanian thënukël dogberry, Bulg. dinya, "watermelon"
génton		"meat"	PIE *g^whento "struck, cut"	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"
germe		"warm"	PIE *gwher-, "warm"	Greek thermos, "warm"
kalamandar		"Plane tree"
kemos		"a kind of fruit with follicles"
ktistai (pl.)		"Thracians living in celibacy, monks"
manteia
mendruta		a Moesian name for the beet or alternatively the black hellebore, Veratrum nigrum
mezenai
para, pera, peron		"town"
rhomphaia		"a spear"; later the meaning "sword" is attested		dialect Bul. roféya, rufia "a thunderbolt", Alb. rrufë; Latin rumpere "to break, tear", Old English reofan "to tear, break"
sica
skálmē		"a knife, a sword"	PIE *skolmā	Old Norse skolm "short sword, knife"
skárke		"a coin"	PIE *skerg "to jingle"	Old Norse skark "noise", Sanskrit kharjati "to creak, crunch"
spinos		"a stone which burns when water is poured on it"
titha	from Diana Germetitha ("Diana of the warm bosom")	Olteanu (et al.?) interprets this lexical element as "bosom, breasts, tit(s)"		ancient Greek titthos, "breast, tit", West Germanic titta (id.), Latin titia (id.), Albanian thitha "nipples"
torelle		"a lament, a song of mourning"
zalmós, zelmis		"a hide, skin"	PIE *k'elm, k'olm	German Helm "helmet", Lith šálmas, OPruss salmis "helmet", OSl šlĕmŭ, Skt śárman "cover"
zeira, zira		"a type of upper garment"
zelas		"wine"	PIE *g'hēlo	ancient Macedonian kalithos, "wine", Sanskrit hālā "brandy", Greek khális "pure wine", Russian zelye "a fermented or witch's brew"
zetraía		"a pot"	PIE *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" .

Other lexical elements 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 inscriptions 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.

The American linguist Keith Massey has proposed a controversial reading of the ring. He points to the apparent occurrence of a singular and plural series of the same phrase: ΕΑΤΙΛ (eatil) followed later by ΕΑΝΤΙΛΕ (eantile). Massey suggests that seeing the language as akin to the Italic family would allow an understanding "May he go" and "May they go" (cf. Latin eat ille and eant illī). Further recoveries would then be ΤΕΝΕΑΣ (teneas), "may you hold" (cf., Latin teneas) and ΔΟΜ (dom), "house" (cf., Latin domus, already noted by Kretschmer). Massey declines to press more, purely speculative, readings out of the inscription.

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

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 is not contested however that Thracian was an Indo-European language which had acquired satem characteristics by the time it is attested.

A Daco-Thracian grouping is widely held. The problem of the classification of Thracian can thus be seen as the wider problem of the classification of Daco-Thracian and its place within the Indo-European language family. Older models often linked Thracian and Dacian to the Illyrian language. This grouping is contested.

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.. 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

Literature

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
Zelas Wine