Elymian language
| Elymian | |
|---|---|
| Spoken in | Sicily |
| Extinct | 4rd century BCE? |
| Language family | |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | xly |
The Elymian language is the extinct language of the ancient Elymian people of western Sicily. It is not known whether Elymian was an Indo-European tongue. The limited and fragmentary nature of the surviving sources makes it very difficult to identify its affinities with other regional languages; it has been speculated that Elymian was related to the Italic languages, though this interpretation is disputed.
Only a handful of Elymian texts have survived. These comprise a few placenames and personal names; several coins inscribed in Greek script with the names of Elymian cities; and around 170 fragments of pottery inscribed in Greek script, found in the ruined Elymian city of Segesta. All of the texts date to between the 6th and 4th centuries BC. The majority are very short and fragmentary (only a few characters), with the small number of longer texts apparently containing a name, sometimes followed by "I am". A vase found at Montedoro, around 15 km southwest of Palermo, features the only known complete inscription in Elymian. Tentatively translated, it may be read as "I [the pot] am [a gift] for/by Ata Tuka".
The problem of the identification of Elymian language can be summarized under two main positions. Some[who?] historical linguists agree that some peculiarities of that tongue, like non-alphabetic symbols engraved on some dedicational fragments of pots, and genitive in -ai found in almost all the complete sequences, are aspects of its non-Hellenic Eastern origin. Other historical linguists classify it as Indo-European on the basis of some affinities with Italic languages. At this point, the problem of its linguistic affiliation can receive new light only with the carrying out of archaeological investigations in Elymian settlements in western Sicily.(Antonino Rizzo).
[edit] References
- Peter Schrijver, "Elymian", in Encyclopedia of the Languages of Europe, ed. Glanville Price. Blackwell Publishing, 2000. ISBN 0-631-22039-9
| This Indo-European languages-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |
