Paeonian language
| Paeonian | |
|---|---|
| Spoken in | northern Greece, Republic of Macedonia, Kosovo, southwestern Bulgaria |
| Extinct | probably 1st century BC--2nd century AD |
| Language family |
Indo-European
|
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | xli |
The Paeonian language is the poorly attested language of the ancient Paeonians, whose kingdom once stretched north of Macedon into Dardania and in earlier times into southwestern Thrace.
Several Paeonian words are known from classical sources:
- monapos, monaipos, a wild bull
- tilôn, a species of fish once found in Lake Prasias
- paprax, a species of fish once found in Lake Πρασιάς. Paprakas, masc. acc. pl.
A number of anthroponyms (some known only from Paeonian coinage) are attested Agis (Άγις), Patraos (Πατράος), Lycpeios (Λύκπειος), Audoleon (Αυδολέων), Eupolemenos (Ευπολεμένος), Ariston (Αρίστων), etc. as well as several toponyms (Bylazora (Βυλαζώρα), Astibos (Άστιβος) and a few theonyms (Dryalus, Dyalos (Δρύαλος), the Paeonian Dionysus), as well as the following:
- Pontos, affluent of the Strumica River, perhaps from *ponktos, "boggy" (cf. German feucht, "wet", Middle Irish éicne "salmon", Sanskrit pánka "mud, mire", pontos "passage", "way" Greek);
- Idomene (Ιδομένη) (nowadays Gevgelija), name of a city (cf. Greek Idomeneus, proper name in Homer, "Ida", mountain in Crete);
- Stoboi (nowadays Gradsko), name of a city, from *stob(h) (cf. Old Prussian stabis "rock", Old Church Slavonic stoboru, "pillar", Old English stapol, "post", Ancient Greek stobos, "scolding, bad language");
- Dysoron (Δύσορον) (nowadays Dysoro (Δύσορο)), name of a mountain, from "dys-", "bad" (cf. Greek dyskolos "difficult", and "oros" Greek oros, "mountain");
- Agrianes, name of a tribe, possibly from[citation needed] *agro- "field" (cf. Latin ager, Greek agros with cognates in the Greek tribe of Agraioi who lived on the Acheloos and the name of the month Agrianos or quite possibly from Greek agrios, "unrully", "wild".
Classical sources usually considered the Paeonians distinct from Thracians or Illyrians, comprising their own ethnicity and language. Athenaeus seems to have connected the Paeonian tongue to the Mysian language, itself barely attested, which, if correct, would make Paeonian an Anatolian language.
On the other hand, the Paeonians were also regarded as being related to Thracians and ancestors of the Phrygians.
Modern linguists are uncertain on the classification of Paeonian, due to the extreme scarcity of materials we have on this language. Wilhelm Tomaschek and Paul Kretschmer claim it belonged to the Illyrian family, and Dimiter Dečev claims affinities with Thracian. Irwin L. Merker considers Paionian Hellenic and closely related to Greek, a Hellenic language with "a great deal of Illyrian and Thracian influence as a result of this proximity".[1]
The Indo-European voiced aspirates (*bh, *dh, etc.) became plain voiced consonants (/b/, /d/, etc.), just like in Illyrian, Thracian, and Phrygian.
[edit] References
- ^ "The Ancient Kingdom of Paionia,". Balkan Studies 6. 1965.
- Francisco Villar. Gli Indoeuropei e le origini dell'Europa. Il Mulino, 1997. ISBN 88-15-05708-0
