Mysian language
| Mysian | |
|---|---|
| Region | Mysia |
| Ethnicity | Mysians |
| Extinct | 1st century BC |
Indo-European
| |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | yms |
yms | |
| Glottolog | mysi1239 |
TheMysian languagewas spoken byMysiansinhabitingMysiain north-westAnatolia.
Little is known about the Mysian language. Strabo noted that it was, "in a way, a mixture of theLydianandPhrygian languages".[1]As such, the Mysian language could be a language of theAnatolianor Phrygian group. However, a passage inAthenaeussuggests that the Mysian language was akin to the barely attestedPaeonian languageofPaeonia,north ofMacedon.
Inscription[edit]
Only one inscription is known that may be in the Mysian language. It has seven lines of about 20 signs each, written from right to left (sinistroverse), but the first two lines are very incomplete. The inscription dates from between the 5th and 3rd centuries BCE and was found in 1926 byChristopher William Machell CoxandArchibald Cameronin Üyücek village, 15 km due south ofTavşanlı,in the Tavşanlı district ofKütahyaprovince, near the outskirts of the classical Phrygian territory.[2]The text seems to includeIndo-Europeanwords.[3][4]
The alphabet used resembles theOld-Phrygian alphabet,but some signs are quite different:[5]
| sign |  , |
 |
Δ? |  , |
 |
I |  |
 |
 |
 |
 , |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
| |
| Phrygian equivalent |  |
|
 |
Λ, Δ | , |
|
I |  |
 |
|
|
O |  |
|
 |
T |  |
 |
|
| transcription | a | b | g | d | e | v | i | k | l | m | n | o | p | r | s | t | u | y |
|
| phoneme | /a/, /a:/ |
/b/ | /g/ | /d/ | /e/, /e:/ |
/w/ | /i/, /i:/ |
/k/ | /l/ | /m/ | /n/ | /o/, /o:/ |
/p/ | /r/ | /s/ | /t/ | /u/, /u:/ |
/j/ | /ts/? |
In the past there has been much confusion concerning thesibilantsin the alphabet. Initially it was thought that thesign represented a sibilant, transcribed asšorz,but since 1969 it is known that it actually denoted a /j/ sound, transcribed asy.Thesign was thought to be a sound not present in the regular Old-Phrygian alphabet and dubbed the "Mysian s", transcribed as ś, but it was in fact the regulars.Thesign was formerly transcribeds,but it is in fact the equivalent of the Phrygiansign, probably denoting a /z/, /zd/, or /ts/ sound.[6]
It is uncertain whether the inscription renders a text in the Mysian language or if it is simply a Phrygian dialect from the region of Mysia. Brixhe, discussing the existing literature on the inscription, argues that the language is Phrygian.[7]The seventh line can be read as:
- [.]lakes braterais patriyioisk[e]
The words "braterais patriyioisk[e]" have been proposed to mean something like "(for)[8]brothers and fathers / relatives ":[9]
- brateraisis related to Phrygian βρατερε, Greek φρατήρ, Latinfrater,Englishbrother;
- patriyioisis related to New-Phrygianpat(e)res(πατερης, πατρες: 'parents'), Greek πάτριος ('relative of the father'), Latinpater,Englishfather;
- and-keis a Phrygian suffix meaningand,cf. Greek τε and Latin-que,'and'.[10]
Lakes(or-lakes,a first sign may be missing; alternatively, according to Friedrich, read...likeś[11]) is most probably a personal name.[12]However, Friedrich indicates that the reading is variable, and writes "instead of k also p or a conceivably, instead of e[,] v is possible, instead of ś maybe i." (translated from the original German)[13]
See also[edit]
References[edit]
- ^Strabo."Geography, Book XII, Chapter 8".LacusCurtius.
- ^Cox, C. W. M.; Cameron, A. (1932-12-01)."A native inscription from the Myso-Phrygian Borderland".Klio.25(25): 34–49.doi:10.1524/klio.1932.25.25.34.ISSN2192-7669.S2CID194450722.
- ^"Epigraphical database: Native 'Mysian' inscription".Packard Humanities Institute.
- ^Woudhuizen, Fred. C. (1993)."Old Phrygian: Some Texts and Relations".The Journal of Indo-European Studies.21:1–25.
- ^Brixhe, Claude (2004)."Supplément II Corpus des inscriptions Paléo-Phrygiennes".Kadmos.43(1): 1-130: p. 34.doi:10.1515/kadm.43.1.1.S2CID201122893.Retrieved2021-07-21.(in French)
- ^Brixhe (2004), pp. 26-29.
- ^Brixhe (2004), pp. 32-42.
- ^The endings -ais and -ois look likedativesPlural, but Brixhe (2004), pp. 41-42, argues that they are probablyaccusativesPlural. Obrador Cursach agrees:Obrador Cursach, Bartomeu (2018).Lexicon of the Phrygian Inscriptions(PDF).Doctoral dissertation, Universitat de Barcelona. p. 159.Retrieved2021-07-06.
- ^Blažek, Václav. “Indo-European kinship terms in *-ə̯2TER.” (2001). In:Grammaticvs: studia linguistica Adolfo Erharto quinque et septuagenario oblata.Šefčík, Ondřej (editor); Vykypěl, Bohumil (editor). Vyd. 1. V Brně: Masarykova univerzita, 2001. p. 24.http://hdl.handle.net/11222.digilib/123188
- ^Obrador Cursach (2018), pp. 159, 216, 267.
- ^See J. Friedrich (1932), Kleinasiatische Sprachdenkmäler, 141.
- ^See J. Friedrich (1932), Kleinasiatische Sprachdenkmäler, 140–141.
- ^See J. Friedrich (1932), Kleinasiatische Sprachdenkmäler, 142, fn. 7.