Phrygian language
Ancient Greek authors used "Phrygian" as an umbrella term to describe a vast ethno-cultural complex located mainly in the central areas of Anatolia rather than a name of a single "tribe" or "people".
[6] Because of the fragmentary evidence of Phrygian, its exact position within the Indo-European language family is uncertain.
[9][10][11][12][13] Ancient authors like Herodotus and Hesychius have provided us with a few dozen words assumed to be Phrygian, so-called glosses.
[14] In modern times the first monument with a Phrygian text, found at Ortaköy (classical Orcistus), was described in 1752.
Later, when Western archeologists, historians and other scholars began to travel through Anatolia to become acquainted with the geographical background of Homer's world and the New Testament, more monuments were discovered.
This allowed German scholar Andreas David Mordtmann to undertake the first serious attempt to decipher the script, though he overstressed the parallels of Phrygian to Armenian, which led to some false conclusions.
In the 20th century, the understanding of Phrygian has increased, due to a steady flow of new texts, more reliable transcriptions, and better knowledge of the Indo-European sound change laws.
[20][23][24][13] Also Macedonian and Thracian, ancient languages of the Balkans, are often regarded as being closely related to Phrygian, however they are considered problematic sources for comparison due to their scarce attestation.
[20] The reason that in the past Phrygian had the guise of a satem language was due to two secondary processes that affected it.
Furthermore, Kortlandt (1988) presented common sound changes of Thracian and Armenian and their separation from Phrygian and the rest of the palaeo-Balkan languages from an early stage.
[3][9][30] An alternative theory, suggested by Eric P. Hamp, is that Phrygian was most closely related to Italo-Celtic languages.
New Phrygian was written in the Greek alphabet between the 1st and 3rd centuries CE and is restricted to the western part of ancient Phrygia, in central Anatolia.
Some scholars identify a third division, Middle Phrygian, which is represented by a single inscription from Dokimeion.
It is a Phrygian epitaph consisting of six hexametric verses written in eight lines, and dated to the end of the 4th century BCE, following the Macedonian conquest.
Three graffiti from Gordion, from the 4th to the 2nd centuries BCE, are ambiguous in terms of the alphabet used as well as their linguistic stage, and might also be considered Middle Phrygian.
Examples (note that mekas corresponds to Greek μέγας, big, great, and that -τετικμενος and γεγρειμενος parallel Greek Perfect Passive participles with reduplication and ending in -menos):[52] Due to the limited textual material, the conjugation of Phrygian verbs can only be determined very incompletely.
As to mood, indicative and imperative are clearly documented, but suspected subjunctive forms and an optative (the latter with typical -oi- infix) need confirmation.
eberet, probably corresponding to Proto-Indo-European *e-bher-e-t (Ancient Greek: épʰere with loss of the final t, Sanskrit: ábharat), although comparison to examples like ios ... addaket 'who does ... to', which is not a past tense form (perhaps subjunctive), shows that -et may be from the Proto-Indo-European (PIE) primary ending *-eti.
According to Herodotus (Histories 2.2), Pharaoh Psammetichus I wanted to determine the oldest nation and establish the world's original language.
After two years, the shepherd reported that on entering their chamber, the children came up to him, extending their hands, calling bekos.
[59][60] According to Clement of Alexandria, the Phrygian word bedu (βέδυ) meaning 'water' (PIE *wed-) appeared in Orphic ritual.
[63] Lejeune identified the term as *bʰagom, in the meaning 'a gift, dedication' (PIE *bʰag- 'to apportion, give a share').
But Hesychius of Alexandria mentions a Bagaios, Phrygian Zeus (Βαγαῖος Ζεὺς Φρύγιος) and interprets the name as δοτῆρ ἑάων 'giver of good things'.
Mallory and Adams agree that the word Bagaios was an epithet to the Phrygian worship of Zeus that derived from the same root.
The only examples date from after Alexander the Great's conquest of Asia Minor (334 BCE), and they probably originated in imitation of Greek metrical epitaphs.
The clearest example is the so-called "Middle Phrygian" inscription mentioned above, which consists of six dactylic hexameter lines.
Also, as Lubotsky has proposed, the traditional Phrygian damnation formula on grave monuments may have been slightly reformulated to fit into a two-line hexametric shape (the stress accents, or ictus, on the first syllable of each dactylus are in boldface):[65] Alliteration ('b-, b-, b-') may be intended in a peculiar clause found on two New-Phrygian grave monuments from Erten (near Yazılıkaya) and Güney: (Bas is suspected to be a Phrygian fertility god.
