# Thracian language

The Thracian language (/ˈθreɪʃən/) is an extinct and poorly attested language, spoken in ancient times in Southeast Europe by the Thracians. The linguistic affinities of the Thracian language are poorly understood, but it is generally agreed that it was an Indo-European language.
The point at which Thracian became extinct is a matter of dispute. However, it is generally accepted that Thracian was still in use in the 6th century AD: Antoninus of Piacenza wrote in 570 that there was a monastery in the Sinai, at which the monks spoke Greek, Latin, Syriac, Egyptian, and Bessian – a Thracian dialect.
A classification put forward by Harvey Mayer, suggests that Thracian (and Dacian) belonged to the Baltic branch of Indo-European, or at least is closer to Baltic than any other Indo-European branch. However, this theory has not achieved the status of a general consensus among linguists. These are among many competing hypotheses regarding the classification and fate of Thracian.

## Geographic distribution

The Thracian language or languages were spoken in what is now Bulgaria, Romania, North Macedonia, Northern Greece, European Turkey and in parts of Bithynia (North-Western Asiatic Turkey).

## Remnants of the Thracian language

Little is known for certain about the Thracian language, since no text has been satisfactorily deciphered. Some of the longer inscriptions may be Thracian in origin but they may simply reflect jumbles of names or magical formulas.
Enough Thracian lexical items have survived to show that Thracian was a member of the Indo-European language family.
Besides the aforementioned inscriptions, Thracian may be attested through personal names, toponyms, hydronyms, phytonyms, divine names, etc. and by a small number of words cited in Ancient Greek texts as being specifically Thracian.
There are 23 words mentioned by ancient sources considered explicitly of Thracian origin and known meaning. Of the words that are preserved in ancient glossaries, in particular by Hesychius, only three dozen can be considered "Thracian". However, Indo-European scholars have pointed out that "even the notion that what the ancients called "Thracian" was a single entity is unproven." The table below lists potential cognates from Indo-European languages, but most of them have not found general acceptance within Indo-European scholarship. Not all lexical items in Thracian are assumed to be from the Proto-Indo-European language, some non-IE lexical items in Thracian are to be expected.
| Word | Meaning | Attested by | Cognates | Notes |
| ἄσα (asa) | colt's foot (Bessi) | Dioskurides | Lit. dial. asỹs 'horse-tail, Equisetum', Latv. aši, ašas 'horse-tail, sedge, rush' | The etymology of both Baltic words is unclear and extra-Baltic cognates have yet to be established. |
| βόλινθος (bólinthos) | aurochs, European bison | Aristotle | Proto-Slavic *volъ ("ox"). Per Beekes, Pre-Greek. | See also Gk. βοῦς 'cow', but Latv. govs ' id ' both < PIE *g$^w$ṓws. Proto-Slavic *vòlъ has no extra-Slavic cognates. |
| βρία (bría) | unfortified village | Hesychius, compare the Toponyms Πολτυμβρία, Σηλυ(μ)μβρία, and Βρέα in Thrace. | Compared to Greek ῥίον (ríon; "peak, foothills") and Tocharian A ri, B riye ("town") as if < *urih₁-. Alternatively, compare Proto-Celtic *brix- ("hill"). | Gk ῥίον has no clear etymology. The Toch lemmata may be related. |
| βρίζα (bríza) | rye | Galen | Perhaps of Eastern origin, compare Greek ὄρυζα, Sanskrit vrīhí- ("rice"). | The 'rice' words in Gk and IIr are wanderworts. The Gk word may be borrowed from an Eastern Iranian language. |
| βρυνχός (brynkhós) | kithara | | Compared with Slavic *bręčati "to ring". | The Proto-Slavic lemma is reconstructed based exclusively on Serbo-Croatian brecati 'twang, be insolent' and consequently may not even be reconstructable to its own proto-language as there are no external or internal comparanda. It may be onomatopoetic in nature. Furthermore, there is a grave issue with the inscription, as Gk /ŋ/ is written with a gamma before a velar, i.e., this word should be written βρυγχός, which it is not. |
| βρῦτος (brŷtos) | beer of barley | many | Slavic "vriti" (to boil), Germanic *bruþa- ("broth"), Old Irish bruth ("glow"), Latin dē-frŭtum ("must boiled down"). |
| dinupula, si/nupyla | wild melon | Pseudoapuleus | Lithuanian šùnobuolas, lit. ("dog's apple"), or with Slavic *dynja ("melon"). Per Vladimir Georgiev, derived from *kun-ābōlo- or *kun-ābulo- 'hound's apple'. | Proto-Slavic *dyña (from earlier *kъdyña is most likely borrowed from Gk. κῠδώνῐον via Lat. cydōnia. |
| γέντον (génton) | meat | Herodian., Suid., Hesych | Possibly descended from IE *gʷʰn̥tó- 'strike, kill', cf. Sanskrit hatá- 'hit, killed' | The adjective *gʷʰn̥tós in the zero-grade has an *-s in the nom.sg., whereas in Thracian the word ends in a nasal, which is a serious issue that requires morphological remodelling in Thracian for it to be posited as the starting point for Thracian γέντον. Furthermore, the e-grade vowel of the Thracian potential avatar remains to be explained as well if from an original PIE *gʷʰn̥tós. |
| καλαμίνδαρ (kalamíndar) | plane-tree (Edoni) | Hesych. | |
| κη̃μος (kêmos) | a kind of fruit with follicle | Phot. Lex. | |
| κτίσται (ktístai) | Ctistae | Strabo | |
| midne (in a Latin inscription, thus not written with Gk alphabet) | village | inscription from Rome | Latvian mītne 'a place of stay', Avestan maēϑana- 'dwelling' |
| Πολτυμ(βρία) (poltym-bría) | board fence, a board tower | | Old English speld 'wood, log' | The OE lemma is poorly understood and extra-Germanic cognates are few and far between. OE speld may have descended from a PIE root *(s)pley- which is poorly attested and does not seem to be a formal match to the Thracian term. |
| ῥομφαία (rhomphaía) | broadsword | | Compared with Latin rumpō ("to rupture"), Slavic: Russian разрубать, Polish rąbać ("to hack", "to chop", "to slash"), Polish rębajło ("eager swordsman"), Serbo-Croatian rmpalija ("bruiser") | The Slavic terms here must come from a medial *-b$^h$-, whereas Lat. rumpō 'I break' must descend from a medial *-p- and therefore those words aren't even cognate with each other, let alone with the Thracian term. |
| σκάλμη (skálmē) | knife, sword | Soph. y Pollux, Marcus Anton., Hesych., Phot. L | Albanian shkallmë ("sword"), Old Norse skolmr 'cleft' | The Albanian term is likely a secondary innovation. ON skolmr is unclear and has no extra-Germanic cognates; it is unlikely to be related to the Thracian term. |
| σκάρκη (skárkē) | a silver coin | Hesych., Phot. Lex. | |
| σπίνος (spínos) | 'a kind of stone, which blazes when water touches it' (i.e. 'lime') | Arist. | PIE *k̑witn̥os 'white, whitish', Greek τίτανος (Attic) and κίττανος (Doric) 'gypsum, chalk, lime'. Although from the same PIE root, Albanian shpâ(ni) 'lime, tartar' and Greek σπίνος 'lime' derive from a secondary origin as they were probably borrowed from Thracian due to phonetic reasons | |
| τορέλλη (toréllē) | a refrain of lament mourn song | Hesych. | |
| ζαλμός (zalmós) | animal hide | Porphyr. | Per Georgiev, derived from *kolmo-s. Related to Gothic hilms, German Helm and Old Iranian sárman 'protection'. | Thracian initial ζ- can either be related to PIE *ḱ (as in these 'cognates' and several below) or to *ǵ$^h$-/*g$^h$- as in the following entry, but not both. There does not exist an OIr word sárman, but a word śárman does exist in Sanskrit. However, Sanskrit ś- must go back to a PIE *ḱ-, not *k- as Georgiev states. |
| ζειρά (zeira) | long robe worn by Arabs and Thracians | Hdt., Xen., Hesych. | Per Georgiev, related to Greek χείρ (kheir) and Phrygian ζειρ (zeir) 'hand'. | See above. The meaning of Phrygian ζειρα(ι) is unknown, not 'hand' as Georgiev believes. |
| ζελᾶ (zelâ), also ζῆλα (zêla), ζηλᾱς (zelās) | wine | many | Compared with Greek χάλις (khális; "unblended wine") and κάλιθος (kálithos; "wine") | See above. |
| ζετραία (zetraía) | pot | Pollux | Per Georgiev, related to Greek χύτρα (khútra) 'pot'. | See above. |
| zibythides | the noble, most holy one | Hesych. | Lith. žibùtė ("shining") |

## Inscriptions

The following are the longest inscriptions preserved. The remaining ones are mostly single words or names on vessels and other artifacts. No translation has been accepted by the larger Indo-European community of scholars.

### Ezerovo inscription

Only four Thracian inscriptions of any length have been found. The first is a gold ring found in 1912 in the village of Ezerovo (Plovdiv Province of Bulgaria); the ring was dated to the 5th century BC. The ring features an inscription in a Greek script consisting of 8 lines, the eighth of which is located on the rim of the rotating disk; it reads without any spaces between: ΡΟΛΙΣΤΕΝΕΑΣΝ / ΕΡΕΝΕΑΤΙΛ / ΤΕΑΝΗΣΚΟΑ / ΡΑΖΕΑΔΟΜ / ΕΑΝΤΙΛΕΖΥ / ΠΤΑΜΙΗΕ / ΡΑΖ // ΗΛΤΑ
Dimitar Dechev (Germanised as D. Detschew) separates the words as follows:
ΡΟΛΙΣΤΕΝΕΑΣ
Rolisteneas
ΝΕΡΕΝΕΑ
Nerenea
ΤΙΛΤΕΑΝ
tiltean
ΗΣΚΟ
ēsko
ΑΡΑΖΕΑ
Arazea
ΔΟΜΕΑΝ
domean
ΤΙΛΕΖΥΠΤΑ
Tilezypta
ΜΙΗ
miē
ΕΡΑ
era
ΖΗΛΤΑ
zēlta
ΡΟΛΙΣΤΕΝΕΑΣ ΝΕΡΕΝΕΑ ΤΙΛΤΕΑΝ ΗΣΚΟ ΑΡΑΖΕΑ ΔΟΜΕΑΝ ΤΙΛΕΖΥΠΤΑ ΜΙΗ ΕΡΑ ΖΗΛΤΑ
Rolisteneas Nerenea tiltean ēsko Arazea domean Tilezypta miē era zēlta
I am Rolisteneas, a descendant of Nereneas; Tilezypta, an Arazian woman, delivered me to the ground.

### Kyolmen inscription

A second inscription, hitherto undeciphered, was found in 1965 near the village of Kyolmen [bg], Varbitsa Municipality, dating to the sixth century BC. Written in a Greek alphabet variant, it is possibly a tomb stele inscription similar to the Phrygian ones; Peter A. Dimitrov's transcription thereof is:
    ΙΛΑΣΝΛΕΤΕΔΝΛΕΔΝΕΝΙΔΑΚΑΤΡΟΣΟ
    ΕΒΑ·ΡΟΖΕΣΑΣΝΗΝΕΤΕΣΑΙΓΕΚΟΑ
    ΝΒΛΑΒΑΗΓΝ
i.e.
    ilasnletednlednenidakatroso
    eba·rozesasnēnetesaigekoa
    nblabaēgn

### Duvanlii inscription

A third inscription is again on a ring, found in Duvanlii [bg], Kaloyanovo Municipality, 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):
ΗΥΖΙΗ
ēuziē
ΔΕΛΕ
dele
ΜΕΖΗΝΑΙ
mezēnai
ΗΥΖΙΗ ..... ΔΕΛΕ / ΜΕΖΗΝΑΙ
ēuziē ..... dele / mezēnai
The word mezenai is interpreted to mean 'Horseman', and a cognate to Illyrian Menzanas (as in "Juppiter/Jove Menzanas" 'Juppiter of the foals' or 'Juppiter on a horse'); Albanian mëz 'foal'; Romanian mînz 'colt, foal'; Latin mannus 'small horse, pony'; Gaulish manduos 'pony' (as in tribe name Viromandui 'men who own ponies').

## Classification

Due to a paucity of evidence required to establish a linguistic connection, the Thracian language, in modern linguistic textbooks, is usually treated either as its own branch of Indo-European, or is grouped with Dacian, together forming a Daco-Thracian branch of IE. Older textbooks often grouped it also with Illyrian or Phrygian. The belief that Thracian was close to Phrygian is no longer popular and has mostly been discarded.
There is a fringe belief that Thraco-Dacian forms a branch of Indo-European along with Baltic, but a Balto-Slavic linguistic unity is so overwhelmingly accepted by the Indo-European linguistic community that this hypothesis does not pass muster.

## Fate of the Thracians and their language

According to the 19th-century Greek educator Vlasios Skordelis, when Thracians were subjugated by Alexander the Great they finally assimilated to Greek culture and became as Greek as Spartans and Athenians, although he considered the Thracian language as a form of Greek. According to Crampton (1997) most Thracians were eventually Hellenized or Romanized, with the last remnants surviving in remote areas until the 5th century. According to Marinov (2015) the Thracians were likely completely Romanized and Hellenized after the last contemporary references to them of the 6th century.
Another author believes that the interior of Thrace was never Romanized or Hellenized (Trever, 1939). This was followed also by Slavonization. According to Weithmann (1978) when the Slavs migrated, they encountered only a very superficially Romanized Thracian and Dacian population, which had not strongly identified itself with Imperial Rome, while Greek and Roman populations (mostly soldiers, officials, merchants) abandoned the land or were killed. Because Pulpudeva survived as Plovdiv in Slavic languages, not under Philippopolis, some authors suggest that Thracian was not completely obliterated in the 7th century.