Phrygian language

Phrygian
Region	Central Anatolia (now Turkey)
Ethnicity	Phrygians
Extinct	After the 5th century CE
Language family	Indo-European Graeco-Phrygian? Phrygian
Dialects	Mysian?
Writing system	Phrygian alphabet Greek alphabet
Language codes
ISO 639-3	xpg
Linguist List	xpg
Glottolog	phry1239

The Phrygian language (/ˈfrɪdʒiən/ ^ⓘ) was the Indo-European language of the Phrygians, spoken in Anatolia (modern Turkey), during classical antiquity (c. 8th century BCE to 5th century CE).

Phrygian ethno-linguistic homogeneity is debatable. 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". Plato observed that some Phrygian words resembled Greek ones.

Because of the fragmentary evidence of Phrygian, its exact position within the Indo-European language family is uncertain. Phrygian shares important features mainly with Greek, but also with Armenian and Albanian. Evidence of a Thraco-Armenian separation from Phrygian and other Paleo-Balkan languages at an early stage, Phrygian's classification as a centum language, and the high frequency of phonetic, morphological, and lexical isoglosses shared with Greek, have led to a current consensus which regards Greek as the closest relative of Phrygian.

Discovery and decipherment

Ancient authors like Herodotus and Hesychius have provided us with a few dozen words assumed to be Phrygian, so-called glosses. In modern times the first monument with a Phrygian text, found at Ortaköy (classical Orcistus), was described in 1752. In 1800 at Yazılıkaya (classical Nakoleia) two more inscriptions were discovered. On one of them the word ΜΙΔΑΙ (Midai), 'to Midas', could be read, which prompted the idea that they were part of a building, possibly the grave, of the legendary Phrygian king Midas. 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. By 1862 sixteen Phrygian inscriptions were known, among them a few Greek-Phrygian bilinguals. 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. After 1880, the Scottish Bible scholar William Mitchell Ramsay discovered many more inscriptions. 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. The alphabet is now well-known, though minor revisions of the rarer signs of the alphabet are still possible, one sign ( = /j/, transcribed y) was only securely identified in 1969.

Classification

Balkanic Armenian Graeco-Albanian Graeco-Phrygian Greek Phrygian (extinct) Illyric Messapic (extinct) Albanian

The Palaeo-Balkanic Indo-European branch based on the chapters "Albanian" (Hyllested & Joseph 2022) and "Armenian" (Olsen & Thorsø 2022) in Olander (ed.) The Indo-European Language Family

Phrygian is a member of the Indo-European linguistic family, but because of the fragmentary evidence, its exact position within that family is uncertain. Phrygian is placed among the Palaeo-Balkan languages, either through areal contact or genetic relationship. Phrygian shares important features mainly with Greek, but also with Armenian and Albanian. 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.

Between the 19th and the first half of the 20th century, Phrygian was mostly considered a satem language, and thus closer to Armenian and Thracian, while today it is commonly considered to be a centum language and thus closer to Greek. The reason that in the past Phrygian had the guise of a satem language was due to two secondary processes that affected it. Namely, Phrygian merged the old labiovelar with the plain velar, and secondly, when in contact with palatal vowels /e/ and /i/, especially in initial position, some consonants became palatalized. 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.

Modern consensus views Greek as the closest relative of Phrygian. Furthermore, out of 36 isoglosses collected by Obrador Cursach, Phrygian shared 34 with Greek, with 22 being exclusive between them. The last 50 years of Phrygian scholarship developed a hypothesis that proposes a proto-Graeco-Phrygian stage out of which Greek and Phrygian originated, and if Phrygian was more sufficiently attested, that stage could perhaps be reconstructed.

An alternative theory, suggested by Eric P. Hamp, is that Phrygian was most closely related to Italo-Celtic languages.

Inscriptions

The Phrygian epigraphical material is divided into two distinct subcorpora, Old Phrygian and New Phrygian. These attest different stages of the Phrygian language, are written with different alphabets and upon different materials, and have different geographical distributions.

Old Phrygian is attested in 395 inscriptions in Anatolia and beyond. They were written in the Phrygian alphabet between 800 and 330 BCE. The Corpus des inscriptions paléo-phrygiennes (CIPPh) and its supplements contain most known Old Phrygian inscriptions, though a few graffiti are not included. The oldest inscriptions—from the mid-8th century BCE—have been found on silver, bronze, and alabaster objects in tumuli (grave mounds) at Gordion (Yassıhüyük, the so-called "Midas Mound") and Bayındır (East Lycia).

New Phrygian is attested in 117 funerary inscriptions, mostly curses against desecrators added after a Greek epitaph. 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. Most New Phrygian inscriptions have been lost, so they are only known through the testimony of the first compilers. New Phrygian inscriptions have been cataloged by William M. Ramsay (ca. 1900) and by Obrador-Cursach (2018).

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. It is considered the first Phrygian text to be inscribed with the Greek alphabet. Its phraseology has some echoes of an Old Phrygian epitaph from Bithynia, but it anticipates phonetic and spelling features found in New Phrygian. 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.

Comparison between the Old and the New Phrygian subcorpora

Features	Old Phrygian	New Phrygian
Number of inscriptions	395	117
Dating	ca. 800–330 BCE	Late 1st–3rd c. CE
Alphabet	Phrygian	Greek
Word dividers	sometimes (spaces or colons)	never (continuous writing)
Writing material	Varied	Stone
Contents	Varied	Funerary
Area	Across Anatolia (and beyond)	Only central Anatolia
Archaeological context	Mainly yes	Never
Preserved	Mainly yes	Mainly no

• 
  Map showing where Phrygian inscriptions have been found.
• 
  6th century BCE inscription with the Phrygian alphabet from the Midas Tomb, Midas City: ΒΑΒΑ: ΜΕΜΕϜΑΙΣ: ΠΡΟΙΤΑϜΟΣ: ΚΦΙJΑΝΑϜΕJΟΣ: ΣΙΚΕΝΕΜΑΝ: ΕΔΑΕΣ (Baba, memevais, proitavos kziyanaveyos sikeneman edaes; Baba, advisor, leader from Tyana, dedicated this niche).

The last mentions of the language date to the 5th century CE, and it was likely extinct by the 7th century CE.

Alphabet

Main article: Phrygian alphabet

See also: Alphabets of Anatolia

From ca. 800 till 300 BCE, Phrygians used the Old-Phrygian alphabet of nineteen letters derived from the Phoenician alphabet. This script was usually written from left to right ("dextroverse"). The signs of this script are:

sign

B

Γ

Δ

E

F

I

K

O

P

T

variants

8

Λ

, , 𐊜,

, ,

X

Φ, ,

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/

/z/ /zd/?

About 15 percent of the inscriptions are written from right to left ("sinistroverse"), like Phoenician; in those cases, the signs are drawn mirrored: ... etc. instead of BΓ. ... A few dozen inscriptions are written in alternating directions (boustrophedon).

From ca. 300 BCE, this script was replaced by the Greek alphabet. A single inscription dates from ca. 300 BCE (sometimes called "Middle-Phrygian"), all other texts are much later, from the 1st till 3rd centuries CE (New-Phrygian). The Greek letters Θ, Ξ, Φ, Χ, and Ψ were rarely used—mainly for Greek names and loanwords (Κλευμαχοι, to Kleomakhos; θαλαμει, funerary chamber).

Phonology

	Labial	Dental	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar
Nasal	m	n
Stop	p b	t d			k ɡ
Fricative			s
Affricate			ts dz
Approximant	w		l	j
Trill			r

It has long been claimed that Phrygian exhibits a sound change of stop consonants, similar to Grimm's Law in Germanic and, more to the point, sound laws found in Proto-Armenian; i.e., voicing of PIE aspirates, devoicing of PIE voiced stops and aspiration of voiceless stops. This hypothesis was rejected by Lejeune (1979) and Brixhe (1984) but revived by Lubotsky (2004) and Woodhouse (2006), who argue that there is evidence of a partial shift of obstruent series; i.e., voicing of PIE aspirates (*bʱ > b) and devoicing of PIE voiced stops (*d > t).

The affricates ts and dz may have developed from velars before front vowels.

Grammar

What can be recovered of the grammatical structure of Phrygian was typically Indo-European. Declensions and conjugations are strikingly similar to ancient Greek.

Nouns

Phrygian nouns belong to three genders: masculine, feminine, and neuter. Forms are singular or plural; dual forms are not known. Four cases are known: nominative, accusative, genitive, and dative.

Substantives

Nouns belong to three stem groups: o-stems, a-stems, and consonant stems ("C-stems"); the latter group also includes i- and u-stems. In addition there is a group of personal names with an e-stem.

The paradigm for nouns is as follows (to keep the paradigm clear, the many minor spelling variants, including New-Phrygian ones in Greek characters, are omitted):

		a-stems		o-stems		C-stems		e-stems
		Masculine	Feminine	Masculine	Neuter	Masc./Fem.	Neuter	(Personal names)
Singular	Nominative	-a(s)	-a	-os	-un	-s, -Ø	-Ø	-es (-e)
	Accusative	-an		-un (-on)		-(a)n		-in
	Genitive	-as		-o (-ov)		-os		-itos
	Dative	-ai (-a)		-oi (-o)		-ei		?
Plural	Nominative	-a(s) (?)		-oi	-a	-es	-a	—
	Accusative	-ais		-ois (?)		-ais (?)		—
	Genitive	?		-un		?		—
	Dative	-as		-os		?		—

Examples:

• a-stem: μανκα [manka] (stele): Nom. μανκα [manka]; Acc. μανκαν [mankan]; Dat. μανκαι [mankai], μανκα, μανκης, μανκε.
• o-stem: devos ('god', cf. Greek θεός): Nom. devos; Acc. (or Gen.?) devun; Pl. Dat. δεως [deos], διως, δεος, δδεω, διος, δυως.
• C- (r-)stem: daker (meaning not clear): Nom. daker, δακαρ; Acc. dakeran; Pl. Nom. δακερης [dakeres]; Pl. Acc. dakerais.
• C- (n-)stem: ορουαν [orouan] ('keeper, protector'): Nom. ορουεναν [orouenan]; Acc. ορουαν [orouan]; Gen. ορουενος [orouenos].
• C- (k-)stem: knays ('woman, wife', cf. Greek γυνή): Nom. knays, knais; Acc. κναικαν [knaikan]; Gen. κναικος [knaikos]; Pl. Nom. knaykes.
• i-stem: *Tis ('Zeus'): Acc. Τιαν [Tian]; Dat. Τιε [Tie], Τι, Τιη, Tiei; Gen. Τιος [Tios].
• e-stem: Manes ('Manes'): Nom. Manes, Mane, Μανεις; Acc. Manin; Gen. Manitos.

Pronouns

The most frequently used pronouns are demonstrative, relative, and anaphoric. Their declensions are similar to those of nouns. Two rare pronouns, autos and tis, may be loanwords from Greek.

The demonstrative pronoun, this, has a short (ses) and a long form (semoun). Its declension:

Case	Singular			Plural
	Masculine	Neuter	Feminine	Masculine	Neuter	Feminine
Nominative	ses (?)	si	σας (?)
Accusative	sin, σεμουν		εσαν (?)	ses (?)
Genitive			σας (?)
Dative	σεμουν, σεμον, simun, ...		σα, σαι, σας, esai, σαν	σως (?)

There is also a clitic particle variant s-, prefixed to names: sManes (this Manes).

The relative pronoun is yos (who, whoever). Though appearing often, only three different cases are attested. Paradigm:

Case	Singular			Plural
	Masculine	Neuter	Feminine	Masculine	Neuter	Feminine
Nominative	yos, ios, ιος, ις, ...
Accusative	ιον		ιαν
Genitive
Dative

A reduplicated form yosyos, whoever, is also known (cf. Latin quisquis).

An anaphoric pronoun is tos (the one mentioned, this one, he). It is often used in the standard expression ιος νι ..., τος νι ...: whoever (damages this tomb), this one (will be damned); whoever ( ...), he ( ...). Declension:

Case	Singular			Plural
	Masculine	Neuter	Feminine	Masculine	Neuter	Feminine
Nominative	τος	ti			ta
Accusative			tan, ταν
Genitive	tovo
Dative	του, το		ται, τα

Tos has a particle variant, τι, του, -t, -τ. The particles τι and του, used after a demonstrative pronoun, or suffixed to it as -t or -τ, seem to emphasize the following noun: (whoever does damage) σεμουν του κνουμανει, to this very tomb.

Another anaphoric pronoun is oy / ioi. It only occurs as a Dative Singular, oy, ιοι, οι (to him, to her).

The emphatic pronoun autos (the very one, the same; cf. Greek αὐτός) can also be used anaphorically. Its composite ve(n)autos is a reflexive pronoun, himself (Greek ἑαυτός).

Case	Singular			Plural
	Masculine	Neuter	Feminine	Masculine	Neuter	Feminine
Nominative	αυτος			avtoi (?)
Accusative	αυτον, (ven)avtun
Genitive
Dative	avtoi (?), αυτω		avtay, αυταη, (οε)αυται

The indefinite pronoun kos (somebody, something) is only attested in the nominative singular: masculine kos, κος; neuter kin, κιν. A synonym is the very rare Greek loanword tis (τις, neuter τι).

The personal or possessive pronoun her (only the feminine is attested) is va (Nom. va, ουα; Acc. ουαν, οαν; Gen. vay).

Adjectives

The declension of adjectival nouns is entirely similar to that of substantives.

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):

Case	Ending	mekas big, great	Ending	τιττετικμενος accursed	γεγρειμενος written
Nom. Sing. Masc.	-a(s)	mekas, μεκας	-os	τιτ(τ)ετικμενος, ...
Acc. Sing. Masc.	-an	μεκαν	-on		γεγρειμενον
Acc. Sing. Fem.			-an		γεγρειμεναν
Dat. Sing.	-ai (-a)	μεκα	-o (-ov) / -ai (-a)
Nom. Pl. Masc.	-a(s) (?)		-oi	τιττετικμενοι
Acc. Pl.	-ais	mekais (?)	-ois (?) / -ais
Nom./Acc. Pl. Ntr.	-a (?)		-a	τιττετικμενα
Gen. Pl. Masc./Fem.	?		-un	τιτετουκμενουν
Dat. Pl.	-as	mekais (?)	-os / -as

Verbs

Due to the limited textual material, the conjugation of Phrygian verbs can only be determined very incompletely. However, it is clear that it closely resembles the Ancient Greek verbal system. Three tenses are known: present, aorist (with augment and -s- infix), and perfect. Future forms have not yet been discovered. Neither has a pluperfect; a few forms may be an imperfect. There are two voices, active and mediopassive. As to mood, indicative and imperative are clearly documented, but suspected subjunctive forms and an optative (the latter with typical -oi- infix) need confirmation. Participles are present, most of them perfect passive forms with reduplication and ending in -menos. Infinitives are not known. As to person and number, most finite forms are 3rd person singular, a few 3rd person plural, and only very few 1st person singular.

Examples:

Tense	Mood	Voice	Person, number	Ending		Example	Translation
				Old Phrygian	New Phrygian
present	indicative	active	1st singular	-u	(-ω)	atikraiu	I say
			3rd singular	-ti, -i	-τι	poreti	he ...?
			3rd plural	-n	-ν	γερεν (?)	they ...?
		mediopassive	1st singular	-or		dakor (?)	I am put; I put/do for myself
			3rd singular	-tor, -toy	-τορ, -τοι	odeketoy, αδακκιτορ	it is put; he puts/does for himself
	subjunctive	active	3rd singular	-ti, -t	-τι, -τ	αββερετ	let him produce
			3rd plural	-sini (?)	-σσιννι (?)	δεδασσιννι	let them put/do
		mediopassive	3rd singular	-toy	-τοι, -τορ	abretoy, αββερετοι, αββερετορ	let it be produced
	optative	active	3rd singular	-oioi, -oyoy		kakoioi	may he damage
	imperative	active	3rd singular	-tu(v), -to	-του	ituv, ειτου	he must become
			3rd plural	-nuv	-νου, -ττνου	ειττνου, ιννου	they must become
		mediopassive	3rd singular	-do	-δου	lakedo	he must take for himself
	participle	active		-un		torvetun	cutting wood
imperfect	indicative	active	3rd singular	-e (?), -t (?)		estat	he erected
aorist	indicative	active	3rd singular	-es	-ες	estaes, εσταες	he erected
			3rd plural	(-saen)	-σαεν	ουρνουσαεν	they have ...ed?
		mediopassive	3rd singular	-toi, -toy	-τοι	egertoi, εγερετοι	it is brought
perfect	indicative	active	3rd singular	-ti, -t, -ey (?)	-ετ, -ιτ, -εν (?)	daket, αδακετ, αδακεν	he has done, put
			3rd plural	(-en)	-εν	δακαρεν	they have done, put
		mediopassive	3rd plural	(-na) (?)	-να (?)	ενσταρνα	he has been appointed
	participle	passive	masc. nom. sg.	-menos	-μενος	γεγαριτμενος	devoted to, cursed

The augment Phrygian seems to exhibit, is like Greek, Indo-Iranian, and Armenian; cf. 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.

Syntax

Normal word order in Phrygian sentences is Subject – Object – Verb ("SOV"). However, if a direct object (DO) needs to be emphasized, it may be placed at the head of the sentence, before the subject. Part of an indirect object (IO) may be placed after the verb. Example:

κος	σεμουν	κνουμανει	κακουν	αδδακετ	αινι	μανκα	(etc.)
kos	semoun	knoumanei	kakoun	addaket	aini	manka	(etc.)
whoever	to this	tomb	harm	does	or	to the stele	(he will be damned)
S	IO, part 1		DO	V	IO, part 2		...

The function of the several nominal cases (nominative, accusative, etc.) presents no surprises. The dative is perhaps also used as a locative. When the subject of a sentence is compounded of more than one item ("A and B and C..."), that vary in gender or number, the verb or predicate agrees in gender and number with the first item (A) (Lubotsky's rection rule). Adjectives follow their noun, except when emphasis is intended.

Vocabulary

The Midas inscription over the cornice of the Midas monument. It reads Ates... Midai lavagtaei vanaktei edaes ("Ates... has dedicated [this monument) to Midas, leader of the people and ruler").

Phrygian is attested fragmentarily, known only from a comparatively small corpus of inscriptions. A few hundred Phrygian words are attested; however, the meaning and etymologies of many of these remain unknown.

A famous Phrygian word is bekos, meaning 'bread'. According to Herodotus (Histories 2.2), Pharaoh Psammetichus I wanted to determine the oldest nation and establish the world's original language. For this purpose, he ordered two children to be reared by a shepherd, forbidding him to let them hear a single word, and charging him to report the children's first utterance. After two years, the shepherd reported that on entering their chamber, the children came up to him, extending their hands, calling bekos. Upon enquiry, the pharaoh discovered that this was the Phrygian word for 'wheat bread', after which the Egyptians conceded that the Phrygian nation was older than theirs. The word bekos is also attested several times in Palaeo-Phrygian inscriptions on funerary stelae. It may be cognate to the English bake (PIE *bʰeh₃g-). Hittite, Luwian (both also influenced Phrygian morphology), Galatian and Greek (which also exhibits a high amount of isoglosses with Phrygian) all influenced Phrygian vocabulary.

According to Clement of Alexandria, the Phrygian word bedu (βέδυ) meaning 'water' (PIE *wed-) appeared in Orphic ritual.

The Greek theonym Zeus appears in Phrygian with the stem Ti- (genitive Tios = Greek Dios, from earlier *Diwos; the nominative is unattested); perhaps with the general meaning 'god, deity'. It is possible that tiveya means 'goddess'. The shift of *d to t in Phrygian and the loss of *w before o appears to be regular. Stephanus Byzantius records that according to Demosthenes, Zeus was known as Tios in Bithynia.

Another possible theonym is bago- (cf. Old Persian baga-, Proto-Slavic *bogъ "god"), attested as the accusative singular bag̣un in G-136. 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.

Phrygian poetry

Phrygian poetry is rare. 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):

ιος νι σεμουν κνουμανει κακουν αδδακετ αινι τεαμας

με ζεμελως κε δεως κε Τιη τιτετικμενος ειτου.

ios ni semoun knoumanei kakoun addaket aini teamas

me zemelōs ke deōs ke tiē titetikmenos eitou.

Whoever to this tomb harm does, or to the grave,

among humans and gods by Zeus accursed let him be.

Alliteration ('b-, b-, b-') may be intended in a peculiar clause found on two New-Phrygian grave monuments from Erten (near Yazılıkaya) and Güney:

[If someone damages this grave, then ...]

 ... Βας ιοι βεκος με βερετ. (— pronounced, Bas ioi bekos me beret.)

 ... may [the god] Bas not bring him bread.

(Bas is suspected to be a Phrygian fertility god. Note that bekos is the word for 'bread' given by Herodotus, while me conforms to Greek μή, 'not', and beret is cognate with Greek φέρειν, Latin ferre, 'to bear'.)

Isoglosses

Comparison with Greek, Armenian, Albanian and Indo-Iranian:

Phonetic

Phrygian features	Greek	Armenian	Albanian	Indo-Iranian	Examples
Centum treatment	+	–	–	–	NP γεγαριτμενος 'devoted, at the mercy of', γλουρεος 'golden'
*CRh₃C > *CRōC	+	–	–	–	NP γλουρεος 'golden'
Loss of sibilant /s/ at prevocalic and intervocalic positions	+	+	+	–	OP _egeseti 'hold, experience' < PIE *seǵh-, NP δε_ως 'god' < PIE *dhh1so-
"Prothetic" vowels	+	+	+	–	OP onoman 'name', NP αναρ 'husband'
PIE suffix *-ih₂ > -iya	+	–	+	–	OP niptiya
PIE onset *ki̯- > s-	+	–	–	–	OP sin, si (demonstrative pronoun)
PIE final *-m > -n	+	+	?	–	NP δετο(υ)ν
*M > T	–	+	–	–

Morphological

Phrygian features	Greek	Armenian	Albanian	Indo-Iranian	Examples
conditional conjunction PIE *éh2i, *áHi	+	–	–	–	OP ai, ay/NP αι
e-augment	+	+	+	+
e-demonstrative	+	–	–	–	OP e-sai⸗t
*-eh₂-s masc.	+	–	–	–
t-enlargement	+	–	–	–
verbs in -e-yo-	+	–	–	–
verbs in -o-yo-	+	–	–	–
particle *-dhn̥	+	–	–	–
*dhh₁s-ó-	+	–	–	–
*-eu̯-/*-ēu̯-	+	–	–	–
*gu̯her-mo-	+	+	+	–
*gu̯neh₂-ik-	+	+	–	–
compound pronoun *h₂eu̯-to-	+	–	+	–	NP αυτος
*h₃nh₃-mn-	+	+	–	–
*méǵh₂-s	+	–	–	–
PIE *meh₁	+	+	+	+	OP me/NP με 'not'
*-mh₁no-	+	–	–	+
OP ni(y)/NP νι	+	–	–	–
*-(t)or	–	?	–	–
-toy/-τοι	+	–	–	+

Lexical

Phrygian features	Greek	Armenian	Albanian	Indo-Iranian
*bhoh₂-t-/*bheh₂-t-	+	–	–	–
*(h₁)en-mén-	+	–	–	–
*ǵhl̥h₃-ró-	+	–	–	–
kako-	+	–	–	–
ken-	+	+	–	–
*koru̯-	+	–	–	–
*mōro-	+	–	–	–
*sleh₂gu̯-	+	–	–	–

See also

• Ancient Macedonian language
• Dacian language#Anatolia

References

• Mallory, James P.; Adams, Douglas Q. (2006). The Oxford Introduction to Proto-Indo-European and the Proto-Indo-European World. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-929668-2.
• Obrador-Cursach, Bartomeu (2018). Lexicon of the Phrygian Inscriptions (PDF). University of Barcelona – Faculty of Philology – Department of Classical, Romance and Semitic Philology.
• Cotticelli, Paola; Dahl, Eystein (2022). "Split alignment, mixed alignment, and the spread of accusative morphosyntax in some archaic Indo-European languages". In Dahl, Eystein (ed.). Alignment and Alignment Change in the Indo-European Family. Oxford Studies in Diachronic and Historical Linguistics. Vol. 50. Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780192599773.
• Holst, Jan Henrik (2009). Armenische Studien (in German). Otto Harrassowitz Verlag. ISBN 9783447061179.
• Hyllested, Adam; Joseph, Brian D. (2022). "Albanian". In Olander, Thomas (ed.). The Indo-European Language Family : A Phylogenetic Perspective. Cambridge University Press. pp. 223–245. doi:10.1017/9781108758666.013. ISBN 9781108758666. S2CID 161016819.
• Obrador-Cursach, Bartomeu (9 April 2020). "On the place of Phrygian among the Indo-European languages". Journal of Language Relationship. 17 (3–4): 233–245. doi:10.31826/jlr-2019-173-407. S2CID 215769896.
• Obrador-Cursach, Bartomeu (2022). The Phrygian Language. Handbook of Oriental Studies. Section 1 The Near and Middle East. Vol. 139. BRILL. ISBN 9789004419995.
• Olander, Thomas, ed. (2022). The Indo-European Language Family: A Phylogenetic Perspective. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-1-108-49979-8.
• Oreshko, Rostislav (2020). "The onager kings of Anatolia: Hartapus, Gordis, Muška and the steppe strand in early Phrygian culture" (PDF). Kadmos. 59 (1/2). De Gruyter: 77–128. doi:10.1515/kadmos-2020-0005. S2CID 235451836.
• Sowa, Wojciech (2020). "Thracian Tracio". Palaeohispanica. doi:10.36707/palaeohispanica.v0i20.377. ISSN 1578-5386.
• Woodhouse, Robert (2009). "An overview of research on Phrygian from the nineteenth century to the present day". Studia Linguistica Universitatis Iagellonicae Cracoviensis. 126 (1): 167–188. doi:10.2478/v10148-010-0013-x. ISSN 2083-4624.

Further reading

• Anfosso, Milena (2021). "Le phrygien: une langue balkanique perdue en Anatolie" [Phrygian: a Balkan Language Lost in Anatolia]. Dialogues d'histoire ancienne: Supplément. L'Anatolie de l'époque archaïque à Byzance (in French). 22 (22): 37–66. doi:10.3917/dha.hs22.0037. S2CID 235541849.
• Avram, Alexandru. "Chapter 15 – PHRYGIAN PERSONAL NAMES IN PHRYGIAN INSCRIPTIONS". In Baştürk, Mahmut Bilge; Hargrave, James (eds.). Phrygia in Antiquity: From the Bronze Age to the Byzantine Period: Proceedings of an International Conference "The Phrygian Lands over Time: From Prehistory to the Middle of the 1st Millennium AD", Held at Anadolu University, Eskisehir, Turkey, 2–8 November 2015. Edited by GOCHA R. TSETSKHLADZE. Peeters Publishers, 2019. 24: pp. 305–50. doi:10.2307/j.ctv1q26v1n.21
• Brixhe, Claude (1993). "Du paléo- au néo-phrygien". Comptes rendus des séances de l'Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres (in French). 137 (2): 323–344. doi:10.3406/crai.1993.15216.
• Lamberterie, Charles de (2013). "Grec, phrygien, arménien: des anciens aux modernes". Journal des savants (in French). 1 (1): 3–69. doi:10.3406/jds.2013.6300.
• Lejeune, Michel (1969). "Notes paléo-phrygiennes". Revue des Études Anciennes. 71 (3–4): 287–300. doi:10.3406/rea.1969.3842.
• Ligorio, Orsat; Lubotsky, Alexander (2018). "Phrygian". In Klein, Jared; Joseph, Brian; Fritz, Matthias (eds.). Handbook of Comparative and Historical Indo-European Linguistics. Vol. 3. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton. pp. 1816–31.
• Obrador-Cursach, Bartomeu (2020). The Phrygian Language. Brill. ISBN 978-90-04-41998-8.

External links

• Corpus of Phrygian Inscriptions
• Lubotsky's Phrygian Etymological Database (Incomplete)
• Encyclopædia Britannica – Phrygian Language
• Linguistic Bibliography Online(subscription required)
• Palaeolexicon – Dictionary, History and Translations of the Phrygian Language
• Midas and the Mushki, by Miltiades E. Bolaris (2010)