Paeonian language

Encyclopedia

Paeonian, sometimes spelled Paionian, is a poorly attested, extinct language spoken by the ancient Paeonians until late antiquity.

Paeonia once stretched north of Macedon, into Dardania, and in earlier times into southwestern Thrace.

Classification

Classical sources usually considered the Paeonians distinct from the rest of the Paleo-Balkan people, comprising their own ethnicity and language. It is considered a Paleo-Balkan language but this is only a geographical grouping, not a genealogical one. Modern linguists are uncertain as to the classification of Paeonian, due to the extreme scarcity of surviving materials in the language, with numerous hypotheses having been published:

  • Wilhelm Tomaschek and Paul Kretschmer suggest an Illyrian affiliation, that is the prevailing scientific opinion
  • Dimitar Dečev and Susan Wise Bauer consider a Thracian hypothesis.
  • Francesco Villari considers a Thraco-Illyrian hypothesis.
  • Karl Beloch, Ioannis Svoronos and Irwin L. Merker consider Paeonian closely related to ancient Greek and ancient Macedonian, namely a Hellenic language, but with a great deal of Thracian and Illyrian influence.
  • Vladimir I. Georgiev considers a Phrygian affiliation.
  • Athenaeus seems to have connected the Paeonian languege to the Mysian language, which was possibly a member of the Anatolian languages, or of the Armeno-Phrygian languages.

Paeonian vocabulary

Several Paeonian words are known from classical sources:

  • monapos, monaipos, the European bison
  • tilôn, a species of fish once found in Lake Prasias
  • paprax, a species of fish once found in Lake Prasias. Paprakas, masc. acc. pl.

A number of anthroponyms (some known only from Paeonian coinage) are attested: Agis (Άγις), Patraos (Πατράος), Lycpeios(Λύκπειος), Audoleon (Αυδολέων), Eupolemos (Εὐπόλεμος), Ariston (Αρίστων), etc. In addition several toponyms (Bylazora(Βυλαζώρα), Astibos (Άστιβος) and a few theonyms Dryalus (Δρύαλος), Dyalos (Δύαλος), 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”, Greek pontos“passage”, “way”);
  • Idomenae (Ιδομένη) (nowadays near 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 and Δύσωρον) (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 *agro- “field” (cf. Lat. ager, Grc. ἀγρός agros, Eng. acre) with cognates in the Greek tribe of Agraioi who lived in Aetolia, and the name of the month Agrianos which is found throughout the Dorian and Aeolian worlds.

The Indo-European voiced aspirates (*bh, *dh, etc.) became plain voiced consonants (/b/, /d/, etc.), just like in Illyrian, Thracian, and Phrygian.