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The Mysian language was spoken by
sign represented a sibilant, transcribed as ''š'' or ''z'', but since 1969 it is known that it actually denoted a /j/ sound, transcribed as ''y''. The 
sign 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 regular ''s''. The 
sign was formerly transcribed ''s'', but it is in fact the equivalent of the Phrygian 
sign, probably denoting a /z/, /zd/, or /ts/ sound.
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. The seventh line can be read as:
:: '' akes braterais patriyioisk '
The words "braterais patriyioisk have been proposed to mean something like "(for) brothers and fathers / relatives":
* ''braterais'' is related to Phrygian βρατερε, Greek φρατήρ, Latin ''frater'', English ''brother'';
* ''patriyiois'' is related to New-Phrygian ''pat(e)res'' (πατερης, πατρες: 'parents'), Greek πάτριος ('relative of the father'), Latin ''pater'', English ''father'';
* and ''-ke'' is a Phrygian suffix meaning ''and'', cf. Greek τε and Latin ''-que'', 'and'.
''Lakes'' (or ''-lakes'', a first sign may be missing; alternatively, according to Friedrich, read ...''likeś'') is most probably a personal name. 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)See J. Friedrich (1932), Kleinasiatische Sprachdenkmäler, 142, fn. 7.
Titus texts:"Mysian" inscriptionsPalaeolexicon entry for the word ΠΑΤΡΙΖΙPalaeolexicon entry for the word ΒΡΑΤΕΡΑΙΣ
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mysian Language Mysia Anatolian languages Extinct languages of Asia Extinct languages of Europe Languages extinct in the 1st century BC Unclassified languages of Asia Unclassified Indo-European languages
Mysians
Mysians ( la, Mysi; grc, Μυσοί, ''Mysoí'') were the inhabitants of Mysia, a region in northwestern Asia Minor.
Origins according to ancient authors
Their first mention is by Homer, in his list of Troy, Trojans allies in the Iliad, and ac ...
inhabiting Mysia
Mysia (UK , US or ; el, Μυσία; lat, Mysia; tr, Misya) was a region in the northwest of ancient Asia Minor (Anatolia, Asian part of modern Turkey). It was located on the south coast of the Sea of Marmara. It was bounded by Bithynia on th ...
in north-west Anatolia
Anatolia, tr, Anadolu Yarımadası), and the Anatolian plateau, also known as Asia Minor, is a large peninsula in Western Asia and the westernmost protrusion of the Asian continent. It constitutes the major part of modern-day Turkey. The re ...
.
Little is known about the Mysian language. Strabo noted that it was, "in a way, a mixture of the Lydian and Phrygian language
The Phrygian language () was the Indo-European language of the Phrygians, spoken in Anatolia (modern Turkey), during classical antiquity (c. 8th century BC to 5th century AD).
Phrygian ethno-linguistic homogeneity is debatable. Ancient Greek aut ...
s". As such, the Mysian language could be a language of the Anatolian group. However, a passage in Athenaeus
Athenaeus of Naucratis (; grc, Ἀθήναιος ὁ Nαυκρατίτης or Nαυκράτιος, ''Athēnaios Naukratitēs'' or ''Naukratios''; la, Athenaeus Naucratita) was a Greek rhetorician and grammarian, flourishing about the end of th ...
suggests that the Mysian language was akin to the barely attested Paeonian language
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.
Classi ...
of Paeonia, north of Macedon
Macedonia (; grc-gre, Μακεδονία), also called Macedon (), was an ancient kingdom on the periphery of Archaic and Classical Greece, and later the dominant state of Hellenistic Greece. The kingdom was founded and initially ruled by ...
.
Inscription
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 by Christopher William Machell Cox and Archibald Cameron in Üyücek village, 15 km due south ofTavşanlı
Tavşanlı is a town and district of Kütahya Province in the Aegean region of Turkey.
Tavşanlı is a typical Aegean town where a government-owned coal mine company attracted thousands of settlers from surrounding cities and villages which mad ...
, in the Tavşanlı district of Kütahya
Kütahya () (historically, Cotyaeum or Kotyaion, Ancient Greek, Greek: Κοτύαιον) is a city in western Turkey which lies on the Porsuk River, Porsuk river, at 969 metres above sea level. It is inhabited by some 578,640 people (2022 estimate) ...
province, near the outskirts of the classical Phrygian territory. The text seems to include Indo-European
The Indo-European languages are a language family native to the overwhelming majority of Europe, the Iranian plateau, and the northern Indian subcontinent. Some European languages of this family, English, French, Portuguese, Russian, Dutc ...
words.
The alphabet used resembles the Old-Phrygian alphabet, but some signs are quite different:
In the past there has been much confusion concerning the sibilants
Sibilants are fricative consonants of higher amplitude and pitch, made by directing a stream of air with the tongue towards the teeth. Examples of sibilants are the consonants at the beginning of the English words ''sip'', ''zip'', ''ship'', and ...
in the alphabet. Initially it was thought that the sign represented a sibilant, transcribed as ''š'' or ''z'', but since 1969 it is known that it actually denoted a /j/ sound, transcribed as ''y''. The sign 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 regular ''s''. The sign was formerly transcribed ''s'', but it is in fact the equivalent of the Phrygian sign, probably denoting a /z/, /zd/, or /ts/ sound.
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. The seventh line can be read as:
:: '' akes braterais patriyioisk '
The words "braterais patriyioisk have been proposed to mean something like "(for) brothers and fathers / relatives":
* ''braterais'' is related to Phrygian βρατερε, Greek φρατήρ, Latin ''frater'', English ''brother'';
* ''patriyiois'' is related to New-Phrygian ''pat(e)res'' (πατερης, πατρες: 'parents'), Greek πάτριος ('relative of the father'), Latin ''pater'', English ''father'';
* and ''-ke'' is a Phrygian suffix meaning ''and'', cf. Greek τε and Latin ''-que'', 'and'.
''Lakes'' (or ''-lakes'', a first sign may be missing; alternatively, according to Friedrich, read ...''likeś'') is most probably a personal name. 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)See J. Friedrich (1932), Kleinasiatische Sprachdenkmäler, 142, fn. 7.
See also
*Mysia
Mysia (UK , US or ; el, Μυσία; lat, Mysia; tr, Misya) was a region in the northwest of ancient Asia Minor (Anatolia, Asian part of modern Turkey). It was located on the south coast of the Sea of Marmara. It was bounded by Bithynia on th ...
* Mysians
Mysians ( la, Mysi; grc, Μυσοί, ''Mysoí'') were the inhabitants of Mysia, a region in northwestern Asia Minor.
Origins according to ancient authors
Their first mention is by Homer, in his list of Troy, Trojans allies in the Iliad, and ac ...
References
External links
Titus texts:"Mysian" inscriptions
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mysian Language Mysia Anatolian languages Extinct languages of Asia Extinct languages of Europe Languages extinct in the 1st century BC Unclassified languages of Asia Unclassified Indo-European languages