Paeonian, sometimes spelled Paionian, is a poorly attested, extinct language spoken by the ancient

Paeonians Paeonians were an ancient Indo-European people that dwelt in Paeonia. Paeonia was an old country whose location was to the north of Ancient Macedonia, to the south of Dardania, to the west of Thrace and to the east of Illyria, most of their lan ...

until late antiquity. Paeonia once stretched 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 ...

, into Dardania, and in earlier times into southwestern

Thrace Thrace (; el, Θράκη, Thráki; bg, Тракия, Trakiya; tr, Trakya) or Thrake is a geographical and historical region in Southeast Europe, now split among Bulgaria, Greece, and Turkey, which is bounded by the Balkan Mountains to ...

Classification

Classical sources usually considered the

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 consider an “Illyrian” hypothesis (i.e a part of the linguistic complex of the ancient north-western

Balkans The Balkans ( ), also known as the Balkan Peninsula, is a geographical area in southeastern Europe with various geographical and historical definitions. The region takes its name from the Balkan Mountains that stretch throughout the who ...

) which, according to Radoslav Katičić, seems to be the prevailing opinion. Radoslav Katicic, (2012) Ancient Languages of the Balkans: n.a. Volume 4 of Trends in Linguistics. Walter de Gruyter, p. 119, . *Dimitar Dečev and Susan Wise Bauer consider a

Thracian The Thracians (; grc, Θρᾷκες ''Thrāikes''; la, Thraci) were an Indo-European speaking people who inhabited large parts of Eastern and Southeastern Europe in ancient history.. "The Thracians were an Indo-European people who occupied ...

hypothesis. * Francesco Villari considers a Thraco-Illyrian hypothesis. *

Karl Beloch Karl Julius Beloch (21 January 1854 in Nieder-Petschkendorf – 1 February 1929 in Rome) was a German classical and economic historian. Biography From 1872 to 1875, he studied classical philology and ancient history in Freiburg, Heidelbe ...

Ioannis Svoronos Ioannis N. Svoronos ( el, Ιωάννης Ν. Σβορώνος; Mykonos, 15 April 1863 – Athens, 25 August 1922) was a Greek archaeologist and numismatist. Life Ioannis Svoronos was born in 1863 on the island of Mykonos. After completing school ...

and Irwin L. Merker consider Paeonian an ancient Greek dialect (or a lost

Indo-European language 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, Du ...

very closely related to Greek, i.e Hellenic) with a great deal of Thracian and Illyrian influence. * Vladimir I. Georgiev considers a Phrygian affiliation. *

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 ...

seems to have connected the Paeonian language to the Mysian language, which was possibly a member of the

Anatolian languages The Anatolian languages are an extinct branch of Indo-European languages that were spoken in Anatolia, part of present-day Turkey. The best known Anatolian language is Hittite, which is considered the earliest-attested Indo-European langua ...

, or of the

Armeno-Phrygian languages The name Armeno-Phrygian is used for a hypothetical language branch, which would include the languages spoken by the Phrygians and the Armenians, and would be a branch of the Indo-European language family, or a sub-branch of either the propose ...

. * Radoslav Katičić says that “we know so little about their language that any linguistic affiliation seems meaningless”.

Paeonian vocabulary

Several Paeonian words are known from classical sources: *
monapos
', , the European bison *
tilôn
', a species of

fish Fish are Aquatic animal, aquatic, craniate, gill-bearing animals that lack Limb (anatomy), limbs with Digit (anatomy), digits. Included in this definition are the living hagfish, lampreys, and Chondrichthyes, cartilaginous and bony fish as we ...

once found i
Lake Prasias
*, a species of

once found in Lake Prasias. , masc. acc. pl. A number of

anthroponym Anthroponymy (also anthroponymics or anthroponomastics, from Ancient Greek ἄνθρωπος ''anthrōpos'' / 'human', and ὄνομα ''onoma'' / 'name') is the study of ''anthroponyms'', the proper names of human beings, both individual and c ...

s (some known only from Paeonian coinage) are attested: (), (), (), (), (), (), etc. In addition several toponyms ( (), () and a few theonyms (), (), the Paeonian

Dionysus In ancient Greek religion and Greek mythology, myth, Dionysus (; grc, wikt:Διόνυσος, Διόνυσος ) is the god of the grape-harvest, winemaking, orchards and fruit, vegetation, fertility, insanity, ritual madness, religious ecstas ...

, as well as the following: * , affluent of the

Strumica River The Strumica (Macedonian and bg, Струмица, ; also transliterated ''Strumitsa'' or ''Strumitza'') or Strumeshnitsa () is a river in North Macedonia and Bulgaria. It runs through the town of Strumica and flows into the river Struma. The ...

, perhaps from , "boggy" (cf. German , "wet",

Middle Irish Middle Irish, sometimes called Middle Gaelic ( ga, An Mheán-Ghaeilge, gd, Meadhan-Ghàidhlig), is the Goidelic language which was spoken in Ireland, most of Scotland and the Isle of Man from AD; it is therefore a contemporary of late Old Engl ...

"salmon",

Sanskrit Sanskrit (; attributively , ; nominally , , ) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had Trans-cultural diffusion ...

"mud, mire",

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

"passage", "way"); * () (nowadays near

Gevgelija Gevgelija ( mk, Гевгелија; ) is a town with a population of 15,685 located in the very southeast of the North Macedonia along the banks of the Vardar River, situated at the country's main border with Greece (Bogorodica- Evzoni), the poi ...

), name of a city (cf.

''Idomeneus'', proper name in Homer, "Ida", mountain in

Crete Crete ( el, Κρήτη, translit=, Modern: , Ancient: ) is the largest and most populous of the Greek islands, the 88th largest island in the world and the fifth largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, after Sicily, Sardinia, Cyprus, ...

); * (today Gradsko), name of a city, from (cf. Old Prussian "rock",

Old Church Slavonic Old Church Slavonic or Old Slavonic () was the first Slavic literary language. Historians credit the 9th-century Byzantine missionaries Saints Cyril and Methodius with standardizing the language and using it in translating the Bible and othe ...

, "pillar", Old English , "post", Ancient Greek , "scolding, bad language"); * ( and , nowadays Dysoro, ), name of a mountain, from "dys-", "bad" (cf.

"difficult", and "oros"

, "mountain"); * , name of a tribe, possibly from "field" (cf. Lat. , Grc. , Eng.

acre The acre is a unit of land area used in the imperial and US customary systems. It is traditionally defined as the area of one chain by one furlong (66 by 660 feet), which is exactly equal to 10 square chains, of a square mile, 4,840 square ...

) with cognates in the Greek tribe of Agraioi who lived in

Aetolia Aetolia ( el, Αἰτωλία, Aἰtōlía) is a mountainous region of Greece on the north coast of the Gulf of Corinth, forming the eastern part of the modern regional unit of Aetolia-Acarnania. Geography The Achelous River separates Aetoli ...

, and the name of the month Agrianos which is found throughout the Dorian and Aeolian worlds.

References

*Francisco Villar. ''Gli Indoeuropei e le origini dell'Europa''. Il Mulino, 1997. * {{DEFAULTSORT:Paeonian Language Paleo-Balkan languages Hellenic languages Illyrian languages Thracian language Thraco-Illyrian Languages of ancient Macedonia Languages extinct in the 4th century Unclassified languages of Europe Unclassified Indo-European languages Varieties of Ancient Greek