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

late antiquity Late antiquity marks the period that comes after the end of classical antiquity and stretches into the onset of the Early Middle Ages. Late antiquity as a period was popularized by Peter Brown (historian), Peter Brown in 1971, and this periodiza ...

. Paeonia was located to the north of Macedon, south of Dardania, west of

Thrace Thrace (, ; ; ; ) is a geographical and historical region in Southeast Europe roughly corresponding to the province of Thrace in the Roman Empire. Bounded by the Balkan Mountains to the north, the Aegean Sea to the south, and the Black Se ...

, and east of the southernmost

Illyrians The Illyrians (, ; ) were a group of Indo-European languages, Indo-European-speaking people who inhabited the western Balkan Peninsula in ancient times. They constituted one of the three main Paleo-Balkan languages, Paleo-Balkan populations, alon ...

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

Balkans The Balkans ( , ), corresponding partially with 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 throug ...

) 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 proposed a Thracian hypothesis. * Francesco Villari proposed a Thraco-Illyrian hypothesis. * Karl Beloch, Ioannis Svoronos 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 northern Indian subcontinent, most of Europe, and the Iranian plateau with additional native branches found in regions such as Sri Lanka, the Maldives, parts of Central Asia ( ...

very closely related to Greek, i.e Hellenic) with a great deal of Thracian and Illyrian influence. * Vladimir I. Georgiev suggested a Phrygian affiliation. * Athenaeus seems to have connected the Paeonian language to the

Mysian language Mysian was spoken by Mysians inhabiting Mysia in north-west Anatolia. Little is known about the Mysian language. Strabo noted that it was, "in a way, a mixture of the Lydian language, Lydian and Phrygian languages". As such, the Mysian language ...

, which was possibly a member of the Anatolian languages, or of the Armeno-Phrygian languages. * Radoslav Katičić has said 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 once found i
Lake Prasias
*, a species of fish once found in Lake Prasias. , masc. acc. pl. A number of anthroponyms (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 (; ) is the god of wine-making, orchards and fruit, vegetation, fertility, festivity, insanity, ritual madness, religious ecstasy, and theatre. He was also known as Bacchus ( or ; ...

, as well as the following: * , effluent of the Strumica River, perhaps from , "boggy" (cf. German , "wet", Middle Irish "salmon",

Sanskrit Sanskrit (; stem form ; nominal singular , ,) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in northwest South Asia after its predecessor languages had Trans-cultural ...

"mud, mire", Greek "passage", "way"); * () (nowadays near Gevgelija), name of a city (cf. Greek '' Idomeneus'', proper name in Homer; " Ida", mountain in Crete); * (today Gradsko), name of a city, from (cf. Old Prussian "rock",

Old Church Slavonic Old Church Slavonic or Old Slavonic ( ) is the first Slavic languages, Slavic literary language and the oldest extant written Slavonic language attested in literary sources. It belongs to the South Slavic languages, South Slavic subgroup of the ...

, "pillar", Old English , "post", Ancient Greek , "scolding, bad language"); * ( and , nowadays Dysoro, ), name of a mountain, from "dys-", "bad" (cf. Greek "difficult", and "oros" Greek , "mountain"); * , name of a tribe, possibly from "field" (cf. Lat. , Grc. , 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.

Classification

Paeonian vocabulary

References

Further reading