The Case of Thracians and Greeks in the north-eastern Aegean By Peter A. Dimitrov, New Bulgarian University (Sofia) Center for Thracology, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences
Example of Late Roman Imperial Period Votive Plate
Despite the spread of Latin as administrative language, Greek continued to be widely used. A major part of the corpus of the Greek inscriptions found in Bulgaria originated from Roman Imperial times, thus offering opportunities to leads to Thracian language development. A large number of the 1st-3rd century AD votive inscriptions are dedicated to the Thracian Heros (Horseman) whose local epithets provide a rich material for the present study.
Garutinos, Teres Garutinos, a dedicant to Asklepios, on a votive plate, not far from Pautalia, present-day town of Kuystendil century AD. Not in Dečev.
An Appliqué with a Thracian Warrior (4th BC) whose hair cut was mentioned by Homer where the Abantes from Euboia are said to be akrokomoi.
Phonology and Phonetics of the Thracian names from the inscriptions found in Bulgaria The scanty evidence from the chronological layers does not yield to working with a wealth of examples, nor is it any easier to describe in an exact way the clusters in their succession one upon another through the time of changes of the Thracian language. The outline of the theory of the phonological level in the name system is very important for practical reasons. The inscriptions on stone and metal, or graffiti scratched on clay vessels, have increased in number, being unconditionally precise records for the history of the Thracian territories.
The method itself is not automatically a guarantee for good results. A number of procedures might have been lost due to impossible reconstructions within the Thracian language, e.g. lack of sufficient cases or insecure readings. In the categories of Thracian sounds, the interrelationships between various classes have been proposed and later perceived as theoretical entities that may change according to sound laws that should be the same for e.g.ezbenis and Asbenoi. In their analysis, the fluctuation e/a is to be referred to the way these sounds were pronounced (closed or open pronunciation); the shift of s>z is a later development or a feature that is not marked by any specific conditions or the shift was conditioned according to its word-initial or intervocalic position. It is true that the intervocalic S normally changes to Z between vowels, however in our example we observe the same opposition between /s/ and /z/. If we take its chronology into consideration, S and Z are synchronic (as they appear in our Evidence) and therefore this opposition is irrelevant as to their morphophonemic involvement. There is a piece missing in this easy-to-solve puzzle. And it is namely that we are not dealing with sounds but with unreal sounds or abstractions. The underlying PIE * /w/ and its treatment in Thracian through the Greek beta conditioned the shift. A plausible reason could be the word initial varying a/e.so, the above-mentioned classes, may be distinguished for subclasses, called allophones which can be analyzed for distinctive features; sonority is the one in our case. This very feature is crucial to the understanding of the phenomenon, for in this sound change we see a principle that has long been explained and reads that generally one specific trait per se is involved.
No doubt, sounds cannot be phonemes for they belong to a different category. Their functional analysis is also called phonetics.[11] Only on the surface could one register the phonetic units, as they belong to the physiology of the articulation. We now may come to the subsequent conclusion: First, there is no /z/ in Thracian a continuant of PIE */z/ as the latter simply does not exist. Second, /z/ in synchrony is just an allophone, a variant of the phoneme /s/ [12]. Third, there may be another condition involved, e.g. assimilation e-e. Fourth, only the phonemic analysis with the appropriate distribution of the phonemes can lead us through establishing the etymology of this Thracian etymon of e/asba from PIE * h1ek w-o-s. Fifth, this conclusion would not be possible, if we were to disregard the information from our direct source and the method of the phonological (phonemic) analysis.[13]
Ex autopsias, as I saw it in the Museum of Sofia, starting up from the right side, the inscription reads as follows: (1) ILASNLETEDNLEDNENIDAKATROSO (2) EBA:ROZESASNHNETESAIGEKOA (3) NBLABAHGN. The text as regards the Thracian language leads toward a formulaic interpretation of the inscription in accordance with other grave-related texts coming from Greece and Phrygia
Δυντο Ζηιλα υἱός (vessel of) Dyntas (Dyntos?), son of Zeila(s) The case of the irregular υἱός after the name of Ζηιλα(s), which should be in the genitive case: υἱοῦ. In many ways, the Greek inscriptions found in Bulgaria, follow a local tradition of competence in using a foreign language, and there are a number of parallel instances in that sense.
In the end, the main difficulty was primarily in identifying signs like I for dzeta,and the reading of the characters after ΖΗΙ; it looks like a ligature (a ligature would be too strange to appear so early in the 6th-5th century BC), but to my mind it is, within the text of the inscription, a badly executed one after so many hesitations. The engraver was in fact not a professional one but rather a stranger using Greek letters and language.the difficulty of the reading is in the ligature of A and Y. The name of the main character is interesting for us in several ways. First, both names appear for the first time here. For Ζηιλα(s) we can say that it is a compound made of Ζη- and - ιλα(s). The form with s is not secure and this nominative could be restored to Ζηιλα. The distinction between H (eta) and I (iota) make us think of at least one obvious conclusion. That is, the stem ZH was productive ever since the 6th BC. There are no examples of that time with Z for what seems to be PIE * dy-
A stone slab from Gordion, G-02 (6 th century BC)
The inscription in scriptio continua was found on a gold ring from a tumulus near Ezerovo, district of Plovdiv. The letters were incised in eight irregular lines and the last on the rim of the ring. The find is dated to the fifth century BC.
ROLISTENEASN ERENEATIL TEANHSKOA RA ZEADOM EANTILEZU PTAMIHE RAZ HLTA
A 5 th BC Coin of the Thracian Tribe of the Derroni. It reads DERRO(nikon), (from the Velikovo Treasure).
A 4 th century BC tomb at Alexandrovo, Southeastren Bulgaria
The graffito from the Alexandrovo tomb There is another inscription from Gazoros, near present-day town of Serres, Northern Greece, 158-159 AD that reads Κοζειμασου τοῦ Πολυχάρμου. In this compound, the first component /Κοζι/ is an allomorph of / Κoσι /as in Κοσειτραλις. Not in Dečev.
The inscription on the façade on the tomb at Smydovo, north-eastern Bulgaria, 4 th century BC.
Γονιμασηζη / Σεύθου γυνή ΓΟΝΙ ΜΑ ΣΗΖΗ ΜΑ - possessive-pronominal stem from *ma- my, mine ΓΟΝΙ (Dat.) < IE * gwen-i woman, wife /t/ /z/: Ζι-ερις < * Di-, the dative form of the IE word for light Seout, Seth, Sez Sese, the original Thracian etymon Translation: To my wife (woman) Sese (set up this monument); wife of Seuthes.
The same name in its original form appears in a 3 rd AD Latin inscription as SESE. ΣΗΥΣΑ ΤΗΡΗΤΟΣ: (belongs to) Seusa(s), son of Teres Cf.Τηρεντος, IGBulg. II 844, near ancient Marcianopolis: Αυλουσουκο(ς) Βιθυος, γυνὴ Τηρεντος. Χαίρετε. Aulousoukos, daughter of Bithys, (and) wife of Teres
In 2004 an inscription was found in a field within the territory of the village of Brestovitza near the ancient Philippolis. It reads: ἀγαθῇ τύχῃ. κωμῆται Ασβη νοι εὐχαριστή ριον ἀνεθηκαν. etc. Ezbenis and Asbenoi; Betespios, Out-aspios - fluctuation e/a - Thracian etymon of e/asba from PIE * h1ek w-o-s h=a/e - Sb- in Anlaut Zb- or Sou-
Εβρυζελμις Σεύθου Πριανεύς On an inscription from Komotini, Northern Greece, 3 rd 2 nd BC. What interests us is the sign for zeta (I).
ΚΟΤΥΟΣ ΕΓ ΒΕΟΥ (Belongs to Cotys of Beos (n)
A bronze helmet discovered in the Golyama Kosmatka tomb in 2005 with an inscription: ΣΕΥΘΟΥ (belongs to) Seuthes
Seuthes III (?) (c. 330-300BC)
We already discussed the existing alternation thi- / si- in Thracian, exemplified here through Ζβελσουρδος and Ζβελθιουρδος. The connecting syllable ou- is to be explained through the analogical assimilation of the Greek language editing, i.e. s-ou from ti/thi and ord- /urd- leveled to t/th/s. This alternation already exists in Thracian names and at least in the original Thracian variant is only a /t/ replaced by Greek /th/ (theta), which through contamination may have been altered to /s/. The name starts with a Z-. In Indo-European there is originally no /z/, and thus this phoneme is an allophone of the original /s/. Therefore, in trying to be consistent here, we should edit Zbelsourdos to Sbelsourdos. By comparing these two variants, one cannot miss the obvious voicing of the S- into Z-before b. This is a classic case of regressive assimilation due to the voiced element as in b representing the glide /w/.