Pamphylian Greek

Pamphylian was a little-attested dialect of Ancient Greek that was spoken in Pamphylia, on the southern coast of Asia Minor. Its origins and relation to other Greek dialects are uncertain, though a number of scholars have proposed isoglosses with Arcadocypriot. It is the sole classical era dialect which did not use articles, suggesting that it split off from other dialects early. Some of its distinctive characteristics reflect potential language contact with Anatolian languages spoken nearby. It has been found that the Pamphylian dialect was likely unintelligible for speakers of other Greek dialects such as Attic or Koiné.

History

Documentation

Pamphylian is known from about 300 inscriptions, Based on Claude Brixhe (1976), Le dialecte grec de Pamphylie, documents et grammaire (Bibliothèque de l'Institut français d'études anatoliennes d'Istambul, XXVI, 19). Paris, Lib. d'Amérique et d'Orient Adrien Maisonneuve; with supplements. most of them from the Pamphylian city of Aspendos. Nearly all of them are short and funeral and consist of names only. Pamphylian graffiti giving single names have also been found abroad, in Egypt (Abydos) and Delos. The longest inscription is a 36 line decree from Aspendos, first analyzed in detail in 1880 by William M. Ramsay. (Archive.org) Inscriptions are dated from the fifth century BCE to the Roman period, most of them being from the second century BCE.

Coins issued by Pamphylian cities also bear the script. Some 30 Pamphylian single words are known from glosses given by Hesychius, Eustathius, and the Etymologicum Magnum.

Language contact Pamphylic Greek appears to have been heavily influenced by nearby Anatolian languages such as Lycian, Pisidian, and Sidetic, in both phonology and syntax. In morphology and lexicon, Anatolian influence apparently was much more limited.

The phonological influence of Anatolian on Pamphylic has been characterized as "massive structural interference", affecting both the consonant and vowel repertoire.Skelton (2017), p. 111. Aspirates gave way to fricatives, as did stop consonants.

In syntax three specific peculiarities stand out: absence of the article "the", use of the dative with pre- and postpositions where other Greeks would use a genitive, and the use of a special expression και νι + imperative.

All of these features can be explained as an adaption of the Greek language by imperfect second-language speakers: if a small group of colonizing Greek immigrants remained a minority in an area inhabited by Anatolian speaking people, the heavily accented Greek spoken as a second language by the local population, coloured by their native Anatolian language, would become the norm in the area. Because Pamphylia was an isolated region ("a backwater, relatively inaccessible"), there were few external stimuli to later change this situation.Skelton (2017), pp. 117-127.

Writing system

Pamphylia had a variant local alphabet, which was probably borrowed from other Greek alphabets. According to Selvi & Santamaria (2023) the Pamphylian alphabet stems from the 'dark blue' alphabets of North Eastern Peloponnese. The alphabet was used until the end of the 1st cent. BCE. + Sign Α Β Δ Ε Ϝ Η Θ Ι ΙΙ Κ Λ Μ 𐅨 𐅡 Ο Π Ρ Σ Τ Υ Φ + Ω Attic approximation Α Β Γ Δ Ε, Η (Ϝ) Ζ ῾ (Η) Θ Ι Ι Κ Λ Μ Ν Ξ Ο, Ω Π Ρ Σ Τ Υ Φ Χ Ω Ͷ Ͳ Transliteration α β γ δ ε, ε̄ ϝ ζ h (η) θ ι ιι κ λ μ ν ξ ο, ō π ρ σ τ υ φ χ ω и ͳ IPA sound a b g d e, ɛ: v sd? h(ɛ:) tʰ i, j i:ʲ k l m n ks o, ɔ: p r s t y pʰ kʰ ɔ: w ss? The Pamphylian alphabet made use both of the original Pamphylian digamma (Ͷ) and a standard digamma (Ϝ). It has been surmised that the original sound in some environments (after vowels) was represented by Ͷ; where the sound had changed to labiodental in the Pamphylian dialect, it was represented by Ϝ. Sometimes Ͷ also stood in the place of beta. It was found by Selvi & Santamaria (2023) that the Pamphylian alphabet originated from a process of selection, adaptation, and refunctionalization of a Northeast Peloponnesian model. This region, closely linked to Pamphylia by mythological and historical ties, used dark blue alphabets from Corinth to Argos, influenced by other Peloponnesian centers like Sparta. The use of declined in the 4th century but persisted until the end of the Hellenistic period for sociocultural reasons. The Northeast Peloponnesian corpus doctrinae, encompassing the alphabets of the region, already had features of the Pamphylian alphabet. represented the posterior approximant, and was linked to the letter for /b/ in Corinth, possibly also representing /w/. When this system reached Anatolia, it became the Pamphylian alphabet through interaction with Anatolian alphabets and the phonetic changes in the Pamphylian dialect. This resulted in the variable use of , , and during both Classical and Hellenistic periods, leading to their overlapping phonetic values.

There is also a psi-like sampi (), used probably to represent the sounds , , or . Nick Nicholas: Proposal to add Greek epigraphical letters to the UCS . Technical report, Unicode Consortium, 2005. Citing C. Brixhe, Le dialecte grec de Pamphylie. Documents et grammaire. Paris: Maisonneuve, 1976; and L.H. Jeffery, The Local Scripts of Archaic Greece. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1990.

A conspicuous element in Pamphylian texts are double iotas, where the first iota denotes an /i/-sound and the second a glide /j/.

The Η sign usually represents a /h/-sound (rough breathing); only rarely, in a few late inscriptions, it is apparently used to represent the classical Greek eta vowel (/ɛ:/ or /i:/).

Eustathius, quoting Heraclides, says that the Pamphylians "liked the /b/-sound so much that they often put b's in"; for example, instead of aëlios ('Sun'), they said babelios. And the Etymologicum Magnum says that they tended to swallow /s/-sounds and pronounce them as a 'hairy' (δασύς) sound, i.e., a rough breathing: instead of mousika they said mōˁika.Ramsay and Sayce (1880), p. 259. (One may compare a similar phenomenon in the Anatolian languages, where, for example, Milyan masa, 'god', is an older counterpart of Lycian maha.)

An inscription from Perge dated to around 400 BC reads: (, 'Klemutas the wasirvotas, son of Lvaramus, dedicated this to the Queen of Perge').. Other editions read "Kleͷutas" and "Lwaraͷu".

In eastern Pamphylia, the Pamphylian cities Side and Lyrbe-Seleukia used another language and script, called Sidetic.

Vocabulary The following lexicon was extracted from the work A Greek–English Lexicon:

/ – 'solar' (Attic: , ) / – Adonis (Attic: ) / – 'sacrificial victims' (Attic: 'the driven ones') / – 'priest' (Attic: , Cf. ) / (Attic: , , dative of meaning 'to (for) the man') /Aêdôn or / – 'Athena' / – 'eagle' (Attic: , ) / – 'mentha' (Attic: , ) / (Attic: ) / – 'locust' (Attic: , ) / or dative, plural (Attic: , , 'to/for the people')Brixhe, Dial.gr.Pamph. 3.7 / – 'sun' (Cretan and Doric: , ; Laconian: , ; Aeolic: , ; Ionic: , ; Attic: helios) /Pamph. — Sillyon 400-350 BC Brixhe, Dial.gr.Pamph. 3.24. – 'oxen, cattle'? (Attic: ) / – 'willing' (Attic: ) (/ – 'they wanted to' (Attic: )Brixhe, Dial.gr.Pamph. 3.14, 3.8. / – 'vineyard' (Attic: ) / – 'Aspendios' or 'Aspendian' / – 'years' (Attic: ; Homeric: ; Locrian, Elean, and Arcadocypriot: ; ) / – 'distress' (genitive of ).Brixhe, Dial.gr.Pamph. 3.2. / – 'weasel, skunk, cat or member of Felidae' (Attic: , ; Attic: ) / – imp. 'they should go' (Attic: )Brixhe, Dial.gr.Pamph. 3.19. / – 'thunnus' (Attic: , , ) / (?)Brixhe, Dial.gr.Pamph. 3.12. / – 'bird or rooster' (Modern Greek: ) / – 'temple (anatomy)' (Attic , ) / – 'Daphne' (Attic: ) / – 'turnip' (Attic: , ) / – 'in' or 'one' (Attic: or )Brixhe, Dial.gr.Pamph. 3. /Eustahius Od.1654; Richard Valpy and Charles Anthon. The Elements of Greek Grammar (12th Edition). New York: W.E. Dean, Printer and Publisher, 1831, p. 297. – 'rush forward' (Homeric: ) / – 'five' (Attic: , ; Modern Greek: , informal )Brixhe, Dial.gr.Pamph. 3.5. / – 'he gave' (Attic: ; Aeolic: for Attic )Brixhe, Dial.gr.Pamph. 17. / – 'field or farm' / – 'small fish, picarel, or maenidae' (Attic: , ) / – 'partridge' (Attic: , ) / / – 'clothing' (Attic: himation, ; Koine: or meaning 'garment of drill or ticking') / – 'army' (Attic: ; Attic: , meaning 'reunion' or 'gathering') / – 'lady-goddess' (Homeric: see wanax; 'dedicated it to her')Pamph. — Perge ~400 BC Epigr.Anat. 11:97,1 / – 'house' (Attic: ; Cretan and Locrian: , )Brixhe, Dial.gr.Pamph. 3.14,17. /Brixhe, Dial.gr.Pamph. 3.15, Cf. rhum-. / – 'light' (Homeric: ; Attic: ) / (Attic: , 'Medean road') /Pamph. — Aspendos 250-200 BC Brixhe, Dial.gr.Pamph. 17 – 'twenty' (Attic: ; Laconian: ; Aeolian, Doric: ).

Onomasticon The following onomastic lexicon was based on Claude Brixhe's Dialecte grec de Pamphylie:

and

(Attic: ) (Attic: ) (Attic: )

(Attic: )

(Attic: ) also in Cypriot names (Attic: ) (Cf. Cypriot: , from Homeric meaning 'good', 'brave')

– wanax + anêr

(Attic: ) (Attic: )

(Attic: )

– 'little girl' (Arcadocypriot: ) 'Aspendian'

(Attic: ) or (Attic: , ; Attic: )

(Attic: and )

(Attic: )

and (Lydian: , 'inhabitant of the Lydian capital , Sardes')

(Attic: )

Pamphylian Greek

Bron en licentie