Paeonian language
Paeonian, sometimes spelled Paionian, is a poorly attested, extinct language spoken by the ancient Paeonians until late antiquity.
Paeonia was located to the north of Macedon, south of Dardania, west of Thrace, and east of the southernmost Illyrians.
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 which, according to Radoslav Katičić, seems to be the prevailing opinion.
- Dimitar Dečev and Susan Wise Bauer proposed a Thracian hypothesis.
- Vladimir I. Georgiev suggested a Phrygian affiliation.
- Karl Beloch, Ioannis Svoronos and Irwin L. Merker consider Paeonian an [Ancient Greek|ancient Greek dialect], or a lost Indo-European language closely related to Greek, i.e. a Hellenic language, with a great deal of Thracian and Illyrian influence.
- 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:- μόναπος, the European bison
- τίλων, a species of fish once found in Lake Prasias
- paprax, a species of fish once found in Lake Prasias. Paprakas, masc. acc. pl.
Patraos, Lycpeios, Audoleon, Eupolemos,, etc. In addition several toponyms, Astibos and a few theonyms Dryalus, Dyalos, the Paeonian Dionysus, as well as the following:
- Pontos, effluent of the Strumica River, perhaps from *ponktos, ;
- Idomenae, name of a city ;
- Stoboi, name of a city, from *stob ;
- Dysoron, name of a mountain, from dys-, and oros ;
- Agrianes, name of a tribe, possibly from *agro- 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.