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Monday, August 5, 2024

GREEKS-PHRYGIANS-THRACIANS: A COMMON HERITAGE


The most recent linguistic studies point at the kinship of Greeks and Phrygians, but also Thracians. Especially after the discovery of the Thracian inscriptions of Zone-Samothrace, leading linguists, such as Claude Brixhe (who took over the study of the inscriptions) are led to the conclusion that Greeks, Thracians and Phrygians are offshoots of the same ancient (linguistic) group and share common heritage. 

It should not surprise us when the Thracians and the Phrygians are also found in the most ancient traditional Greek myths and were in contact continuously throughout history. 

Linguist Claude Brixhe in the beginning of a chapter dedicated to the personal onomastics of Roman Phrygia in the book "Roman Phrygia", refers to the close ties between Greek, Thracian and Phrygian languages. He further on comments on the commom cultural heritage of Greeks and Phrygians.
Brixhe, in the chapter about the Thracian language included in the book "Handbook of Comparative and Historical Indo-European Linguistics", mentions again the common ancestry of Greeks, Phrygians as well as Thracians.

The research on the discovered Thracian inscriptions in Zone and Samothrace leads the prominent linguist to the conclusion that the Thracian language of the 6th century BCE was "surprisingly close to Greek"
Specifically, it is revealed that "Thracian was as close to Greek as one Romance language is to another"




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