Mysian language
Encyclopedia
Mysian language was the languages spoken by Mysians
Mysians
Mysians were the inhabitants of Mysia, a region in northwestern Asia Minor.-Origins according to ancient authors:Their first mention is by Homer, in his list of Trojans allies in the Iliad, and according to whom the Mysians fought in the Trojan War on the side of Troy, under the command of Chromis...

 inhabiting Mysia
Mysia
Mysia was a region in the northwest of ancient Asia Minor or Anatolia . It was located on the south coast of the Sea of Marmara. It was bounded by Bithynia on the east, Phrygia on the southeast, Lydia on the south, Aeolis on the southwest, Troad on the west and by the Propontis on the north...

 in north-west Anatolia
Anatolia
Anatolia is a geographic and historical term denoting the westernmost protrusion of Asia, comprising the majority of the Republic of Turkey...

.

Little is known about the Mysian language. Strabo noted that their language was, in a way, a mixture of the Lydian
Lydian language
Lydian was an Indo-European language spoken in the region of Lydia in western Anatolia . It belongs to the Anatolian group of the Indo-European language family....

 and Phrygian language
Phrygian language
The Phrygian language was the Indo-European language of the Phrygians, spoken in Asia Minor during Classical Antiquity .Phrygian is considered to have been closely related to Greek....

s. As such, the Mysian language could be a language of the Anatolian group
Anatolian languages
The Anatolian languages comprise a group of extinct Indo-European languages that were spoken in Asia Minor, the best attested of them being the Hittite language.-Origins:...

. However, a passage in Athenaeus
Athenaeus
Athenaeus , of Naucratis in Egypt, Greek rhetorician and grammarian, flourished about the end of the 2nd and beginning of the 3rd century AD...

 suggests that the Mysian language was akin to the barely attested Paeonian language of Paeonia
Paeonia
Paeonia or Paionia may refer to:*the generic name of the peony*the ancient tribe and kingdom of Paeonia , in today's northern Greece and the Republic of Macedonia*Paionia , a municipality in northern Greece...

, north of Macedon
Macedon
Macedonia or Macedon was an ancient kingdom, centered in the northeastern part of the Greek peninsula, bordered by Epirus to the west, Paeonia to the north, the region of Thrace to the east and Thessaly to the south....

.

A short inscription which could be in Mysian and which dates from between the 5th and 3rd centuries BC was found in Üyücek village of Tavşanlı
Tavsanli
Tavşanlı is a town and district of Kütahya Province in the Aegean region of Turkey.Tavşanlı is a typical Aegean town where a government-owned coal mine company atttracted thousands of settlers from surrounding cities and villages which made the town reach the population of 62,000.The town is also...

 district of Kütahya
Kütahya
Kütahya is a city in western Turkey with 212,444 inhabitants , lying on the Porsuk river, at 969 metres above sea level. It is the capital of Kütahya Province, inhabited by some 517 804 people...

 province, and seems to include Indo-European
Indo-European languages
The Indo-European languages are a family of several hundred related languages and dialects, including most major current languages of Europe, the Iranian plateau, and South Asia and also historically predominant in Anatolia...

words. However, it is uncertain whether the inscription renders a text in the Mysian language or if it is simply a Phrygian dialect from the region of Mysia.

Friedrich's reading:
ΛΙΚΕC : ΒΡΑΤΕΡΑΙC : ΠΑΤΡΙΖΙ : ΙCΚ

Latin transliteration:
likes : braterais patrizi isk


The words "braterais patrizi isk" has been proposed to mean something like "for brothers and fathers", while Likes is most probably a personal name

External links

Titus texts:"Mysian" inscriptions
Palaeolexicon entry for the word ΠΑΤΡΙΖΙ
Palaeolexicon entry for the word ΒΡΑΤΕΡΑΙΣ
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