Lemnian language
| Lemnian (†) | ||
|---|---|---|
| Period | Antiquity | |
|
Formerly spoken in |
Lemnos Island (now Greece ) | |
| Linguistic classification |
Aegean languages , Tyrsenic language family
|
|
| Language codes | ||
| ISO 639 -1 |
- |
|
| ISO 639 -2 |
- |
|
| ISO 639-3 |
xle |
|
For the Lemnian language there are sparse written documents from antiquity from the 6th century BC from the Greek island of Lemnos in the northern Aegean . It is counted among the Aegean languages according to geographical criteria . Since ancient writers used the terms Tyrsener (Tyrrhener), Tyrsenian (Tyrrhenian) both for the inhabitants of Lemnos and in relation to Italy (especially: Etruria ), the question of the context arises. It is taken into account by linguistics in the form of the more recent theory of a Tyrsenian language family , to which the three languages Lemnian (as East Tyrsenic), Etruscan and Rhaetian (both as West Tyrsenian) are assigned. This is done by identifying valid matches in the structure of language, which cannot be based on chance or mere language contact. The discussion about how these languages are spread is still in full swing.
Inscriptions
Lemnian was first known through the discovery of a grave stele ("Stele of Lemnos"). The grave stele, which dates from the 6th century BC. It was found in the village of Kaminia in 1884 or 1885 as a spoil from a church wall near the ancient necropolis. Kaiminia is not far from the archaeological settlement of the 3rd millennium near Poliochni . More than a hundred very short inscriptions in the form of graffiti and dipinti were found in Efestia and Chloi on Lemnos, a single graffito also in Myrina (found in 1960, Beschi 1992–1993 [1998], 269 with fig. 5). In 2009 another stone inscription in this language was discovered in the ancient theater of Efestia.
font
The origin of the alphabet in which the Lemnian inscriptions are written is controversial. According to Carlo de Simone, it is said to have descended from the Etruscan alphabet and was brought to Lemnos from Italy . Melanie Malzahn and Luciano Agostiniani , on the other hand, argue that it is an independent derivation from a Greek alphabet. The linguistic affinity of Lemnian with Etruscan and Rhaetian remains unaffected by this question. While the connection between Lemnian and Etruscan is almost generally explained by the assumption of a westward migration, there have recently also been appeals for the assumption that Lemnish originated in Italy around the eighth century or a little later (De Simone, Oettinger, Eichner). However, the archaeological findings do not reveal any of this (Beschi).
The thesis that the Aegean with western Asia Minor is the home region of the Etruscan language , as it was already represented in antiquity (see below), remains unaffected by this, as the later Etruscans and Rhaetians migrated to the west several centuries earlier (12th-11th centuries). Century BC) may have taken place.
Remarks in Ancient Literature
Already in Homer in the Odyssey contains references to non-Greek inhabitants of the island, "For Hephaestus is no longer in this country, but he has already left go to Lemnos the Sintiern rough language" (8, 293-294)
Around 510 BC In BC Athens conquered the island through Miltiades , and in the following period the Lemnian is no longer attested. From 450 BC Attic clergy settled on the island and in the following years the population gradually assimilated to the Greek .
In the Aeneid of Virgil it is believed that the Etruscans came from Troy . This is underpinned by linguistic indications, which bring the Lemnian and Etruscan languages close to the Anatolian language Luwish , through which one can establish a connection to Northwest Asia Minor .
Characteristic and close to Etruscan
The sound system is not completely identical to the Etruscan, but it was noticed early on that both languages only use 4 vowel letters of the Greek alphabet:
- Etruscan: a, e, i, u - Lemnian: a, e, i, o.
There are also parallels with the consonants:
- two s-sounds, no voiced plosives b, d, g , the sounds t and θ .
On the stele there are the formulas mav śialχveis avis (other reading: sialχveiz aviz), the original text has:… ΣΙΑΛΧFΕΙΖ: ΆFΙΖ; as well as avis śialχvis (other reading: aviz sialχveiz, the original text has: ΆFΙΖ: ΣΙΑΛΧFΙΖ) “at the age of (five?) forty (?) years” or “at the age of forty (?) years”, both of which are amazing with the Etruscan Syntagma avils maχs śealχls-c ("at the age of five and forty (?) years") or with the Etruscan. Decade numeral word form śealχls "coincides with forty".
The forms mav and maχ could also be interpreted as numerals for “four” instead of numerals for “five” (as is represented by some Etruscologists), since the word maua means “four” in the Anatolian Luwian language . After the re-reading of Heiner Eichner's text, this numeral mav (without the case ending -s or -z also grammatically incorrect) would be omitted . The forms śialχv [e] is or sealχls were previously translated as “sixty” instead of numerals for “forty”.
The vocabulary of Lemnian is still so little known that one relies on the previously established interpretations of Etruscan as an alternative.
Grammatical matches could also be identified, so that one starts from a common Ur-Etruscanic (DH Steinbauer) or Proto-Tyrsenic (to which the Rhaetian goes back; H. Rix ).
A recently voiced theory according to which the Etruscans or other language carriers Lemnos who came from Italy in the 9th or 7th century BC BC from Italy , is not proven by finds and (still?) Too little by linguistic evidence (Carlo de Simone, Norbert Oettinger, Heiner Eichner).
literature
- Félix Dürrbach, Georges Cousin: Bas-relief de Lemnos avec inscription , In: Bulletin de Correspondance Hellénique 10, 1886, pp. 1-6.
- Ernst Nachmanson, The pre-Greek inscriptions of Lemnos . In: Mittheilungen des Kaiserlich German Archaeological Institute, Athenian Department , 33, 1908, pp. 47–64 with plate 5.
- Georg Karo, The Tyrsenian stele of Lemnos . In: Mittheilungen des Kaiserlich German Archaeological Institute, Athenian Department , 33, 1908, pp. 48–74.
- Alessandro della Seta, Iscrizioni tirreniche di Lemno. In: Scritti in onore di Bartolomeo Nogara, raccolti in occasione del suo LXX anno. Città del Vaticano, pp. 119–146 and tavv. XV-XVI.
- Luigi Beschi , Atitaś , in: La Parola del Passato 51, 1996, pp. 132-136.
- Luigi Beschi, Nuove iscrizioni da Efestia , Annuario della Scuola Archeologica di ASAtene 70-71 (1992-1993) [1998], pp. 259-274.
- Luigi Beschi, Il Cabirio di Lemno: testimonianze letterarie ed epigrafiche , in: Annuario della Scuola Archeologica di Atene e delle Missioni Italiane in Oriente , pp. 74-75, 1996-1997 [2000], pp. 7-145.
- Carlo de Simone: I Tirreni a Lemnos. Evidenza linguistica e tradizioni storiche. Firenze 1996 ( Biblioteca di Studi Etruschi , 31).
- Melanie Malzahn, The Lemnian Alphabet: An Independent Development. In: Studi Etruschi 63, 1997 [1999], pp. 259-279.
- Robert SP Beekes: The Origin of the Etruscans . Amsterdam 2003 (Koninklijke Nederlandse Akademie van Wetenschappen).
- Helmut Rix: Etruscan. In: Roger D. Woodard (Ed.): The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the World's Ancient Languages. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 2004, pp. 943-966.
- Carlo de Simone: La nuova iscrizione tirsenica di Efestia. In: Tripodes 11, 2009, pp. 3-58.
- Dieter H. Steinbauer: New manual of the Etruscan. Scripta Mercaturae, St. Katharinen 1999, ISBN 3-89590-080-X .
- Norbert Oettinger, Sea Peoples and Etruscans . In: Yoram Cohen, Amir Gilan, Jared L. Miller (Eds.): PAX HETHITICA. Studies on the Hittites and their neighbors in honor of Itamar Singer . Wiesbaden 2010, pp. 233–246.
- Laura Ficuciello, Lemno in età araica. In: Emanuele Greco (ed.): Lemnos dai 'Tirreni' agli Ateniesi. Problemi storici, archeologici, topografici e linguistici, Napoli, 4 maggio 2011 . In: Annuario della Scuola Archeologica di Atene e delle Missioni Italiane in Oriente , 88, Series 3, 10, 2010, (1–205), pp. 39–84.
- Laura Ficuciello, Lemnos. Cultura, storia, archeologia, Topografia d'un isola del Nord-Egeo . Monograph della Scuola Archeologica the Atene e delle Missioni Italiani in Oriente XX, I / 1 = Lemno I, 1). Roma: Bretschneider 2013, 456 p. [S. 192–195: Il problema della 'stele' di Kaminia]
- Heiner Eichner : News on the language of the Lemnos stele. In: Journal of Language Relationship / Voprosy jazykovogo rodstva. Volume 7, 2012, pp. 9–32 (first part), and Volume 10, 2013, pp. 1–42 (second part).
- Vincenzo Bellelli: Le origini degli Etruschi. Storia - Antropologia - Archeologia (= Studia Archaeologica 186). Bretschneider, Rome, 2012.
- Luciano Agostiniani: Sulla grafia e la lingua delle iscrizioni anelleniche di Lemnos . In: Bellelli 2012, pp. 169–194.
- Heiner Eichner: The Lemnia stele. Presentation of your new interpretation, including the proposed evidence. In: Natalia Bolatti, Piotr Taracha (Ed.): And I Knew Twelve Languages. A Tribute to Massimo Poetto on the Occasion of his 70th Birthday. Warsaw 2019, pp. 91–133.