Phrygian language
| Phrygian | |
|---|---|
| Region | Central Anatolia (in modern Turkey) |
| Ethnicity | Phrygians |
| Extinct | After the 5th century CE |
Indo-European
| |
| Dialects | |
| Phrygian alphabet Greek alphabet | |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | xpg |
xpg | |
| Glottolog | phry1239 |
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| Indo-European topics |
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The Phrygian language (/ˈfrɪdʒiən/ ⓘ) was the Indo-European language of the Phrygians, spoken in Anatolia (in modern Turkey), during classical antiquity (c. 8th century BCE to 5th century CE).
Phrygian ethno-linguistic homogeneity is debatable. Ancient Greek authors used "Phrygian" as an umbrella term to describe a vast ethno-cultural complex located mainly in the central areas of Anatolia rather than a name of a single "tribe" or "people". Plato observed that some Phrygian words resembled Greek ones.
Because of the fragmentary evidence of Phrygian, its exact position within the Indo-European language family is uncertain. Phrygian shares important features mainly with Greek, but also with Armenian and Albanian. Evidence of a Thraco-Armenian separation from Phrygian and other Paleo-Balkan languages at an early stage, Phrygian's classification as a centum language, and the high frequency of phonetic, morphological, and lexical isoglosses shared with Greek, have led to a current consensus which regards Greek as the closest relative of Phrygian.