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To: Renfield
Very interesting. Phrygian itself is odd because it was spoken in western Asia Minor but it is not part of the Anatolian branch of Indo-European (Hittite, Luwian, Palaic, Lydian, etc.), but was brought in from the Balkans.

Herodotus has a story (2.2) about the Egyptian king Psammetichus wanting to know which was the oldest language, so he had two babies raised by a shepherd who was told not to utter any words in their presence but to take note of the first word they said. One day the children came to him and said "bekos" (accent on the "o"). Psammetichus investigated and discovered that bekos was the Phrygian word for "bread," and so he concluded that Phrygian was the oldest human language.

If it's in Herodotus, it has to be true.

The question is how a relative of Phrygian would wind up in Pakistan. The Persians used to transplant populations--conceivably they could have transplanted some Phrygians to that area. But that only works if the language is a descendant of Phrygian--it may be more like a cousin.

6 posted on 06/21/2012 8:46:16 PM PDT by Verginius Rufus
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To: Verginius Rufus; blam; SunkenCiv; muawiyah

Good logical deduction. They could be also from Alexander’s armies?


8 posted on 06/22/2012 5:01:50 AM PDT by Cronos (**Marriage is about commitment, cohabitation is about convenience.**)
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