FORVM`s Classical Numismatics Discussion Board
Numismatic and History Discussion Forums => History and Archeology => Topic started by: Jochen on June 07, 2006, 03:53:20 pm
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Hi!
Recently I have found a list of all languages which were spoken in the Roman Empire between 100 BC and AD 395 which I want to share with you. The list is from "Die Sprachen im Römischen Reich der Kaiserzeit (Bonner Kolloquium 1974, Beihefte der Bonner Jahrbücher Jahrbücher Band 40, Rheinland-Verlag GmbH, Köln 1980)". I hope some of you have as fun as I when I read it!
- Egyptian (as Middle- and New-Egyptian, Early-, Middle- and Late-Demotian , Ancient-
Coptic and Coptic)
- Albanian (1) (An ancient Illyrian language at the Adriatic Sea)
- Albanian (2) (A language family of the Caucasus, not related to (1); the main language was
Arranian, which alone should have had 26 sublanguages)
- Arabian (In the types of Nabatean, Palmyric: an Arabian-west-aramaean hybrid language,
Shafaitic(?), Tamudic)
- Aramaean (in the eastern parts of the Empire the usual trading and administration
language, for a long time as important as Greek and Latin)
- Armenian
- Babylonian (Akkadian)
- Basque
- Dacian (related to Thracian; with the associated languages Getic, Moesian, Triballic)
- Etruscan
- Garamantic (in Northwest-Africa)
- Germanic (wether that were really particular differentiated languages in those times is
unknown)
- Greek (the Attic-Ionian Koine as standard language; regional dialects: Attic, Sorian,
Epirotic, Ionian, Laconian, Macedonian, Messenian)
- Hebrew
- Hittite-Luwian residual languages (Isaurian, Carian, Lydian, Lycian, Pisidian, Sidetic)
- Iberian (1) (at the Iberian peninsula)
- Iberian (2) (in the Caucasus, not related to (1); ancient writers reported 70 to 300
different languages in the eastern frontier regions of the Empire of which we don't know
anything today)
- Illyrian
- Iranian
- Istrian
- Italic languages (in a narrow sense: Umbrian, Oscan, and the Sabellian intermedium
dialects like Marsian, Paelignian and others)
- Celtic (Celto-Iberian on the Iberian peninsula; Gallic and Narbonensian in the western
continental Europe, the Britannic languages: Bretonic, Cornic, Cymric, and the Goidelic
languages: Irish, Manx and Scottish-Gaelic; Lepontic in northern Italy; in the Alpes:
Noric, Pannonian-Dalmatian, Vindelic; Galatian in Asia Minor)
- Lasian (in the Caucasus)
- Latin (standard Latin, 'sermo castrense', and other special idioms)
- Liburnian
- Libyan (Numidian = eastern, the Tunesian-Algerian Massylian,and the western
Masaesylian)
- Ligurian
- Messapian
- Mingrelian (in the Caucasus)
- Paionian (Phrygian?)
- Parthian
- Phoenician (declared as yet living!)
- Phrygian
- Punic (derivative language of the Phoenician in Carthage)
- Raetic
- Sarmatian
- Scythian
- Sumerian
- Syrian
- Thracian
- Venetic
Many of these languages are known only as names and we have no more informations about them.
Best regards