Messapic language

The term 'Messapic' or 'Messapian' is traditionally used to refer to a group of languages spoken by the Iapygians, a "relatively homogeneous linguistic community" of non-Italic-speaking tribes (Messapians, Peucetians and Daunians) dwelling in the region of Apulia before the Roman conquest.[5]

However, some scholars have argued that the term 'Iapygian languages' should be preferred to refer to the grouping of languages, and the term 'Messapic' reserved to the inscriptions found in the Salento peninsula, where the specific tribe of the Messapians had been living in the pre-Roman era.[5]

The name Apulia derives from Iapygia after passing from Greek to Oscan to Latin and undergoing morphological shifts.[6]

Messapic was a non-Italic Indo-European language.[8][9][10] Modern archeologists and ancient sources hold that the ancestors of Messapic speakers came to Southeastern Italy (present-day Apulia) from Illyria, in the Western Balkans, in the early first millennium BC.[11][note 1][note 2]

Iapygian migrations in the early first millennium BC.[32][33][34]

The development of a distinct Iapygian culture in southeastern Italy is widely considered to be the result of a confluence of Balkanic traditions with local cultures existing in the region prior to cross-Adriatic migrations in the early first millennium BC.[32][33][34][35]

The Iapygians most likely left the eastern coasts of the Adriatic for Italy from the 11th century BC onwards,[36] merging with pre-existing Italic and Mycenean cultures and providing a decisive cultural and linguistic imprint.[37] Throughout the second half of the 8th century, contacts between Messapians and Greeks must have been intense and continuous, although Taras was only founded about the end of the century by Spartan colonists. Despite its proximity with Greece, Iapygia was generally not encompassed in Greek colonial territories, and with the exception of Taras, the inhabitants were evidently able to avoid other Greek colonies in the region.[37][38] During the 6th century BC Messapia, and more marginally Peucetia, underwent Hellenizing cultural influences, mainly from the nearby Taras. The use of writing systems was introduced in this period, with the acquisition of the Laconian-Tarantine alphabet and its adaptation to the Messapic language.[37][39]

Apulia et Calabria, cropped from "Map of Ancient Italy, Southern Part", by William R. Shepherd, 1911.

The relationship between Messapians and Tarantines deteriorated over time, resulting in a series of clashes between the two peoples from the beginning of the 5th century BC.[37] After two victories of the Tarentines, the Iapygians inflicted a decisive defeat on them, causing the fall of the aristocratic government and the implementation of a democratic one in Taras. It also froze relations between Greeks and the indigenous people for about half a century. Only in the late-5th and 6th centuries did they re-establish relationships. The second great Hellenizing wave occurred during the 4th century BC, this time also involving Daunia and marking the beginning of Peucetian and Daunian epigraphic records, in a local variant of the Hellenistic alphabet that replaced the older Messapic script.[37][40][41]

Along with Messapic, Greek and Oscan were spoken and written during the Romanization period all over Apulia,[42] and bilingualism in Greek and Messapic was probably common in southern Apulia.[28] Based upon the legends of the local currencies promoted by Rome, Messapic appears to have been written in the southern zone, Oscan in the northern area, while the central sector was a trilingual area where Messapic, Greek and Oscan co-existed in inscriptions.[42] Messapic epigraphic records seem to have ended by the late-2nd century BC.[7]

A characteristic feature of Messapic is the absence of a phonological opposition between the vowels /u/ and /o/, the language featuring only an o/u phoneme. Consequently, the superfluous letter /u/ (upsilon) was not taken over following the initial period of adaption of the Archaic (Western) Greek alphabet.[43] The 'o/u' phoneme existed in opposition to an 'a/o' phoneme formed after phonological distinction between *o and *a was abandoned.[44] The Proto-Indo-European (PIE) vowel /o/ regularly appears as /a/ in inscriptions (e.g., Venas < *Wenos; menza < *mendyo; tabarā < *to-bhorā).[45][44] The original PIE phonological opposition between ō and o is still perceptible in Messapic.[44] The diphthong *ou, itself reflecting the merged diphthongs *ou and eu, underwent sound change to develop into ao, then into ō (e.g., *Toutor > Taotor > Θōtor).[44]

The dental affricate or spirant written Θ is frequently used before the sounds ao- or o-, where it is most likely a replacement for the older letter . Another special letter, , occurs almost exclusively in Archaic inscriptions from the 6th and 5th centuries BC.[39] Multiple palatalizations have also taken place, as in 'Zis' < *dyēs, 'Artorres' < *Artōryos, or 'Bla(t)θes' < *Blatyos (where '(t)θ' probably denoted a dental affricate or spirant /ts/ or /tš/).[44]

The Proto-Indo-Europan voiced aspirates *bh and *dh are certainly represented by the simple unaspirated voiced obstruents /b/ and /d/ in Messapic (e.g., 'berain' < *bher-; '-des' < *dʰeh₁).[44] On the other hand, the outcomes of the Indo-European palatal, velar, and labiovelar stops remains unclear, with slender evidence.[44]

Proto-Indo-European *s was rather clearly reflected in initial and intervocalic positions as Messapic h, with notable examples including klaohi and hipa, but note Venas with *s in final position.[44][46]

The Messapic alphabet is an adaptation of the Western ("red") Greek scripts, specifically the Laconian-Tarantinian version.[39] The actual Messapic inscriptions are attested from the 6th century BC onward, while the Peucetian and Daunian epigraphic record (written in a local variant of the Hellenistic alphabet rather than in the older Messapic script) only begins in the 4th century BC.[40][41]

Messapic

The Greek letter Φ (/pʰ/) was not adopted, because it would have been superfluous for Messapic.[39] While zeta "normally" represented the voiced counterpart to /s/, it may have been an affricate in some cases.[39] The value of Θ is unclear, but is clearly dental; it may be an affricate or a spirant. In any case it appears to have arose partly as the reflex of the segment *ty.[39]

Messapic
Western Greek
Greek name	alpha	beta	gamma	delta	epsilon	digamma	zeta	eta	heta	theta	iota	kappa
Phonetic value	/a/	/b/	/g/	/d/	/e/	/v/	/z/, /dz/, /dš/	/h/	/h/	/θ/	/i/	/k/
Messapic
Western Greek												–
Greek name	lambda	mu	nu	xi	omicron	pi	koppa	rho	sigma	tau	chi	–
Phonetic value	/l/	/m/	/n/	/š/	/o/	/p/	/k/ (before /o/)	/r/	/s/	/t/	/kʰ/ > -h-, -y- (intervocalic before /i/)	/tʰ/ > /θ/
Sources	Marchesini 2009, pp. 144–145; Matzinger 2014, pp. 10–14; De Simone 2017, pp. 1839–1844
Note	The letters are arranged in chronological order of appearance, from left to right. Some letterforms went out of use and were replaced by new shapes (see Matzinger 2014, pp. 10–14).

The Messapic language is a 'fragmentary language' (Trümmersprache), preserved only in about 600 inscriptions from the mid-6th up until the late-2nd century BC.[50][51] Many of them consist of personal names of deceased engraved in burial sites (36% of the total), and only a few inscriptions have been definitely deciphered.[50][52][41] Some longer texts are also available, including those recently found in the Grotta della Poesia (Roca Vecchia), although they have not been fully exploited by scholars yet.[53] Most of the Messapic inscriptions are accessible in the Monumenta Linguae Messapicae (MLM), published in print in 2002.[41]

• Lomas, Kathryn. “Crossing Boundaries: The Inscribed Votives of Southeast Italy.” Pallas, no. 86, 2011, pp. 311–329. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/43606696. Accessed 15 Apr. 2020.
• Matzinger, Joachim (2019). Messapisch. Kurzgrammatiken indogermanischer Sprachen und Sprachstufen (in German). 2. Dr Ludwig Reichert Verlag. ISBN 978-3954903986.
• Meudler, Marcel (2003). "Mézence, un théonyme messapien ?". Revue des Études Anciennes. 105 (1): 5–15. doi:10.3406/rea.2003.5647.
• Messapische Studien. Inschriften mit Kommentar, Skizze einer Laut- und Formenlehre. Von Otto Haas Universitätdozent - Wien. Heidelberg: Carl Winter - Universitätsverlag. 1962.

• Civiltà messapica (in Italian)
• Archaeologists find western world's oldest map. Telegraph Newspaper Online, November 19, 2005.