frygisk

Frygisk, or Phrygian, refers to the language and culture of the Phrygians, an ancient people of central Anatolia in what is now Turkey. The Phrygians established a kingdom in western Anatolia with Phrygia as its core region, and Gordium is among the historically noted centers. The term also encompasses the broader cultural sphere associated with Phrygia in antiquity.

The Phrygian language is an extinct Indo-European language classified within the Anatolian branch, alongside Hittite and Luwian. It is primarily known from inscriptions dating from roughly the 8th century BCE to the 3rd century CE. The texts were written using a script adapted from the Greek alphabet, and some Phrygian material appears within Greek inscriptions. The surviving corpus consists mainly of short inscriptions on monuments, tombs, and dedicatory monuments, with only limited longer texts.

Linguistically, Phrygian shows features characteristic of the Anatolian subgroup and is regarded as distinct from Greek, though the two languages interacted through trade and political contact in antiquity. The corpus is relatively small, and scholars discuss dialectal variation and specific phonological and morphological traits based on the available inscriptions. Phrygian materials have informed understanding of phonology, morphology, and vocabulary within the Anatolian branch of Indo-European.

Phrygia came under Persian rule, later fell to Alexander the Great, and was incorporated into Hellenistic and Roman polities. The Phrygian language gradually disappeared in Late Antiquity as Greek became dominant in the region. The name endures in scholarly study of ancient Anatolian languages and, in cultural symbolism, in the Phrygian cap, a motif linked to Phrygian heritage and liberty.