Dacian Language Study

# Limba Dacǎ Ancient literary sources unanimously affirm that the Getae and Dacians were of the same origin, but the differences were regional. Strabon mentions that "the Dacians have the same language as the Getæ", and archeology confirms the unity of their material culture. Little is known about...

# Limba Dacǎ Ancient literary sources unanimously affirm that the Getae and Dacians were of the same origin, but the differences were regional. Strabon mentions that "the Dacians have the same language as the Getæ", and archeology confirms the unity of their material culture. Little is known about the Dacian language, but it was an Indo-European language of the Satem type, with a well-defined phonetic system. Research is based on the assertion that the Getae and Thracians spoke the same language. Bulgarian linguist Gheorghiev argues that Thracian and Dacian-Getic are different languages, based on differences in toponyms and phonetics. However, the available linguistic material is very limited. The richest part of the Thracian-Dacian language is represented by proper names of people, tribes, deities, settlements, rivers, and mountains, preserved in inscriptions and on coins. Approximately 2050 such names are known, of which 1150 are anthroponyms and 900 are toponyms and hydronyms (e.g., Maris = Mureș, Alutus = Olt). This is valuable linguistic material. For instance, 'tarabostes' means 'brilliant' and '-dava' refers to 'settlement'. Approximately 160 Romanian words, such as dusk, village, and cheese, are of Geto-Dacian origin, and have no equivalents in other languages.