The Dacian language was an Indo-European language spoken by the ancient people of Dacia and it is a source of dispute about its origin and characteristics.

While there are almost no written documents in Dacian, we can find out about it from:

• the toponyms, hydronyms, personal names (including names of kings) and Dacian names of some plants written in Greek and Roman sources.
• the substrata found in the current Romanian language, the language that is spoken almost in the all the places Dacians lived. There are about 200-300 words with uncertain origin (like brânză=cheese, vatră=hearth etc), some of which have cognates in Albanian. It is thought that these words entered from the Dacian language in ancient times, and are the remains of the Dacian language.

Contents

1 Centum or Satem 2 Connections to Albanian 3 Connections to Latin 4 See also 5 External links

Centum or Satem

The common view is that Dacian was perhaps a Satem language, and some Dacian toponyms and names are cited as evidence. Also cited as evidence are some Romanian words considered to be from Dacian (such as 'suta', meaning 'hundred') that seem to indicate a Satem Dacian language.

In recent years, a linguist and Thracologist [1] (http://soltdm.tripod.com/limbimod/romana/grecrom.htm/) has proposed that the Dacian and Thracian language were in fact Centum languages in their earlier periods and over time developed some Satem features.

Connections to Albanian

A number of linguists cite the Romanian-Albanian cognates as evidence that the Dacian language was in the same language group with the Albanian language. There are also a few cognates between Thracian and Albanian words.

Connections to Latin

Another hypothesis (originally developed by linguist Bogdan Petriceicu-Hasdeu) is that Dacian was in fact from the beginning closely related to Latin. This theory is not generally accepted by linguists; however, it could explain the quick "romanization" of the Dacians after the Roman Empire occupied a portion of Dacia, albeit only about on one-seventh of Dacian territory and only for 165 years.

The Roman poet Ovid learned the Dacian language after being exiled to Tomis in Dacia. He composed poems in the language, which have unfortunately been lost.

See also

• Dacia
• Dacian culture
• List of Dacian words
• Origin of Romanians
• Romanian language
• Thracian language

External links

• Dacian-Thracian being Centum languages that developed Satem features (http://soltdm.tripod.com/limbimod/romana/grecrom.htm/)

ro:Limba dacă