The term "Armeno-Phrygian" is also used for a hypothetical language branch, which would include the languages spoken by the Phrygians and the Armenians, and would be a branch of theIndo-European language family, or a sub-branch of either the proposed "Graeco-Armeno-Aryan" or "Armeno-Aryan" branches.
There are two conflicting theories regarding the potential origins of the Armeno-Phrygians:
Ancient Greek historianHerodotus stated that Armenians were colonists fromPhrygia ("the Armenians were equipped like Phrygians, being Phrygian colonists" (Ἀρμένιοι δὲ κατά περ Φρύγες ἐσεσάχατο, ἐόντες Φρυγῶν ἄποικοι)(7.73).[2] Phrygia encompassed much of western and central Anatolia during the Iron Age. According to Ancient Greeks, the Phrygians had originated in the Balkans as Bryges. This led some scholars to suggest that Armenians also originated in the Balkans.[3] According toIgor Diakonoff, thePhrygians and theProto-Armenians migrated eastward during theBronze Age collapse (at the end of the 13th century and the first half of 12th century). This theory suggests that Proto-Armenians were known by the name ofMushki to theAssyrians and that they blended with the ancient populations of theArmenian Highlands, including speakers ofHurro-Urartian languages, to create Armenians.[4] Assyrian sources identify the Mushki with the Phrygians, but later Greek sources then distinguish between the Phrygians and the Moschoi (commonly thought to be a variation of "Mushki").
Some modern scholars instead believe that a proto-Armeno-Phrygian population originated in eastern Anatolia and/or the Armenian Highlands, from where the Phrygians later migrated westward.[5]
According to some scholars, there is evidence of language borrowings (Armenisms) from theProto-Armenian language intoHittite andUrartian,[6] what would prove the presence of Proto-Armenians in the Armenian Highlands, in the lands ofancient Armenia, since at least the end of the 2nd millennium BC.
A number of linguists have rejected a close relationship between Armenian and Phrygian, despite saying that the two languages do share some features.[7][8][9][10][11] Phrygian is now classified as acentum language more closely related to Greek than Armenian, whereas Armenian is mostlysatem.[12]
Recent research suggests that there is lack of archaeological[13] and genetic evidence[14] for a group from the Balkans entering easternAsia Minor or theArmenian Highlands during or after the Bronze Age Collapse (as was suggested by Diakonoff).
Some scholars have suggested that the Mushki (whether they were speakers of Armenian or another language) originated in theCaucasus region and moved westward.[15][16][13]
^Hrach Martirosyan. "Origins and historical development of the Armenian language" (pp. 7–9) inJournal of Language Relationship, International Scientific Periodical, no. 10 (2013). Russian State University for the Humanities, Institute of Linguistics of the Russian Academy of Sciences.
^Clackson, J. P. T., 2008, “Classical Armenian”, in Woodard,R. D., The Ancient Languages of Asia Minor, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 124–143
^Martirosyan, H., 2013, “The place of Armenian in the Indo-European language family: the relationship with Greek and Indo-Iranian”, Journal of Language Relationship10, 85—13
^Hamp, Eric P. (August 2013). "The Expansion of the Indo-European Languages: An Indo-Europeanist's Evolving View" (PDF). Sino-Platonic Papers.
^Kim, Ronald (2018). "Greco-Armenian: The persistence of a myth". Indogermanische Forschungen. The University of British Columbia Library.
^abKossian, Aram V. (1997), "The Mushki Problem Reconsidered." pp. 260-261
^Haber, Marc; Mezzavilla, Massimo; Xue, Yali; Comas, David; Gasparini, Paolo; Zalloua, Pierre; Tyler-Smith, Chris (2015). "Genetic evidence for an origin of the Armenians from Bronze Age mixing of multiple populations".European Journal of Human Genetics. 24 (6): 931–6.
^Sevin, Veli (1991), "The Early Iron Age in the Elazıǧ Region and the Problem of the Mushkians", Anatolian Studies, 41: 87–97, doi:10.2307/3642931, JSTOR 3642931 pp. 96-97
^Kopanias, Konstantinos (2015), "The Mushki/Phrygian Problem from the Near Eastern Point of View." pp. 220-222
Lamberterie, Charles de (2013). "Grec, phrygien, arménien: des anciens aux modernes".Journal des savants (in French) (1):3–69.doi:10.3406/jds.2013.6300.
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