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ThePhilistine language (/ˈfɪləstiːn,ˈfɪləstaɪn,fəˈlɪstən,fəˈlɪstiːn/)[3] is theextinct language of thePhilistines. Very little is known about the language, of which a handful of words survived as cultural loanwords in Biblical Hebrew describing specifically Philistine institutions, like theserānim, the "lords" of the Philistine five cities ("pentapolis"),[4] theʿargāz receptacle, mentioned in1 Samuel 6,[5] and the titlepaḏi.[6]
To judge from inscriptions alone, it could appear that the Philistine language is simply part of the localCanaanitedialect continuum, which includesHebrew,Edomite,Moabite, andPhoenician.[7][8] For instance, theEkron inscription, identifying the archaeological site securely as the Biblical Ekron, is the first connected body of text to be identified as Philistine, on the basis of its location. However, it is written in a Canaanite dialect similar to Phoenician and Hebrew.[9][2]
There is not enough information about the original language of the Philistines to relate it confidently to any other languages. Possible relations toIndo-European languages, evenMycenaean Greek, support the theory thatimmigrantPhilistines originated among "sea peoples". There are hints of non-Semitic vocabulary andonomastics, but the inscriptions are enigmatic:[10] a number of inscribed miniature "anchor seals" have been found at various Philistine sites.[11] On the other hand, evidence from the slender corpus of brief inscriptions from Iron Age IIA–IIBTell es-Safi (Tell es-Safi inscription)[12] demonstrates that at some stage during the localIron Age, the Philistines started using one of the dialects of the local Canaanite language and script,[13] which in time masked and replaced the earlier, non-local linguistic traditions, which doubtless became reduced to alinguistic substratum, for it ceased to be recorded in inscriptions. Towards the end of the Philistine settlement in the area, in the 8th and the 7th centuries BC before their destruction byAssyria, the primary written language inPhilistia was a Canaanite dialect that was written in a version of theWest Semitic alphabet so distinctive thatFrank Moore Cross termed it the "Neo-Philistine script".[14] The Assyrian and Babylonian conquests destroyed the Philistine presence on the coast. When documentation resumes, under theAchaemenid Empire (Persian Empire), it is inImperial Aramaic, thelingua franca of theNeo-Assyrian,Neo-Babylonian, andAchaemenid empires.
There is some evidence in favour of the suggestion[15] that the Philistines did originally speak someIndo-European language, which would help explain the markedlyAegean origin of Philistine pottery styles and decorative motifs, particularlyPhilistine Bichrome ware, which differ markedly from the local Semitic artistic styles. A number of Philistine-related words found in theHebrew Bible are not fromSemitic languages, and can in some cases, with reservations, be traced back toProto-Indo-European roots. R.D. Barnett[16] related the Philistine word for captain,seren,[17] to the Greek wordtyrannos (which may be related to theNeo-Hittitesarawanas/tarawanas[18])[19][20][21][22][23][24][25] andEdward Sapir[26] made a case for relatingBiblical Hebrew:כּוֹבַע,romanized: kobaʿ,lit. 'helmet' (used ofGoliath's copper helmet in1 Samuel 17:5) to Hittitekupahis.[27] Both these words have been adopted into Hebrew. Sapir also described the Philistine titlepadî as "commonIE property" to be compared with Greek πόσις, Lithuanian–pati-s,–pats, and Tocharian Apats.[28] Some Philistine names, such asGoliath,Achish,[29] andPhicol, appear to be non-Semitic in origin, and Indo-Europeanetymologies have been suggested.[30] In 2005, aninscription dating to the 10th century BC with two names, very similar to one of the suggested etymologies of the popular Philistine name Goliath (compareLydianAlyattes,[31] GreekKalliades,CarianWljat) was found in the excavations atTell es-Safi/Gath. Israeli archaeologist Meir Ben-Dov suggested that the Hebrew word נָפָה, which occurs only in connection with the Philistine city ofDor, is related to Homeric Greekνάπη'a forested plain'.[32]
^Gitin, Dothan, and Naveh, 1997, p. 15, quote: "If so, one may ask why should a seventh century BCE inscription be written at Ekron in a language close to Phoenician and reminiscent of Old Byblian. Phoenician was the prestige language in the tenth and ninth century BCE. To find an inscription, however, in seventh century BCE Philistia, where a script from the Hebrew tradition was used, is something of an enigma."
^The term is used as a military rank in contemporary Israel, equivalent to captain.
^E. Sapir, "Hebrew 'argáz, a Philistine Word,"Journal of the American Oriental Society (1936:272–281), found it to signify the box of a cart "a presumably non-Semitic word" (p. 274).
^Doak, Brian R. (26 August 2019).The Oxford Handbook of the Phoenician and Punic Mediterranean. Oxford University Press. p. 227.ISBN978-0-19-049934-1.A number of Phoenician inscriptions from the southern Levant have been published since the corpus of Bernard Delavault and André Lemaire (1979), as the recent summary of Paolo Xella (2017) demonstrates. Many such inscriptions are difficult to differentiate paleographically and linguistically from a putative "Philistian" language (Maier et al. 2016), from Hebrew, and even from Aramaic.
^Seymour Gitin, Trude Dothan and Joseph Naveh. "A Royal Dedicatory Inscription from Ekron."Israel Exploration Journal48 (1997:1–18).
^I. Singer, "Egyptians, Canaanites and Philistines in the Period of the Emergence of Israel", in Finkelstein and Na'aman (eds.),From Nomadism to Monarchy, 1994:282–338.
^Simcha Shalom Brooks,Saul and the Monarchy: A New Look (Ashgate) 2005:29, noting O. Keel, "Studien zu den Stempelsiegeln aus Palestina/ Israel IV."Orbis Biblicus et Orientalis135 (Freiburg: Universitätsverlag) 1994:21–34.
^Maeir, A., Wimmer, S., Zukerman, A., and Demsky, A. 2008. "A Late Iron Age I/early Iron Age IIA Old Canaanite Inscription from Tell es-Sâfi/Gath, Israel: Palaeography, Dating, and Historical-Cultural Significance."Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research 351: 39–71.
^In the late 9th century BC in Tell es-Safi, the West Semitic alphabet script was in use.
^Frank Moore Cross, "A Philistine Ostracon From Ashkelon",BAR22 (January–February 1996:64–65).
^First made by Arie Noordtzij,De Filistijnen (1905), noted by G. Bonfante, "Who Were the Philistines"American Journal of Archaeology50.2 (April–June 1946:251–262) p. 252 note 4. Bonfante argued for anIllyrian origin for thePalaistinoi, in Palaeste, an Illyrian toponym inEpirus, supplied with the Illyrian-ino suffix forethnic groups; the suggested connection was introduced byde:Hermann Jacobsohn, inBerliner Philologische Wochenschrift34 (1914:483).
^Barnett, "The Sea Peoples" Sect. IV "The Philistines",New Cambridge Ancient History p. 17, critically remarked upon in Michael C. Astour's review article inJournal of the American Oriental Society,92.3 (July – September 1972:457f.
^Only used in Hebrew in connection with Philistine princes; the Philistine etymology ofseren, sranim was admitted by W.F. Albright in theNew Cambridge Ancient History, vol. I, part I, p. 25, note 3.
^Sandars, Nancy K., The Sea Peoples: Warriors of the Ancient Mediterranean, 1250–1150 BC, Thames and Hudson, 1978
^"Tyrannos is not a Greek word. It comes from one of the languages of Asia Minor and may have affinities withLydian words and names,"Robert Drews suggested, "The First Tyrants in Greece"Historia: Zeitschrift für Alte Geschichte,212 (2nd Quarter 1972:129–144) p. 138. Greek tradition recordedGyges as the first ruler to whomtyrannos was applied (ibid.).
^Helck W., Ein sprachliches Indiz für die Herkunft der Philister, in: Beiträge zur Namenforschung 21, 1983, p. 31.
^Meriggi, P. "Schizzo della delineazione nominale dell'eteo geroglifico (Continuazione e fine)", in: Archivio Glottologico Italiano, 38, 1953. pp. 36–57.
^Chantraine, P. Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue grecque. Histoire des mots, vol. 4.1, 1968, p. 1146.
^Gusmani 1969: R. Gusmani, Isoglossi lessicali Greco-Ittite, in: Studi linguistici in onore di Vittore Pisani, Brescia 1969, Vol. 1, p. 511–512.
^Cornil, P. "Une étymologie étrusco-hittite", Atti del II Congresso Internazionale de Hittitologia, Pavía, 1995, p. 84–85.
^Rabin, C. "Hittite Words in Hebrew", Or NS 32, 1963, pp. 113–139.
^Sapir, "Hebrew 'helmet,' a loanword, and its bearing on Indo-European phonology"Journal of the American Oriental Society57.1 (March 1937:73–77).
^Sapir, Edward. "Hebrew ‘Helmet," a Loanword, and Its Bearing on Indo-European Phonology."Journal of the American Oriental Society, vol. 57, no. 1, 1937, pp. 73–77.JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/594782. Accessed 16 Aug. 2021.
^Achish has been connected to Greek (Ἀγχίσης) andHurrian.
^"Little is known of Philistine personal names, but the little we know seems to confirm Jacobsohn's Illyrian hypothesis", observes G. Bonfante (1946:254), who adduces Jacobsohn 1914 and Greek usages of Ἀγχίσης, the Greek rendering ofGoliath.
^This connection was made by Georg Hüsing, according to Ferdinand Bork inAfO13 (1939–1941:227), noted by G. A. Wainwright, "Some Early Philistine History"Vetus Testamentum9.1 (January 1959:73–84) p. 79 note 3.
