The Andrean Prophesy

My alternate history novel Wealthgiver features two constructed languages. One (Bessian) is for daily use and will not concern us here, but the other is Ancient Thracian, used ritual purposes such as giving prophesies. One such prophesy sets the story going in chapter three.

One reader was curious about how Ancient Thracian1 is pronounced. He also asked for asked for a more accurate, less rhyming, English translation.
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First, The Prophesy of Andrei in the original Ancient Thracian:
Kōgaió ió
Pódes xénai. Dymó
Dóubous tous me
Iérous phlēsté.
Porostreiýn iáes 5
Ápaes tḗs rhódaes
Pephlón iēn tóus
Sélkanthas se strátous.
Xēthópeti pós iá,
Stas zýn Xēthópaniâ. 10
Zēltón ze gríssma tón
No êan désyme xinón.
Pleistorós êrgetar.
Sarḗ ton désaitar!

The lines are each seven syllables long, with a beat of pause between each line and the next (except line 5, which has eight syllables long and has no pause). For example, the first line is chanted “ko-o-ga-i-O i-O (pause).”

Long vowels (for example ē) are always chanted as two syllables. Diphthongs (for example ai) are usually two syllables as well, but sometimes they are a single syllable. See the difference between iáes (i-A-es) and Xēthópaniâ (“kse-THO-pan-ya”). A circumflex over a vowel indicates an on-glide, such as â (“ya”) or ê (“ye”), but there is no spelling to differentiate an off-glide from a diphthong. Xénai is pronounced “KSE-na-i) but désaitar is “DE-sai-tar.” The reader is expected to know the difference. Accented vowels are stressed.

X is pronounced “ks.” TH, KH, and PH might once have been pronounced as aspirates (tʰ, kʰ, pʰ) or as fricatives (θ, x, ɸ), but are today pronounced as normal unvoiced stops: t, k, p.

Now, the rhyming translation:

On Holy Mountain foreign Feet.
You make Sacred Depths with smoke replete.
Rivers ruddy stream around [5]
The armies tugging at her gown.
With Master at hand, the Mistress will stand. [10]
If gold and debt with welcome's met.
Comes the Wealthgiver. May you him give her!

And the literal translation:

On the Holy One
Foreign Feet. With smoke
The Sacred Depths
You fill.
Stream [5]
The red waters
Around her peplos
(which is) tugged at (by) armies.
With the Guest-master behind,
Stands the Guest-mistress. [10]
If gold and the foreign debt
Ever are welcomed.
Wealth-giver comes.
May (the) Maiden welcome him!


If this translation has tickled your curiosity, why not…Leave a comment…and ask your own question?
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1 This is a fictional reconstruction of the real but poorly-attested Thracian language.