Pre-Greek substrate
The Pre-Greek substrate consists of the unknown language or languages spoken in prehistoric Greece before the settlement of Proto-Greek speakers in the area. It is thought possible that Greek took over some thousand words and proper names from such a language (or languages), because some of its vocabulary cannot be satisfactorily explained as deriving from the Proto-Greek language.
Contents
Possible Pre-Greek loanwords
- Personal names (e.g. Ὀδυσσεύς Odysseus)
- Theonyms (e.g. Ἑρμῆς Hermes)
- Maritime vocabulary (e.g. θάλασσα thálassa 'sea')
- Words relating to Mediterranean agriculture (e.g. ἐλαίϝα elai(w)a 'olive,' ἄμπελος ampelos 'vine')
- Words regarding rulers, given by the populace (e.g. Τύραννος Tyrannos 'tyrant')
- Building technology (e.g. πύργος pyrgos 'tower'[1])
- Placenames including -nth- (e.g. Κόρινθος Korinthos, Ζάκυνθος Zakynthos), -ss- (e.g. Παρνασσός Parnassos) and -tt- (e.g. Ὑμηττός Hymettus)
Substratum theories
Various explanations have been put forward for these substrate features. Among these are:[2]
Minoan substratum
The existence of a Minoan (Eteocretan) substratum is the view of Arthur Evans who assumed widespread Minoan colonisation of the Aegean, policed by a Minoan thalassocracy.
Anatolian Indo-European substratum
An Anatolian (perhaps specifically Luwian[3]) substratum has been proposed, on the basis of -ss- and -nd- (corresponding to -ss- and -nth- in mainland Greece) placenames being widespread in Western Anatolia.[4] However, of the few words of secure Anatolian origin, most are cultural items or commodities likely the result of commercial exchange, not of a substratum.[5]
- Anatolian loanwords:[6]
- Apóllōn (Doric Apéllōn, Cypriot Apeílōn), from *Apeljōn, as in Hit. Appaliunaš;[7]
- dépas ‘cup; pot, vessel’, Mycenaean di-pa, from H-Luw. ti-pa-s ‘sky; bowl, cup’ (cf. Hit. nēpis ‘sky; cup’);
- eléphās ‘ivory’, from Hit. laḫpa (itself from Mesopotamia; cf. Phoen. ʾlp, Egypt. Ȝbw);
- kýanos ‘dark blue glaze; enamel’, from Hit. kuwannan- ‘copper ore; azurite’ (ultimately from Sumerian kù-an);
- kýmbachos ‘helmet’, from Hit. kupaḫi ‘headgear’;
- kýmbalon ‘cymbal’, from Hit. ḫuḫupal ‘wooden percussion instrument’;
- mólybdos ‘lead’, Mycenaean mo-ri-wo-do, from *morkʷ-io- ‘dark’, as in Lydian mariwda(ś)-k ‘the dark ones’;
- óbryza ‘vessel for refining gold’, from Hit. ḫuprušḫi ‘vessel’;
- tolýpē ‘ball of wool’, from Hit. taluppa ‘lump’ (or C-Luw. taluppa/i).
Tyrrhenian substratum
On the basis of statements in Thucydides that Tyrrhenian was a former language of Athens and that the Tyrrhenians had been expelled to Lemnos, it has been suggested that the substrate language was related to Lemnian, and thus by modern association to Etruscan.
Other possibilities
The possibility exists that the source may be more than one of these possibilities, or that vocabulary may have entered the Proto-Greek language before its speakers actually reached Greece and its pre-Indo-European population. Confusingly, the words wánax (king) and wánassa (queen), terms that would be expected to originate from a local prestige language or superstratum, also may appear as natak ('lord') and nasi ('lady) in the Tocharian languages, spoken far to the east by a people not known to have ever visited Greece.
See also
- Proto-Greek language
- Eteocretan
- Eteocypriot
- Etruscan language
- Pelasgians
- Tyrrhenian languages
- Sicel language
- Substrates of other Indo-European languages
Notes and references
- ^ If the substratum is actually Indo-European, pyrgos as well as Pergamos might be connected to Proto-Indo-European *bhergh-.
- ^ Other theories ranging from the mild (e.g. Egyptian) to the extreme (e.g. Proto-Turkic) have been proposed but have been given little to no consideration from the broader academic community and as such are not mentioned in the main body.
- ^ Some, such as Leonard R. Palmer, go so far as to suggest that the language of Linear A might be Luwian, though other Anatolian interpretations have also been offered.
- ^ Margalit Finkelberg, Greeks and Pre-Greeks: Aegean Prehistory and Greek Heroic Tradition (Cambridge) 2005, esp. 42–64.
- ^ R. S. P. Beekes, Etymological Dictionary of Greek, Brill, 2009, p. xv.
- ^ Ivo Hajnal, Graeco-Anatolian Contacts in the Mycenaean Period (PDF).
- ^ R. S. P. Beekes, JANER 2, 2003.
Bibliography
- Beekes, Robert S. P. (2010), "The Pre-Greek Loanwords in Greek", Etymological Dictionary of Greek, Brill.
- Brown, R.A. (1985), Evidence for Pre-Greek Speech on Crete from Greek Alphabetic Sources. Amsterdam: Adolf M. Hakkert.
- Duhoux, Yves, "Pre-Greek Languages: Indirect Evidence." In: A History of Ancient Greek: From the Beginnings to Late Antiquity, edited by A.-F. Christidis, Cambridge University Press (2007), 223–28.
- Furnée, Edzard Johan (1972), Die wichtigsten konsonantischen Erscheinungen des Vorgriechischen mit einem Appendix über den Vokalismus.
- Heubeck, Alfred. Praegraeca: sprachliche Untersuchungen zum vorgriechisch-indogermanischen Substrat, Erlangen (1961); review: Beattie, A. J. The Classical Review (1963).
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