User:Pmanderson/proto-Ionian theory

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Temporary recreation of deleted text for review - David Gerard 22:56, 16 February 2006 (UTC)

Ionian_theory | discussion]] & log.}} The Proto-Ionian Theory is a theory advocted for on usenet by a person with the account name "grapheus". It is claimed by him to have been written about by someone named "Jean Fauconeau", in a journal called "Actualité de l'Histoire".

Details of the theory include: it is a linguistic theory (with repercussions on archaeology), aimed at replacing the Risch-Chadwick Theory proposed in the 1950s by the Swiss linguist Ernst Risch and mainly defended by John Chadwick, a scholar who participated in the decipherment of the Linear B script. The Risch-Chadwick Theory supposes that at the Middle Bronze Age Period, the Greek dialects split into two main groups : the Western (or Northern) Group (or Proto-Doric) and the Eastern (or Southern) Group (all the other dialects). It concludes therefore that, inside the Eastern Group, the split between Ionic-Attic and the other dialects happened only after 1200 BC. The Proto-Ionian Theory comes back to the old Paul Kretschmer's Theory of the three Greek waves, supposing a split of the Greek dialects as early as 3000 BC into three groups : Proto-Ionic-Attic ; Proto-Achean ; Proto-Doric. The main difference between both theories concerns therefore the existence, in the second one, of "Proto-Ionians" during the whole Bronze Age Period. Moreover, it is stated that these Proto-Ionians came by sea to the Aegean through the Bosphorus, and settled at Troy, in the Cycladic Islands, Euboea and Attica, during the Early Bronze Age (c.2900 to 2200 BC).

[edit] References

• Google groups search for "Proto-Ionian Theory" - most of the messages were written by "grapheus".
• Personal webpage on the theory - Not clear if it's the same person as "grapheus" or not.