Graeco-Aryan

Hypothetical
Indo-European
phylogenetic clades
Graeco-Aryan

Graeco-Aryan (or Graeco-Armeno-Aryan) refers to a hypothesis that the Greek language, the Armenian language, and the Indo-Iranian languages share a common history within the wider Indo-European family. Graeco-Aryan unity would have become divided into Proto-Greek (spoken in the Balkans) and Proto-Indo-Iranian (spoken in the Caspian steppe) by the mid 3rd millennium BC. The Phrygian language would also be included. Geographically the ProtoArmenian must be located in Armenian Highland which means between the Proto-Greek and Proto-Indo-Iranian. The Phrygian language would also be located between the Armenian and Proto-Greek, which means the geographic region Asia Minor to the west of Armenia.

Graeco-Aryan has comparatively wide support among Indo-Europeanists.[1] Early and strong evidence was given by Euler's 1979 examination on shared features in Greek and Sanskrit nominal flection.[2]

Used in tandem with the Graeco-Armenian hypothesis, the Armenian language would also be included under the label Aryano-Greco-Armenic, splitting into proto-Greek/Phrygian and "Armeno-Aryan" (ancestor of Armenian and Indo-Iranian).[3][4]

In the context of the Kurgan hypothesis, Greco-Aryan is also known as "Late PIE" or "Late Indo-European" (LIE), suggesting that Greco-Aryan forms a dialect group which corresponds to the latest stage of linguistic unity in the Indo-European homeland in the early part of the 3rd millennium BC. By 2500 BC, Proto-Greek and Proto-Indo-Iranian had separated, moving westward and eastward from the Pontic Steppe, respectively.[5]

If Graeco-Aryan is a valid group, Grassmann's Law may have a common origin in Greek and Sanskrit.

Graeco-Aryan is invoked in particular in studies of comparative mythology, e.g. by West (1999)[6] and Watkins (2001).[7]

References

  1. ^ A. Bammesberger in The Cambridge History of the English Language, 1992, ISBN 9780521264747, p. 32: the model "still remains the background of much creative work in Indo-European reconstruction" even though it is "by no means uniformly accepted by all scholars".
  2. ^ Indoiranisch-griechische Gemeinsamkeiten der Nominalbildung und deren indogermanische Grundlagen (= Aryan-Greek Communities in Nominal Morphology and their Indoeuropean Origins; in German) (282 p.), Innsbruck, 1979
  3. ^ Handbook of Formal Languages (1997) p. 6.
  4. ^ Indo-European tree with Armeno-Aryan, exclusion of Greek [1]
  5. ^ Martin Litchfield West, Indo-European poetry and myth (2007), p. 7.
  6. ^ Martin Litchfield West (1999), "The Invention of Homer". Classical Quarterly 49 (364).
  7. ^ Calvert Watkins (2001), How to Kill a Dragon, Oxford University Press, ISBN 978-0195144130.