The Proto-Greek language is the assumed last common ancestor of all known varieties of Greek, including Mycenaean, the classical Greek dialects (Attic-Ionic, Aeolic, Doric and Arcado-Cypriot), and ultimately Koine, Byzantine and modern Greek. Some scholars would include the fragmentary ancient Macedonian language, either as descended from an earlier "Proto-Hellenic" language, or by definition including it among the descendants of Proto-Greek as a Hellenic language and/or a Greek dialect.[1] Proto-Greek would have been spoken in the late 3rd millennium BC, most probably in the Balkans. The unity of Proto-Greek would have ended as Hellenic migrants, speaking the predecessor of the Mycenaean language, entered the Greek peninsula either around the 21st century BC, or in the 17th century BC at the latest.
The evolution of Proto-Greek should be considered with the background of an early Palaeo-Balkan sprachbund that makes it difficult to delineate exact boundaries between individual languages. The characteristically Greek representation of word-initial laryngeals by prothetic vowels is shared by the Armenian language, which also shares other phonological and morphological peculiarities of Greek. The close relatedness of Armenian and Greek sheds light on the paraphyletic nature of the Centum-Satem isogloss.
Close similarities between Ancient Greek and Vedic Sanskrit suggest that both Proto-Greek and Proto-Indo-Iranian were still quite similar to either late Proto-Indo-European, which would place the latter somewhere in the late 4th millennium BC, or a post-PIE Graeco-Aryan proto-language. Graeco-Aryan has little support among linguists, since both geographical and temporal distribution of Greek and Indo-Iranian fit well with the Kurgan hypothesis of Proto-Indo-European.
| History of the Greek language (see also: Greek alphabet) |
| Proto-Greek (c. 3000–1600 BC)
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| Mycenaean (c. 1600–1100 BC)
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| Ancient Greek (c. 800–330 BC) Dialects: Aeolic, Arcadocypriot, Attic-Ionic, Doric, Locrian, Pamphylian, Homeric Greek, Macedonian |
| Koine Greek (c. 330 BC–330)
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| Medieval Greek (330–1453)
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| Modern Greek (from 1453) Dialects: Calabrian, Cappadocian, Cheimarriotika, Cretan, Cypriot, Demotic, Griko, Katharevousa, Pontic, Tsakonian, Maniot, Yevanic *Dates (beginning with Ancient Greek) from Wallace, D. B. (1996). Greek Grammar Beyond the Basics: An Exegetical Syntax of the New Testament. Grand Rapids: Zondervan. p. 12. ISBN 0310218950. |
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Greek is a Centum language, which would place a possible Graeco-Aryan protolanguage before Satemization, making it identical to late PIE. Proto-Greek does appear to have been affected by the general trend of palatalization characteristic of the Satem group, evidenced for example by the (post-Mycenaean) change of labiovelars into dentals before e (e.g. kʷe > te "and"), but the Satemizing influence appears to have reached Greek only after Greek had lost the palatovelars (i.e. after it had already become a Centum language).
The primary sound changes separating Proto-Greek from the Proto-Indo-European language included:
Loss of prevocalic *s was not completed entirely, famously evidenced by sȳs (also hȳs, pig, from PIE *suh₁-), dasýs (dense) and dásos (dense growth, forest); syn (with) is another example, contaminated with PIE *kom (Latin cum, Proto-Greek *kon) to Homeric / Old Attic ksyn. Sélas (light in the sky, as in the "Northern Lights") and selēnē/selána (the Moon) may be more examples of the same, if actually derived from PIE *swel- (to burn) (possibly related to hēlios "Sun", Ionic hēelios < *sāwelios).
Dissimilation of aspirates (so-called Grassmann's law) caused an initial aspirated sound to lose its aspiration when a following aspirated consonant occurred in the same word. It was a relatively late change in Proto-Greek history and must have occurred independently of the similar dissimilation of aspirates (also known as Grassmann's law) in Indo-Iranian, although it may represent a common areal feature. Specifically:
The following table, taken from Sihler (1995),[3] shows the evolution of clusters of consonant followed by PIE /y/, into various palatal consonants and ultimately to the depalatalized representation seen in the Ancient Greek dialects.
| PIE | Early Pre-Greek | Late Pre-Greek | Proto-Greek | Greek |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| -py-, -bhy-[4] | -py-, -phy- | -pč- | -pt- | |
| -ty-, -dhy- | -tˢ- | -tˢy- (restored) | -čč- | ‑ss-, ‑tt- |
| -ḱy-, -ky-, -kʷy- | -ky-, -kʷy- | -ky- | ||
| -ǵhy-, -ghy-, -gʷhy- | -khy-, -kʷhy- | -khy- | ||
| -dy- | -dᶻ- (?) | -dᶻy- (? restored) | -ǰǰ- | ‑zd- |
| -ǵy-, -gy-, -gʷy- | -gy-, -gʷy- | -gy- | ||
| -ly- | -ly- | -ľľ- | ‑ll- | |
| -l̥y- | -l̥y- | -aly- | -aľľ- | ‑all- |
| -Vny-, -Vmy-, -H̥ny-, -H̥my- | -Vny-, -Vmy- | -Vny- | -Vňň- | ‑ain-, ‑ein-, ‑īn-, -oin-, ‑ūn- |
| -m̥y- -n̥y- | -amy- -any- | -any- | -aňň- | ‑ain- |
| -Vry- | -Vry- | -Vřř- | ‑air-, ‑eir-, ‑īr-, ‑oir-, ‑ūr- | |
| -r̥y- | -r̥y | -ary- | -ařř- | ‑air- |
| -Vsy- | -Vsy- | -Vhy- | -Vyy- | -ai‑, -ei-, -oi-, -ui- |
| -Vwy- | -Vwy- | -Vẅẅ- /Vɥɥ/ > -Vyy- | ||
Note that there were actually two stages of palatalization. The first stage affected only the PIE clusters /ty/, /dhy/ and likely /dy/. In the case of /ty/ and /dhy/ > /thy/, the result was consistently /s-/ initially and /ts/ > /ss/ medially. In the case of /dy/, it apparently produced /dz/ consistently, eventually represented by /zd/ in Attic Greek. Following this change, /y/ was restored after /ts/ and /dz/ in morphologically transparent formations, analogically to the /y/ that was still present after other consonants. The second stage of palatalization then occurred, which affected all consonants, including the restored /tsy/ and /dzy/ sequences.
The evidence for these two stages comes from the differing behavior of PIE /ty/ and /dhy/ depending on whether the formation is morphologically transparent or opaque. In particular, medial /ty/ becomes Attic /s/ in opaque formations (first palatalization), but /tt/ in transparent formations (second palatalization). The following table shows the differing outcomes:
| PIE | Proto-Greek | Attic | Homeric | West Ionic | Other Ionic | Boeotian | Other |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| -ty-, -dhy- (opaque formations); -ts-, -ds-, -dhs- |
ts | s | s, ss | s | s | tt | ss |
| -ty-, -dhy- (transparent formations); -ḱy-, -ky-, -kʷy-; -ǵhy-, -ghy-, -gʷhy- |
čč | tt | ss | tt | ss | tt | ss |
Note that the outcome of PG medial /ts/ in Homeric Greek is /s/ after a long vowel, and vacillation between /s/ and /ss/ after a short vowel: tátēsi dat. pl. "rug" < tátēt-, possí(n)/posí(n) dat. pl. "foot" < pod-.
Examples of initial ty-, dhy-:
Examples of the first palatalization of -ty-, -dhy-:
Examples of the second palatalization of -ty-, -dhy-:
Sound changes between Proto-Greek and all early dialects, including Mycenaean, include:
The following changes are apparently post-Mycenaean:
Note that /w/ and /j/, when following a vowel and not preceding a vowel, combined early on with the vowel to form a diphthong and were thus not lost.
The loss of /h/ and /w/ after a consonant were often accompanied by compensatory lengthening of a preceding vowel.
The development of labiovelars varies from dialect to dialect:
The results of vowel contraction were complex from dialect to dialect. Such contractions occur in the inflection of a number of different noun and verb classes and are among the most difficult aspects of Ancient Greek grammar. They were particularly important in the large class of contracted verbs, denominative verbs formed from nouns and adjectives ending in a vowel. (In fact, the reflex of contracted verbs in Modern Greek—i.e., the set of verbs derived from Ancient Greek contracted verbs—represents one of the two main classes of verbs in that language.)
As Mycenaean Greek shows, the PIE dative, instrumental and locative cases are still distinct, and are not yet syncretized into a single dative case.
Nominative plural -oi, -ai replaces late PIE -ōs, -ās.
The superlative on -tatos becomes productive.
The peculiar oblique stem gunaik- "women", attested from the Thebes tablets is probably Proto-Greek; it appears, at least as gunai- also in Armenian.
The pronouns houtos, ekeinos and autos are created. Use of ho, hā, ton as articles is post-Mycenaean.
An isogloss between Greek and Phrygian is the absence of r-endings in the Middle Voice in Greek, apparently already lost in Proto-Greek.
Proto-Greek inherited the augment, a prefix é- to verbal forms expressing past tense. This feature it shares only with Indo-Iranian and Phrygian (and to some extent, Armenian)[6], lending some support to a "Graeco-Aryan" or "Inner PIE" proto-dialect. However, the augment down to the time of Homer remained optional, and was probably little more than a free sentence particle meaning "previously" in the proto-language, that may easily have been lost by most other branches.
The first person middle verbal desinences -mai, -mān replace -ai, -a. The third singular pherei is an innovation by analogy, replacing the expected Doric *phereti, Ionic *pheresi (from PIE *bʱéreti).
The future tense is created, including a future passive, as well as an aorist passive.
The suffix -ka- is attached to some perfects and aorists.
Infinitives in -ehen, -enai and -men are created.
Eduard Schwyzer in his Griechische Grammatik (1939, I.74-75) has translated famous lines of Classical Greek into Proto-Greek. His reconstruction was ignorant of Mycenaean and assumes Proto-Greek loss of labiovelars and syllabic resonants, among other things. Thus, Schwyzer's reconstruction corresponds to an archaic but post-Mycenaean dialect rather than actual Proto-Greek.
| Classical Greek | Proto-Greek | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Schwyzer | Modern | ||
| Plato, Apology | ὅτι μὲν ὑμεῖς, ὦ ἄνδρες Ἀθηναῖοι, πεπόνθατε ὑπὸ τῶν ἐμῶν κατηγόρων, οὐκ οἶδα· ἐγὼ δ’ οὖν καὶ αὐτὸς ὓπ’ αὐτῶν ὀλίγου ἐμαυτοῦ ἐπελαθόμην, οὕτω πιθανῶς ἔλεγον. καίτοι ἀληθές γε ὡς ἔπος εἰπεῖν οὐδὲν εἰρήκασιν | ‘ϝοττι μᾱν (?) υμμε, ω ανερες Αθᾱναιοι, πεπᾱσθε υπο κατᾱγορων μεο, ου ϝοιδα· εγω δε εον (?) κ. α. υ. α. ολιγοιο εμεο αυτοιο επελαθομᾱν, τως (or *τω) πιθανως (or -ω) ελεγοντ. κ. αλᾱθες γε ὡς (or ὡ) ϝεπος ϝειπεεν (or ϝευπ.) ουδε ἑν ϝεϝρηκᾰτι | *çokʷid mān umʰe. ō aneres Atʰānaïoi, pepãstʰe upo katāgorōn meho. oju woida; egō de ōn kai autos up’ autōn oligoço emeho autoço epi latʰomān, tō pitʰanō elegont. kai toi ãlātʰes ge çō wekʷos wewekʷehen oude hen wewrēkãti |
| Matthew 6:9 | πάτερ ἡμῶν ὁ ἐν τοῖς οὐρανοῖς, ἁγιασθήτω τὸ ὄνομά σου | πατερ αμμεων ὁ (τοισι) ορϝανοισι (resp. singular) (ἁγιον or αγνον εστωδ) ενυμα τϝεο | *pater ãmʰōn ho worʱanoihi, çagion estōd enumã tweho |
| Homer, Odyssey 1.1 | Ἄνδρα μοι ἔννεπε, Μοῦσα, πολύτροπον | ανερα μοι ενσεπε (or -τε) μοντja (μωντjα?) π. | *anerã moi enʰekʷet, montˢa, polutrokʷon |
Notes: The reconstruction assumes that the old combinations of sonorants + s in either sequence (*ns, *ms, *rs, *ls, *u̯s, *i̯s, *sn, *sm, *sr, *sl, *su̯, *si̯ ) were pronounced as unvoiced sonorants ([n̥, m̥, r̥, l̥, ʍ, ç]) before they were simplified as short voiced sonorants with compensatory lengthening ν, μ, ρ, λ, (ϝ), (ι) in most dialects or as long voiced sonorants νν, μμ, ρρ, λλ, υ(ϝ), ι in Aeolic. It is also assumed that the PIE syllabic nasals (*n̥, *m̥) were pronounced as nasal [ã], before it split into α in most dialects and ο as a variant in some dialects (Mycenaean, Arcadian, Aeolic).
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