Pre-Greek substrate
The Pre-Greek substrate (or Pre-Greek substratum) consists of the unknown language or languages spoken in prehistoric Greece before the settlement of Proto-Greek speakers in the area. It is 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.
Pre-Greek loanwords
There are different categories of Pre-Greek, or "Aegean", loanwords such as:[1]
- Animals: e.g. βόλινθος/βόνασσος, 'wild ox'; κάνθαρος, 'beetle'; σμίνθος, 'mouse'.
- Architecture: e.g. λαβύρινθος, 'labyrinth'; πλίνθος, 'brick'; πύργος, pyrgos, 'tower'.[2]
- Maritime Vocabulary: e.g. θάλασσα, 'thálassa', 'sea'.
- Musical Instruments: e.g. σύριγξ, 'flute'; κίθαρις, 'kitharis', 'guitar'; σάλπιγξ, 'trumpet'; φόρμιγξ, 'lyre'.
- Personal Names: e.g. Ὀδυσσεύς, 'Odysseus'.[3]
- Plants: e.g. ἐλαία, 'elaia', 'olive tree'; κισσός, 'kissos', 'ivy'; ἄμπελος, 'ampelos', 'vine'.
- Metals and Metallurgy: κασσίτερος, 'kassiteros', 'tin'; χαλκός, 'chalkos', 'bronze'; μόλυβός, 'molybos', 'lead'; σίδηρος, 'sideros', 'iron'.
- Social Institutions: e.g. τύραννος, 'tyrannos', 'absolute ruler'.
- Theonyms: e.g. Άπόλλων, 'Apollon', 'Apollo'.[4]
- Toponyms (or Placenames): -nth- (e.g. Κόρινθος 'Korinthos', Ζάκυνθος 'Zakynthos'), -ss- (e.g. Παρνασσός 'Parnassos') and -tt- (e.g. Ὑμηττός 'Hymettus').[5]
- Use of Domestic Species: έλαιον, 'elaion', 'olive oil'; λήκυθος, 'likythos', 'oil-flask'; κάνθων, 'kanthon', 'pack-ass'.
- Weapons: σιβύνη, 'hunting spear'; υσσός, 'javelin'; θώραξ, 'corselet'.
- Weaving: μύρινθος, 'cord'; αρύβαλλος, 'purse'; χίτων, 'tunic'.
Substratum theories
Various explanations have been put forward for these substrate features. Among these are:[6]
Minoan substratum
The existence of a Minoan (Eteocretan) substratum is the view of English archaeologist Arthur Evans who assumed widespread Minoan colonisation of the Aegean, policed by a Minoan thalassocracy. However, the Minoan loanwords found in Mycenaean Greek (i.e. words for architecture, metals and metallurgy, music, use of domestic species, social institutions, weapons, weaving) are the result of the socio-cultural and economic interactions between the Minoans and Mycenaeans during the Bronze Age and are therefore part of a linguistic adstrate in Greek rather than a substrate.[7]
Anatolian Indo-European substratum
An Anatolian, perhaps specifically Luwian,[8] substratum has been proposed, on the basis of -ssa- and -nda- (corresponding to -ssos- and -nthos- in mainland Greece) placenames being widespread in Western Anatolia.[9] 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.[10] Furthermore, the correlations between Anatolian and Greek placenames may in fact represent a common early phase of Indo-European spoken prior to the emergence of Anatolian languages in Asia Minor and Greek in mainland Greece.[11]
- Anatolian loanwords include:[12]
- Apóllōn (Doric: Apéllōn, Cypriot: Apeílōn), from *Apeljōn, as in Hittite Appaliunaš;[4]
- dépas ‘cup; pot, vessel’, Mycenaean di-pa, from Hieroglyphic Luwian ti-pa-s ‘sky; bowl, cup’ (cf. Hittite nēpis ‘sky; cup’);
- eléphās ‘ivory’, from Hittite laḫpa (itself from Mesopotamia; cf. Phoenician ʾlp, Egyptian Ȝbw);
- kýanos ‘dark blue glaze; enamel’, from Hittite kuwannan- ‘copper ore; azurite’ (ultimately from Sumerian kù-an);
- kýmbachos ‘helmet’, from Hittite kupaḫi ‘headgear’;
- kýmbalon ‘cymbal’, from Hittite 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 Hittite ḫuprušḫi ‘vessel’;
- tolýpē ‘ball of wool’, from Hittite taluppa ‘lump’ (or Cuneiform Luwian taluppa/i).
Tyrrhenian/Etruscan substratum
A Tyrrhenian/Etruscan substratum was proposed on the basis of the Lemnos funerary stele,[13] four Etruscan-inscribed pottery sherds from Ephestia in Lemnos,[13] as well as statements in Thucydides where Tyrrhenian was a former language of Athens and that the Tyrrhenians had been expelled to Lemnos.[14] However, the Homeric tradition makes no mention of Tyrrhenians on the island of Lemnos and the Lemnos funerary stele was written in a form of ancient Etruscan altogether indicating that the Etruscans migrated to Lemnos from Italy.[15] Furthermore, the Etruscan language in Greece is a language isolate with no relation to Greek or pre-Greek since, according to C. De Simone, there is "not a single Etruscan word which might be etymologically traced back to a single, common ancestral form with a Greek equivalent."[15]
See also
- Proto-Greek language
- Eteocretan
- Eteocypriot
- Etruscan language
- Pelasgians
- Tyrrhenian languages
- Sicel language
Substrates of other Indo-European languages
References
Citations
- ↑ Renfrew 1998, pp. 244–245 (see Tables 1 and 2 for all loanwords except personal names, toponyms and theonyms).
- ↑ If the substratum is actually Indo-European, pyrgos as well as Pergamos might be connected to Proto-Indo-European *bhergh-.
- ↑ Beekes 2009, p. 1048.
- 1 2 Beekes 2003, pp. 1–21.
- ↑ Renfrew 1998, pp. 241, 253–254.
- ↑ 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 of this article.
- ↑ Renfrew 1998, pp. 239–264.
- ↑ Some scholars, 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.
- ↑ Finkelberg 2006, pp. 42–64; Renfrew 1998, pp. 253–254.
- ↑ Beekes 2009, p. xv.
- ↑ Renfrew 1998, pp. 253–254, 256–257.
- ↑ Hajnal, Ivo. Graeco-Anatolian Contacts in the Mycenaean Period. Innsbruck: University of Innsbruck. pp. 1–21.
- 1 2 De Simone 2007, p. 786.
- ↑ Thucydides. History of the Peloponnesian War, 4.14.109.
- 1 2 De Simone 2007, p. 787.
Sources
- Beekes, Robert Stephen Paul (2003). "The Origin of Apollo". Journal of Ancient Near Eastern Religions 3 (1): 1–21. doi:10.1163/1569212031960384.
- Beekes, Robert Stephen Paul (2009). Etymological Dictionary of Greek. Leiden and Boston: Brill. ISBN 978-9-00-417418-4.
- De Simone, C. (2007). "9 Greek and Etruscan". In Christidis, A.-F.; Arapopoulou, Maria; Chritē, Maria. A History of Ancient Greek: From the Beginnings to Late Antiquity. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. pp. 786–791.
- Finkelberg, Margalit (2006). Greeks and Pre-Greeks: Aegean Prehistory and Greek Heroic Tradition. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-1-13-944836-9.
- Renfrew, Colin (1998). "Word of Minos: The Minoan Contribution to Mycenaean Greek and the Linguistic Geography of the Bronze Age Aegean". Cambridge Archaeological Journal 8 (2): 239–264. doi:10.1017/S0959774300001852.
Further reading
- Beattie, A.J. (1963). "Before Greek Alfred Heubeck: Praegraeca: sprachliche Untersuchungen zum vorgriechischindogermanischen Substrat. (Erlanger Forschungen, Reihe A, Band 12.) Pp. 90. Erlangen: Universitätsbibliothek, 1961. Paper". The Classical Review 13 (2): 177–178. doi:10.2307/706708.
- Brown, Raymond A. (1985). Evidence for Pre-Greek Speech on Crete from Greek Alphabetic Sources. Amsterdam: Adolf M. Hakkert.
- Duhoux, Yves (2007). "Pre-Greek Languages: Indirect Evidence". In Christidis, A.-F. A History of Ancient Greek: From the Beginnings to Late Antiquity. Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press. pp. 223–228. ISBN 978-0-52-183307-3.
- Furnée, Edzard Johan (1972). Die wichtigsten konsonantischen Erscheinungen des Vorgriechischen mit einem Appendix über den Vokalismus (in German). The Hague: Mouton.
- Heubeck, Alfred (1961). Praegraeca: sprachliche Untersuchungen zum vorgriechisch-indogermanischen Substrat (in German). Erlangen: Universitätsbund Erlangen.
External links
- Beekes, Roberts S. P. (2010). "Etymological Dictionary of Greek: The Pre-Greek Loanwords in Greek". Brill..
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