The Augment in Mycenaean Greek (original) (raw)

This paper is meant to show that the widely accepted theory of the augment being completely absent in Mycenaean Greek is untenable. There is one example in the linear B documents in which the presence of the syllabic augment is undoubtful and two more in which it is probable. The lack or presence of the augment cannot be regarded as a dialectal feature in the sense of E. Risch's distinction between mycénien normal and mycénien spécial. The augment is a morphological innovation of a group of Indo-European languages, which was still spreading at the time of the documents and its rare occurrence can be regarded as one of the features that characterize Mycenaean as “a milestone between Indo-European and Historical Greek” (O. Szemerényi).