Ancient Greek. In Encyclopedia of Linguistics, 2 vols., ed. Philipp Strazny. New York: Fitzroy Dearborn, 2005, 58-62 (original) (raw)
Related papers
2016
In this project, we investigated the shared linguistic features in the Greek-Anatolian area in the second millennium B.C., with the aim of disentangling language contact phenomena from socioculturally-dependent traits, inherited aspects and properties that appear to have a strong crosslinguistic validity. Here, we report the results of a study of some true and false morphosyntactic isoglosses: specifically, the function and distribution of Hittite modal particle man and Greek ἄν; the use of verbal prefixes and particles in Greek and Hittite; the typology of absolute genitive constructions in Greek and Hittite.
A Comparative Linguistic Study about the Sumerian Influence on the Creation of the Aegean Scripts
2015
The Aegean scripts comprise five scripts, among them Linear-A, Linear-B and Cretan Hieroglyphic, that are encountered in the Aegean Sea area during the 2nd millennium BC. The Linear-B script conveys the Mycenaean Greek dialect in a very inaccurate manner, regarding the Greek phonology. It has been argued that the unsuitability of Linear-B to represent the Greek phonological system is due to the limited usage of this syllabary for keeping records or for keeping the recorded information classified. The authors argue herein that this is hardly the case. According to some linguistic approaches, Linear-B syllabary was devised from the previous Linear-A one, which had been originally invented for another language of the Aegean linguistic substratum (pre-Greek). Various studies attempt to connect the conveyed languages of Linear-A to Proto-Greek dialects, a pre-Greek Indo-European language, Luwian or Akkadian. Such attempts regard as well the language conveyed by the Cretan Hieroglyphic. Y...
The paper addresses the question of the presence of Anatolian influence in Early Greek (conventionally, about 1500–800 BC). The first part addresses methodological questions of language contact, such as mechanisms of linguistic interaction and the scale of borrowings. In the second part, eleven important cases of presumable Anatolian lexical borrowings in Greek are critically analyzed. The results of the analysis suggest that the Anatolian influence on the vocabulary of Early Greek was minimal (if any), which strongly speaks against the possibility of influences in morphology, phonetics or phraseology.
2023
The Aeolic dialects of Ancient Greek (Lesbian, Thessalian, and Boeotian) are characterised by a small bundle of commonly shared innovations, yet at the same time they exhibit remarkable linguistic diversity. While traditionally classied together in modern scholarship since the nineteenth century, in recent decades doubt has been cast on whether they form a coherent dialectal subgroup of Ancient Greek. In this monograph Matthew Scarborough outlines the history of problem of Aeolic classication from antiquity to the present day, collects and analyses the primary evidence for the linguistic innovations that unite and divide the group, and contributes an innovative new statistical methodology for evaluating highly contested genetic subgroupings in dialectology, ultimately arguing in support of the traditional classfication.
The Classical Review, 2009
As readers of this journal know, we are awash with companions of varying composition and quality. Arguably, many are super•uous; this one is not. Linear B is not an easily accessible μeld, for a variety of reasons, among which is the lack of up-to-date introductory texts. Most encounter Linear B through the 'bible' of Mycenaean studies μrst published in 1956, with a second edition in 1973 (M. Ventris, J. Chadwick, Documents in Mycenaean Greek [Cambridge]). 'Documents' will always be a seminal publication, but it is 35 years old. A great deal has changed in the study of Mycenaean texts since then, most of it published in articles aimed at specialists. The companion under review seeks to make Linear B more accessible to students and interested scholars. It is far more complete, authoritative and up-to-date than any other sourcebook on the world of the Mycenaean texts. This volume, then, μlls an important void in the scholarship on Linear B. It is actually the μrst of a pair of volumes; in volume 1, we are provided with chapters on the history of the decipherment, a primer on how to do research on the texts, the chronology of the documents, the historical background (society, economy, technology), the inscribed vases and an anthology of 44 Linear B texts with commentary. Volume 2, scheduled to be published in 2009, will include chapters on writing (by J. Melena), scribes and palaeography (by T. Palaima), Greek and the Linear B script (by R. Viredaz), language (by A. Morpurgo Davies), onomastics (by J.L. García Ramón), Mycenaean geography (by J. Bennet), religion (by S. Hiller), Mycenaean and Homeric language (by C.J. Ruijgh), the world of Homer (by J. Bennet), and guidelines to the interpretation of Linear B texts (by Y. Duhoux). Thus, these two volumes will provide a review of the main strains in scholarship on Linear B. The μrst chapter of this volume, by M. Pope, is a succinct review of the decipherment. In a mere 13 pages of text, Pope skilfully sketches the major developments leading to the decipherment, from the discovery of the script by Arthur Evans, to Alice Kober's systematic and pioneering studies of in•ection, to Michael Ventris' breakthrough in 1952. It is a story familiar to specialists, but many will be the classical review