Thepre-Greek substrate (orsubstratum) consists of the unknown pre-Greek language or languages (eitherPre-Indo-European or other Indo-European languages) spoken inprehistoric Greece prior to the emergence of theProto-Greek language in the regionc. 3200–2200 BC, during theEarly Helladic period. About 1,000 words of Greek vocabulary cannot be adequately explained as derivatives from Proto-Greek orProto-Indo-European, leading to thesubstratum hypothesis.[1][2] According to scholars, Ancient Greek was likely influenced by two types of substrates: one Indo-European, probably an unknown Anatolian language that has been called "Parnassian", and one or several non-Indo-European languages that pre-date the coming of Greeks to the region.[3][4]
Based upon toponymic and lexical evidence, it is generally assumed that one or several languages were once spoken in both the Greek peninsula and westernAsia Minor beforeMycenaean Greek and the attestedAnatolian languages (Hittite andLuwian) became predominant in the region. Various explanations for this phenomenon have been given by scholars.[5]
One substrate language, whose influence is observable on Ancient Greek and Anatolian languages, is taken by a number of scholars to be an Indo-European language related to the Anatolian Luwian language,[4][6] and to be responsible for the widespread place-names ending in-ssa and-nda in western Asia Minor, and-ssos and-nthos in mainland Greece.[7][8][4] For instance, the name of the mountParnassos in Greece has been interpreted as the Luwianparna- ('house') attached to the possessive suffix-ssa-. Both Hittite and Luwian texts also attest a place-nameParnassa, which could be related.[4] PhilologistMartin L. West has proposed to name this unattested Anatolian language "Parnassian", and has argued for "a parallel movement down fromThrace by a branch of the same people as entered Anatolia, the people who were to appear 1,500 years later as theLuwians". From the distribution of the names, it appears that this language was spoken during theEarly Helladic II period, which began around 2800 BC.[4]
However, since many clusters of sounds are possible in both pre-Greek and Indo-European, it is difficult in most cases to distinguish between possible "Parnassian" loanwords and shared pre-Indo-European substrate words. For instance, terms likeτολύπη (tolúpē; 'clew, ball of wool ready for spinning') show typical pre-Greek features while being related to Anatolian words (in this case Luwian and Hittitetaluppa/i- 'lump, clod') with no other attested Indo-European cognate, suggesting that they were borrowed from the same, probably non-Indo-European, source. Some scholars have thus proposed that at least part of the pre-Greek substrate was brought to Greece bypre-Indo-European settlers from Asia Minor, and that we should distinguish between different layers of loanwords coming successively or concurrently from different families of languages.[9][10][11]
While the correlations between Anatolian and Greek placenames may be a strong indication of a common early phase of Indo-European – possibly Anatolian – influence in the area,[12] some pre-Greek loanwords still remain incompatible with Indo-European phonology while showing certain recurrent patterns that set them apart from other languages.[13] This likely indicates that "one language, or a group of closely related dialects or languages" was the source of another, possibly earlier, layer of pre-Indo-European loanwords in the region.[3] Of the few words of secure Anatolian origin, most are cultural items or commodities which are likely the result of commercial exchange, not of a substratum.[14] Some of the relevant vocabulary can also be explained as linguistic exchange between Greek and Anatolian languages across theAegean Sea without necessarily originating from a change of language.[10][15]
Proto-Greek area of settlement (2200/2100–1900 BC) suggested by Katona (2000), Sakellariou (2016, 1980, 1975) and Phylaktopoulos (1975).
Estimates for the introduction of theProto-Greek language into prehistoric Greece have changed over the course of the 20th century. Since the decipherment ofLinear B, searches were made "for earlier breaks in the continuity of the material record that might represent the 'coming of the Greeks'".[16]
The majority of scholars date the coming of Proto-Greek to the transition fromEarly Helladic II to Early Helladic III (c. 2400−2200/2100 BC),[17] with the diversification into a southern and a northern group beginning by approximately 1700 BC.[18][19][20][21][22][23] This has been criticized by John E. Coleman, who argues that this estimate is based on stratigraphic discontinuities atLerna that other archaeological excavations in Greece suggested were the product of chronological gaps or separate deposit-sequencing instead of cultural changes.[24] Coleman estimates that the entry of Proto-Greek speakers into the Greek peninsula occurred during the late 4th millennium BC(c. 3200 BC) with pre-Greek spoken by the inhabitants of the Late Neolithic II period.[25]
Although no written texts exist or have been identified as pre-Greek, thephonology andlexicon have been partially reconstructed from the many words borrowed into Greek; such words often show a type of variation not found in inherited Indo-European Greek terms, and certain recurrent patterns that can be used to identify pre-Greek elements.[26]
The pre-Greek language had a simplevowel system, with either three or five monophthongs. This system consisted of either /a/, /e/, /i/, /o/, /u/, or most likely just /a/, /i/, /u/, in which /a/ varied between /a/~/e/~/o/ as a result of palatalization for /e/ and labialization for /o/.
Additionally, it had at least one diphthong (/au/), and it may also have had /ou/, although this is also often explained as the sequence -arʷ- adapted in Greek as -ουρ-, since /ou/ is often seen with an /r/.[27]
The phonology of pre-Greek likely featured a series of bothlabialized andpalatalized consonants, as indicated byMycenaean inscriptions inLinear B. These features were found not only instops, but inresonants as well (presumably including even the rare modified approximants /jʷ/ and /wʲ/), which was different from Indo-European languages at the time and is generally considered a rare feature characteristic of pre-Greek.[27]
It is, however, unlikely thatvoicing orconsonantal aspiration were distinctive features, as pre-Greek loanwords in Greek vary freely between plain, voiced and aspirated stops (e.g.ἀσφάραγος/ἀσπάραγος,aspháragos/aspáragos, 'asparagus').[27] The observation of such variants for a particular word is often a strong indication of substrate-derived etymology.
Furthermore, while the existence of word-initialapproximants /w/ and /j/ can be safely inferred from common motifs in inherited words (e.g. the ἰα‑ from *ja- inἴαμβος,Ἰάσων) or even retained in early and dialectal forms (e.g. *wa- in the cases ofἄναξ-ϝάναξ,Ὀαξός-ϝαξός,ὑάκινθος-ϝάκινθος),word-initial aspiration probably did not exist, with /h/ considered by Beekes a non-native phoneme in pre-Greek.
The initial consonantσ- /s/ or /z/ is very common in pre-Greek and characteristic when it shows up as ans-mobile.
Consonant phonemes of Pre-Greek as posited by Beekes (2014)[27]
Certain characteristicconsonant clusters associated with pre-Greek phonology as reflected in words inherited into Greek, as listed by Beekes according to their frequency in the PIE language:[27]
Not possible in PIE
-κχ- /kkʰ/, not possible in PIE, only in pre-Greek (but rare)
-πφ- /ppʰ/, not possible in PIE, though still very rare in pre-Greek
-τθ- /ttʰ/, not possible in PIE, common in pre-Greek
Rare in PIE
-βδ- /bd/, rare in PIE, not as much in pre-Greek
-γδ- /gd/, rare in PIE, not in pre-Greek
-δν- /dn/, rare in PIE, not in pre-Greek
-ρκν- /rkn/, very rare overall and found only in pre-Greek loans
-σβ- /sb/, very rare and problematic identification in PIE, common in pre-Greek probably from*-sgʷ-
-σγ- /sg/, rare in PIE, common in pre-Greek perhaps from*-tʲg-
non word-initial -σκ- /sk/ and -στ- /st/, rare in PIE, somehow common in pre-Greek derivative words
-χμ- /kʰm/ and -χν- /kʰn/, rare in PIE, sometimes in substrate words
word-initialψ- /ps/, extremely common in pre-Greek loans (most words beginning withψ- being such)
Possible in PIE
-γν- /gn/, not as rare in both PIE and pre-Greek
-κτ- /kt/, common in PIE but in pre-Greek also with variants -χθ-, -χτ- etc.
-μν- /mn/, common in PIE and also in many pre-Greek words
-ρδ- /rd/, possible in PIE, also found in some pre-Greek words
-ρν- /rn/, when pre-Greek usually also with variants -ρδ- and -νδ-
-στλ- /stl/, possible in PIE but more common in substrate words
-φθ- /pʰtʰ/, possible in PIE but also common in pre-Greek loans
There are other substrate proposals. Somefringe theories ranging from the mild (e.g.,Egyptian) to the extreme (e.g.,Proto-Turkic) have been proposed but have not been adopted by the broader academic community.
The English archaeologistArthur Evans proposed aMinoan (Eteocretan) substratum, based on an assumption of widespread Minoan colonisation of the Aegean, policed by a Minoanthalassocracy.[39]
Raymond A. Brown, after listing a number of words of pre-Greek origin fromCrete, suggests a relation between Minoan, Eteocretan,Lemnian (Pelasgian), and Tyrsenian, inventing the name "Aegeo-Asianic" for the proposed language family.[40]
However, many Minoan loanwords found in Mycenaean Greek (e.g., words for architecture, metals and metallurgy, music, use of domestic species, social institutions, weapons, weaving) may be the result of socio-cultural and economic interactions between the Minoans and Mycenaeans during the Bronze Age, and may therefore be part of a linguisticadstrate in Greek rather than a substrate.[41]
ATyrsenian/Etruscan substratum was proposed on the basis of theLemnos funerary stele:[42] four pottery sherds inscribed in Etruscan that were found in 1885 at Ephestia inLemnos.[42]
However, the Lemnos funerary stele was written in a form ofancient Etruscan, which suggested that the author had emigrated from Etruria inItaly, rather than the Greek sphere, and theHomeric tradition makes no mention of aTyrrhenian presence on Lemnos.[43]
If Etruscan was spoken in Greece, it must have been effectively alanguage isolate, with no significant relationship to or interaction with speakers of pre-Greek or ancient Greek, since, in the words ofCarlo De Simone, there are no Etruscan words that can be "etymologically traced back to a single, common ancestral form with a Greek equivalent".[43]
^Beekes 2014, pp. 47–48, "Our knowledge of Indo-European has expanded so much, especially in the last thirty years (notably because of the laryngeal theory) that in some cases we can say almost with certainty that an Indo-European reconstruction is impossible. [...] In my EDG, I marked with >PG< all words which, in my view, were of Pre-Greek origin. I found 1106 words.".
^Some scholars, such asLeonard R. Palmer, go so far as to suggest that the language ofLinear A might be Luwian, though other Anatolian interpretations have also been offered.
^Finkelberg 2006, p. 52: "As we have seen, the suffixes-nth- and-ss–, which a hundred years ago gave rise to the hypothesis of the non-Indo-European pre-Hellenic substratum, can now be accounted for as typically Anatolian or, to be more precise, Luwian."
^Hajnal, Ivo (2007). "Die Vorgeschichte der griechischen Dialekte: ein methodischer Rück- und Ausblick". In Hajnal, Ivo; Stefan, Barbara (eds.).Die altgriechischen Dialekte. Wesen und Werden (in German). Innsbruck, Austria: Institut für Sprachen und Literaturen der Universität Innsbruck. p. 136. Akten des Kolloquiums, Freie Universität Berlin, 19.–22. September 2001.
^A comprehensive overview is in J. T. Hooker'sMycenaean Greece (Hooker 1976, Chapter 2: "Before the Mycenaean Age", pp. 11–33 and passim); for a different hypothesis excluding massive migrations and favoring an autochthonous scenario, see Colin Renfrew's "Problems in the General Correlation of Archaeological and Linguistic Strata in Prehistoric Greece: The Model of Autochthonous Origin" (Renfrew 1973, pp. 263–276, especially p. 267) inBronze Age Migrations by R. A. Crossland and A. Birchall, eds. (1973).
^Gere 2006, p. 112: "Arthur Evans would live to repent of his suggestion to the British School that they reopen the excavations at Mycenae. He had expected that his theory of Minoan dominance over the mainland would be borne out, but instead he encountered stout resistance... Evans could never bring himself to believe any story except that of Minoan colonisation of the mainland from the beginning to the end of Mycenaean history."
De Simone, C. (2007)."9 Greek and Etruscan". In Christidis, A.-F.; Arapopoulou, Maria; Chritē, Maria (eds.).A History of Ancient Greek: From the Beginnings to Late Antiquity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 786–791.ISBN978-0-521-83307-3.
Duhoux, Y. (2007a)."8 Greek and pre-Greek Languages: Introduction". In Christidis, A.-F.; Arapopoulou, Maria; Chritē, Maria (eds.).A History of Ancient Greek: From the Beginnings to Late Antiquity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 220–222.ISBN9780521833073.
Mihaylova, Biliana (2012). "The Pre-Greek Substratum Revisited". In Hejl, Christina Løye; Jacquet, Janus Bahs; Heide, Marie; Whitehead, Benedicte Nielsen; Olsen, Birgit Anette (eds.).Etymology and the European Lexicon(PDF). Copenhagen: Roots of Europe (University of Copenhagen). pp. 80–81.
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.S2CID162191366.
Bianconi, Michele, ed. (2021-06-29).Linguistic and Cultural Interactions between Greece and Anatolia. BRILL.ISBN9789004461598.
Bianconi, Michele (2021-06-29). ""There and Back Again": A Hundred Years of Graeco-Anatolian Comparative Studies".Linguistic and Cultural Interactions between Greece and Anatolia. pp. 8–39.doi:10.1163/9789004461598_003.ISBN9789004461598.
Rose, Sarah (2014-10-22). "Greek and Anatolian languages".Encyclopedia of ancient Greek language and linguistics. Brill. pp. 27–31.ISBN978-90-04-22597-8.
García Ramón, José Luis (2011). "Sprachen in Kontakt im Griechenland und Kleinasien im 2. Jahrtausend v. Chr.".Historische Mehrsprachigkeit. Shaker. pp. 23–45.ISBN978-3-8322-9888-3.
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