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:

• Animals: e.g. βόλινθος/βόνασσος, 'wild ox'; κάνθαρος, 'beetle'; σμίνθος, 'mouse'.
• Architecture: e.g. λαβύρινθος, 'labyrinth'; πλίνθος, 'brick'; πύργος, pyrgos, 'tower'.
• 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'.
• 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'.
• Toponyms (or Placenames): -nth- (e.g. Κόρινθος 'Korinthos', Ζάκυνθος 'Zakynthos'), -ss- (e.g. Παρνασσός 'Parnassos') and -tt- (e.g. Ὑμηττός 'Hymettus').
• 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:

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.

Anatolian Indo-European substratum

An Anatolian, perhaps specifically Luwian, 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. 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. 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.

• Anatolian loanwords include:
  • Apóllōn (Doric: Apéllōn, Cypriot: Apeílōn), from *Apeljōn, as in Hittite Appaliunaš;
  • 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, four Etruscan-inscribed pottery sherds from Ephestia in Lemnos, as well as statements in Thucydides where Tyrrhenian was a former language of Athens and that the Tyrrhenians had been expelled to Lemnos. 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. 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."

See also

• Proto-Greek language
• Eteocretan
• Eteocypriot
• Etruscan language
• Pelasgians
• Tyrrhenian languages
• Sicel language

Substrates of other Indo-European languages

• Goidelic substrate hypothesis
• Substratum in Vedic Sanskrit
• Germanic substrate hypothesis

External links

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