In this chapter we will discuss some of the most relevant issues, questions, and problems related to the Mediterranean interface. In particular, we ask what can be said on the linguistic and cultural situation existed before the appearance of the alphabetic Greek and to what extent this is relevant in possible contacts with Anatolia and Anatolian languages. Pre-Greek is introduced following the main themes and outstanding issues (Section 2); then Mycenaean in its relations with Anatolia is discussed (Section 3). The Pre-Greek issue, in the history of research, has also been connected to the concept of substrate. If Pre-Greek is definable as a substrate, it represents one special situation, on which studies have abounded for over 120 years (see Section 2.1) during a period in which linguistic data, cultural references, and metalinguistic settings have changed. The main research question is to find an explanation for those non-Greek elements within the Greek vocabulary that resist a genuine Greek or Indo-European etymological explanation pointing to a substrate language (or group of languages) about which there are no other ways of acquiring knowledge because they are not attested. The issue concerning the existence and the definition of a linguistic substrate, geographically located in the eastern Mediterranean and possibly spread in Asia Minor, has been developed in parallel with the quest for the reconstruction of the history (and prehistory) of Indo-European languages in the areas of interest—in other words, the history and prehistory of Greek and the languages of the Anatolian branch.
The Mediterranean Interface: Anatolia and the Aegean in the Bronze Age
Merlin Stella
;Valerio Pisaniello
2025-01-01
Abstract
In this chapter we will discuss some of the most relevant issues, questions, and problems related to the Mediterranean interface. In particular, we ask what can be said on the linguistic and cultural situation existed before the appearance of the alphabetic Greek and to what extent this is relevant in possible contacts with Anatolia and Anatolian languages. Pre-Greek is introduced following the main themes and outstanding issues (Section 2); then Mycenaean in its relations with Anatolia is discussed (Section 3). The Pre-Greek issue, in the history of research, has also been connected to the concept of substrate. If Pre-Greek is definable as a substrate, it represents one special situation, on which studies have abounded for over 120 years (see Section 2.1) during a period in which linguistic data, cultural references, and metalinguistic settings have changed. The main research question is to find an explanation for those non-Greek elements within the Greek vocabulary that resist a genuine Greek or Indo-European etymological explanation pointing to a substrate language (or group of languages) about which there are no other ways of acquiring knowledge because they are not attested. The issue concerning the existence and the definition of a linguistic substrate, geographically located in the eastern Mediterranean and possibly spread in Asia Minor, has been developed in parallel with the quest for the reconstruction of the history (and prehistory) of Indo-European languages in the areas of interest—in other words, the history and prehistory of Greek and the languages of the Anatolian branch.File | Dimensione | Formato | |
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