Proto-Greek language

The Proto-Greek language (also known as Proto-Hellenic) is the assumed last common ancestor of all known varieties of Greek, including Mycenaean Greek, the ancient Greek dialects (Attic, Ionic, Aeolic, Doric and Arcadocypriot Greek), and, ultimately, Koine, Byzantine and Modern Greek. The unity of Proto-Greek would have ended as Hellenic migrants, speaking the predecessor of the Mycenaean language, entered the Greek peninsula sometime in the Neolithic era or the Bronze Age.[1]

Origins

A reconstruction of the 3rd millennium BC "Proto-Greek area", by Vladimir I. Georgiev.[2]

The evolution of Proto-Greek should be considered within the context of an early Paleo-Balkan sprachbund that makes it difficult to delineate exact boundaries between individual languages.[3] The characteristically Greek representation of word-initial laryngeals by prothetic vowels is shared, for one, by the Armenian language, which also seems to share some other phonological and morphological peculiarities of Greek; this has led some linguists to propose a hypothetical closer relationship between Greek and Armenian, although evidence remains scant.

Proto-Greek is mostly placed in the Early Helladic period (3rd millennium BC), i.e. towards the end of the European Neolithic.[4] Russell Gray and Quentin Atkinson in a 2003 paper using computational methods on Swadesh lists have arrived at a somewhat earlier estimate, around 5000 BC for Greco-Armenian split and the emergence of Greek as a separate linguistic lineage around 4000 BC.[5]

Phonology

Proto-Greek changes

The primary sound changes separating Proto-Greek from the Proto-Indo-European language included:

Loss of prevocalic *s was not completed entirely, famously evidenced by sȳs (also hȳs, pig, from PIE *suh₁-), dasýs (dense) and dásos (dense growth, forest); syn (with) is another example, contaminated with PIE *kom (Latin cum, Proto-Greek *kon) to Homeric / Old Attic ksyn. Sélas (light in the sky, as in the "Northern Lights") and selēnē/selána (the Moon) may be more examples of the same, if actually derived from PIE *swel- (to burn) (possibly related to hēlios "Sun", Ionic hēelios < *sāwelios).

Dissimilation of aspirates (so-called Grassmann's law) caused an initial aspirated sound to lose its aspiration when a following aspirated consonant occurred in the same word. It was a relatively late change in Proto-Greek history and must have occurred independently of the similar dissimilation of aspirates (also known as Grassmann's law) in Indo-Iranian, although it may represent a common areal feature. Specifically:

  1. It postdates the Greek-specific de-voicing of voiced aspirates.
  2. It also postdates the change of /s/ > /h/, as it affects /h/ as well: ékhō "I have" < *hekh- < PIE *seǵʰ-oh₂, but future heksō "I will have" < *heks- < Post-PIE *seǵʰ-s-oh₂.
  3. It even postdates the loss of aspiration before /y/ that accompanied second-stage palatalization (see below), which postdates both of the previous changes (as well as first-stage palatalization).
  4. On the other hand, it predates the development of the first aorist passive marker -thē-, since the aspirate in that marker has no effect on preceding aspirates.

Laryngeal changes

Greek is unique in reflecting the three different laryngeals using distinct vowels. Most Indo-European languages can be traced back to a dialectal variety of late Proto-Indo-European (PIE) where all three laryngeals had merged (after coloring adjacent short /e/ vowels) but Greek clearly cannot. For this reason, Greek is extremely important in reconstructing PIE forms.

Greek shows distinct reflexes of the laryngeals in various positions:

Proto-Indo-European Greek Vedic Sanskrit Latin
dʰh̥₁s- "sacred, religious" θέσφατος / thésphatos "decreed by God" धिष्ण्य / dhíṣṇya- "devout" fānum "temple" < *fasnom < *dʰh̥₁s-no-
sth̥₂-to- "standing, being made to stand" στατός / statós सथित / sthíta- status
dh̥₃-ti- "gift" δόσις / dósis दिति / díti- datiō

All of these cases may stem from an early insertion of /e/ next to a laryngeal not adjacent to a vowel in the Indo-European dialect ancestral to Greek (subsequently colored to /e/, /a/, /o/ by the particular laryngeal in question), prior to the general merger of laryngeals. For example:

A laryngeal adjacent to a vowel develops along the same lines as in other Indo-European languages:

Palatalization

Proto-Greek underwent palatalization of consonants before *y. This occurred in two separate stages. The first stage affected only dental consonants, while the second stage affected all consonants.

The first palatalization turned dentals + *y into alveolar afficates:

Before After
*ty, *tʰy *ts
*dy *dz

Alongside these changes, the inherited clusters *ts, *ds and *tʰs all merged into *ts.

In the second palatalization, all consonants were affected. It took place following the resolution of syllabic laryngeals and sonorants. The following table, based on Sihler,[6] shows the developments.

Before After
*py, *pʰy *pť
*tsy *ťť
*ky, *kʰy
*kʷy, *kʷʰy
*by ?
*dzy *ďď
*gy
*gʷy
*ly *ľľ
*my, *ny *ňň
*ry *řř
*sy > *hy *yy
*wy *ɥɥ > *yy

In post-Proto-Greek times, the resulting palatal consonants and clusters were resolved in varying ways. Most notably, *ň and *ř were resolved into plain sonorants plus a palatal on-glide, which eventually turned the preceding vowel into a diphthong.

Proto-Greek Attic Homeric West Ionic Other Ionic Boeotian Arcado-
Cypriot 		Other
*pť pt
*ts s s, ss s s tt ss ss
*ťť tt ss tt ss tt ss ss
*dz ?
*ďď zd
*ľľ ll il ll
*ňň in (but *uin > ūn)
*řř ir (but *uir > ūr)
*yy (ai, ei, oi, ui)

In the time between the first and second palatalizations, new clusters *tsy and *dzy were formed by restoring a lost *y after the newly formed *ts and *dz. This occurred only in morphologically transparent formations, by analogy with similar formations where *y was preceded by other consonants. In formations that were morphologically opaque and not understood as such by speakers of the time, this restoration did not take place and *ts and *dz remained. Hence, depending on the type of formation, the Pre-Greek sequences *ty, *tʰy and *dy have different outcomes in the later languages. In particular, medial *ty becomes Attic s in opaque formations, but tt in transparent formations.

The outcome of PG medial *ts in Homeric Greek is s after a long vowel, and vacillation between s and ss after a short vowel: tátēsi dat. pl. "rug" < tátēt-, possí(n)/posí(n) dat. pl. "foot" < pod-. This was useful for the composer of the Iliad and Odyssey, since possí with double ss scans as long-short, while posí with single s scans as short-short. Thus the writer could use each form in different positions in a line.

Examples of initial *ts:

Examples of medial *ts (morphologically opaque forms, first palatalization only):

Examples of medial *ťť (morphologically transparent forms, first and second palatalization):

Other Post-Proto-Greek changes

Sound changes between Proto-Greek and all early dialects, including Mycenaean, include:

The following changes are apparently post-Mycenaean:

Note that /w/ and /j/, when following a vowel and not preceding a vowel, combined early on with the vowel to form a diphthong and were thus not lost.

The loss of /h/ and /w/ after a consonant were often accompanied by compensatory lengthening of a preceding vowel.

The development of labiovelars varies from dialect to dialect:

The results of vowel contraction were complex from dialect to dialect. Such contractions occur in the inflection of a number of different noun and verb classes and are among the most difficult aspects of Ancient Greek grammar. They were particularly important in the large class of contracted verbs, denominative verbs formed from nouns and adjectives ending in a vowel. (In fact, the reflex of contracted verbs in Modern Greek — i.e., the set of verbs derived from Ancient Greek contracted verbs—represents one of the two main classes of verbs in that language.)

Morphology

Noun

As Mycenaean Greek shows, the PIE dative (suffix -i), instrumental (suffix -phi) and locative (suffix -si) cases are still distinct, and are not yet syncretized into other cases.

Nominative plural -oi, -ai replaces late PIE -ōs, -ās.

The superlative in -tatos becomes productive.

The peculiar oblique stem gunaik- "women", attested from the Thebes tablets is probably Proto-Greek; it appears, at least as gunai- also in Armenian.

Pronoun

The pronouns houtos, ekeinos and autos are created. Use of ho, hā, ton as articles is post-Mycenaean.

Verb

An isogloss between Greek and Phrygian is the absence of r-endings in the Middle Voice in Greek, apparently already lost in Proto-Greek.

Proto-Greek inherited the augment, a prefix é- to verbal forms expressing past tense. This feature it shares only with Indo-Iranian and Phrygian (and to some extent, Armenian) lending some support to a "Graeco-Aryan" or "Inner PIE" proto-dialect. However, the augment down to the time of Homer remained optional, and was probably little more than a free sentence particle meaning "previously" in the proto-language, that may easily have been lost by most other branches.

The first person middle verbal desinences -mai, -mān replace -ai, -a. The third singular pherei is an innovation by analogy, replacing the expected Doric *phereti, Ionic *pheresi (from PIE *bʰéreti).

The future tense is created, including a future passive, as well as an aorist passive.

The suffix -ka- is attached to some perfects and aorists.

Infinitives in -ehen, -enai and -men are created.

Numerals

See also

References

Citations

  1. ↑ A comprehensive overview in J.T. Hooker's Mycenaean 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) in Bronze Age Migrations by R.A. Crossland and A. Birchall, eds. (1973).
  2. ↑ Georgiev 1981, p. 156: "The Proto-Greek region included Epirus, approximately up to Αυλών in the north including Paravaia, Tymphaia, Athamania, Dolopia, Amphilochia, and Acarnania), west and north Thessaly (Hestiaiotis, Perrhaibia, Tripolis, and Pieria), i.e. more or less the territory of contemporary northwestern Greece)."
  3. ↑ Bammesberger & Vennemann 2003, p. 35: "Greek The fragmentation of the Balkan Proto-Indo-European Sprachbund of phase II around 3000 BC led gradually in the succeeding centuries to the much clearer definition of the languages of the constituent sub-regions."
  4. ↑ Vladimir I. Georgiev, for example, placed Proto-Greek in northwestern Greece during the Late Neolithic period. (Georgiev 1981, p. 192: "Late Neolithic Period: in northwestern Greece the Proto-Greek language had already been formed: this is the original home of the Greeks.")
  5. ↑ Gray & Atkinson 2003, pp. 437–438; Atkinson & Gray 2006, p. 102: "Hittite appears to have diverged from the main Proto-Indo-European stock around 8700 years ago, perhaps reflecting the initial migration out of Anatolia. Indeed, this date exactly matches estimates for the age of Europe’s first agricultural settlements in southern Greece. Following the initial split, the language tree shows the formation of separate Tocharian, Greek, and then Armenian lineages, all before 6000 BP, with all of the remaining language families formed by 4000 BP. We note that the received linguistic orthodoxy (Indo-European is only 6000 years old) does approximately fit the divergence dates we obtained for most of the branches of the tree. Only the basal branches leading to Hittite, Tocharian, Greek and Armenian are well beyond this age."
  6. ↑ Sihler 1995
  7. ↑ Lengthened -ei /eː/ due to Attic analogical lengthening in comparatives.

Sources

Further reading

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