Pre-Greek substrate

The Pre-Greek substrate consists of the unknown language or languages spoken in prehistoric Greece before the settlement of Proto-Greek speakers in the area. It is thought 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 either from Proto-Indo-European or from any directly attested languages.

Possible Pre-Greek loanwords

Personal names (e.g. Ὀδυσσεύς Odysseus)
Theonyms (e.g. Ἑρμῆς Hermes)
Maritime vocabulary (e.g. θάλασσα thálassa 'sea')
Words relating to Mediterranean agriculture (e.g. ελαίϝα elai(w)a 'olive,' ἄμπελος ampelos 'vine')
Words regarding rulers, given by the populace (e.g. Τύραννος Tyrannos 'tyrant')
Building technology (e.g. πύργος pyrgos 'tower'¹)
Placenames including -nth- (e.g. Κόρινθος Korinthos, Ζάκυνθος Zakynthos), -ss- (e.g. Παρνασσός Parnassos) and -tt- (e.g. Ὑμηττός Hymettus)

Substratum theories

Various explanations have been put forward for these substrate features. Among these are:²

Anatolian substratum

An Anatolian (perhaps specifically Luwian³) substratum has been proposed, on the basis of -ss- and -nd- (corresponding to -ss- and -nth- in mainland Greece) placenames being widespread in Western Anatolia.⁴

Tyrrhenian substratum

On the basis of statements in Thucydides that Tyrrhenian was a former language of Athens and that the Tyrrhenians had been expelled to Lemnos, it has been suggested that the substrate language was related to Lemnian, and thus by modern association to Etruscan.

Minoan substratum

The existence of a Minoan (Eteocretan) substratum is the view of Arthur Evans who assumed widespread Minoan colonisation of the Aegean, policed by a Minoan thalassocracy.

Notes

^ If the substratum is actually Indo-European, pyrgos as well as Pergamos might be connected to Proto-Indo-European *bhergh-.
^ Other theories ranging from the mild (e.g. Egyptian) to the extreme (e.g. Proto-Turkic) have been proposed but have been given little to no consideration from the broader academic community and as such are not mentioned in the main body.
^ Some, such as Leonard Palmer, go so far as to suggest that the language of Linear A might be Luwian, though other Anatolian interpretations have also been offered.
^ Margalit Finkelberg, Greeks and Pre-Greeks: Aegean Prehistory and Greek Heroic Tradition (Cambridge) 2005, esp. 42–64.

References

S. P. Beekes, Robert (January 2007), Pre-Greek: The Pre-Greek Loans in Greek (PDF)
Heubeck, Alfred. Praegraeca: sprachliche Untersuchungen zum vorgriechisch-indogermanischen Substrat, Erlangen (1961); Review: Beattie, A. J. The Classical Review (1963).

External links

Pre-Greek Loanwords in Beekes' New Etymological Dictionary of Ancient Greek

[1] If the substratum is actually Indo-European, pyrgos as well as Pergamos might be connected to Proto-Indo-European *bhergh-.

[2] Other theories ranging from the mild (e.g. Egyptian) to the extreme (e.g. Proto-Turkic) have been proposed but have been given little to no consideration from the broader academic community and as such are not mentioned in the main body.

[3] Some, such as Leonard Palmer, go so far as to suggest that the language of Linear A might be Luwian, though other Anatolian interpretations have also been offered.

[4] Margalit Finkelberg, Greeks and Pre-Greeks: Aegean Prehistory and Greek Heroic Tradition (Cambridge) 2005, esp. 42–64.

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