Aegean languages

As Aegean languages refers to those languages that before the immigration of Indo-European peoples in the eastern Mediterranean were spoken.

The following are known from inscriptions :

the Minoan language ,
the Eeteocretic language ,
the Eeteokyprian language and the
Tyrsenic languages , consisting of Lemnian , Etruscan and Rhaetian .

It remains unclear whether the Tyrsenic languages originally come from the Aegean region , which until now has only been suggested by their geographical distribution or the ancient traditions on the history of Etruscan.

In addition, one counts a language reconstructed only by non-Indo-European elements in Greek , which is provisionally named Pelasgian language , but is possibly identical with another Aegean language. Numerous Greek word stems, especially place and plant names, have the letter groups -ss- (e.g. κυπάρισσος kypárissos “cypress”) or -nth- (e.g. Κόρινθος Kórinthos ), which is only possible through foreign, non-Greek Explain influences. Which of the Aegean languages might have imparted these names to Greek has not yet been determined. Also unanswered is the question of whether there were relationships between the individual Aegean languages.

Kinship theories

Indo-European

Colin Renfrew speculates that the so-called Aegean languages could be early side branches of the Indo-European original language .

Caucasian

The linguist Sergei Starostin suspects that the North Caucasian languages are related to the old European languages.

literature

Fritz Schachermeyer: The pre-Greek language remnants. In: Paulys Realencyclopadie der classical antiquity. Volume XXII, p. 1494 ff.

Individual evidence

↑ Colin Renfrew: 2000, 10,000 or 5,000 years ago? Questions of time depth. In: C. Renfrew, A. McMahon, L. Trask (Eds.): Time Depth in Historical Linguistics (= McDonald Institute Monographs. Volume 2). The McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, Cambridge 2000, pp. 413-440.
↑ Starostin Sergei; Orel Vladimir (1989). "Etruscan and North Caucasian". In Shevoroshkin, Vitaliy. Explorations in Language Macrofamilies . Bochum Publications in Evolutionary Cultural Semiotics. Bochum.

[1] Colin Renfrew: 2000, 10,000 or 5,000 years ago? Questions of time depth. In: C. Renfrew, A. McMahon, L. Trask (Eds.): Time Depth in Historical Linguistics (= McDonald Institute Monographs. Volume 2). The McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, Cambridge 2000, pp. 413-440.

[2] Starostin Sergei; Orel Vladimir (1989). "Etruscan and North Caucasian". In Shevoroshkin, Vitaliy. Explorations in Language Macrofamilies . Bochum Publications in Evolutionary Cultural Semiotics. Bochum.