Eteocetian language
| Eteocetan | ||
|---|---|---|
|
Spoken in |
formerly Crete | |
| Language codes | ||
| ISO 639 -1 |
- |
|
| ISO 639 -2 |
mis (not coded) |
|
| ISO 639-3 |
ecr |
|
The Eteokretische ( "real Cretan") was a non-Greek language, which during ancient times in Eastern Crete was spoken. It is named after the people named by Homer, the Eteocretes , who lived in Praisos after Strabo . This is where most of the Eeteocretic inscriptions were found.
Some research approaches attempt to combine the Eeteocretic language and the Eeteocyprian language into an Aegean language family .
Lore
Eteocretic is made up of eight fragmentary inscriptions in Greek script from the 7th to 3rd centuries BC. Chr. Known from Praisos (6 texts) and Dreros (2 bilinguals ) in eastern Crete originate. Another inscription from Psychro was identified as a forgery. The Eeteocretic texts are not yet understandable despite the two bilinguals. It is also unclear how Eteocetan is assigned to a specific language family . So it was u. a. associated with Hittite , Northwest Semitic and Etruscan . It is usually considered the last successor to the Minoan language .
font
Eteocretic was written in ancient Greek, the older inscriptions in an archaic Cretan form with San instead of Sigma and Digamma for the labial half-sound / w /. The individual words were sometimes separated by a short vertical line.
Language examples
Dreros 1 (Eeteocretic-Greek bilingual, 7th century BC)
The Eeteocretic inscription shows word separators, which are shown here with a colon. The Greek inscription has no word separators; In the transcription, the spaces are set according to a meaningful translation.
| Eteocetan | Greek | translation |
| […] Irmaw: et: isalabre: komn […] […] d: men: inai: isaluria: lmo |
[…] Σ τον τυρον μηατοαοι εϜαδ ε τυρο […] μυνα: οαμενη […] ματρι ται α […] (or: μα τριταια […]) |
the cheese ... it was decided cheese ... for the mother ... (or: ... on the third) |
If one assumes, however, that there was a wrong separation and suffix or prefix-like additions ( affixes ) were added, one arrives at "υγρο μηνα αμεν", which can be translated as "wet month amen".
The month or a month's name is assumed to be "komn" for "Komnokarios". If you now add the possibility that, as was customary in the past, months were named according to their nature, as in the z. B. So-called farmer's calendars, the latter version is becoming more and more plausible. This view also offers steadfastness to the following guesses.
The word komn of the first Eeteocetean line reminds of the month name Komnokarios (Κομνοκάριος), which is attested for Dreros. According to other interpretations it should mean "cheese" or "stele".
Praisos 2
This inscription consists of twelve Eeteocretic lines, the top three of which have been completely preserved. As an example, the end of line 1 and line 2 are reproduced, with the West Semitic interpretation of Cyrus H. Gordon. This inscription has no word separation, the spaces are set based on the interpretation.
| Eteocetan | Eteocetan | Semitic | translation |
| Greek | transcribed | (not vocalized) | |
| ... ΣΦΑ ΔΟΦ ΜΑΡ ΑΛΑ ΦΡΑΙΣΟ ... | spha doph mar ala phraiso | sbˁ-dp mr ˁly Prys | seven times master of Praisos |
literature
- Cyrus H. Gordon : Eteocretan . in: Journal of Near Eastern Studies 21 (1962), 211-214.
- Cyrus H. Gordon: The Decipherment of Minoan and Eteocretan . in Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain & Ireland (New Series) 107 (1975), 148-158
- Yves Duhoux : L'étéocrétois. Les textes - la langue . Gieben, Amsterdam (1982).
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ S. Davis: The Phaistos Disk and the Eteocretan Inscriptions from Psychro and Praisos . Johannesburg (1961)
- ↑ Cyrus H. Gordon: Eteocretan . in: Journal of Near Eastern Studies 21 (1962), 211-214.
- ^ Cyrus H. Gordon: Linguistic continuity from Minoan to Eteocretan . in SMEA 3: 89-92 (1967)