NationMaster - Encyclopedia: Mycenaean Greek

Mycenaean is the most ancient known form of the Greek language, spoken on the Greek mainland and on Crete in the 16th to 11th centuries BC, before the Dorian invasion. It is preserved in inscriptions in Linear B, a script invented on Crete before the 14th century BC. Most instances of these inscriptions are on clay tablets found in Knossos and in Pylos. The language is named after Mycenae, the first of the palaces to be excavated. Map of Homeric Greece, coastal outline based on Map of Greece, from CIA World Factbook GIF. This image has been released into the public domain by the copyright holder, its copyright has expired, or it is ineligible for copyright. ... Map of Homeric Greece, coastal outline based on Map of Greece, from CIA World Factbook GIF. This image has been released into the public domain by the copyright holder, its copyright has expired, or it is ineligible for copyright. ... The Bronze Age is a period in a civilizations development when the most advanced metalworking has developed the techniques of smelting copper from natural outcroppings and alloys it to cast bronze. ... Bust of Homer in the British Museum For other uses, see Homer (disambiguation). ... The Iliad (Greek á¼¸Î»Î¹Î¬Ï‚, Ilias) tells part of the story of the siege of the city of Ilium, i. ... Greek (Greek Î•Î»Î»Î·Î½Î¹ÎºÎ¬, IPA â€“ Hellenic) constitutes its own branch of the Indo-European languages. ... Greece and Crete Crete, sometimes spelled Krete (Greek ÎšÏÎ®Ï„Î· / Kriti) is the largest of the Greek islands and the fifth largest in the Mediterranean Sea. ... The Mycenean Period covers the latter part of the Bronze Age on the Greek mainland. ... This article or section should be merged with Dorian The Dorian invasion is one of the theories advanced to explain the decline of the Mycenaean civilization in ancient Greece. ... Linear B script sample Linear B is the script that was used for writing Mycenaean, an early form of the Greek language. ... (15th century BC - 14th century BC - 13th century BC - other centuries) (1400s BC - 1390s BC - 1380s BC - 1370s BC - 1360s BC - 1350s BC - 1340s BC - 1330s BC - 1320s BC - 1310s BC - 1300s BC - other decades) (3rd millennium BC - 2nd millennium BC - 1st millennium BC) Events 1344 - 1322 BC -- Beginning of... Knossos Knossos (35Â°18â€² N 25Â°10â€² E; alternative spellings Knossus, Cnossus, Gnossus, Greek ÎšÎ½Ï‰ÏƒÏƒÏŒÏ‚) is the largest Bronze Age archaeological site on Crete, probably the ceremonial and political center of the Minoan culture. ... There are also Pylos in Ilia including Pylos Ilias and Pyrgos Trifylias which are both archaeological sites Pylos (Greek Î ÏÎ»Î¿Ï‚ Formerly Navarino) is the name of a bay and a town on the west coast of the Peloponnese, in the district of Messenia in southern Greece. ... The Lion Gate at Mycenae The Lion Gate (detail) Mycenae (ancient Greek: , IPA , in modern Greek: ÎœÏ…ÎºÎ®Î½ÎµÏ‚ ), is an archaeological site in Greece, located about 90km south-west of Athens, in the north-eastern Peloponnese. ...

The tablets remained long undeciphered, and every conceivable language was suggested for them, until Michael Ventris deciphered the script in 1952 and uncontestably proved the language to be an early form of Greek. Michael Ventris (July 12, 1922â€“September 6, 1956) was an English architect and classical scholar, who along with John Chadwick was responsible for the decipherment of Linear B. At the beginning of the 20th century, archaeologist Sir Arthur Evans began excavating Knossos, an ancient city located on the island of... 1952 was a leap year starting on Tuesday (link will take you to calendar). ...

The texts on the tablets are mostly lists and inventories. No prose narrative survives, much less myth or poetry. Still, much may be glimpsed from these records about the people who produced them, and about the Mycenaean period at the eve of the so-called Greek Dark Ages. The Mycenean Period covers the latter part of the Bronze Age on the Greek mainland. ... The Greek Dark Ages (ca. ...

Phonology and orthography

The Mycenaean language is preserved in Linear B writing, consists of about 200 syllabic signs and logograms. Since Linear B was derived from Linear A, the script of an undeciphered Minoan language probably unrelated to Greek, it does not reflect fully the phonetics of Mycenaean: consonant clusters must be dissolved orthographically, and r and l are not disambiguated, nor is there a disambiguation for the Greek phonological categories of voiced/unvoiced (excepting dentals d, t) and aspirated/unaspirated; syllable-final l, m, n, r, s are omitted. Linear B script sample Linear B is the script that was used for writing Mycenaean, an early form of the Greek language. ... Linear A etched on tablets found in Akrotiri, Santorini. ... The Eteocretan (i. ...

The script differentiates five vowel qualities, a, e, i, o, u, the semi-vowels w and j (also transcribed as y), three liquids, m, n, r and seven occlusives, d, k, p, q, s, t, z (the latter may represent a cluster zd corresponding to greek Zeta). Zeta (upper case Ζ, lower case ζ) is the sixth letter of the Greek alphabet. ...

Thus *khrusos, "gold" was spelled with the syllabic signs ku-ru-so, and *gwous, "cow" with the signs qo-u.

The Mycenaean form of Greek preserves a number of archaic features of its Indo-European language heritage, such as the labiovelar consonants that underwent context-dependent sound changes by the time alphabetic Greek writing began a few hundred years later. Proto-Indo-European Indo-European studies The Indo-European languages include some 443 (SIL estimate) languages and dialects spoken by about three billion people, including most of the major language families of Europe and western Asia, which belong to a single superfamily. ... A labiovelar sound is one produced with the lips and velum simultaneously. ...

Corpus

The Mycenaean corpus consists of some 6000 tablets, and may be increased by future finds. The tablets are classified by the location of their excavation.

The publication of the Thebes tablets (L. Godart and A. Sacconi, 2002) was long anticipated, and their actual content was rather disappointing compared to what had been hinted at by the editors in the previous years. Knossos Knossos (35Â°18â€² N 25Â°10â€² E; alternative spellings Knossus, Cnossus, Gnossus, Greek ÎšÎ½Ï‰ÏƒÏƒÏŒÏ‚) is the largest Bronze Age archaeological site on Crete, probably the ceremonial and political center of the Minoan culture. ... There are also Pylos in Ilia including Pylos Ilias and Pyrgos Trifylias which are both archaeological sites Pylos (Greek Î ÏÎ»Î¿Ï‚ Formerly Navarino) is the name of a bay and a town on the west coast of the Peloponnese, in the district of Messenia in southern Greece. ... For the ancient capital of Upper Egypt, see Thebes, Egypt. ... 2002 is a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... The Lion Gate at Mycenae The Lion Gate (detail) Mycenae (ancient Greek: , IPA , in modern Greek: ÎœÏ…ÎºÎ®Î½ÎµÏ‚ ), is an archaeological site in Greece, located about 90km south-west of Athens, in the north-eastern Peloponnese. ... Tiryns is a Mycenaean site in the Peloponnesian peninsula in Greece. ... Chania(IPA ) (also transliterated as Hania), older form and Italian Canea (Greek Î§Î±Î½Î¹Î¬) is the second city of Crete and the capital of the prefecture of the same name. ... The Thebes tablets are clay tablets, discovered in the city of Thebes, with inscriptions in the Mycenaean language in the Linear B script, dating to the 13th century BC. A substantial portion, some 250 tablets, amounting roughly to 5% of the entire Mycenaean corpus, was discovered by Vassilis L. Aravantinos... 2002 is a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

The oldest known Mycenean inscription, and hence the earliest preserved testimony of the Greek language is the Kafkania pebble discovered in 1994, dated to the 17th century BC. The pebble is inscribed with eight syllabic signs, a-so-na / qo-ro-qa / qa-jo as well as bearing a drawing of a double axe. 1994 was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar, and was designated the International year of the Family. ... (18th century BC - 17th century BC - 16th century BC - other centuries) (1690s BC - 1680s BC - 1670s BC - 1660s BC - 1650s BC - 1640s BC - 1630s BC - 1620s BC - 1610s BC - 1600s BC - 1590s BC - other decades) (3rd millennium BC - 2nd millennium BC - 1st millennium BC) Events 1700 - 1500 BC -- Hurrian conquests... Minoan symbolic labrys of gold, 2nd millennium BC: many have been found in the sacred cave of Arkalochori on Crete) The Labrys is a doubleheaded axe. ...

References

The headquarters of the Cambridge University Press, in Trumpington Street, Cambridge. ... The headquarters of the Cambridge University Press, in Trumpington Street, Cambridge. ... Michael Ventris (July 12, 1922â€“September 6, 1956) was an English architect and classical scholar, who along with John Chadwick was responsible for the decipherment of Linear B. At the beginning of the 20th century, archaeologist Sir Arthur Evans began excavating Knossos, an ancient city located on the island of... Michael Ventris (July 12, 1922â€“September 6, 1956) was an English architect and classical scholar, who along with John Chadwick was responsible for the decipherment of Linear B. At the beginning of the 20th century, archaeologist Sir Arthur Evans began excavating Knossos, an ancient city located on the island of... The headquarters of the Cambridge University Press, in Trumpington Street, Cambridge. ...

External links

Categories: Hellenic languages and dialects This article is an overview of the history of Greek. ... Greek (Greek Î•Î»Î»Î·Î½Î¹ÎºÎ¬, IPA â€“ Hellenic) constitutes its own branch of the Indo-European languages. ... The Proto-Greek language is the common ancestor of the Greek dialects, including the Mycenean language, the classical Greek dialects Attic-Ionic, Aeolic, Doric and North-Western Greek, and ultimately the Koine and Modern Greek. ... Linear B script sample Linear B is the script that was used for writing Mycenaean, an early form of the Greek language. ... The Phoenician alphabet dates from around 1000 BC and is derived from the Proto-Canaanite alphabet. ... The Greek language is written in the Greek alphabet, developed in classical times (ca 9th century B.C.) and passed down to the present. ... Ancient Greek refers to the first stage in the history of the Greek language, which normally applies on two ancient periods of Greek history: Archaic and Classic Greece. ... Ionic Greek was a sub-dialect of the so called Attic-Ionic dialectal group of the ancient Greek language, which was itself a member of the Greek branch of Indoeuropean language family. ... Attic Greek is the ancient dialect of the Greek language that was spoken in Attica, which includes Athens. ... Doric Greek is an ancient dialect of the Greek language. ... Linguists use the term Aeolic to describe a set of rather archaic Greek sub_dialects, spoken mainly in Boeotia (a region in Central Greece), in Lesbos (an island close to Asia Minor) and in other Greek colonies. ... Ancient Greek, in Classical Antiquity before the development of the Koine as the lingua franca of Hellenism, was divided into several dialects. ... Koine Greek (ÎšÎ¿Î¹Î½Î® á¼™Î»Î»Î·Î½Î¹ÎºÎ®) is an ancient Greek dialect which marks the 2nd stage in the history of the Greek language. ... Koine Greek refers to the 2nd stage in the history of the Greek language. ... Koine Greek (ÎšÎ¿Î¹Î½Î® á¼™Î»Î»Î·Î½Î¹ÎºÎ®) is an ancient Greek dialect which marks the 2nd stage in the history of the Greek language. ... Medieval Greek refers to the 3rd stage in the history of the Greek language. ... Byzantine Greek is an archaic variant of Greek language derived from Koine which was used by the administration of the Byzantine Empire from 395 until the fall of Constantinople in 1453. ... Byzantine Greek is an archaic variant of Greek language derived from Koine which was used by the administration of the Byzantine Empire from 395 until the fall of Constantinople in 1453. ... Modern Greek (ÎÎµÎ¿ÎµÎ»Î»Î·Î½Î¹ÎºÎ®) is a dialect family that refers to the fifth stage of the evolution of the Greek language (the first four being Mycenean, Ancient Greek, Post-Classical or Hellenistic Greek and Medieval Greek), and it includes every dialect and idiom of Hellenic speech that exists in the world today. ... Ancient Greek, in Classical Antiquity before the development of the Koine as the lingua franca of Hellenism, was divided into several dialects. ... Modern Greek (ÎÎµÎ¿ÎµÎ»Î»Î·Î½Î¹ÎºÎ®) is a dialect family that refers to the fifth stage of the evolution of the Greek language (the first four being Mycenean, Ancient Greek, Post-Classical or Hellenistic Greek and Medieval Greek), and it includes every dialect and idiom of Hellenic speech that exists in the world today. ... Tsakonic or Tsakonian (Standard Greek Î¤ÏƒÎ±ÎºÏ‰Î½Î¹ÎºÎ® Î”Î¹Î¬Î»ÎµÎºÏ„Î¿Ï‚ â€” Tsakonic language â€” is a dialect of Modern Greek that is spoken in the Tsakonian region of the Peloponnese, Greece. ... Pontic Greek is a Greek language which was originally spoken on the shores of the Black Sea (Pontus). Pontics linguistic lineage stems from Attic Greek, and contains influences from Byzantine Greek, Turkish influence and some Persian and Caucasian borrowings. ... Katharevousa (Greek ÎšÎ±Î¸Î±ÏÎµÏÎ¿Ï…ÏƒÎ±, IPA //) is a form of the Greek language, created during the early 19th century by Adamantios Korais (1748-1833). ... Modern Greek (ÎÎµÎ¿ÎµÎ»Î»Î·Î½Î¹ÎºÎ®) is a dialect family that refers to the fifth stage of the evolution of the Greek language (the first four being Mycenean, Ancient Greek, Post-Classical or Hellenistic Greek and Medieval Greek), and it includes every dialect and idiom of Hellenic speech that exists in the world today. ...

Contents

Phonology and orthography GA_googleFillSlot("encyclopedia_square");

Corpus

References

External links

Phonology and orthography