Anatolian linguistic influences in Early Greek (1500–800 BC)? Critical observations against sociolinguistic and areal background

Rostislav Oreshko (University of Warsaw / Center for Hellenic Studies (Harvard University); fauhs@rambler.ru)

Journal of Language Relationship, № 16/1-2, 2018 - p.93-118

Abstract: The paper addresses the question of the presence of Anatolian influence in Early Greek (conventionally, about 1500–800 BC). The first part addresses methodological questions of language contact, such as mechanisms of linguistic interaction and the scale of borrowings. In the second part, eleven important cases of presumable Anatolian lexical borrowings in Greek are critically analyzed. The results of the analysis suggest that the Anatolian influence on the vocabulary of Early Greek was minimal (if any), which strongly speaks against the possibility of influences in morphology, phonetics or phraseology.

Keywords: Greek-Anatolian interaction, Early Greek language, Anatolian languages, Hittite language, Luwian language, Lydian language, Lycian language, Carian language

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