The Proto-Greek language (also known as Proto-Hellenic) is the

Indo-European language The Indo-European languages are a language family native to the overwhelming majority of Europe, the Iranian plateau, and the northern Indian subcontinent. Some European languages of this family, English, French, Portuguese, Russian, Du ...

which was the last common ancestor of all varieties of Greek, including

Mycenaean Greek Mycenaean Greek is the most ancient attested form of the Greek language, on the Greek mainland and Crete in Mycenaean Greece (16th to 12th centuries BC), before the hypothesised Dorian invasion, often cited as the '' terminus ad quem'' for th ...

, the subsequent

ancient Greek dialects Ancient Greek in classical antiquity, before the development of the common Koine Greek of the Hellenistic period, was divided into several varieties. Most of these varieties are known only from inscriptions, but a few of them, principally Ae ...

(i.e.,

Attic An attic (sometimes referred to as a ''loft'') is a space found directly below the pitched roof of a house or other building; an attic may also be called a ''sky parlor'' or a garret. Because attics fill the space between the ceiling of the ...

, Ionic, Aeolic,

Doric Doric may refer to: * Doric, of or relating to the Dorians of ancient Greece ** Doric Greek, the dialects of the Dorians * Doric order, a style of ancient Greek architecture * Doric mode, a synonym of Dorian mode * Doric dialect (Scotland) * Doric ...

Arcadocypriot Arcadocypriot, or southern Achaean, was an ancient Greek dialect spoken in Arcadia in the central Peloponnese and in Cyprus. Its resemblance to Mycenaean Greek, as it is known from the Linear B corpus, suggests that Arcadocypriot is its desce ...

, and ancient Macedonian—either a dialect or a closely related

Hellenic language Greek ( el, label=Modern Greek, Ελληνικά, Elliniká, ; grc, Ἑλληνική, Hellēnikḗ) is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages, native to Greece, Cyprus, southern Italy ( Calabria and Salento), southern ...

) and, ultimately,

Koine Koine Greek (; Koine el, ἡ κοινὴ διάλεκτος, hē koinè diálektos, the common dialect; ), also known as Hellenistic Greek, common Attic, the Alexandrian dialect, Biblical Greek or New Testament Greek, was the common supra-reg ...

Byzantine The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantinopl ...

and

Modern Greek Modern Greek (, , or , ''Kiní Neoellinikí Glóssa''), generally referred to by speakers simply as Greek (, ), refers collectively to the dialects of the Greek language spoken in the modern era, including the official standardized form of the ...

(along with its variants). Proto-Greek speakers entered Greece sometime between 2200 and 1900 BCE, with the diversification into a southern and a northern group beginning by approximately 1700 BCE.

Origins

Proto-Greek emerged from the diversification of the

Proto-Indo-European language Proto-Indo-European (PIE) is the reconstructed common ancestor of the Indo-European language family. Its proposed features have been derived by linguistic reconstruction from documented Indo-European languages. No direct record of Proto-Indo-E ...

(PIE), the last phase of which gave rise to the later language families occurred BCE. Pre-Proto-Greek, the Indo-European dialect from which Proto-Greek originated, emerged BCE in an area which bordered pre-

Proto-Indo-Iranian Proto-Indo-Iranian, also Proto-Indo-Iranic is the reconstructed proto-language of the Indo-Iranian/Indo-Iranic branch of Indo-European. Its speakers, the hypothetical Proto-Indo-Iranians, are assumed to have lived in the late 3rd millennium ...

to the east and pre-

Proto-Armenian Proto-Armenian is the earlier, unattested stage of the Armenian language which has been reconstructed by linguists. As Armenian is the only known language of its branch of the Indo-European languages, the comparative method cannot be used to re ...

and pre-Proto- Phrygian to the west, at the eastern borders of southeastern Europe. Speakers of what would become Proto-Greek, migrated from their homeland (which could have been northeast of the

Black Sea The Black Sea is a marginal mediterranean sea of the Atlantic Ocean lying between Europe and Asia, east of the Balkans, south of the East European Plain, west of the Caucasus, and north of Anatolia. It is bounded by Bulgaria, Georgia, Rom ...

) throughout Europe and reached Greece in a date set around the transition of the Early Bronze Age to the Middle Bronze Age. The evolution of Proto-Greek could be considered within the context of an early Paleo-Balkan

sprachbund A sprachbund (, lit. "language federation"), also known as a linguistic area, area of linguistic convergence, or diffusion area, is a group of languages that share areal features resulting from geographical proximity and language contact. The lan ...

that makes it difficult to delineate exact boundaries between individual languages. The characteristically Greek representation of word-initial laryngeals by prothetic vowels is shared, for one, by the

Armenian language Armenian (Classical Armenian orthography, classical: , Armenian orthography reform, reformed: , , ) is an Indo-European languages, Indo-European language and an independent branch of that family of languages. It is the official language of Armenia ...

, which also seems to share some other phonological and morphological peculiarities of Greek; this has led some linguists to propose a hypothetically closer relationship between Greek and Armenian, although evidence remains scant. In modern bibliography, models about the settlement and development of proto-Greek speakers in the Greek peninsula place it in the region in the period at the earliest around 2200-2000 BCE during the Early Helladic III. Asko Parpola and Christian Carpelan (2005) date the arrival of Proto-Greek speakers into the Greek peninsula to 2200 BCE, while Carl Blegen (1928) dates it to BCE. A. L. Katona (2000) places the beginning of the migration of the Proto-Greek speakers from Ukraine towards the south BCE. Their proposed route of migration passed through Romania and the eastern Balkans to the Evros river valley from where their main body moved west. As such Katona as well as M.V Sakellariou agree that the main body of Greek speakers settled in a region that included southwestern Illyria, Epirus, northwestern Thessaly and western Macedonia. Older theories like those of Vladimir I. Georgiev placed Proto-Greek in northwestern Greece and adjacent areas (approximately up to Aulon river to the north including Paravaia,

Tymphaia Tymphaea or Tymphaia () was an ancient Greek territory, specifically located in the region of Epirus, inhabited by the Tymphaioi, a northwestern Greek tribe that belonged to the Molossian tribal state or ''koinon''. The tribal territory was annex ...

, Athamania, Dolopia, Amphilochia, and Acarnania as well as west and north Thessaly ( Histiaeotis, Perrhaibia, Tripolis) and Pieria in Macedonia. during the Late Neolithic period . However, the dating of proto-Greek in Bronze Age Greece is compatible with the inherited lexicon from the common

which excludes any possibility of it being present in Neolithic Greece. Ivo Hajnal dates the beginning of the diversification of Proto-Greek into the subsequent Greek dialects to a point not significantly earlier than 1700 BCE. The conventional division of the Greek dialects prior of 1955 differentiated them between a West Greek (consisting of Doric and Northwest Greek) and an East Greek (consisting of Aeolic, Arcado-Cypriot, and Attic-Ionic) group. However, after the decipherment of the

Linear B Linear B was a syllabic script used for writing in Mycenaean Greek, the earliest attested form of Greek. The script predates the Greek alphabet by several centuries. The oldest Mycenaean writing dates to about 1400 BC. It is descended from ...

script, Walter Porzig and Ernst Risch argued for a division between a Northern (consisting of Doric, Northwest Greek, and Aeolic) and a Southern (consisting of Mycenaean, Arcado-Cypriot, and Attic-Ionic) group, which remains fundamental until today.

Phonology

Proto-Greek is reconstructed with the following phonemes: ;Consonants ;Vowels * Diphthongs are ''ai ei oi ui'', ''au eu ou'', ''āi ēi ōi'', and possibly ''āu ēu ōu''; all are

allophonic In phonology, an allophone (; from the Greek , , 'other' and , , 'voice, sound') is a set of multiple possible spoken soundsor ''phones''or signs used to pronounce a single phoneme in a particular language. For example, in English, (as in ' ...

with the corresponding sequences of vowel and semivowel. * Exactly one vowel in each word bears a

pitch accent A pitch-accent language, when spoken, has word accents in which one syllable in a word or morpheme is more prominent than the others, but the accentuated syllable is indicated by a contrasting pitch ( linguistic tone) rather than by loudness ...

(equivalent to the

Attic Greek Attic Greek is the Greek dialect of the ancient region of Attica, including the '' polis'' of Athens. Often called classical Greek, it was the prestige dialect of the Greek world for centuries and remains the standard form of the language that ...

acute accent The acute accent (), , is a diacritic used in many modern written languages with alphabets based on the Latin, Cyrillic, and Greek scripts. For the most commonly encountered uses of the accent in the Latin and Greek alphabets, precomposed ...

Proto-Greek changes

The primary sound changes separating Proto-Greek from the

include the following.

Consonants

* Delabialization of labiovelars next to , the "

boukólos rule The boukólos rule is a phonological rule of the Proto-Indo-European language (PIE). It states that a labiovelar stop () dissimilates to an ordinary velar stop () next to the vowel or its corresponding glide . The rule is named after an exampl ...

". This was a phonotactic restriction already in Proto-Indo-European, and continued to be productive in Proto-Greek. It ceased to be in effect when labiovelars disappeared from the language in post-Proto-Greek. * Centumization: Merger of palatovelars and velars. * Merging of sequences of velar + ''*w'' into the labiovelars, perhaps with compensatory lengthening of the consonant in one case: PIE ''*h₁éḱwos'' > PG ''*híkkʷos'' > Mycenaean ''i-qo'' , Attic ''híppos'', Aeolic ''íkkos''. * Debuccalization of to in intervocalic and prevocalic positions (between two vowels, or if word-initial and followed by a vowel). Loss of prevocalic ''*s'' was not completed entirely, evidenced by ''sȳ́s'' ~ ''hȳ́s'' " pig" (from PIE ''*suh₁-''), ''dasýs'' "dense" and ''dásos'' "dense growth,

forest A forest is an area of land dominated by trees. Hundreds of definitions of forest are used throughout the world, incorporating factors such as tree density, tree height, land use, legal standing, and ecological function. The United Nations' ...

"; ''*som'' "with" is another example, contaminated with PIE ''*ḱom'' (Latin ''cum''; preserved in Greek ''kaí'', ''katá'', ''koinós'') to Mycenaean ''ku-su'' /ksun/, Homeric and Old Attic ''ksýn'', later ''sýn''. Furthermore, ''sélas'' "light in the sky, as in the

aurora An aurora (plural: auroras or aurorae), also commonly known as the polar lights, is a natural light display in Earth's sky, predominantly seen in high-latitude regions (around the Arctic and Antarctic). Auroras display dynamic patterns of bri ...

" and ''selḗnē/selā́nā'' "

moon The Moon is Earth's only natural satellite. It is the fifth largest satellite in the Solar System and the largest and most massive relative to its parent planet, with a diameter about one-quarter that of Earth (comparable to the width of ...

" may be more examples of the same if it derived from PIE ''*swel-'' "to burn" (possibly related to ''hḗlios'' " sun", Ionic ''hēélios'' < ''*sāwélios''). *

Strengthening Chinese food therapy (, also called nutrition therapy and dietary therapy) is a mode of dieting rooted in Chinese beliefs concerning the effects of food on the human organism, and centered on concepts such as eating in moderation. Its basic pr ...

of word-initial ''y-'' to ''dy-'' > ''dz-'' (note that ''Hy-'' > ''Vy-'' regularly due to vocalization of laryngeals). * Filos argues for a "probable" early loss of final non-nasal stop consonants: compare Latin ''quid'' and Sanskrit ''cid'' with Greek ''ti''; however, Mycenaean texts are inconclusive in offering evidence on this matter, as the

script did not explicitly mark final consonants. However, it appears that these stops were preserved word finally for unstressed words, reflected in ''ek'' "out of". * Final > . * Syllabic resonants and that are not followed by a laryngeal are resolved to vowels or combinations of a vowel and consonantal resonant. This resulted in an epenthetic vowel of undetermined quality (denoted here as ''*ə''). This vowel then usually developed into ''a'' but also ''o'' in some cases. Thus: ** , > ''*ə'', but > ''*əm'', ''*ən'' before a sonorant. ''*ə'' appears as ''o'' in Mycenaean after a labial: ''pe-mo'' (''spérmo'') "seed" vs. usual ''spérma'' < ''*spérmn̥''. Similarly, ''o'' often appears in Arcadian after a velar, e.g. ''déko'' "ten", ''hekotón'' "one hundred" vs. usual ''déka'', ''hekatón'' < ''*déḱm̥'', ''*sem-ḱm̥tóm''. ** , > ''*lə'', ''*rə'', but ''*əl'', ''*ər'' before sonorants and analogously. ''*ə'' appears as ''o'' in Mycenaean, Aeolic and Arcadocypriot. Example: PIE ''*str̥-tos'' > usual ''stratós'', Aeolic ''strótos'' "army"; post-PIE ''*ḱr̥di-eh₂'' "heart" > Attic ''kardíā'', Homeric ''kradíē'', Pamphylian ''korzdia''.

=Changes to the aspirates

= Major changes included: * Devoicing of voiced aspirates *bʰ, *dʰ, *ɡʰ, *ɡʷʰ to *pʰ, *tʰ, *kʰ, *kʷʰ. This change preceded and fed both stages of palatalization. * Loss of aspiration before ''*s'', e.g. ''heksō'' "I will have" < Post-PIE ''*seǵʰ-s-oh₂''. * Loss of aspiration before ''*y'', detailed under "palatalization". Grassmann's law was a process of

dissimilation In phonology, particularly within historical linguistics, dissimilation is a phenomenon whereby similar consonants or vowels in a word become less similar. In English, dissimilation is particularly common with liquid consonants such as /r ...

in words containing multiple aspirates. It caused an initial aspirated sound to lose its aspiration when a following aspirated consonant occurred in the same word. It was a relatively late change in Proto-Greek history, and must have occurred independently of the similar dissimilation of aspirates (also known as Grassmann's law) in Indo-Iranian, although it may represent a common areal feature. The change may have even been post-Mycenaean. # It postdates the Greek-specific de-voicing of voiced aspirates. # It postdates the change of > , which is then lost in the same environment: ''ékhō'' "I have" < ''*hekh-'' < PIE ''*seǵʰ-oh₂'', but future ''heksō'' "I will have" < ''*heks-'' < Post-PIE ''*seǵʰ-s-oh₂''. # It postdates even the loss of aspiration before ''*y'' that accompanied second-stage palatalization (see below), which postdates both of the previous changes (as well as first-stage palatalization). # On the other hand, it predates the development of the first aorist passive marker ''-thē-'' since the aspirate in that marker has no effect on preceding aspirates.

=Laryngeal changes

= Greek is unique among Indo-European languages in reflecting the three different laryngeals with distinct vowels. Most Indo-European languages can be traced back to a dialectal variety of late Proto-Indo-European (PIE) in which all three laryngeals had merged (after colouring adjacent short vowels), but Greek clearly cannot. For that reason, Greek is extremely important in reconstructing PIE forms. Greek shows distinct reflexes of the laryngeals in various positions: * Most famously, between consonants, where original vocalic ''*h₁'', ''*h₂'', ''*h₃'' are reflected as , , respectively (the so-called ''triple reflex''). All other Indo-European languages reflect the same vowel from all three laryngeals (usually , but or other vowels in Indo-Iranian): * An initial laryngeal before a consonant (a ''*HC-'' sequence) leads to the same triple reflex, but most IE languages lost such laryngeals and a few reflect them initially before consonants. Greek vocalized them (leading to what are misleadingly termed ''prothetic vowels''): Greek ''érebos'' "darkness" < PIE ''*h₁regʷos'' vs.

Gothic Gothic or Gothics may refer to: People and languages *Goths or Gothic people, the ethnonym of a group of East Germanic tribes **Gothic language, an extinct East Germanic language spoken by the Goths **Crimean Gothic, the Gothic language spoken b ...

''riqiz-'' "darkness"; Greek ''áent-'' "wind" < ''*awent-'' < PIE ''*h₂wéh₁n̥t-'' vs. English ''wind'',

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through ...

''ventus'' "wind", Breton ''gwent'' "wind". * The sequence ''*CRHC'' (''C'' = consonant, ''R'' = resonant, ''H'' = laryngeal) becomes ''CRēC'', ''CRāC'', ''CRōC'' from ''H'' = ''*h₁'', ''*h₂'', ''*h₃'' respectively. (Other Indo-European languages again have the same reflex for all three laryngeals: ''*CuRC'' in

Proto-Germanic Proto-Germanic (abbreviated PGmc; also called Common Germanic) is the reconstructed proto-language of the Germanic branch of the Indo-European languages. Proto-Germanic eventually developed from pre-Proto-Germanic into three Germanic br ...

, ''*CiRˀC/CuRˀC'' with acute register in Proto-Balto-Slavic, ''*CīRC/CūRC'' in

, ''*CRāC'' in Proto-Italic and

Proto-Celtic Proto-Celtic, or Common Celtic, is the ancestral proto-language of all known Celtic languages, and a descendant of Proto-Indo-European. It is not attested in writing but has been partly reconstructed through the comparative method. Proto-Celt ...

.) Sometimes, ''CeReC'', ''CaRaC'', ''CoRoC'' are found instead: Greek ''thánatos'' "death" vs.

Doric Greek Doric or Dorian ( grc, Δωρισμός, Dōrismós), also known as West Greek, was a group of Ancient Greek dialects; its varieties are divided into the Doric proper and Northwest Doric subgroups. Doric was spoken in a vast area, that includ ...

''thnātós'' "mortal", both apparently reflecting ''*dʰn̥h₂-tos''. It is sometimes suggested that the position of the accent was a factor in determining the outcome. * The sequence ''*CiHC'' tends to become ''*CyēC'', ''*CyāC'', ''*CyōC'' from ''H'' = ''*h₁'', ''*h₂'', ''*h₃'' respectively, with later palatalization (see below). Sometimes, the outcome ''CīC'' is found, as in most other Indo-European languages, or the outcome ''CiaC'' in the case of ''*Cih₂C''. All of the cases may stem from an early insertion of next to a laryngeal not adjacent to a vowel in the Indo-European dialect ancestral to Greek (subsequently coloured to , , by the particular laryngeal in question) prior to the general merger of laryngeals: * ''*CHC'' > ''*CHeC'' > ''CeC/CaC/CoC''. * ''*HC-'' > ''*HeC-'' > ''eC-/aC-/oC-''. * ''*CRHC'' > ''*CReHC'' > ''CRēC/CRāC/CRōC''; or, ''*CRHC'' > ''*CeRHeC'' > ''*CeReC/CeRaC/CeRoC'' > ''CeReC/CaRaC/CoRoC'' by

assimilation Assimilation may refer to: Culture * Cultural assimilation, the process whereby a minority group gradually adapts to the customs and attitudes of the prevailing culture and customs ** Language shift, also known as language assimilation, the prog ...

. * ''*CiHC'' > ''*CyeHC'' > ''CyēC/CyāC/CyōC''; or, ''*Cih₂C'' > ''*Cih₂eC'' > ''*CiHaC'' > ''*CiyaC'' > ''CiaC''; or, ''*CiHC'' remains without vowel insertion > ''CīC''. A laryngeal adjacent to a vowel develops along the same lines as other Indo-European languages: * The sequence ''*CRHV'' (''C'' = consonant, ''R'' = resonant, ''H'' = laryngeal, ''V'' = vowel) passes through ''*CR̥HV'', becoming ''CaRV''. * The sequence ''*CeHC'' becomes ''CēC/CāC/CōC''. * The sequence ''*CoHC'' becomes ''CōC''. * In the sequence ''*CHV'' (including ''CHR̥C'', with a vocalized resonant), the laryngeal colors a following short , as expected, but it otherwise disappears entirely (as in most other Indo-European languages but not Indo-Iranian whose laryngeal aspirates a previous stop and prevents the operation of

Brugmann's law Brugmann's law, named for Karl Brugmann, is a sound law stating that in the Indo-Iranian languages, the earlier Proto-Indo-European ' normally became in Proto-Indo-Iranian but in open syllables if it was followed by one consonant and another vow ...

). * In a ''*VHV'' sequence (a laryngeal between vowels, including a vocalic resonant ''R̥''), the laryngeal again colours any adjacent short but otherwise vanishes early on. That change appears to be uniform across the Indo-European languages and was probably the first environment in which laryngeals were lost. If the first ''V'' was ''*i'', ''*u'' or a vocalic resonant, a consonantal copy was apparently inserted in place of the laryngeal: ''*CiHV'' > ''*CiyV'', ''*CuHV'' > ''*CuwV'', ''*CR̥HV'' possibly > ''*CR̥RV'', with ''R̥'' always remaining as vocalic until the dissolution of vocalic resonants in the various daughter languages. Otherwise, a

hiatus Hiatus may refer to: * Hiatus (anatomy), a natural fissure in a structure * Hiatus (stratigraphy), a discontinuity in the age of strata in stratigraphy *''Hiatus'', a genus of picture-winged flies with sole member species '' Hiatus fulvipes'' * G ...

resulted, which was resolved in various ways in the daughter languages, typically by converting ''i'', ''u'' and vocalic resonants, when it directly followed a vowel, back into a consonant and merging adjacent non-high vowels into a single long vowel.

=Palatalization

= Consonants followed by consonantal ''*y'' were palatalized, producing various

affricate consonant An affricate is a consonant that begins as a stop and releases as a fricative, generally with the same place of articulation (most often coronal). It is often difficult to decide if a stop and fricative form a single phoneme or a consonant pai ...

s (still represented as a separate sound in Mycenaean) and geminated palatal consonants. Any aspiration was lost in the process. The palatalized consonants later simplified, mostly losing their palatal character. Palatalization occurred in two separate stages. The first stage affected only dental consonants, and the second stage affected all consonants. The first palatalization caused dentals + ''*y'' to ultimately become alveolar affricates: Alongside these changes, the inherited clusters ''*ts'', ''*ds'' and ''*tʰs'' all merged into ''*ts''. In the second palatalization, all consonants were affected. It took place following the resolution of syllabic laryngeals and sonorants. The following table, based on American linguist Andrew Sihler, shows the developments. In post-Proto-Greek times, the resulting palatal consonants and clusters were resolved in varying ways. Most notably, ''*ň'' and ''*ř'' were resolved into plain sonorants plus a palatal on-glide, which eventually turned the preceding vowel into a diphthong. Between the first and the second palatalizations, new clusters ''*tsy'' and ''*dzy'' were formed by restoring a lost ''*y'' after the newly formed ''*ts'' and ''*dz''. That occurred only in morphologically transparent formations by analogy with similar formations in which ''*y'' was preceded by other consonants. In formations that were morphologically opaque and not understood as such by speakers of the time, the restoration did not take place and so ''*ts'' and ''*dz'' remained. Hence, depending on the type of formation, the pre-Proto-Greek sequences ''*ty'', ''*tʰy'' and ''*dy'' have different outcomes in the later languages. In particular, medial ''*ty'' becomes Attic ''s'' in opaque formations but ''tt'' in transparent formations. The outcome of PG medial ''*ts'' in Homeric Greek is ''s'' after a long vowel, and vacillation between ''s'' and ''ss'' after a short vowel: ''tátēsi'' dat. pl. "rug" < ''tátēt-'', ''possí(n)/posí(n)'' dat. pl. "foot" < ''pod-''. This was useful for the composer of the Iliad and Odyssey, since ''possí'' with double ''s'' scans as long-short, while ''posí'' with single ''s'' scans as short-short. Thus the writer could use each form in different positions in a line. Examples of initial ''*ts'': * PIE ''*tyegʷ-'' "avoid" > PG ''*tsegʷ-'' > Greek ''sébomai'' "worship, be respectful" (Ved. ''tyaj-'' "flee") * PIE ''*dʰyeh₂-'' "notice" > PG ''*tsā-'' > Dor. ''sā́ma'', Att. ''sêma'' "sign" (Ved. ''dhyā́-'' "thought, contemplation") Examples of medial ''*ts'' (morphologically opaque forms, first palatalization only): * PreG ''*tótyos'' "as much" > PG ''*tótsos'' > Att. ''tósos'', Hom. ''tósos/tóssos'' (cf. Ved. ''táti'', Lat. ''tot'' "so much/many") * PIE ''*médʰyos'' "middle" > PG ''*métsos'' > Att. ''mésos'', Hom. ''mésos/méssos'', Boeot. ''méttos'', other dial. ''mésos'' (cf. Ved. ''mádhya-'', Lat. ''medius'') Examples of medial ''*ťť'' (morphologically transparent forms, first and second palatalization): * PIE ''*h₁erh₁-t-yoh₂'' "I row" > PG ''*eréťťō'' > Attic ''eréttō'', usual non-Attic ''eréssō'' (cf. ''erétēs'' "oarsman") * PIE ''*krét-yōs'' > PreG ''*krétyōn'' "better" > PG ''*kréťťōn'' > Attic ''kreíttōn'', usual non-Attic ''kréssōn'' (cf. ''kratús'' "strong" < PIE ''*kr̥tús'')

Vowels

* Osthoff's law: Shortening of long vowels before a sonorant in the same syllable. E.g. "skyling, sky god" >

'' Zeús'' . * Cowgill's law: Raising of to between a resonant and a labial.

=Cowgill's law

= In Proto-Greek, Cowgill's law says that a former vowel becomes between a resonant (, , , ) and a

labial consonant Labial consonants are consonants in which one or both lips are the active articulator. The two common labial articulations are bilabials, articulated using both lips, and labiodentals, articulated with the lower lip against the upper teeth, b ...

(including labiovelars), in either order. Examples: * ell, νύξ "night" <

PIE A pie is a baked dish which is usually made of a pastry dough casing that contains a filling of various sweet or savoury ingredients. Sweet pies may be filled with fruit (as in an apple pie), nuts (pecan pie), brown sugar ( sugar pie), sweete ...

' (cf. '' lat, nox'', Ved. ' < ''*nakts'', '' got, nahts'', gen. sg. '' hit, nekuz'' /nekʷts/) * ell, φύλλον "leaf" <

' (cf. '' lat, folium'') * ell, μύλη "mill" <

' (cf. '' lat, molīna'') * ell, ὄνυξ "nail" (stem '' ell, ónukh-'') < early PG ' <

' (cf. '' ang, nægl'' < PGerm ') Note that when a labiovelar adjoins an affected by Cowgill's law, the new will cause the labiovelar to lose its labial component (as in '' ell, núks'' and '' ell, ónuks/ónukh-'', where the usual Greek change ''*'' > ' has not occurred).

Prosody

Proto-Greek retained the Indo-European

, but developed a number of rules governing it: * The law of limitation, also known as the ''trisyllabicity law'', confined the accent to the antepenultimate, penultimate, or final syllable. Alternatively, it can be analyzed as restraining the accent to be within the last four

morae A mora (plural ''morae'' or ''moras''; often symbolized μ) is a basic timing unit in the phonology of some spoken languages, equal to or shorter than a syllable. For example, a short syllable such as ''ba'' consists of one mora (''monomoraic''), ...

of the word. * Wheeler's Law, which also developed during Proto-Greek, causes

oxytone An oxytone (; from the grc, ὀξύτονος, ', 'sharp-sounding') is a word with the stress on the last syllable, such as the English words ''correct'' and ''reward''. (A paroxytone Paroxytone ( el, παροξύτονος, ') is a lingui ...

words to become paroxytone when ending in a syllable sequence consisting of heavy-light-light (ex. ''*poikilós'' > ''poikílos''). * Loss of accent in finite verb forms. This probably began in verbs of independent clauses, a development also seen in

Vedic Sanskrit Vedic Sanskrit was an ancient language of the Indo-Aryan subgroup of the Indo-European language family. It is attested in the Vedas and related literature compiled over the period of the mid- 2nd to mid-1st millennium BCE. It was orally preser ...

, where they behave as clitics and bear no accent. The accentless forms later acquired a default recessive accent, placed as far left as the law of limitation allowed. ** Certain imperative forms, such as ''idé'' "go!", regularly escaped this process and retained their accent. * Many Proto-Greek suffixes bore lexical stress. Accentuation rules applied post-Proto-Greek such as Vendryes's Law and Bartoli's Law modified how and if this would surface.

Post-Proto-Greek changes

Sound changes that postdate Proto-Greek, but predate the attested dialects, including

, include: * Loss of ''s'' in consonant clusters, with

compensatory lengthening Compensatory lengthening in phonology and historical linguistics is the lengthening of a vowel sound that happens upon the loss of a following consonant, usually in the syllable coda, or of a vowel in an adjacent syllable. Lengthening triggered ...

of the preceding vowel (

, Ionic,

) or of the consonant ( Aeolic): ''*ésmi'' "I am" > ''ḗmi'', ''eîmi'' or ''émmi''. * Creation of secondary ''s'' from earlier affricates, ''*nty'' > ''*nts'' > ''ns''. This was, in turn, followed by a change similar to the one described above, loss of the ''n'' with compensatory lengthening: ''*apónt-ya'' > ''apónsa'' > ''apoûsa'', "absent", feminine. * In southern dialects (including Mycenaean, but not Doric), ''-ti-'' > ''-si-'' ( assibilation). The following changes are apparently post-Mycenaean because early stages are represented in

: * Loss of (from original ), except initially, e.g. Doric ''níkaas'' "having conquered" < ''*níkahas'' < ''*níkasas''. * Loss of , e.g. ''treîs'' "three" < ''*tréyes''. * Loss of in many dialects (later than loss of and ). Example: ''étos'' "year" from ''*wétos''. * Loss of labiovelars, which were converted (mostly) into labials, sometimes into dentals (or velars next to , as a result of an earlier sound change). See below for details. It had not yet happened in Mycenaean, as is shown by the fact that a separate letter is used for such sounds. * Contraction of adjacent vowels resulting from loss of and (and, to a lesser extent, from loss of ); more in

than elsewhere. * Rise of a distinctive

circumflex The circumflex () is a diacritic in the Latin and Greek scripts that is also used in the written forms of many languages and in various romanization and transcription schemes. It received its English name from la, circumflexus "bent around" ...

accent, resulting from contraction and certain other changes. * Loss of before (incompletely in Cretan Greek), with

of the preceding vowel. * Raising of ''ā'' to ''ē'' in Attic and Ionic dialects (but not Doric). In Ionic, the change was general, but in Attic it did not occur after /i/, /e/ or /r/. (Note Attic ''kórē'' "girl" < ''*kórwā''; loss of /w/ after /r/ had not occurred at that point in Attic.) * Vendryes's Law in Attic, where a penultimate circumflex accent was retracted onto a preceding light syllable if the final syllable was also light: light-circumflex-light > acute-heavy-light. For example, ''hetoîmos'' > Attic ''hétoimos''. ( * Analogical prosodic changes that converted a penultimate heavy acute accent to circumflex (retraction by one mora) if both the final and (if present) the preceding syllable were light. This produced alternations within a paradigm, for example Attic ''oînos'' "wine" nominative singular, but genitive singular ''oínou''. Note that and , when following a vowel and not preceding a vowel, combined early on with the vowel to form a diphthong and so were not lost. Loss of and after a consonant was often accompanied by

of a preceding vowel. The development of labiovelars varies from dialect to dialect: *Due to the PIE

, labiovelars next to had already been converted to plain velars: ''boukólos'' "herdsman" < ''*gʷou-kʷólos'' (cf. ''boûs'' "cow" < ''*gʷou-'') vs. ''aipólos'' "goatherd" < ''*ai(g)-kʷólos'' (cf. ''aíks'', gen. ''aigós'' "goat"); ''elakhús'' "small" < ''*h₁ln̥gʷʰ-ús'' vs. ''elaphrós'' "light" < ''*h₁ln̥gʷʰ-rós''. *In Attic and some other dialects (but not, for example, Aeolic), labiovelars before some front vowels became dentals. In Attic, ''kʷ'' and ''kʷʰ'' became ''t'' and ''th'', respectively, before and , while ''gʷ'' became ''d'' before (but not ). Cf. ''theínō'' "I strike, kill" < ''*gʷʰen-yō'' vs. ''phónos'' "slaughter" < *gʷʰón-os; ''delphús'' "womb" < ''*gʷelbʰ-'' (

Sanskrit Sanskrit (; attributively , ; nominally , , ) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had Trans-cultural diffusion ...

''garbha-'') vs. ''bíos'' "life" < ''*gʷih₃wos'' (

''qius'' "alive"), ''tís'' "who?" < ''*kʷis'' (

''quis''). *All remaining labiovelars became labials, original ''kʷ kʷʰ gʷ'' becoming ''p ph b'' respectively. That happened to all labiovelars in some dialects like Lesbian; in other dialects, like Attic, it occurred to all labiovelars not converted into dentals. Many occurrences of dentals were later converted into labials by analogy with other forms: ''bélos'' "missile", ''bélemnon'' "spear, dart" (dialectal ''délemnon'') by analogy with ''bállō'' "I throw (a missile, etc.)", ''bolḗ'' "a blow with a missile". *Original PIE labiovelars had still remained as such even before consonants and so became labials also there. In many other centum languages such as

and most

Germanic languages The Germanic languages are a branch of the Indo-European language family spoken natively by a population of about 515 million people mainly in Europe, North America, Oceania and Southern Africa. The most widely spoken Germanic language, ...

, the labiovelars lost their labialisation before consonants. (Greek ''pémptos'' "fifth" < ''*pénkʷtos''; compare

Old Latin Old Latin, also known as Early Latin or Archaic Latin (Classical la, prīsca Latīnitās, lit=ancient Latinity), was the Latin language in the period before 75 BC, i.e. before the age of Classical Latin. It descends from a common Proto-Italic ...

''quinctus''.) This makes Greek of particular importance in reconstructing original labiovelars. The results of vowel contraction were complex from dialect to dialect. Such contractions occur in the inflection of a number of different noun and verb classes and are among the most difficult aspects of Ancient Greek grammar. They were particularly important in the large class of ''contracted verbs'', denominative verbs formed from nouns and adjectives ending in a vowel. (In fact, the reflex of contracted verbs in

, the set of verbs derived from

Ancient Greek Ancient Greek includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Dark Ages (), the Archaic pe ...

contracted verbs, represents one of the two main classes of verbs in that language.)

Morphology

Noun

Proto-Greek preserved the gender (masculine, feminine, neuter) and number (singular, dual, plural) distinctions of the nominal system of Proto-Indo-European. However, the evidence from Mycenaean Greek is inconclusive with regard to whether all eight cases continued to see complete usage, but this is more secure for the five standard cases of Classical Greek (nominative, genitive, dative, accusative and vocative) and probably also the instrumental in its usual plural suffix -pʰi and the variant /-ṓis/ for o-stem nouns. The ablative and locative are uncertain; at the time of Mycenaean texts they may have been undergoing a merger with the genitive and dative respectively. It is thought that the syncretism between cases proceeded faster for the plural, with dative and locative already merged as ''-si'' (the Proto-Indo-European locative plural having been ''*-su-''). This merger may have been motivated by analogy to the locative singular ''-i-''. Nevertheless, seven case distinctions are securely attested in Mycenaean in some domain, with the status of the ablative unclear.Ramón, José Luis García (2017). "The morphology of Greek". In Klein, Joseph and Fritz (2017), ''Handbook of Comparative and Historical Indo-European Linguistics''. Page 654 Significant developments attributed to the Proto-Greek period include: * the replacement of PIE nominative plural ''*-ās'' and ''*-ōs'' by ''*-ai'' and ''*-oi''. * the genitive and dative dual suffix ''*-oi(i)n'' (Arcadian ''-oiun'') appears to be exclusive to Greek. * Genitive singular Proto-Indo-European ''*-āsyo'' is reflected as ''-āo'' The Proto-Greek nominal system is thought to have included cases of gender change according to number, heteroclisy and stem alternation (ex. genitive form ''húdatos'' for ''húdōr'' "water"). The superlative in ''-tatos'' becomes productive. The peculiar oblique stem ''gunaik-'' "women", attested from the Thebes tablets is probably Proto-Greek. It appears, at least as ''gunai-'' in Armenian as well.

Pronoun

The pronouns ''hoûtos'', ''ekeînos'' and ''autós'' are created. The use of ''ho, hā, to'' as articles is post-Mycenaean.

Verb

Proto-Greek inherited the augment, a prefix ''e-'', to verbal forms expressing past tense. That feature is shared only with Indo-Iranian and Phrygian (and to some extent, Armenian), lending some support to a " Graeco-Aryan" or "Inner PIE" proto-dialect. However, the augment down to the time of Homer remained optional and was probably little more than a free sentence particle, meaning "previously" in the proto-language, which may easily have been lost by most other branches. Greek, Phrygian, and Indo-Iranian also concur in the absence of ''r''-endings in the middle voice, in Greek apparently already lost in Proto-Greek. The first person middle verbal desinences ''-mai'', ''-mān'' replace ''-ai'', ''-a''. The third singular ''phérei'' is an innovation by analogy, replacing the expected Doric ''*phéreti'', Ionic ''*phéresi'' (from PIE *). The future tense is created, including a future passive as well as an aorist passive. The suffix ''-ka-'' is attached to some perfects and aorists. Infinitives in ''-ehen'', ''-enai'' and ''-men'' are created.

Numerals

Proto-Greek numerals were derived directly from Indo-European.Filos, Panagiotis "Proto-Greek and Common Greek". In G. K. Giannakis et al. (eds.), Brill Encyclopedia of Ancient Greek Language and Linguistics III, Leiden-Boston 2014: Brill: 175–189 section 4c *"one": (masculine), (feminine) (> (dative); / , (), ) *"two": (> ; , ; - , ) *"three": (> ; / , ; , ; , ) *"four": nominative , genitive (> "four-eared"; , ; , ; , ; , ; , ; , ) *"five": (> - , ; , , ) *"six": (> , ; , ) *"seven": (> , ) *"eight": (> , ) *"nine": (> , ; , ) *"ten": (> , ) *"hundred": (> , ) *"thousand": (> , )

References

Citations

Sources

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