The question of Mycenaean lexical relics in Ancient Greek

• Thesis title in Czech: Otázka mykénských lexikálních pozůstatků ve starořečtině
• Thesis title in English: The question of Mycenaean lexical relics in Ancient Greek
• Key words: výpůjčky|homérská řečtina|mykénština|řecké dialekty
• English key words: borrowings|Homeric Greek|Mycenaean|Greek dialects
• Academic year of topic announcement: 2018/2019
• Thesis type: Bachelor's thesis
• Thesis language: angličtina
• Department: Institute of Ancient Near Eastern Studies (21-USPV)
• Supervisor: Dr. phil. Reiner Lipp, M.A.
• Author: hidden - assigned and confirmed by the Study Dept.
• Date of registration: 26.02.2019
• Date of assignment: 20.03.2019
• Administrator's approval: not processed yet
• Confirmed by Study dept. on: 03.04.2019
• Date and time of defence: 07.09.2021 10:00
• Date of electronic submission: 16.08.2021
• Date of proceeded defence: 07.09.2021
• Submitted/finalized: committed by student and finalized
• Opponents: Mgr. Ján Bakyta, Ph.D.
• Advisors: Mgr. Jan Bičovský, Ph.D.

Guidelines

The Question of Mycenaean Lexical Relics in Ancient Greek
This thesis discusses the question of possible Mycenaean lexical relics in later Greek. Some words in Ancient Greek show unusual phonological developments for their respective dialects. Thus, they raise the question of interdialectal borrowing. Most of these words, which are attested already in Homer, differ from the expected forms regular for ‘Homerische Kunstsprache’, the language of Homer’s epics, which mainly consists of Ionic and Aeolic dialect elements. In a number of relevant cases they show a treatment characteristic of the so-called strong dialects like Doric. Since Doric is not a part of the Homeric language, these forms must be explained differently.
One of these words is ἵππος ‘horse’, which is used in all Greek dialects, yet its form does not correspond to the regular development of any of these dialects. Interestingly, the expected form †ἔππος (from Proto-Indo-European *h₁ék̑u̯os = Lat. equus) is still reflected in the name of the builder of the Trojan horse Ἐπειός. Another word showing an irregularity is ἁρμόζω ‘to join, fit together’. The denominative suffix -όζω is an oddity, most likely an archaism, as the productive suffixes for denominatives are in -άζω or -ίζω.
These two words are considered to be loanwords from Mycenaean due to the developments of the Mycenaean dialect visible in Linear B – raising of /e/ to /i/ before labials and vocalization of syllabic resonants resulting in a vowel /o/ (*h₂ér-mn̥ > Myc. a-mo ‘wheel’, pl. a-mo-ta ‘wheels’, Ion.Att. ἅρμα, often pl. ἅρματα ‘chariot’).
The main group of the words in question consists of words that show an unexpected result of the first compensatory lengthening (VRs, VsR > V̄R) for the dialects of Homer’s epics. These words belong either to the sacral space like Διώνυσος ‘Dionysus’, κῶμος ‘Dionysiac festive procession’, δήνεα ‘(divine) counsels’, to economy ὦνος ‘price’, or to elevated culture like ὦμος ‘shoulder (also in a dress)’, and ζωμός ‘sauce’. Their long open vowels η/ω point to the development of the strong dialects (the expected outcome would be long close vowels ει/ου for Ionic or gemination of the resonants for Aeolic), and as these dialects do not partake in the Homeric language, the explanation for this development remains unclear.
The solution to this problem offered by G. Dunkel (Dunkel 1995) is to take these words as loanwords from Mycenaean and to regard Mycenaean as a strong dialect. However, for the limitations of the Linear B script the precise result of the first compensatory lengthening in Mycenaean is not directly recognizable from the written evidence. Therefore, in each case it has to be checked if there are alternatives available, in order to evaluate for any single item which solution is more plausible.

References

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