Minoan language

Classification

Minoan is an unclassified language, or perhaps multiple indeterminate languages written in the same script. It has been compared inconclusively to the Indo-European, Semitic and Tyrsenian language families and is a language isolate.

Attestation

Minoan is mainly known from the inscriptions in Linear A, which are fairly legible by comparison with Linear B. The Cretan hieroglyphs are dated from the first half of the 2nd millennium BC. The Linear A texts, mostly written in clay tablets, are spread all over Crete with more than 40 localities on the island.

The Egyptian texts

From the Eighteenth Dynasty of Egypt come four texts containing names and spells in the language of Keftiu. They are, as usual in non-Egyptian texts, written in Egyptian hieroglyphs, which has allowed the pronunciation of those names and spells to be reconstructed.

• Magic Papyrus Harris ( Harris XII, 1–5); Beg. 18th Dynasty: a spell in the Keftiu language
• Writing board (B.M. 5647); early 18th Dynasty: school blackboard with Keftiu names
• London Medical Papyrus (B.M., 10059); end of the 18th Dynasty: Two Spells Against Disease (#32–33)
• : some Cretan place names.

Phonology

On the basis of these texts, the phonetic system of the Keftiu language has been reconstructed as having the following consonants:

Syntax

Brent Davis, a linguist and archaeologist at the University of Melbourne, has proposed that the basic word order of the language written in Linear A may be verb-subject-object (VSO), based on the properties of a common formulaic sequence found in Linear A. Object–verb–subject (OVS) word order has also been proposed.

Footnotes

References

References

1. Yves Duhoux, "L'Étéocrétois: les textes – la langue", J. C. Gieben, Amsterdam 1982
2. Stephanie Lynn Budin. (2004). "The Ancient Greeks: New Perspectives". ABC-CLIO.
3. (2003). "Creta Minoica: Sulle tracce delle più antiche scritture d'Europa". L.S. Olschki.
4. Yatsemirsky, Sergei A.. (2011). "Opyt sravnitel'nogo opisaniya minoyskogo, etrusskogo i rodstvennyh im yazykov". Yazyki slavyanskoy kul'tury.
5. Beekes, Robert S. P.. (2014). "Pre-Greek: Phonology, Morphology, Lexicon". Brill.
6. Raymond A. Brown, ''Evidence for pre-Greek speech on Crete from Greek alphabetic sources.'' Adolf M. Hakkert, Amsterdam 1985, p. 289
7. Chadwick, John. (1967). "The Decipherment of Linear B". [[Cambridge University Press]].
8. Kazansky, Nikolai. (2012-01-01). "The Evidence for Lycian in the Linear A Syllabary". FS Gregory Nagy Online. Awol - the Ancient World Online.
9. H. Lange: ''Der Magische Papyrus Harris''; Kopenhagen (1927)
10. T. E. Peet: ''The Egyptian Writing-Board B.M. 5647 bearing Keftiu Names''; Oxford 1927
11. Kyriakidis, E.. (2004). "Indications on the Nature of the Language of the Keftiw from Egyptian Sources". Egypt and the Levant.
12. Brent Davis, 'Syntax in Linear A: The Word-Order of the ‘Libation Formula’ ' Kadmos 52(1), 2013, pp.35-52