Pre-Greek

Pre-Greek (or Pre-Hellenic) refers to the unknown language or languages spoken in Greece before the arrival of Greek speakers. Evidence for these languages is found in loanwords within the Greek lexicon.

The lexicon of Ancient Greek contains hundreds of foreign words. These words can be recognized, because they do not correspond with the Greek outcomes of Indo-European phonology and corresponding sound laws.

Moreover, the semantics of many Greek words are obviously not Indo-European, since their concepts were absent in this language of nomadic pastoralists from the Pontic steppes. Such concepts include words for certain plants, animals and sedentary habitation.

A solution for these obscure words with their various forms in Greek was proposed, namely the assumption of a Pre-Greek substrate from which Greek borrowed the words.

Substrate = an underlying substance or layer.
In linguistics, a substrate (or substratum) refers to a language that was spoken in a particular area before the introduction of another, dominant language, and whose influence persists in the newer language.

Important developers of this theory were Edzard Johan Furnée and Robert S. P. Beekes. Based on variation in forms that were semantically close or identical, they reconstructed the phonology and morphology of this language. Besides that, they proposed a Pre-Greek etymology for a lot of Greek words.

According to the Hellenist (Renfrew, 1998) “The Greek language is unusual among the languages of Europe in the high proportion of its vocabulary which includes words which are not only not Greek words, but apparently not part of an Indo-European vocabulary either”.

On the other hand, scholars have tried to find a Semitic origin of these phonologically deviant Greek words.

The first article in which this was done systematically, was written by A. Müller in 1877. Since then, especially in the nineteenth century, a large number of new proposals for Semitic loanwords in Greek have been made by, for instance, Muss-Arnolt (1892), Lewy (1895), etc.

In total, around 500 of such etymologies (without mythical and personal names) have been proposed until now, though some of them have been rejected by more recent scholars, like É. Masson (1976) and Rosół (2013). Nevertheless, for a substantial amount of Greek words, a Semitic origin cannot be denied.

“Ancient documents and archaeology have shown that the Semitic peoples, especially the Phoenicians and the people of Ugarit, were in contact with other Mediterranean peoples by means of colonizing, trade and correspondence about legal issues etc. Therefore, words were often mutually transmitted and became adopted in a foreign lexicon. This applied to Ancient Greek as well. Although the exact number is unknown, the Greek lexicon contains presumably hundreds of Semitic loanwords. However, when one tries to determine the exact donor language, several problems occur.” [01]

Examples:

10- Greek: (χρυσός/khrysós = gold).
Greek suffix “-ós” is epenthetic.
Akkadian: (ḫurāṣu = gold)
Akkadian “ḫ” pronounced => “kh”.
khrys = khurāṣu

02-Greek: “Πυγή/Pygí” (= buttocks)
Akkadian “pūqu” (= buttocks)

03- Greek: (ωτιον/otiyon = ear).
Arabic: (udun = ear).

04- Greek: “οδός/ūdós” (= way, road)
Arabic: “hūda/هدى” (= way, path).
Greek suffix “-ós” is epenthetic.

05-Greek: “ακτή/akti” (= shore)
Akkadian: “aḫātu” (= shore)
Akkadian “ḫ” pronounced => “kh”.
akti = akhātu
Hebrew: “gaddāh/גדה” (= shore)

06- Greek: “κάννα/kannē” (= reed/cane).
Akkadian: (qanû/qanûm (= read/cane).
Syriac: “ܩܢܝܐ/qanyɑ” (= read/cane).
Hebrew: “קנה/qanah” (= read/cane).

Dry reed stick is straight, inflexible and hollow throughout its whole length, this makes it a good measuring stick. In ancient Mesopotamia, words such as “kīnu”, “kânu” & “kēnu” which denote: (correct calculations or measurements) are derived from: “qanû/reed”. [02] (kânu is the etymon of English: canon).

07- Ancient Greek: “ἀγρός/aɡrós” (= field, arable land)
(etymon of English: acre).
Akkadian “ugāru/ikkaru” (= field, farm)

08-Ancient Greek: “κύμινον/kúminon” (=cumin)
Akkadian: “kamūnu” (=cumin)
Hebrew: “כמון/kammōn” (=cumin)

09-Greek: “αρχείο/archeío” (=daily, monthly or annual record)
Akkadian: “arḫu/arkhu” (=The Moon, month, monthly)
Hebrew: “תַאֲרִיך/ta’arikh” (=history)
Hebrew: “ירח/Yareakh” (=Moon)

10-Greek: “γη/gi” (=land, earth)
Sumerian: “ki” (=land, earth)
Arabic: “قاع/qah” (ground, land).

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[01] – “A Study on the Origins of Loanwords in Ancient
Greek”, Joanne van der Poel, 2019.