[tied] Re: Black Athena: The Afroasiatic RootsofClassicalCivilizati

--- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "P&G" <G&P@...> wrote:

>
> Alas, in the development of Greek I do not see many of the changes

that you claim have occurred after contact with Semitic peoples..

>

Not so???

>-----------------------------------------------
> > -Definite article
> Greek had the definite article 1500 BC. This is a bit earlier

than the contact you seem to suggest. At least a thousand years
earlier.

The earliest forms of greek before ca 1000 BC (Myceanean and Homeric)
did not have definite article. Egyptian developed definitea article
around 1500 BC. The concept of having definite article evolved in
the middle east + Greek area, with the Middle East somewhat ahead.

>-------------------------------------------------------------

> > -Preprositions instead of cases or postpositions
> Greek retained its cases in the katherevousa, and still has three

(or four depending how you count) in the demotike.

So had also Classical Arabic and Akkadic and probably the earliest
forms of Hebrew and Aramaeic.

And - I am speaking also about Romanic

------------------------------------------------------------

>
> > -Two genders - masculine and feminine
> Greek retains three genders.

I am not only speaking about Greek, but also Romanic. I do not claim
that all mediterranean languages have developed all the mentioned
traits.

---------------------------------------------------------

>
> > -Word order: SVO/VSO instead of old IE SOV.
> Here is the only change which occurs as you say, at the time you

suggest. Unfortunately, we have a good guess what caused it - see G
Horrocks "Greek: a history of the language and its speakers" page 59-
60. Though there is still debate, and you could put your theory
forward.

I am also speaking about Romanic, and I am speaking about a gradual
process that has gone furthest in Italian and Spanish.
------------------------------------------------------------

>
> > -Attributs after their head
> The natural place of an adjective in modern Greek is before the

noun, not after. Same in Classical.

> o oraios antras = the handsome man.

As far as I remember, you can also say: O antras O oraios, with the
adjective after and with repeated article. Don't you use the same
construction in Hebrew?

Besides, again I am also speking about Romanic.

---------------------------------------------------------------

>
> > -Loss of flexional comparative and superlative,
> Greek retains the flexional comperative, and the superlative is

based on it.

>
> There just seems no evidence, Aquila, for what you suggest.

Yes it is indeed, in modern greek. And again. I am also speaking
about Romanic. Modern greek has retained the flexional comaprison as
an althernative.

>
> Peter
>