Hello,
Glen wrote:
>Indo-European seems _completely_ absent in Anatolia until the arrival of
the
"Anatolian" lgs by the third millenium BC. That's reality<
Now which 'reality' is that you're talking about? As far as I know the main
substratum language in Hittite we know about is 'Hatti' (non IE), roughly
situated in northern middle Anatolia. I haven't come across any known
substratum language mentioned for all of western and southern Anatolia -
those languages from there we know about are Luwian and later Lycian, Lydian
and Carian (and some more smaller ones) for a long time taken to be non-IE.
Lycian is seen as a later development of Luwian, but I've also read about
possible affinities to (what little we have of)Lin. A as ancestor of Lycian
(possibly more similarities than with Luwian, but it's a lack of texts in
Lin. A that prevents scholars from knowing more, it seems). So the most
probable candidate as ancestor for 'Pelasgian' or Aegean (the possible group
of languages of the eastern Mediterranean and western Anatolia), a
substratum of Greek and (allegedly) Eteo-Cretan (I have never seen evidence
for that, but I didn't look closely, I admit) would be the language written
in Lin. A. And for that we still don't know if it is IE or not (if yes it
must be very old, I understand). But IF it is, it might well be one proof
for the Anatolian PIE theory ...
So we'll have to wait until my colleagues here in Crete and in western
Anatolia (there is proof for the existence of Lin. A in the Minoan stratum
of Miletus) have found some more archaeological evidence for our
discussion!!
Best wishes from Crete
Sabine Ivanovas