Re: Odin again?

From: tgpedersen@...
Message: 9205
Date: 2001-09-08

--- In cybalist@..., malmqvist52@... wrote:
> Hi all,
> --- In cybalist@..., tgpedersen@... wrote:
>
> This is in error. Most scholars don't argue that Minoan Linear A
is
> European at all. In fact from a study of the Linear A hieroglyphs
> also found in Linear B, it would seem that Linear A is part of a
> language family to which Hurrian (on one extreme) and Etruscan (on
> the other extreme) probably also belonged, a now nearly extinct
> language family linguists call "Asianic". Languages of this family
> are marked by place names having the terminators *-ossos, *-inthos
or
> more rarely *-indos, found in placenames between the Caucasas to
> Southern Italy. They seem related to the NW Caucasian family,
today
> found amongst the Chechens (who are causing the Russians so much
> pain). Linguists today seem to be of the opinion that this
language
> family during the Early Neolithic had a wide provenance throughout
> the Middle East, and very probably a tongue of this language family
> was the first to acquire a grain farming technology. James
Mellaart,
> the excavator of Catal Huyuk in Turkey is of the belief that this
was
> the language spoken here, a language from which the pre-Hittite
> Khattic language later developed. Despite the fact that a number
of
> scholars persist with the out of date theory that Minoan was a West
> Semitic language, this seems denied by most modern evidence which
> suggests that the Minoans were an indigenous development originally
> coming from Anatolia, and that there was no Levantine input until
> comparatively late (post-Palacial EMIII). This Levantine input was
> by the way of trade relations.
>
> Regarding Greek and Biblical parallels, it has been suggested by
> Palmer amongst others that the *-inthos substrate beneath the Greek
> language is the tongue of the aboriginal people of the Aegean,
called
> by Herodotus, Thucidides and many other classical writers
> as "Pelasgoi". This word, seems to have undergone a consonantal
> shift during late Mycenean - early Archaic times from an earlier
form
> *Palaistoi. Pelasgoi has also been linked etymologically to the
> Greek "Pelagos" - the pre-Greek word meaning "Island", whilst in
its
> reconstructed form *Palaistoi has been linked with the Greek
origins
> of our own word for Palace. Linguists working with the Greek
> language have convincingly shown that up to 30% of the classical
> Greek language is Non-Indo-European in origin. Non-Indo-European
> elements tend to cluster in terms of abuse, terms relating to
> maritime activities, and words relating to Mediterraean agriculture
> (eg. olives, wine etc), all of which are assumed to be of Pelasgoi
> origin. It is interesting that a number of scholars also go
further
> and equate *Palaistoi with the Egyptian Peleset, and with the
Hebrew
> Philsitines. It is interesting how quickly the Philistines were
> acculturated to a Canaanite culture, and how little of their Aegean
> culture remained. One of the few Philistine words documented in
the
> Bible, apart from the name Goliath (which has a classic Pelasgoi
> form), is the name of the rulers of the Philsitines, "Seren". This
> word has no Hebrew or Canaanite etymology, and it has been
suggested
> that Seren in fact is the word "Tyrant" a Greek word which itself
has
> a pre-Indo-European format (Mycenean kings being called Wanax
> (related to Latin Rex, or Sanskrit Raja), Classical Greeks kings
> being called Basileus). In fact the word "Tyrant" only became
> commonly used in Greece after political revolutions of the 6-7th
> century BCE in which the common folk (often of Pelasgoi origins)
> rebelled against aritsocratic rule to install dictatorial
oligarchs,
> giving Tyrant its modern meaning.
>
> Best wishes
> Anders

"Tyrant" <turann-os> was another of those tr- words I picked up.
Lycian <trmmeli> "Lycian" was another. (= Trojan?)

Torsten