Re: Language of the Minoans. Was it Indo-European

Beware, Crackpots everywhere!

Yet ideas are not monopolar. Data is for everyone to see, and
interpretations abund. Given the well known career fears for those
who build an academic life on their studies, and the network -
sometimes even the coteries - of specialists in the field, rational
criticism tends to relax the rigid gauges when they judge
the "conclusions" of such Procustean bedfellows. One has only to
think at Heinrich Schliemann for Troy, Laurence Austine Waddell
for "Hattic" and Michael Ventris for Linear B. Given the current
consensus against Jean Faucounau's views on "Proto-Ionian", I can't
even list his name here :-)

Hope this helps,
Best,
irismeister

--- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "Josh" <linguist2005@...> wrote:
>
> I am writing a research paper that is discussing the possible
origin
> of the language of the Minoan civilization. The Minoans were a pre-
> historic civilization that lived on the island of Crete. They
> heavily influenced the civilization (Mycenaeans, in mainland
Greece)
> that ended up heavily influencing and partly becoming what is now
> considered Ancient Greece. In the 50s, Michael Ventris found that
> the Mycenaean language was in fact a precursor for Ancient Greek.
My
> question is did the Minoan language have any influence on the
> Mycenaean?
> I am inclined to doubt that they had a serious influence on the
> language as the Mycenaeans, as the Mycenaeans had a very different
> character than the Minoans (i.e. much more warlike) and probably
had
> a well developed language.
> Arugments that support an influence would be that the Mycenaean
> writing system was based off of the untranslated Minoan writing
> system. Also, the frequent appearance of Semitic names in some of
> the Minoan language that is translated. (These parts are
translated
> by moving backwards from Mycenaean and assuming that symbols kept
> their sounds)
> I just want to hear what you all think. Toss some ideas around, I
> will let you know how the paper goes and can even post it here if
> anyone would be interested.
>
> Thanks a lot!
>
> Josh
>
> p.s. This paper is for my archaeology class. I am an undergraduate
> student at the University of Pittsburgh. I am double majoring in
> Anthropology and Linguistics.
>