The Proto-Greek language is the assumed last common ancestor of all known varieties of Greek, including Mycenaean, the classical Greek dialects (Attic-Ionic, Aeolic, Doric and Arcado-Cypriot), and ultimately Koine, Byzantine and modern Greek. Some scholars would include the fragmentary ancient Macedonian language, either as descended from an earlier "Proto-Hellenic" language, or by definition including it among the descendants of Proto-Greek as a Hellenic language and/or a Greek dialect. The unity of Proto-Greek would have ended as Hellenic migrants, speaking the predecessor of the Mycenaean language, entered the Greek peninsula either during the Neolithic period or the Bronze Age.
The evolution of Proto-Greek should be considered within the context of an early Paleo-Balkan sprachbund that makes it difficult to delineate exact boundaries between individual languages. The characteristically Greek representation of word-initial laryngeals by prothetic vowels is shared by the Armenian language, which also shares other phonological and morphological peculiarities of Greek. The close relatedness of Armenian and Greek sheds light on the paraphyletic nature of the centum–satem isogloss. The close similarities between Ancient Greek and Vedic Sanskrit suggest that both Proto-Greek and Proto-Indo-Iranian were still quite similar to late Proto-Indo-European, which would place the latter somewhere in the late 4th millennium BC.
Scholars are divergent in their views regarding the geographical origins of proto-Greek and when the first Greek-speakers arrived into the Greek peninsula. Vladimir I. Georgiev, for example, placed proto-Greek in northwestern Greece during the Late Neolithic period.Eric Hamp, however, placed the first speakers of Greek and ancient Macedonian ("Helleno-Macedonian") in the northeast coast of the Black Sea and its hinterlands who migrated to Greece through Anatolia during the Bronze Age. In the field of archaeogenetics, Russel Gray and Quentin Atkinson, using computational methods derived from evolutionary biology, concluded that the divergence of Greco-Armenian from Proto-Indo-European occurred around 7300–7000 years ago (~5300–5000 BC) coinciding with the spread of agriculture from Asia Minor to Greece during the Neolithic period; Greek, specifically, developed into a separate linguistic lineage before 6000 years ago (before 4000 BC).
Phonology
Proto-Greek changes
The primary sound changes separating Proto-Greek from the Proto-Indo-European language included:
Loss of prevocalic *s was not completed entirely, famously evidenced by sȳs (also hȳs, pig, from PIE *suh₁-), dasýs (dense) and dásos (dense growth, forest); syn (with) is another example, contaminated with PIE *kom (Latin cum, Proto-Greek *kon) to Homeric / Old Attic ksyn. Sélas (light in the sky, as in the "Northern Lights") and selēnē/selána (the Moon) may be more examples of the same, if actually derived from PIE *swel- (to burn) (possibly related to hēlios "Sun", Ionic hēelios < *sāwelios).
Dissimilation of aspirates (so-called Grassmann's law) caused an initial aspirated sound to lose its aspiration when a following aspirated consonant occurred in the same word. It was a relatively late change in Proto-Greek history and must have occurred independently of the similar dissimilation of aspirates (also known as Grassmann's law) in Indo-Iranian, although it may represent a common areal feature. Specifically:
Laryngeal changes
Greek is unique in reflecting the three different laryngeals using distinct vowels. Most Indo-European languages can be traced back to a dialectal variety of late Proto-Indo-European (PIE) where all three laryngeals had merged (after coloring adjacent short /e/ vowels) but Greek clearly cannot. For this reason, Greek is extremely important in reconstructing PIE forms.
Greek shows distinct reflexes of the laryngeals in various positions:
PIE |
Greek |
Vedic Sanskrit |
Latin |
dʰh̥₁s- "sacred, religious" |
thés-phatos "decreed by God" |
dhíṣ-ṇya- "devout" |
fānum "temple" < *fasnom < *dʰh̥₁s-no- |
sth̥₂-to- "standing, being made to stand" |
statós |
sthíta- |
status |
dh̥₃-ti- "gift" |
dósis |
díti- |
datiō |
All of these cases may stem from an early insertion of /e/ next to a laryngeal not adjacent to a vowel in the Indo-European dialect ancestral to Greek (subsequently colored to /e/, /a/, /o/ by the particular laryngeal in question), prior to the general merger of laryngeals. For example:
A laryngeal adjacent to a vowel develops along the same lines as in other Indo-European languages:
Palatalization
Proto-Greek underwent palatalization of consonants before *y. This occurred in two separate stages. The first stage affected only dental consonants, while the second stage affected all consonants.
The first palatalization turned dentals + *y into alveolar afficates:
Before |
After |
*ty, *tʰy |
*ts |
*dy |
*dz |
Alongside these changes, the inherited clusters *ts, *ds and *tʰs all merged into *ts.
In the second palatalization, all consonants were affected. It took place following the resolution of syllabic laryngeals and sonorants. The following table, based on Sihler, shows the developments.
Before |
After |
*py, *pʰy |
*pť |
*tsy |
*ťť |
*ky, *kʰy |
|
*kʷy, *kʷʰy |
|
*by |
? |
*dzy |
*ďď |
*gy |
|
*gʷy |
|
*ly |
*ľľ |
*my, *ny |
*ňň |
*ry |
*řř |
*sy > *hy |
*yy |
*wy |
*ɥɥ > *yy |
In post-Proto-Greek times, the resulting palatal consonants and clusters were resolved in varying ways. Most notably, *ň and *ř were resolved into plain sonorants plus a palatal on-glide, which eventually turned the preceding vowel into a diphthong.
Proto-Greek |
Attic |
Homeric |
West Ionic |
Other Ionic |
Boeotian |
Arcado- |
Other |
*pť |
pt |
||||||
*ts |
s |
s, ss |
s |
s |
tt |
ss |
ss |
*ťť |
tt |
ss |
tt |
ss |
tt |
ss |
ss |
*dz |
? |
||||||
*ďď |
zd |
||||||
*ľľ |
ll |
il |
ll |
||||
*ňň |
in (but *uin > ūn) |
||||||
*řř |
ir (but *uir > ūr) |
||||||
*yy |
(ai, ei, oi, ui) |
In the time between the first and second palatalizations, new clusters *tsy and *dzy were formed by restoring a lost *y after the newly-formed *ts and *dz. This occurred only in morphologically transparent formations, by analogy with similar formations where *y was preceded by other consonants. In formations that were morphologically opaque and not understood as such by speakers of the time, this restoration did not take place and *ts and *dz remained. Hence, depending on the type of formation, the Pre-Greek sequences *ty, *tʰy and *dy have different outcomes in the later languages. In particular, medial *ty becomes Attic s in opaque formations, but tt in transparent formations.
Note that the outcome of PG medial *ts in Homeric Greek is s after a long vowel, and vacillation between s and ss after a short vowel: tátēsi dat. pl. "rug" < tátēt-, possí(n)/posí(n) dat. pl. "foot" < pod-.
Examples of initial *ts:
Examples of medial *ts (morphologically opaque forms, first palatalization only):
Examples of medial *ťť (morphologically transparent forms, first and second palatalization):
Other Post-Proto-Greek changes
Sound changes between Proto-Greek and all early dialects, including Mycenaean, include:
The following changes are apparently post-Mycenaean:
Note that /w/ and /j/, when following a vowel and not preceding a vowel, combined early on with the vowel to form a diphthong and were thus not lost.
The loss of /h/ and /w/ after a consonant were often accompanied by compensatory lengthening of a preceding vowel.
The development of labiovelars varies from dialect to dialect:
The results of vowel contraction were complex from dialect to dialect. Such contractions occur in the inflection of a number of different noun and verb classes and are among the most difficult aspects of Ancient Greek grammar. They were particularly important in the large class of contracted verbs, denominative verbs formed from nouns and adjectives ending in a vowel. (In fact, the reflex of contracted verbs in Modern Greek — i.e., the set of verbs derived from Ancient Greek contracted verbs—represents one of the two main classes of verbs in that language.)
Morphology
Noun
As Mycenaean Greek shows, the PIE dative (suffix -i), instrumental (suffix -phi) and locative (suffix -si) cases are still distinct, and are not yet syncretized into a single dative case.
Nominative plural -oi, -ai replaces late PIE -ōs, -ās.
The superlative in -tatos becomes productive.
The peculiar oblique stem gunaik- "women", attested from the Thebes tablets is probably Proto-Greek; it appears, at least as gunai- also in Armenian.
Pronoun
The pronouns houtos, ekeinos and autos are created. Use of ho, hā, ton as articles is post-Mycenaean.
Verb
An isogloss between Greek and Phrygian is the absence of r-endings in the Middle Voice in Greek, apparently already lost in Proto-Greek.
Proto-Greek inherited the augment, a prefix é- to verbal forms expressing past tense. This feature it shares only with Indo-Iranian and Phrygian (and to some extent, Armenian) lending some support to a "Graeco-Aryan" or "Inner PIE" proto-dialect. However, the augment down to the time of Homer remained optional, and was probably little more than a free sentence particle meaning "previously" in the proto-language, that may easily have been lost by most other branches.
The first person middle verbal desinences -mai, -mān replace -ai, -a. The third singular pherei is an innovation by analogy, replacing the expected Doric *phereti, Ionic *pheresi (from PIE *bʰéreti).
The future tense is created, including a future passive, as well as an aorist passive.
The suffix -ka- is attached to some perfects and aorists.
Infinitives in -ehen, -enai and -men are created.
Numerals