Graeco-Albanian or Albano-Greek is a proposed Indo-European subfamily – in the broader linguistic family known as (Palaeo-)Balkanic Indo-European – of which the only surviving representatives are Albanian and Greek.[1][2] This Indo-European subfamily encompasses the Albanoid (Illyric) subbranch (Albanian and Messapic), and the Graeco-Phrygian subbranch (Greek and Phrygian).[1][2] Within the Palaeo-Balkan branch this IE subfamily is separated from Armenian.[1][2]
| Graeco-Albanian | |
|---|---|
| Albano-Greek | |
| (proposed) | |
| Geographic distribution | Southern Europe |
| Linguistic classification | Indo-European
|
| Proto-language | Proto-Graeco-Albanian |
| Subdivisions | |
| Language codes | |
| The Palaeo-Balkanic Indo-European branch based on the chapters "Albanian" (Hyllested & Joseph 2022) and "Armenian" (Olsen & Thorsø 2022) in Olander (ed.) The Indo-European Language Family |
Graeco-Albanian proposed innovations
editA remarkable PIE root that underwent in Albanian, Armenian, and Greek a common evolution and semantic shift in the post PIE period is PIE *mel-i(t)- 'honey', from which Albanian bletë, Armenian mełu, and Greek μέλισσα, 'bee' derived.[3] However, the Armenian term features -u- through the influence of the PIE *médʰu 'mead', which constitutes an Armenian innovation that isolates it from the Graeco-Albanian word.[4]
Innovative creations of agricultural terms shared only between Albanian and Greek, such as *h₂(e)lbʰ-it- 'barley' and *spor-eh₂- 'seed', were formed from non-agricultural Proto-Indo-European roots through semantic changes to adapt them for agriculture. Since they are limited only to Albanian and Greek, they could be traced back with certainty only to their last common Indo-European ancestor, and not projected back into Proto-Indo-European.[5]
Criticism
editAccording to linguist Lucien van Beek – the author of the chapter "Greek" in the book The Indo-European Language Family by Thomas Olander (ed., 2022) – a number of potential Greek and Albanian common innovations adduced by Hyllested and Joseph in the chapter "Albanian" in the same book "can or must be dated later than Proto-Greek", concluding that he is "not convinced of a close genetic relation between Greek and Albanian".[6]
References
editCitations
edit- ^ a b c Hyllested & Joseph 2022, p. 241.
- ^ a b c Holst 2009, p. 65–66.
- ^ van Sluis 2022, p. 16; Hyllested & Joseph 2022, p. 238.
- ^ Hyllested & Joseph 2022, p. 238.
- ^ Kroonen et al. 2022, pp. 11, 26, 28
- ^ van Beek 2022, p. 196.
Bibliography
edit- Holst, Jan Henrik (2009). Armenische Studien (in German). Otto Harrassowitz Verlag. ISBN 9783447061179.
- Joseph, Brian D. (2013). Spiro, Aristotel (ed.). "On Old and New Connections between Greek and Albanian: Some Grammatical Evidence". Albanohellenica (5). Albanian-Greek Philological Association: 9–22.
- Kroonen, Guus; Jakob, Anthony; Palmér, Axel I.; van Sluis, Paulus; Wigman, Andrew (12 October 2022). "Indo-European cereal terminology suggests a Northwest Pontic homeland for the core Indo-European languages". PLOS ONE. 17 (10): e0275744. Bibcode:2022PLoSO..1775744K. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0275744. ISSN 1932-6203. PMC 9555676. PMID 36223379.
- Olander, Thomas, ed. (2022). The Indo-European Language Family: A Phylogenetic Perspective. Cambridge University Press. doi:10.1017/9781108758666. ISBN 978-1-108-49979-8. S2CID 161016819.
- van Beek, Lucien. "Chapter 11: Greek". In Olander (2022).
- Olsen, Birgit Anette; Thorsø, Rasmus. "Chapter 12: Armenian". In Olander (2022).
- Hyllested, Adam; Joseph, Brian D. "Chapter 13: Albanian". In Olander (2022).
- van Sluis, P. S. (2022). "Beekeeping in Celtic and Indo-European". Studia Celtica. 56 (1): 1–28. doi:10.16922/SC.56.1. hdl:1887/3655383.