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Argues that reliable deductions require at least two sources and highlights methodological pitfalls caused by dialect convergence, independent innovations, and inheritance effects. Defines historic Greek from the eighth century B.C. onward and discusses criteria for distinguishing Greek from closely related Indo-European 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are statements about prehistoric Greek considered uncertain?","Question",{"text":63,"@type":64},"Because the prehistoric period lacks direct records and conclusions must rely on indirect evidence, so most statements are qualified as probable rather than certain.","Answer",{"name":66,"@type":61,"acceptedAnswer":67},"What three main sources does the text use to gather information about prehistoric Greek?",{"text":68,"@type":64},"It uses classical dialects from early inscriptions, interpretations of Mycenaean Linear B documents as Greek, and comparative analysis of Greek with related Indo-European languages.",{"name":70,"@type":61,"acceptedAnswer":71},"How do dialect convergence and contact affect reconstruction of Greek relationships?",{"text":72,"@type":64},"Mutual influence between dialects can make shared features reflect later convergence rather than a common ancestor, so accurate dating of feature introduction is required to control this error.","https://schema.org",{"og:url":32,"og:type":75,"og:title":10,"og:site_name":45,"og:description":12},"article",{"robots":77,"canonical":32},"index,follow",{"doc_id":79,"site_id":7},324193,1790298600,{"code":4,"msg":82,"data":83},"success",{"doc_id":79,"user_id":84,"nickname":42,"user_avatar":85,"doc_module":4,"category_id":26,"category_name":29,"doc_title":10,"doc_description":12,"doc_content":86,"file_id":87,"file_url":88,"file_type":89,"file_size":90,"view_count":55,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":22,"is_downloadable":22,"audit_status":22,"page_count":91,"language":92,"language_code":8,"site_id":7,"html_lang":8,"table_of_contents":93,"faqs":94,"seo_title":95,"seo_description":12,"update_tm":96,"read_time":97},1099514067415,"https://ap-avatar.wpscdn.com/avatar/100002539d78ffe74a7?x-image-process=image/resize,m_fixed,w_180,h_180&k=1779092875211072502","THE  \nCAMBRIDGEANCIENT HISTORY  \n# REVISED EDITION OFVOLUMES I &II\n\nCAMB眼IDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS  \n3.6d.net;75 c nts  \n70  \n44.2V.I-2  \nC105  \nTHE  \n# PREHISTORY OF THEGREEK LANGUAGE\n\nBY  \nJOHN CHADWICK  \nFellow of Downing College andLecturer in Classics in the University of Cambridge  \nVOLUME II,CHAPTR XXXIX  \nCAMBRIDGE ancientht  \nAT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS  \n1964  \nPU BLISHED BYTHE SYNDIcS OF THE CAM BRI DGE UNIVERSITY PRESS  \nBentley House,200 Euston Road,London,N.W.IAmerican Branch:32 East 57th Street,New York 22,N.Y.West African Office:P.O.Box 33,Ibadan,Nigeria  \nCAM B RIDGE UNIVER SITY PRESS  \nI963  \nFirst printed 1963  \nReprinted I964  \nPrinted in Great Britain at the University Printing House,Cambridge(Brooke Crutchley,University Printer)  \nCHAPTER XXXIX  \n## THE PREHISTORYOF THE GREEK LANGUAGE\n\nI.THE IDENTIFICATION OF GREEK  \nTHE nature of the Greek language during the prehistoric periodis,for obvious reasons,hard to determine,so that most statementsabout it must be qualified as probable rather than certain.Thereare three sources from which we can obtain information about it:by working backwards from the classical dialects,especially thoserecorded by inscriptions earlier than the fourth century B.C.;fromthe documents of the Mycenaean age written in the Linear Bscript,which can now be interpreted as Greek;and by the com-parison of Greek with the related languages which we trace backto a common,hypothetical origin known as Indo-European.Thecombination of all three sources allows us to make some deduc-tions with fair certainty.In many cases,however,one of oursources may fail us;a word may be attested by Mycenaean andclassical Greek,but have no certain cognates elsewhere;manyfeatures are known from both comparative and classical evidence,but are either absent from the scanty Mycenaean material orattested ambiguously by it;and a few rest upon comparative andMycenaean evidence unsupported by historic Greek.Satisfactorydeductions about the prehistoric period are impossible withoutat least two sources.  \nHistoric Greek may be defined as the language as it is knownfrom texts and monuments from the eighth century B.C.onwards.Homeric Greek should be reckoned as historic,though itis knownto include much linguistic material of prehistoric date.The pre-historic period therefore runs from the creation of a separateIndo-European idiom recognizable as Greek,which at the lowestestimate must be well before I 500 B.C.,down to the eighthcentury.  \nAll Greek dialects exhibit certain features in common,andthese are numerous and particular enough for us to be able topresume a common origin for them;we can thus distinguishGreek from related Indo-European languages,even those in the  \nclosest contact with it,such as Phrygian or Macedonian.The listof these features is in effect the highest common factor of all thedialects;but their identification is fraught with difficulties anddangers,which must be observed even if they cannot always beavoided.  \nThe dialects are all,with the exception of Attic,imperfectlyknown and recorded.Any idiom no longer spoken is of courseimperfectly known,but where sufficient records exist in areasonably accurate notation,we may feel satisfied with our know-ledge.Some dialects,such as Pamphylian,are attested by littlemore than a single inscription,and almost all are only adequatelyrecorded in the fifth century B.C.orlater.Butit was precisely at thisperiod that mutual influence between the dialects,already strong,became overwhelming,so that they were tending to converge—aprocess which in the Hellenistic age rapidly eliminated the localdialects as the speech of the educated classes in favour of theAttic-based kovn.In general terms,the greater the intercoursebetween speakers of different dialects,the faster their languagewill approximate to a norm;and this factor was clearly increasingfrom the eighth to the fourth centuries B.C.Thus any featureshared by the classical dialects may be due to convergence ratherthan descent from ","cbCaidgrSoWI5WRs","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaidgrSoWI5WRs","pdf",968204,28,"English","# THE PREHISTORYOF THE GREEK LANGUAGE\n## THE IDENTIFICATION OF GREEK","[{\"question\":\"Why are statements about prehistoric Greek considered uncertain?\",\"answer\":\"Because the prehistoric period lacks direct records and conclusions must rely on indirect evidence, so most statements are qualified as probable rather than certain.\"},{\"question\":\"What three main sources does the text use to gather information about prehistoric Greek?\",\"answer\":\"It uses classical dialects from early inscriptions, interpretations of Mycenaean Linear B documents as Greek, and comparative analysis of Greek with related Indo-European languages.\"},{\"question\":\"How do dialect convergence and contact affect reconstruction of Greek relationships?\",\"answer\":\"Mutual influence between dialects can make shared features reflect later convergence rather than a common ancestor, so accurate dating of feature introduction is required to control this error.\"}]","THE PREHISTORY OF THE GREEK LANGUAGE - 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