The language of ancient Greece

Clan societies in Crete and Greece have produced several complex ideographs and pinyin characters. These writing systems are closely related. The linear characters A in Crete and B in Achaia are two of the most prominent ones. Among them, the linear character B is developed from the copy of the linear character A-Crete. In order to record the content expressed in Greek, the linear character A is improved appropriately. In the past 500 years, the linear character B has not changed much, showing considerable stability.

In Minos, there are three writing systems. The first two are hieroglyphs, and the latter is a linear character (that is, the linear character A). Three languages can't be deciphered, and people can't even know it.

What language are these words recorded in? The understanding of these three writing systems was once limited to the hypothesis: could it be Semitic? Early Indo-European family? Or an older language?

Linear character B may be a court character developed on the basis of linear character A in17th century BC. It was first used in Mycenae and continued to be used after achaean conquered Crete. This character has 88 symbols, most of which come from the linear character A.

195 1 year, British scholars finally decoded the linear character b, which is the most remarkable achievement in the study of characters in this century. Several conclusions are drawn from this. First of all, the words on the notebook board belong to very old Greek, which is more than 500 years earlier than Homer's epic. The hypothesis that the first Greek immigrants appeared in 2000 BC was confirmed. Therefore, Greek and Hittite in Anatolia on the Aegean Sea belong to Indo-European language family.

A lot of materials in our hands, especially those about economic activities (such as hearing about the land, the management of clan herds, the work and supervision of blacksmiths, the existence of slaves, etc.), can finally be understood now ... These book tickets are not related to religion, because sacrificial activities are very frequent, and the pottery pots, incense and sesame oil needed for sacrificial ceremonies are paid by the clan treasury.

These words seem to be mainly used for counting and counting. The consonant system has begun to appear in Asia at this time, which can avoid the pain of using syllabic characters and develop well. This system was quickly adopted by the "intellectuals" on the other side of the Aegean Sea and became the written language used by the Greek city-states.

Decoding Crete Characters

No one expected that after a century of research, textual research and interpretation, prehistoric humans lost thousands of years of history and returned to the world just because they found a few symbols that no one understood.

1900, British archaeologist Arthur? John? Evans found some fragments of clay tablets on the ruins of the ancient palace in Knossos, Crete, which were obviously engraved with some words.

The words of the oldest clay tablet fragments were carved around 2000 BC-1650 BC. The characters of the more modern clay tablets were carved in BC 1750- 1450, which is the linear character A mentioned by Evans. Just like the symbol of festo clay tablet, it has not really been deciphered. According to Evans' research, I don't know in which era, a new word replaced the linear word A. He named this new word linear word B, and there were many clay tablets engraved with linear words. Evans made many assumptions and clues about the linear character B before he died 194 1 years ago. He also painted a restoration map for the palace of Knossos. According to his opinion, the original site of Knossos City is about 4 kilometers away from the sea, and there are about 80,000 residents in the city.

1936, Evans gave an academic lecture in London, with the theme of "the lost civilization of Crete, Greece and the mysterious writing of this prehistoric magical nation". There is a middle school student 14 years old in the audience, who is fascinated by ancient languages. His name is Michael? After listening to the lecture that day, Ventress was determined to find out the secret of linear characters. He communicated with experts, and finally God paid off, and he won where other experts suffered setbacks.

Michael. Winteris first understood the linear character B and pointed out that it was used by Mycenae in the interior of Greece. The residents who lived there at that time later became legendary heroes in Homer's epic. Winteris reached this conclusion based on those trivial and contradictory findings. His genius lies in distinguishing patterns and constants from the chaotic, strange and changeable symbols in ancient China, and opening gaps here to find hidden things. On the surface of disorder, it is a characteristic of scholars to grasp and see through the connotation of order.

After Ventress, linear characters continued to be studied, but no significant progress was made. Minos' linear letter A, festo's clay tablets and some Mayan characters and symbols on Easter Island boards are still mysterious and puzzling. However, with people's patience, enthusiasm and insight, scholars have deciphered almost all ancient writing systems, including Scandinavian ancient Nordic alphabet and the oldest Ogan script found in Ireland and Wales.

"Greeks" and the emergence of Greece

In Mycenae's time, the Greeks did not have their current names. They are called Arcaya. Homer also called the Greeks Argos and Dana in his epic, but in most cases, they were called Arcaya. This name also appears in historical documents in other regions. In the Hittite literature discovered in Boghazkeui, north-central Turkey, there are many references to Achchiyava in the literature from BC 1365 to BC 1200. Scholars believe that Akiyawa here is Arcaya, and it is also mentioned in ancient Egyptian literature that the Akayas harassed Egypt in the 3rd century BC/KLOC-0. The word "Greece" first appeared in the Iliad. In the "dark ages", it gradually replaced other names and eventually became the floorboard of the Greeks. Although Greece is not a unified country, its cultural consistency is very obvious. All Greeks speak the same language. Greek belongs to the Indo-European language family, including languages such as ancient Indian, Persian, Armenian, Slavic, Baltic, Albanian, Latin, Germanic, and some languages that were used in the Mediterranean but later lost, such as Hittite, Phrygia and Illyrian. We are not sure when Greek appeared, but it was widely used in Mycenae's time. In the12nd century BC, with the decline of Mycenae civilization, the linear character B also disappeared, but Greek did not die out. By the end of the "dark ages", the Greeks began to write their language in another language, which was the alphabet they borrowed from the Phoenicians. But the Greeks did not copy the Phoenician script, but completely transformed it to express a completely different language: Phoenician belongs to the Semitic language family, while Greek belongs to the Indo-European language family.

Before about 300 BC, Greek was divided into three dialects, namely, Dorian dialect, Ionian dialect and Eolian dialect. Dorian dialect area includes the eastern and southern Peloponnesian Peninsula, the islands in the southern Aegean Sea include Crete and Rhode Island, and the southwest coastal areas of Asia Minor. Ionian dialect area includes Attica, Youbeia, Sikla and the central coastal areas of Asia Minor. The Ionian dialect area includes the northern coast of Asia Minor, Thessaly, Beotia and the northern Peloponnesus. In addition to these major dialects, Acadia and Cyprus also have an ancient dialect, namely Acadia-Cyprus dialect. Although there are various dialects, their differences mainly lie in the pronunciation and spelling of words, and the vocabulary and grammar are basically the same, so they can communicate with each other. After 300 BC, these dialects were replaced by a Greek language, koine.

The distribution of Greek dialects seems to be related to the legendary Greek migration. The ancient Acadia-Cypriot dialect was closest to Greek in Mycenae's time, while the Dorian dialect distributed in Mycenae's cultural center seems to be the dialect of Dorians who moved to this area later. In ancient Greece, Dorians were mainly different from other Greeks in dialects and some social organizations. For example, each Dorian city-state is divided into three tribes, and the names of these tribes in each city-state are the same. Although Dorians occupy a very important position in Greek history, they did not appear in Homer's epic. Legend has it that they just moved here recently. Heracles was expelled from Mycenae, and later he led Dorians back to Mycenae to regain their rights. Similarly, the distribution of Ionian dialect is inseparable from the migration of Greeks. Legend has it that the residents of Attica expanded eastward and moved to Ionia in Asia Minor. These legends may reflect the migration of Greeks to all parts of Greece, but they cannot be confirmed by historical data.

The Greeks first developed in today's Greek peninsula, and gradually expanded outward, and finally extended to vast areas including the Black Sea coast, the west coast of Asia Minor, the Aegean islands and the northern coast, Libya in North Africa, southern Italy, Sicily, and even the Spanish coast and Marseille in France. They established hundreds of Greek city-states in these areas, and these city-states are all located in coastal areas, only 40 kilometers away from the sea. All these Greeks know very well that they belong to the same culture. As Herodotus said in Athens, "We are the same nation, have the same language, believe in the same god and have the same way of life." This understanding is also reflected in their attitude towards other ethnic groups. The Greeks called all peoples who spoke other languages "barbarians". This word has a special meaning in Greek, meaning people who talk like birds and animals. Moreover, barbarians, including Egyptians and Persians with ancient cultures, are inferior in nature, and only the Greeks themselves are noble. Create real letters

In the use of characters, the Greeks were influenced by oriental culture. After Mycenae's linear letter B disappeared, the Greeks lost their own words. Homer's society shows no signs of using words. The Greek alphabet appeared in the period of Orientalization. The earliest letters appeared on pottery from 750 BC to 700 BC and originated from Phoenician syllabic writing. The Greeks themselves knew this very well, so there is an ancient word phojnikeia in Greek, which means "letters" and its direct meaning is "Phoenician things". Herodotus also recorded this. He said that the Phoenicians followed Cadmus to Thebes, Greece, and settled here. "They brought some things, including words. I don't think the Greeks had words before." Phoenician characters, like other Semitic characters, are syllabic characters. The difference is that it basically abandons vowels and is mainly composed of consonants. In this way, the meaning is blurred, but fewer letters are used. Phoenician script * * * uses 22 letters, while Akkadian, which belongs to Semitic language family, uses 285 letters. Mycenae's linear letter B also used more than 80 letter symbols. Perhaps it was the simplicity of Phoenician writing that attracted the favor of the Greeks, who borrowed it basically without reservation. Greek letters have the same shape and order as Phoenician letters. Even the pronunciation of Greek letters comes from Phoenicia. For example, in Phoenician, alpha means "cow" and betha means "house", but in Greece, they only represent the pronunciation of letters and have no meaning. However, this does not mean that the Greeks completely copied the Phoenician script. In fact, they changed it a lot, changing some consonants into vowels, and finally created a complete alphabet with 24 vowels and consonants. It is different from Phoenician syllabic writing. Each letter has its own pronunciation and can be expressed independently. This writing system is extremely simple and practical, and it is still used by most characters in the world.

The appearance of writing had a far-reaching impact on Greek society and culture. Its most direct influence is manifested in literature, and the ancient style era is the most abundant period of poetry creation in Greek history. During this period, Homer's epics were written in words. His son may be the first poet to write directly. In addition, a large number of lyric poets appeared, including the greatest poetess in Greek history, Sappho. 1963, anthropologists Goody and Watt published a famous article entitled "Characters and the Consequences of Their Application", suggesting that the social and cultural changes in ancient times should be attributed to the application of characters. The rise of democratic politics, the beginning of logical and rational thinking and the rise of critical historiography are all the consequences of the use of words. Although their theory overemphasizes the role of words and ignores other factors, the influence of the appearance of words on Greek culture can not be ignored.