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The Position of Mycenaean among Greek Dialects

Summary/Abstract: The paper deals with the main problems of Ancient Greek dialectology concerning the Mycenaean Greek which is, as we claim here, closest to Arcado-Cyprian dialect. Arcado-Cyprian and Attic-Ionic together make the innovative South Greek (comparing it with the conservative North) which has considerable amount of common isoglosses and characteristics, their common innovations being the main ones. In spite of being rather homogeneous, South Greek had some old differences although the main dialectal differences of Attic-Ionic and Arcado-Cyprian are postmycenaean. Mycenaean had some special traits which differentiated it from other South Greek dialects, in spite of being a bureaucratic language without an exactly traceable organic base - the new z, the dissimilation of labiovelars and the outcome of syllabic sonants. We are denying the hypotesis of Mycenaean being genetically related to Aeolic, although there were certainly some early contacts between these two dialects. Lesbian has a considerable amount of South Greek traits, probably due to the influence of Ionic. Aeolic is the most suspicious group in Greek dialectology considering the amount of early differences in it. It is actually a »wastebasket« for all non-Arcado- Cyprian, non-Attic-Ionic and non-Northwest/Doric Greek, dialects. In North Greek, Doric and Northwest dialect show close connection and they are probably related to Aeolic as well.

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