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==English Wikipedia== | |||
Eteocretan (/ˌiːtioʊˈkriːtən, ˌɛt-/ from Greek: Ἐτεόκρητες, translit. Eteókrētes, lit. "true Cretans", itself composed from ἐτεός eteós "true" and Κρής Krḗs "Cretan") is the non-Greek language of a few alphabetic inscriptions of ancient Crete. | |||
In eastern Crete about half a dozen inscriptions have been found which, though written in Greek alphabets, are clearly not Greek. These inscriptions date from the late 7th or early 6th century down to the 3rd century BC. The language, which is not understood, is probably a survival of a language spoken on Crete before the arrival of Greeks and is probably derived from the Minoan language preserved in the Linear A inscriptions of a millennium earlier. Since that language remains untranslated, it is not certain that Eteocretan and Minoan are related, although this is very likely. | |||
Ancient testimony suggests that the language is that of the Eteocretans, i.e. "true Cretans". The term Eteocretan is sometimes applied to the Minoan language (or languages) written more than a millennium earlier in so-called Cretan 'hieroglyphics' (almost certainly a syllabary) and in the Linear A script. Yves Duhoux, a leading authority on Eteocretan, has stated that "it is essential to rigorously separate the study of Eteocretan from that of the 'hieroglyphic' and Linear A inscriptions". | |||
The early inscriptions written in the archaic Cretan alphabet do mark word division; the same goes for the two longer inscriptions from the fourth and third centuries BC. | |||
From the Dreros inscriptions are the following words: ''et isalabre komn men inai isaluria lmo tuprmēriēia''. ''Komn'' and ''lmo'' seem to show that /n/ and /l/ could be syllabic. As to the meanings of the words, nothing can be said with any certainty. Van Effenterre suggested: | |||
* ''inai'' = Dorian Cretan ἔϝαδε (= classical Greek ἅδε, third singular aorist of ἅνδάνω) "it pleased [the council, the people]", i. e. "it was decided [that …]". The word ἔϝαδε occurs in the Greek part of the bilingual text, and all but one of the other Greek texts from the Delphinion in Dreros. | |||
* ''tuprmēriēia'' = καθαρὸν γένοιτο in the Greek part of the inscription, i. e. "may it become pure".<ref name="Effenterre Bulletin"/> | |||
Also, Van Effenterree noted that the word τυρό(ν) ("cheese") seems to occur twice in the Greek part of the first Dreros bilingual and suggested the text concerned the offering of goat cheese to Leto, the mother goddess of the Delphinion triad and that the words ''isalabre'' and ''isaluria'' were related words with the meaning of "(goat) cheese". | |||
The only clearly complete word on the earliest Praisos inscription is ''barze'', and there is no indication of its meaning. | |||
The other two Praisos inscriptions do not show word breaks. It has, however, been noted that in the second line of the fourth century inscription is ''phraisoi inai'' (φραισοι ιναι), and it has been suggested that it means "it pleased the Praisians" (ἔϝαδε Πραισίοις). | |||