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Pre-Greek: The lost language hidden within Ancient Greek

196 points · 74 comments · axiologist

TFNA · 1789708775 · focus · HN ↗
The title is super-clickbaity, as no Indo-Europeanist working today believes in a single Pre-Greek language; this was the idée fixe of the scholar Robert Beekes well over a decade ago now, and very flawed research as Beekes was succumbing to dementia then. In fact, within the field "Pre-Greek!" has become something of an inside joke.
The article does eventually mention the current state-of-the-art, but only after perpetuating the misconception for some paragraphs, and that is poor form for a pop-sci article.
1. nephihaha · 1789727245 · focus · HN ↗
  The author does mention the possibility of more than one non-IE pre-Greek language, as well as the possibility of an Indo-European predecessor in the region.
  There are similar arguments over Pictish, but at least with Greek there is a substantial body of vocabulary, which Pictish lacks.

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