Editing Hellenic Languages (section)

=== Mycenean ===
The earliest known dialect was <u>Mycenean Greek</u>, which occupied the southern and eastern parts of <u>Greece</u> and is attested from Linear B tablets of ~1500-1100 BCE. Most of the written evidence comes from the palace complex at '''Knossos''' in <u>Central Crete</u>, and '''Pylos''' (in the <u>southwest Peloponnese</u>), but some additional proofs have been discovered at '''Mycenae''' (in <u>Argolis</u>), '''Tiryns''' (in <u>Argolis</u>), '''Thebes''' (in <u>Boeotia</u>), and '''Chania''' (in <u>Western Crete</u>).

Mycenean was written in '''Linear B''' script, an adaptation to an earlier <u>Cretan</u> script ('''Linear A''', which was developed for an undeciphered pre-Indo-European language of <u>Crete</u>, called <u>Minoan</u>). Because it was adapted from a script written to represent a wholly different language, many sounds in the Mycenean phonemic inventory were not represented in Linear B. In particular, it only represents '''open syllables''' (where the syllable ends in a vowel), and <u>Mycenean Greek</u> freely used '''closed syllables''' (ending with consonants). For example, the consonants ''l'', ''m'', ''n'', ''r'', ''s'' are omitted at the end of a syllable or before another consonant. 𐀞𐀲, ''pa-ta'' is ''panta'' (all); 𐀏𐀒, ''ka-ko'' is ''khalkos'' (copper).
{| class="wikitable"
|+
! colspan="8" |Phonology of <u>Mycenean Greek</u>
|-
! colspan="2" rowspan="2" |Type
! rowspan="2" |Bilabial
! rowspan="2" |Dental
! rowspan="2" |Palatal
! colspan="2" |Velar
! rowspan="2" |Glottal
|-
!central
!labialized
|-
! colspan="2" |Nasal
|m
|n
|
|
|
|
|-
! rowspan="3" |Stop
!<small>voiceless</small>
|p
|t
|ts*
|k
|kʷ
|
|-
!<small>voiced</small>
|b
|d
|dz*
|ɡ
|ɡʷ
|
|-
!<small>aspirated</small>
|pʰ
|tʰ
|
|kʰ
|kʰʷ
|
|-
! colspan="2" |Fricative
|
|s
|
|
|
|h
|-
! colspan="2" |Approximant
|
|
|j
|
|w
|
|-
! colspan="2" |Trill
|
|r
|
|
|
|
|-
! colspan="2" |Lateral
|
|l
|
|
|
|
|}
In later <u>ancient Greek</u> varieties, '''labialized velar''' consonants (/kʷ, ɡʷ, kʰʷ/) were replaced with '''labials''' /b, p, pʰ/, '''dentals''' /d, t, tʰ/, or '''velars''' /ɡ k kʰ/, depending on the context and the dialect. For example, 𐀦𐀄𐀒𐀫, ''qo-u-ko-ro'' is ''gʷoukoloi'' (classical βουκόλοι ''boukóloi'', cowherds). There were at least five vowels /a, e, i, o, u/, which could be both short and long.

Nouns likely '''decline''' for 7 '''cases''': nominative, genitive, accusative, dative, vocative, instrumental and locative; 3 '''genders''': masculine, feminine, neuter; and 3 '''numbers''': singular, dual, plural. The last two cases had merged with other cases by the era of <u>Classical Greek</u>. In <u>Koine Greek</u>, only nominative, accusative, genitive and vocative remain as separate cases with their own morphological markings. Adjectives '''agree''' with nouns in case, gender, and number.

Verbs probably conjugate for 3 '''tenses''': past, present, future; 3 '''aspects''': perfect, perfective, imperfective; 3 '''numbers''': singular, dual, plural; 4 '''moods''': indicative, imperative, subjunctive, optative; 3 '''voices''': active, middle, passive; 3 '''persons''': first, second, third; infinitives, and verbal adjectives.

While the use of <u>Mycenaean Greek</u> may have ceased with the fall of the Mycenaean mainland core, some traces of it are found in the later <u>Greek</u> dialects. <u>Arcadocypriot Greek</u> is believed to be rather close to <u>Mycenaean Greek</u>. Arcadocypriot was spoken in <u>Arcadia</u> (central Peloponnese), and in <u>Cyprus</u>. Both have similarities to <u>Pamphylian</u> as well. 

Aside from <u>Hittite</u>, <u>Ancient Greek</u> is the oldest attested written <u>Indo-European</u> language. In Mycenean times, speakers of the western-oriented variant (ancestors of the later <u>Dorian Greeks</u> and related peoples) were spoken around the <u>Pindus Mountains</u> (which bisects <u>Western Greece</u> from the rest of the continent along a NE/SW line to the <u>Peloponnese</u>). In <u>Eastern Thessaly</u>, <u>Boeotia</u>, <u>Attica</u>, and the <u>Peloponnesus</u> and on certain <u>Aegean</u> islands (notably <u>Crete</u>), only varieties of <u>Greek</u> other than <u>West Greek</u> were spoken.