Pre-Greek languages

[Larry Trask]

Stanley Friesen writes:

> And given that, again pace Renfrew, Anatolian almost certainly had to move
> through the Balkans prior to Greek arrival *there*, let alone their arrival
> in Greece proper, and that there is some evidence for a non-Greek IE
> language in Greece in place names, the time scale is further constrained.

Why?

Why did Anatolian have to move through the Balkans?

Even if you don't buy Anatolia as the PIE homeland, why couldn't Anatolian
have entered Anatolia across the Caucasus or from east of the Caspian Sea,
through Iran?

And why did Greek have to move through the Balkans?

Larry Trask
COGS
University of Sussex
Brighton BN1 9QH
UK

larryt at cogs.susx.ac.uk