Can Parent and Daughter co-exist?

[X99Lynx at aol.com]

In a message dated 9/20/99 12:22:11 AM, the Moderator commented:

[ Moderator's comment:
  Mycenaean is an example of South Greek, like Arcado-Cypriot and Attic-Ionic,
  and is in fact closely related to the former, while Aeolian is, like Doric,
  a North Greek family of dialects.  Further, Mycenaean still had labiovelars
  rather than labials as in Aeolic, so was most certainly distinguishable on
  those grounds if nothing else.
  --rma ] >>

I was responding to the post which seemed to treat Mycenaean as a parent to
Classic period Greek.  I recalled that Sappho wrote (or sang) in Aeolian.

I guess I was thinking of Arcadian.  But the Aeolic was not far off.  The
divisions I'm familiar with sometimes class Aeolian with Arcadian-Cypriot.
They also primarily divide Greek east-west.  Strabo (below) has Arcadian as
pure Aeolian, from before the latter was hybridized by contact with Doric.

This is from my notes:
1. I.V. - The Mycenaean Linear B dialect was found to be best preserved in the
southern (Arcado-Cyprian) group, and to be distinct from the Ionian-Attic
dialect; the theory that Mycenaean was the mother tongue of all Greek dialects
conflicts with the facts: "...Mycenaean presents many dialectal phenomena of
quite recent aspect and is in some traits as far from 'common [early] Greek' as
the dialects known a millennium later." (Chadwick)

Tovar writes: "The weak point in Risch's argument is
that it ignores the fact that against the innovations which appear in
Mycenaean (and Arcado-Cyprian), Ionic shows many old forms."
A. Tovar, "On the Position of the Linear B Dialect," Mycenaean
Studies, ed. by E.L. Bennet, Jr. (University of Wisconsin Press, 1964).

2. CB- <<The term "Aeolian" if we consider it widely includes three northern
Greek dialects (Thessalian, Beotian and Lesbian) and two southern ones
(Arcadian in Peloponnese and Cypriot), though the last are sometimes referred
to as the separate Arcado-Cypriot language.... In later Aeolian,...
labiovelar consonants turned into labials before e, i.>>

3. <<...West Greek (covering not only Northwest Greek, such as Aetolian, and
Locrian, but also Doric, which includes Laconian (the dialect of
Sparta), Corinthian, Megaran, Cretan, and Rhodian.  Attic-Ionic and
Arcado-Cypriot are sometimes classed together as East Greek, with Aeolic
being seen as intermediate between East and West Greek. >>
-B. Joseph

4. <<The relationship of Myceneaen Greek with the dialects of the later
Archaic period is uncertain, since it shows innovative features in common
with both Arcado-Cypriot and (at least part of) Aeolic; moreover,
considerable uniformity is evident in Mycenaean both during its two centuries
of attestation and over its geographic range of mainland Greece, the
Peloponnesos, and some Aegean islands, especially Crete. Thus it has been
suggested that Mycenaean Greek may represent a supra-regional koine in use in
the second millennium BC. >>
- Brian D. Joseph

<<In this connection, it may be mentioned that the language of the Homeric
epics, especially the Iliad and the Odyssey, represents an archaic form of
Greek, largely based on Ionic.... but there is a significant Aeolian element,
which may be traced to earlier versions dating back to Mycenaean times.>>

56) Strabo Geography 8.1.2 (Loeb):
<<...And just as the Aeolic element predominated in the parts outside the
Isthmus, so too the people inside the Isthmus were in earlier times Aeolians;
and then they became mixed with other peoples, since, in the first place,
Ionians from Attica seized the Aegialus, and, secondly, the Heracleidae
brought back the Dorians, who founded both Megara and many of the cities of
the Peloponnesus.

...The Ionians, however, were soon driven out again by the Achaeans, an
Aeolic tribe; and so there were left in the Peloponnesus only the two tribes,
the Aeolian and the Dorian.

Now all the peoples who had less intercourse with the Dorians--as was the
case with the Arcadians ... since [these] were wholly mountaineers... --
these peoples spoke the Aeolic dialect, whereas the rest used a sort of
mixture of the two, some leaning more to the Aeolic and some less. And, I
might almost
say, even now the people of each city speaks a different dialect,
although, because of the predominance which has been gained by the
Dorians, one and all are reputed to speak the Doric. Such, then, are the
tribes of the Greeks, and such in general terms is their ethnic
division.>>

Regards,
S. Long