The Eteocretan (i.e True Cretan) language, also called Minoan, was the pre-Hellenic language of Crete, spoken by the Minoans until ca. 1420 BC, when it was mostly displaced by Mycenaean Greek. The Eteocretans are mentioned in Homer's Odyssey and by Strabo as living on southern Crete, alongside Kydones in the west (according to Strabo also indigenous) and Greek Achaeans and Dorians in the east.
Very little is known about Eteocretan except that it may be the language used on the Linear A tablets. It is generally described as non-Indo-European or rather pre-Indo-European. The late Prof. Cyrus Gordon , better known for his work on Ugaritic, argued that it was a Semitic language closely related to Phoenician, but his attempted decipherment has not been accepted by other linguists. There also seem to be some similarities with the Phrygian language, an Indo-European language once spoken in Phrygia.
Despite the fall of the Minoan civilization, inscriptions in Eteocretan survive dating from the 7th century BC to the 3rd century BC, typically written in the local archaic Greek alphabet and the Ionian Greek alphabet. Five inscriptions have been found that are surely Eteocretan, two in Driros and three in Praisos in the Cretan prefecture of Lasithi. There are several other inscriptions that might be Eteocretan.
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Last updated: 10-10-2005 04:14:00
