Re: Thracian, Phrygian etc. (was Re: Bronze age British languages)

Quoting Jörg Rhiemeier <joerg_rhiemeier@...>:

> Hallo!
>
> On Fri, 28 Apr 2006 22:32:08 +0200, Andreas Johansson wrote:
>
> > Quoting Jörg Rhiemeier <joerg_rhiemeier@...>:
> >
> >
> > > And what regards the language of Troy: we don't know, but many scholars
> > > assume that it was an Anatolian IE language closely related to Hittite.
> > > Thre are other suggestions, though (such as that their language was
> > > related to Etruscan).
> >
> > This prompted me to look up the (very short) articles on various ancient
> > languages of Asia Minor in the National Encyclopedia, where I learnt the
> > following astonishing "facts":
> >
> > 1) Phrygian is closely related to Macedonian and Greek.
> > 2) Thracian is closely related to Phrygian.
> > 3) Thracian is not closely related to Macedonian and Greek.
>
> :)
>
> > Can anyone with a knowledge of these matter tell me what's actually known
> or
> > plausibly surmised about this?
>
> We know enough about Thracian, Phrygian and Macedonian to say that they are
> definitely Indo-European, but not enough to know where exactly to put them
> in the Indo-European family tree (except Macedonian, which is quite widely
> accepted to be closely related to Greek).  There is, however, a popular
> (though controversial) theory that Greek, Macedonian, Thracian, Phrygian
> and Armenian form a common branch of IE.
Thanks. :)

> What DOESN'T belong there are the
> Anatolian languages (Hittite, Luvian, Palaic, Lycian, Lydian and a few
> others), which form a very distinct branch that is assumed by many to have
> diverged from the rest of IE several centuries before the rest of IE broke
> up.
Yes, I know this - you may recall our discussions about the Renfrewian
hypothesis.

(No, you needn't worry - I'm still no renfrewian! ;) )

                                                 Andreas