Greek
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Transliterated
Greek
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Meaning
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Egyptian
or Semitic origin
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Ιθάκη, Αττική
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Ithaca, Attica
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Place name for the neighboring area that surrounds the city of Athens
in Greece
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Semitic root: √’tq (to pass, supercede)
Hebrew: ‘ateq
(Bernal Vol 3, 489-490)
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Κρήτη
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Crete
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Name for the largest but also highest island in the Mediterranean
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Egyptian root: q3t or q3yt (high, height)
(Bernal Vol. 3, 490)
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Ἀθηνᾶ, or Ἀθηναία,
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Athena
Athēnā or Athēnaia;
Athens
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Name of the Greek goddess of war, wisdom and weaving
City name of Athens derived and associated with name of goddess
Athena
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Egyptian
root: Ḥt-ntr (nt) Nt (temple or
city)
Note that a temple to the goddess Neit was built in Sais in the Lower
Egypt near the beginning of the 1st Dynasty (Bernal Vol. 3, 540)
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Wim van Binsbergen has proposed a scheme for tracing Egyptian and Levantine influence on Cretan writing that partially follows Bernal's methods.
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Figure 1. Map of alphabet and writing systems and Egyptian and Levantine influence on Cretan writing Source: Wim van Binsbergen |
A development of alphabet systems around the Eastern Mediterranean is recognizable in the following comparative chart that shows the link between the Phoenician alphabet and Modern Greek.
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| Figure 2: Development of the Alphabet from the early Phoenician syllabary to Classical Greek and Latin |
In the later phase of his project, Bernal's thought has evolved and he more readily acknowledges the dual influence of Indo-European languages and culture on Greek and Eastern Mediterranean and West Asia. Thus Indo-European development originating from the flux and movement of peoples arising out of Central Asia had enormous influence in a manner that was comparable to the Afroasiatic influence that is the basis of his thesis. A useful website for current scholarship on Indo-European languages and their evolution is at the University of Texas.
As for the Greeks and the development of their language, the Hellenic family of languages developed over a period of more than three thousand years or millenia. The oldest texts in Mycenaean Greek texts pre-date the 14th century B.C. (see map of Mycenaean Greece), and were written in the script known as Linear B. An invasion of Dorian tribes, who were perhaps illiterate, occurred in around 1100 B.C. and was followed by the collapse of Mycenaean civilization and the loss of Greek writing. A few hundred years later, the Greeks adapted a Phoenician script. This script developed into what we know as the Greek alphabet, which formed the early basis of the Etruscan & Roman alphabets among others (a more modern example being Cyrillic). Here is a timeline of the development of Greek from the University of Texas website by Jonathan Slocum.
| 2000-1500 | 1500-1000 | 1000-500 | 500-1 BC | 1-500 AD | 500-1500 | 1500-2000 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Proto-Greek | Mycenaean | Ancient Greek | Attic Greek | Koine Greek | Middle Greek | Greek | ||||
| Homeric Greek | ||||||||||
| Doric Greek |
