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The Linguistic Case for the Aiolian Migration 433 HESPERIA JJ (2OO8) THE LINGUISTIC Pages43I~4^4 CASE FOR THE AIOLIAN MIGRATION RECONSIDERED ABSTRACT Ascribingthe presence of speakers of Lesbian in thenortheast Aegean dur- inghistorical times to themigration of Aiolian tribes from mainland Greece receivesno supportfrom linguistics. Migration is notthe only or even primary wayin whichlanguages and dialectsmay spread. Moreover, on reexamina- tion,the idea of an Aiolicdialect group falls apart. Boiotian, separated by the FirstCompensatory Lengthening from Lesbian and Thessalian, appears as a conservativedialect, most closely related to WestGreek. In turn,Lesbian andThessalian are both archaic branches of Greek that share no demonstrable commoninnovations. They are bestviewed as twoseparate relic areas of a relativelyunaltered early Greek. - To pass fromthis legendary world an aggregateof streamsdis- tinctand heterogeneous,which do notwillingly come intoconflu- ence,and cannotbe forcedto intermix- intothe vision afforded by Herodotus,we learnfrom him that in the500s B.C.the whole coast-regionfrom Dardanus southward to thepromontory of Lektum(including the town of Ilium),and fromLektum eastward to Adramyttium,had been Aeolised,or was occupiedby Aeolic - Greeks likewisethe inland towns of Skepsisand Kebren.1 This papergrew out of the researchof BrianRose, as set out in the pre- cedingarticle in thisissue of Hesperia?As head of the post-BronzeAge excavationsat Troy,Rose had long acceptedthe scholarlyconsensus in 1. Grote 1888, vol. 1, p. 305, refer- mightexpect fromthe rulesbut does markany (or an unknown) representa- = ringto Hdt. 1.149-151. not occur.The sign > means "develops tive of that class. So C any consonant; = - 2. Rose 2008. My thanksare due to to" (and the sign < means "develops H any laryngeal;Kw any labiovelar; = = Brian Rose, Don Ringe, Ronald Kim, from")an earlierform by regularsound P any labial; R any resonant(I, r, and the anonymousreviewers for Hes- changes.The sign -> means "is replaced myn); T= any dental; V= anyvowel. peria fordiscussion and clarifications. by,"i.e., develops froman earlierform An apostrophe(C) markspalataliza- Certain conventionsand abbrevia- by analogy,replacement, or some other tion. Glosses are given in single quotes - tions common in historicallinguistics nonphonologicalprocess. A dash marks ('moon'). Phonological rules or changes * are used in this article.An asterisk morphemeboundaries. ht, h2, and h3 are writtenwith a slash / to indicate marksan unattestedor reconstructed stand forthe e-ya-y and o-coloring the environmentand a blank _ to form.A daggert marksa formthat we laryngeals,respectively. Capital letters show where the phoneme stands:for © The American School of Classical Studies at Athens 432 HOLT N. PARKER which Iron Age settlementsin the northeasternAegean were founded by colonistsfrom an Aiolic-speakingarea in mainlandGreece. When he examinedthe archaeological remains, however, he foundno good evidence forthis scenario, and was forcedto concludethat the communis opinio was incorrect.He asked me to contributea discussionof the linguisticsitua- tion.As I reexaminedthe data,it became clearthat the standardview of an Aiolic dialectfamily is faulty,and I too have been forcedto conclude, almostreluctantly, that our earlierideas cannotbe supported. THE TRIPOD The theoryof an Aiolian migrationrests on threelegs: archaeological, historical,and linguistic(Fig. 1). For the first,Rose concludes:"At no time duringthe early1st millenniumdo we have evidencefor attacks, forthe arrivalof a new populationgroup, or forany substantive change in ceramicproduction."3 Other scholars have noted,if not been bothered by,the lack of archaeologicalevidence. Gschnitzer, for example, writes: "The migrationto Asia Minor,which we couldassume was a consequence of the drivefor colonization, has apparentlynot yet been successfully dated archaeologically;it musthave occurredbefore the corresponding, but equallyundated, migration of the Ionians."4Coldstream expresses a similarview: "These Aeolians,according to literarysources, had migrated fromtheir former homes in Boeotia and Thessalyat least as earlyas the parallelmovement of Ionians; yet the archaeological record casts very little lighton thembefore the late eighthcentury. ... At presentwe have no reliablearchaeological evidence concerning the coming of the first Aeolians to Lesbos."5 Nor do theconflicting legendary accounts of the colonization of Aiolis supplyconvincing support. Though such accounts have been accepted as so- berhistory by some, Rose has shownhow these and othermythical accounts developedand were adaptedin the courseof the 6th-5thcenturies B.C. fora varietyof culturalpurposes.6 In particular,the genealogical accounts are merelyattempts to connectlocal aristocraciesto the royalfamily of Mycenaeor a putativeancestor Aiolos, who servesas a convenientfather example,Kw > T/_ e readsas "a labio- 3. Rose 2008,p. 420. 5. Coldstream2003, pp. 262-263. velarbecomes the corresponding dental 4. Gschnitzer2002, cols. 227-228. 6. Rose 2008,pp. 401-404. Ham- in theenvironment before e." Language I failto followthe author s use of"must mond(1975) usesThucydides' account abbreviations:Ark. = Arkadian;Att.- have"here. He giveshis reasons: "as to producedates supposedly accurate = Ion. Attic-Ionic;Boiot. = Boiotian; theyextended their territory to the to withina decade:Trojan War, ca. Cret.= Cretan;Cyp. = Cyprian;Dor. = northto thecoast of the A[eolians] 1200 B.C.;Thessalian invasion, ca. 1140; Doric;Eng. = English;Germ. = Ger- (Smyrnapreviously Aeolian; Phocaea Aiolicmigration to Lesbos,ca. 1130; man;Horn. = Homeric;Lak. = Lako- on theedge of the Aeolian hinterland; Dorianinvasion, ca. 112O.Thessalians nian;Lesb. = Lesbian;Myc. = Myce- Aeoliansubstrate in thenorthern and Boiotiansare imagined as a partof naean;Pamph. = Pamphylian;PGrk = Ioniandialects)." I am notsure I see an invadinggroup of Northwest Greeks, Proto-Greek;PIE = Proto-Indo-Euro- howany of these indicates priority of originatingin Epiros.Northwest Greek pean;SGrk = SouthGreek; Skt. = settlement.The linguisticevidence is and Doric aretreated correctly as sub- Sanskrit;Thes. = Thessalian.Common uselesssince most scholars explain var- familiesof West Greek, which, how- abbreviationsof grammaticalterms iousfeatures of Lesbian by recourse to ever,Hammond (1975, p. 703) holdsto (e.g.,nom., ace, sing.,pl.) arealso used. Ionicinfluence on it (see below). be closelyrelated to Mycenaean. THE LINGUISTIC CASE FOR THE AIOLIAN MIGRATION 433 Figure1. Distributionof traditional dialectgroups in theeastern Medi- figurefor the unaffiliated, and cannotbe usedto inferactual tribal, ge- terranean. AfterHainsworth 1982, p. 859, netic,or linguistic affiliations. Meyer in 1893rightly summed up: "One is map28 forcedto conclude that all Greektribes that were not Doric or Ionic were designatedAioHc.'"7 Unduepiety toward the classical sources is gentlycorrected by Cook: "Theconnexion with Orestes, which alone gives a precisedating, carries no conviction."As he furthernotes, "the Greek antiquarians . hada horror vacui Storieslike this were duly translated into a chronologicalsystem." He sensiblyconcludes: "The schematic prose traditions of the migrations to theEast Aegeanafter the Trojan War seemin generalto havebeen compilationsofthe fifth century B.C."8 Under that clear light, many pretty butfanciful maps showing the paths and even the exact dates of a complex seriesof migrations, invasions, and sackings must disappear.9 As Grotereminds us in thepassage quoted at thebeginning of this article,after such mythological history and reconstructions, there is only - a singlefact. As attestedby Sappho and Alkaios, at around600 B.C. we 7. RE 1,1893, col. 1031,s.v. Aioles mythologicalpersonal name Aeolus, 8. Cook 1975,p. 777. (E. Meyer).Gschnitzer (2002, col. 228) theearliest bearer of which was prob- 9. E.g., Hammond1976, p. 142.An pointsout, "Regarding the statement of ablysecondarily interpreted as thepro- adaptedversion of this map is stillpre- thescholars of antiquity that the A[eo- genitorof the A[eolians], and on the sented,albeit as a "conjecturalrecon- lians]had oncesettled in certainareas otherhand with the theories concerning struction,"in introductoryworks such ofGreece, there is, in contrast[to Thuc. thedivision of the Greeks into a few as Cartledge2002, p. 45. See also sim- 3.102.5],not much to go on.This is largetribes whereby the name A[eoli- ilarmaps in Grant1994, pp. 12-13; becauseon theone handthey are con- an] coveredeverything that could not be Morkot1996, p. 47. nectedwith the appearance of the ascribedto theDorians or the Ionians." 434 HOLT N. PARKER - can push Grotes dateback a bit people on Lesbos werespeaking a dis- tinctiveGreek dialect, one thatmodern linguists consider to be relatedto thedialects of Boiotia and Thessaly (Fig. l).The onlysurviving leg ofthe tripod,then, is theidea thatin Thessalianand Boiotianwe have a case of a unifieddialect area splitby latecomers,in thiscase the Doric speakers of NorthwestGreek, with Lesbian as an outlyingprovince.10 That is the subjectof thispaper. THE QUESTION OF AIOLIC Chadwickhas observedthat "the ancients, from Hesiod on,distinguished threefamilies of Greek-speaking peoples: Dorians, Ionians, and Aeolians. Modernscholars accepted this as a roughbasis, for the Doric and Ionic dia- lectswere plainly recognizable Aeolicwas lesseasily identified."11 There is indeeda problemwith the Aiolic dialect,and it needsreexamination. In antiquity,AioA,e\)<;, AioAaicoq, and derivativesreferred only to the inhabitantsof
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