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| | GREEK, Ancient |
 | | In Cyprus in the first millennium BC, inscriptions occur that are written in a syllabary, entirely different from, but surely related to, the Mycenaean one, with both most likely having a common source, presumably Minoan Linear A. Still, the most significant and enduring writing system for Greek is the Greek alphabet. |
 | | By relatively early in the first millennium BC, Greek was spoken over all of the Aegean islands and Cyprus, and there were Greek-speaking colonies in Asia Minor, along the west coast of what is now Turkey, in Southern Italy, in parts of the Western Mediterranean, and in the Black Sea area. |
 | | Mycenae and Pylos from the 13th and 12th centuries BC, the dates being a function of the adventitious preservation of the tablets in fires that destroyed the palaces. |
| www.ling.ohio-state.edu /~bjoseph/articles/gancient.htm (4337 words) |
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