Linear A & B

To begin our study of potential linguistic changes in a colonial environment we must travel back to a time of two specific written languages we refer to as Linear A and Linear B.

Linear A and the derivative Linear B are two very old languages and they have been dated to the Mediterranean period of 2500–1200 B.C.E. 

Linear A is one of the two currently un-deciphered ancient writing systems and is believed to have been used in palaces and religious settings while Linear B had a more common usage and seems to have been used as a language of trade. Deciphered examples appear to be lists of items for barter, numbers and even fractions.

Here we must also mention the existence of a third, undeciphered, script, Cretan Hieroglyphic. An example of Cretan Hieroglyphic, is the famous clay Phaistos Disk, with its spiral writing nowadays believed to run from the circumference to the centre.

According to a Dr Owens[1], (Ph.D, History and Classics at University College, London, followed by an MA in Greek Literature and History, and also Philosophy), the difference of phonetic patterns between Linear A and B is only about 10%; in other words, the two scripts are about 90% similar. This is important to remember when considering colonial migrations to space as this 10% variant is explainable in terms of migration. 

The language of the Minoans (Crete) is believed to be that expressed in the Linear A script, with Linear B considered to record the so-called Mycenaean tongue, which is the precursor of Ancient Greek. 

Dr Owens research into inscriptions in Linear A (as carved on offering tables found in the many peak sanctuaries on the mountains of Crete), offer a clear relationship between Linear A and Sanskrit, the ancient language of India. There is also a connection to Hittite and Armenian. 

These languages of Minoan and Greek are considered to be different branches of Indo-European, which is a vast family that includes Modern Greek and the Latin of Ancient Rome. The Minoans are believed to have moved from Anatolia, also known as Asia Minor, to the island of Crete about 10,000 years ago.

There were also similar population movements to Greece. The relative isolation of the population which settled in Crete resulted in the development of its own language, Minoan, which is considered different to Mycenaean. (Greek) In the Minoan language (Linear A), there are no purely Greek words, as is the case in Mycenaean Linear B; it contains only words also found in Greek, Sanskrit and Latin. (Thereby sharing the same Indo-European origins)

The migration from Anatolia, (modern day Turkey) to Crete and to Greece by peoples sharing the Indo-European linguistic family of languages resulted in different but similar languages in two separate colonies of migrants. 

This sharing of similar but different languages by two groups of migrants would tend to indicate that a progenitor language was changed by the peoples settling in two different locations. This change to progenitor languages could just as easily happen in future interplanetary colonial societies.

English or Russian or Chinese could quite easily evolve once a population of speakers moved beyond the populous confines of their own countries or onto different colonial worlds.

Migration is a factor in language evolution.

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[1] lecture by Gareth Owens, Ph.D., on the subject of “The Minoan language: scripts and languages of Minoan and Mycenaean Crete”