Eteocretan language

Eteocretan
Eteocretan Inscription from Praisos
Native to	Dreros, Praisos
Region	Crete
Era	late 7th–3rd century BC
Language family	unclassified
Writing system	Greek alphabet
Language codes
ISO 639-3
Linguist list	ecr
Glottolog	eteo1236

Eteocretan /ˌiːtɪoʊˈkriːtən, ˌɛt-/ (lit. "true Cretan", from Greek ἐτεός, meaning "true" + Cretan) is the non-Greek language of a few alphabetic inscriptions of ancient Crete.

In eastern Crete about half a dozen inscriptions have been found which, though written in Greek alphabets, are clearly not Greek. These inscriptions date from the late 7th or early 6th century down to the 3rd century BC. The language, which is not understood, is probably a survival of a language spoken on Crete before the arrival of Greeks and may or may not be derived from the Minoan language preserved in the Linear A inscriptions of a millennium earlier. Since that language remains untranslated, it is not certain that Eteocretan and Minoan are related.

Ancient testimony suggests that the language is that of the Eteocretans, i.e. "True Cretans."

The term 'Eteocretan' is sometimes applied to the Minoan language(s) written more than a millennium earlier in so-called Cretan 'hieroglyphics' (almost certainly a syllabary) and in the Linear A script. Yves Duhoux, a leading authority on Eteocretan, has stated that "it is essential to rigorously separate the study of Eteocretan from that of the "hieroglyphic" and Linear A inscriptions".

Κρήτη τις γαῖ᾽ ἔστι μέσῳ ἐνὶ οἴνοπι πόντῳ,
καλὴ καὶ πίειρα, περίρρυτος· ἐν δ᾿ ἄνθρωποι
πολλοί, ἀπειρέσιοι, καὶ ἐννήκοντα πόληες.
ἄλλη δ᾿ἄλλων γλῶσσα μεμιγμένη· ἐν μὲν Ἀχαιοί,
ἐν δ᾽ Ἐτεόκρητες μεγαλήτορες, ἐν δὲ Κύδωνες,
Δωριέες τε τριχάϊκες δῖοί τε Πελασγοί.