Greek is a Centum language which would place a possible Graeco-Aryan protolanguage before Satemization making it identical to late PIE. Proto-Greek does appear to have been affected by the general trend of palatalization characteristic of the Satem group evidenced for example by the (post-Mycenaean) change of labiovelars into dentals before e (e.g. ke > te "and") but the Satemizing influence appears to have reached Greek only after Greek had lost the palatovelars (i.e. after it had already become a Centum language). Proto-Greek changes

The primary sound changes separating Proto-Greek from the Proto-Indo-European language included: Debuccalization of /s/ to /h/ in the inter-and pre-vocalic positions (i.e. between two vowels or if word-initial and followed by a vowel). De-voicing of voiced aspirates. strengthening of word-initial y- (not Hy-) to dy- (later -). Palatalization of consonants followed by -y- producing various affricates (still represented as a separate sound in Mycenaean) and palatal consonants; these later simplified mostly losing their palatal character. Dissimilation of aspirates (Grassmann's law) possibly post-Mycenaean. Vocalization of laryngeals between vowels and initially before consonants to /e/ /a/ /o/ from h h h respectively. The sequence CRHC (C consonant R resonant H laryngeal) becomes CRC CRC CRC from H h h h respectively. The sequence CRHV (C consonant R resonant H laryngeal V vowel) becomes CaRV. Loss of final stop consonants; final /m/ -> /n/. Cowgill's law raising /o/ to /u/ between a resonant and a labial.

Loss of prevocalic *s was not completed entirely famously evidenced by ss (also hs pig from PIE *suh-) dass (dense) and dsos (dense growth forest); syn (with) is another example contaminated with PIE *kom (Latin cum Proto-Greek *kon) to Homeric / Old Attic ksyn. Slas (light in the sky as in the "Northern Lights") and seln/selna (the Moon) may be more examples of the same if actually derived from PIE *swel- (to burn) (possibly related to hlios "Sun" Ionic helios < *swelios).

Dissimilation of aspirates (so-called Grassmann's law) caused an initial aspirated sound to lose its aspiration when a following aspirated consonant occurred in the same word. It was a relatively late change in Proto-Greek history and must have occurred independently of the similar dissimilation of aspirates (also known as Grassmann's law) in Indo-Iranian although it may represent a common areal feature. Specifically: It postdates the Greek-specific de-voicing of voiced aspirates. It also postdates the change of /s/ > /h/ as it affects /h/ as well: kh "I have" < *hekh- < PIE *seh-oh but future heks "I will have" < *heks- < Post-PIE *seh-s-oh. It even postdates the loss of aspiration before /y/ that accompanied second-stage palatalization (see below) which postdates both of the previous changes (as well as first-stage palatalization). On the other hand it predates the development of the first aorist passive marker -th- since the aspirate in that marker has no effect on preceding aspirates. Palatalization

The following table taken from Sihler (1995)3 shows the evolution of clusters of consonant followed by PIE /y/ into various palatal consonants and ultimately to the depalatalized representation seen in the Ancient Greek dialects. PIE Early Pre-Greek Late Pre-Greek Proto-Greek Greek -py- -bhy-4 -py- -phy- -p- -pt- -ty- -dhy- -t- -ty- (restored) -- ss- tt- -y- -ky- -ky- -ky- -ky- -ky- -hy- -ghy- -ghy- -khy- -khy- -khy- -dy- -d- () -dy- ( restored) -- zd- -y- -gy- -gy- -gy- -gy- -gy- -ly- -ly- -- ll- -ly- -ly- -aly- -a- all- -Vny- -Vmy- -Hny- -Hmy- -Vny- -Vmy- -Vny- -V- ain- ein- n- -oin- n- -my- -ny- -amy- -any- -any- -a- ain- -Vry- -Vry- -V- air- eir- r- oir- r- -ry- -ry -ary- -a- air- -Vsy- -Vsy- -Vhy- -Vyy- -ai -ei- -oi- -ui- -Vwy- -Vwy- -V- /V/ > -Vyy-

Note that there were actually two stages of palatalization. The first stage affected only the PIE clusters /ty/ /dhy/ and likely /dy/. In the case of /ty/ and /dhy/ > /thy/ the result was consistently /s-/ initially and /ts/ > /ss/ medially. In the case of /dy/ it apparently produced /dz/ consistently eventually represented by /zd/ in Attic Greek. Following this change /y/ was restored after /ts/ and /dz/ in morphologically transparent formations analogically to the /y/ that was still present after other consonants. The second stage of palatalization then occurred which affected all consonants including the restored /tsy/ and /dzy/ sequences. The evidence for these two stages comes from the differing behavior of PIE /ty/ and /dhy/ depending on whether the formation is morphologically transparent or opaque. In particular medial /ty/ becomes Attic /s/ in opaque formations (first palatalization) but /tt/ in transparent formations (second palatalization). The following table shows the differing outcomes: PIE Proto-Greek Attic Homeric West Ionic Other Ionic Boeotian Other -ty- -dhy- (opaque formations); -ts- -ds- -dhs- ts s s ss s s tt ss -ty- -dhy- (transparent formations); -y- -ky- -ky-; -hy- -ghy- -ghy- tt ss tt ss tt ss Note that the outcome of PG medial /ts/ in Homeric Greek is /s/ after a long vowel and vacillation between /s/ and /ss/ after a short vowel: ttsi dat. pl. "rug" < ttt- poss(n)/pos(n) dat. pl. "foot" < pod-. Examples of initial ty- dhy-: PIE tyeg- "avoid" > sbomai "worship be respectful" (Ved. tyaj- "flee") PIE dhyeh- "notice" > Dor. sma Att. sma "sign" (Ved. dhy- "thought contemplation") Examples of the first palatalization of -ty- -dhy-: PreG *totyos "as much" (PIE *toti) > Att. tsos Hom. tsos/tssos (cf. Ved. tti Lat. tot "so much/many") PIE *medhyos "middle" > Att. msos Hom. msos/mssos Boeot. mettos other dial. mesos (cf. Ved. mdhya- Lat. medius) Examples of the second palatalization of -ty- -dhy-: PIE *herh-t-yoh "I row" > Attic ertt usual non-Attic erss (cf. erts "oarsman") PIE *kret-ys > PreG *kret-yn "better" > Attic krettn5 usual non-Attic krssn (cf. krats "strong" < PIE *krtus) Other Post-Proto-Greek changes Sound changes between Proto-Greek and all early dialects including Mycenaean include: Remaining syllabic resonants /m/ /n/ /r/ /l/ are resolved to vowels or combinations of a vowel and consonantal resonant: Syllabic nasals /m/ /n/ usually become /am/ /an/ before resonants; otherwise /a/. However /o/ usually appears in place of /a/ in Mycenaean after a labial e.g. pe-mo /spermo/ "seed" vs. usual sprma. Similarly /o/ often appears in place of /a/ in Arcadian after a velar e.g. deko "ten" hekoton "one hundred" vs. usual dka hekatn. Syllabic liquids /r/ /l/ usually become /ra/ and /la/ but /ar/ and /al/ before resonants and analogously. In Mycenean Greek Aeolic Greek and Cypro-Arcadian however /ro/ /lo/ /or/ /ol/ appear in place of /ra/ /la/ /ar/ /al/. Example: PIE *str-tos > usual stratos Aeolic strotos "army"; post-PIE rdi-eh "heart" > Att. kard Hom. krad Pamphylian korzdia. Loss of s in consonant clusters with compensatory lengthening of the preceding vowel (Attic Ionic Doric) or of the consonant (Aeolic): esmi -> mi/eimi or emmi. Creation of secondary s from clusters ntja -> nsa (this in turn followed by a change similar to the one described above i.e. loss of the n with compensatory lengthening e.g. apont-ja > apon-sa > ap-sa "absent" fem.). Conversion of labiovelars to velars next to /u/. In southern dialects (including Mycenaean but not Doric) -ti- > -si- (assibilation). The following changes are apparently post-Mycenaean: Loss of /h/ (from original /s/) except initially; loss of /j/. Examples: treis "three" < *treyes; Doric nikaas "having conquered" < *nikahas < *nikasas. Loss of /w/ in many dialects (later than loss of /h/ and /j/). Example: etos "year" from wetos. Loss of labiovelars which were converted (mostly) into labials sometimes into dentals or velars. This had not yet happened in Mycenaean shown by the fact that a separate letter <q> is used for these sounds. Contraction of adjacent vowels resulting from loss of /h/ and /j/ (and to a lesser extent from loss of /w/); more in Attic Greek than elsewhere. Rise of a distinctive circumflex accent resulting from contraction and certain other changes. Limitation of the accent to the last three syllables with various further restrictions. Loss of /n/ before /s/ (incompletely in Cretan Greek) with compensatory lengthening of the preceding vowel. Raising of to // in Attic and Ionic dialects (but not Doric). In Ionic this change was general but in Attic it did not occur after /i/ /e/ or /r/. (But note Attic kor "girl" < *korw; loss of /w/ after /r/ had not occurred at that point in Attic.) Note that /w/ and /j/ when following a vowel and not preceding a vowel combined early on with the vowel to form a diphthong and were thus not lost. The loss of /h/ and /w/ after a consonant were often accompanied by compensatory lengthening of a preceding vowel. The development of labiovelars varies from dialect to dialect: Labiovelars next to /u/ had earlier been converted to plain velars. In Attic and some other dialects (but not e.g. Lesbian) labiovelars before some front vowels became dentals. In Attic k and kh became t and th respectively before /e/ and /i/ while g became d before /e/ (but not /i/). All remaining labiovelars became labials original k kh g becoming p ph b respectively. This happened to all labiovelars in some dialects e.g. Lesbian; in other dialects e.g. Attic it occurred to all labiovelars not converted into dentals. Note that original PIE labiovelars had still remained as such even before consonants and hence became labials also in this position whereas in many other Centum languages such as Latin and most Germanic languages the labiovelars lost their labialization before consonants. This makes Greek of particular importance in reconstructing original labiovelars. The results of vowel contraction were complex from dialect to dialect. Such contractions occur in the inflection of a number of different noun and verb classes and are among the most difficult aspects of Ancient Greek grammar. They were particularly important in the large class of contracted verbs denominative verbs formed from nouns and adjectives ending in a vowel. (In fact the reflex of contracted verbs in Modern Greeki.e. the set of verbs derived from Ancient Greek contracted verbsrepresents one of the two main classes of verbs in that language.) Morphology Noun As Mycenaean Greek shows the PIE dative instrumental and locative cases are still distinct and are not yet syncretized into a single dative case. Nominative plural -oi -ai replaces late PIE -s -s. The superlative on -tatos becomes productive. The peculiar oblique stem gunaik- "women" attested from the Thebes tablets is probably Proto-Greek; it appears at least as gunai- also in Armenian. Pronoun The pronouns houtos ekeinos and autos are created. Use of ho h ton as articles is post-Mycenaean. Verb An isogloss between Greek and Phrygian is the absence of r-endings in the Middle Voice in Greek apparently already lost in Proto-Greek. Proto-Greek inherited the augment a prefix - to verbal forms expressing past tense. This feature it shares only with Indo-Iranian and Phrygian (and to some extent Armenian) lending some support to an "Graeco-Aryan" or "Inner PIE" proto-dialect. However the augment down to the time of Homer remained optional and was probably little more than a free sentence particle meaning "previously" in the proto-language that may easily have been lost by most other branches. The first person middle verbal desinences -mai -mn replace -ai -a. The third singular pherei is an innovation by analogy replacing the expected Doric *phereti Ionic *pheresi (from PIE *breti). The future tense is created including a future passive as well as an aorist passive. The suffix -ka- is attached to some perfects and aorists. Infinitives in -ehen -enai and -men are created. Numerals "one": nominative *hens genitive *hemos; feminine *mi (> Myc. e-me /hemei/(dative); Att./Ion. () heis (henos) mia). "two": *duw (> Myc. du-wo /duw/; Hom. dy; Att.-Ion. dyo) "three": nominative *trees accusative trins (> Myc. ti-ri /trins/; Att./Ion. treis; Lesb. trs; Cret. trees) "four": nominative *ketwores genitive *keturn (> Myc. qe-to-ro-we /ketrwes/ "four-eared"; Att. tettares; Ion. tesseres; Boeot. pettares; Thess. pittares; Lesb. pisyres; Dor. tetores) "five": *penke (> Att.-Ion. pente; Lesb. Thess. pempe) Example text Eduard Schwyzer in his Griechische Grammatik (1939 I.74-75) has translated famous lines of Classical Greek into Proto-Greek. His reconstruction was ignorant of Mycenaean and assumes Proto-Greek loss of labiovelars and syllabic resonants among other things. Thus Schwyzer's reconstruction corresponds to an archaic but post-Mycenaean dialect rather than actual Proto-Greek.   Classical Greek Proto-Greek Schwyzer Modern Plato Apology . () () . . . . (or *) (or -) . . (or ) (or .) *okid mn ume. aneres Atnaoi pepste upo katgorn meho. oju woida; eg de n kai autos up autn oligoo emeho autoo epi latomn t pitan elegont. kai toi ltes ge wekos wewekehen oude hen wewrkti Matthew 6:9 () (resp. singular) ( or ) *pater mn ho woranoihi agion estd enum tweho Homer Odyssey 1.1 (or -) ja (j) . *aner moi eneket monta polutrokon Notes: The reconstruction assumes that the old combinations of sonorants + s in either sequence (*ns *ms *rs *ls *us *is *sn *sm *sr *sl *su *si ) were pronounced as unvoiced sonorants (n m r l ) before they were simplified as short voiced sonorants with compensatory lengthening () () in most dialects or as long voiced sonorants () in Aeolic. It is also assumed that the PIE syllabic nasals (*n *m) were pronounced as nasal before it split into in most dialects and as a variant in some dialects (Mycenaean Arcadian Aeolic). See also Proto-language Hellenes Ancient Macedonian language Paleo-Balkan languages Pre-Greek substrate Proto-Indo-European language Kafkania pebble Notes http://multitree.org/trees/Indo-European:%20Composite@730997 Georgiev Vladimir Ivanov (1981). Introduction to the history of the Indo-European languages. Pub. House of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences. pp. 156. http://books.google.gr/bookseiTtqTegJxiyBuC6kMMF&ctresult&idxmZiAAAAMAAJ&dqVladimir+Ivanov+Georgiev%2C+Pub.+House+proto+greek&q%22The+proto-Greek+region+included+epirus+approximately+up+to%22#searchanchor. "The Proto-Greek region included Epirus approximately up to in the north including Paravaia Tymphaia Athamania Dolopia Amphilochia and Acarnania) west and north Thessaly (Hestiaiotis Perrhaibia Tripolis and Pieria) i.e. more or less the territory of contemporary northwestern Greece)"  Sihler Andrew L. (1995). New Comparative Grammar of Greek and Latin. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-508345-8.  No instances of -by-. Lengthened -ei /e/ due to Attic analogical lengthening in comparatives. References Beekes Robert S. P. (1995). Comparative Indo-European Linguistics. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. ISBN 90-272-2150-2.  Buck Carl Darling (1933). Comparative Grammar of Greek and Latin. University of Chicago Press. ISBN 0226079317.  Fortson Benjamin W. IV (2004). Indo-European Language and Culture. Blackwell Publishing. ISBN 1-4051-0316-7.  Sihler Andrew L. (1995). New Comparative Grammar of Greek and Latin. Oxford University Press. 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