ABSTRACT
TROY, SARDINIA AND CORSICA No written version of the language of Troy has ever been found, but it seems unlikely that Troy was non-literate. In Homer, Greeks and Trojans are represented as talking to each other, but a poet need not mention interpreters or bilinguals. Greek traditions derive some royal genealogies from Troy (although, even if these have historical substance, incoming rulers, on arrival, don't always speak their subjects' language.) Does Trojan belong to an Anatolian cluster with Hattie, or with Indo-European? The Aegean coastlands of Anatolia became Indo-European-speaking, with Lydian and other languages, while central Anatolia received Hittite, and Indo-European Phrygian subsequently followed into Asia Minor. These Indo-European languages were intrusive from north of the Black Sea. Troy was in the path of Indo-European migrations into Asia Minor and may have become Indo-European before the time of the Trojan War. Alternatively, since Phoenician trading sites have been found as near as Thrace in Greece, it might have been Semitic-speaking.
