Doric Greek

For the modern Doric dialect of Scotland, see Doric dialect (Scotland).
Doric Greek
Region Peloponnese, Crete, Rhodes
Era c. 800–100 BC; evolved into the Tsakonian language
Language codes
ISO 639-3 –
Linguist list
 grc-dor
Glottolog None

Distribution of Greek dialects in Greek in the classical period.[1]
Western group:
  Doric proper
  Northwest Doric
  Achaean Doric
 Central group:
  Aeolic
  Arcado-Cypriot
 Eastern group:
  Attic
  Ionic

Doric or Dorian was an Ancient Greek dialect. Its variants were spoken in the southern and eastern Peloponnese, as well as in Sicily, Epirus, Macedonia, Southern Italy, Crete, Rhodes, some islands in the southern Aegean Sea and some cities on the south east coast of Anatolia. Together with Northwest Greek, it forms the "Western group" of classical Greek dialects. By Hellenistic times, under the Achaean League, an Achaean-Doric koiné language appeared, exhibiting many peculiarities common to all Doric dialects, which delayed the spread of the Attic-based Koine Greek to the Peloponnese until the second century BC.[2]

It is widely accepted that Doric originated in the mountains of Epirus and Macedonia, northwestern Greece, the original seat of the Dorians. It was expanded to all other regions during the Dorian invasion (c. 1150 BC) and the colonisations that followed. The presence of a Doric state (Doris) in central Greece, north of the Gulf of Corinth, led to the theory that Doric had originated in northwest Greece or maybe beyond in the Balkans. The dialect's distribution towards the north extends to the Megarian colony of Byzantium and the Corinthian colonies of Potidaea, Epidamnos, Apollonia and Ambracia; there, it further added words to what would become the Albanian language,[3][4] probably via traders from a now-extinct Illyrian intermediary.[5] Local epigraphical evidence is restricted to the decrees of the Epirote League and the Pella curse tablet (both in the early fourth century BC), as well to the Doric eponym Machatas first attested in Macedonia (early 5th century BC).[6]

Variants

Doric proper

Where the Doric dialect group fits in the overall classification of ancient Greek dialects depends to some extent on the classification. Several views are stated under Greek dialects. The prevalent theme of most views listed there is that Doric is a subgroup of West Greek. Some use the terms Northern Greek or Northwest Greek instead. The geographic distinction is only verbal and ostensibly is misnamed: all of Doric was spoken south of "Southern Greek" or "Southeastern Greek."

Be that as it may, "Northern Greek" is based on a presumption that Dorians came from the north and on the fact that Doric is closely related to Northwest Greek. When the distinction began is not known. All the "northerners" might have spoken one dialect at the time of the Dorian invasion; certainly, Doric could only have further differentiated into its classical dialects when the Dorians were in place in the south. Thus West Greek is the most accurate name for the classical dialects.

Tsakonian, a descendant of Laconian Doric (Spartan), is still spoken on the southern Argolid coast of the Peloponnese, in the modern prefectures of Arcadia and Laconia. Today it is a source of considerable interest to linguists, and an endangered dialect.

The dialects of the Doric Group are as follows:

Laconian

Map of Laconia

Laconian was spoken by the population of Laconia in the southern Peloponnese and also by its colonies, Tarentum and Herakleia in Magna Graecia. Sparta was the seat of ancient Laconia.

Laconian is attested in inscriptions on pottery and stone from the seventh century BC. A dedication to Helen dates from the second quarter of the seventh century. Tarentum was founded in 706 and its founders must already have spoken Laconic.

Many documents from the state of Sparta survive, whose citizens called themselves Lacedaemonians after the name of the valley in which they lived. Homer calls it "hollow Lacedaemon", though he refers to a pre-Dorian period. The seventh century Spartan poet, Alcman, used a dialect that some consider to be predominantly Laconian. Philoxenus of Alexandria wrote a treatise On the Laconian dialect.

Argolic

Map of Argolis

Argolic was spoken in the thickly settled northeast Peloponnese at, for example, Argos, Mycenae, Hermione, Troezen, Epidaurus, and as close to Athens as the island of Aegina. As Mycenaean Greek had been spoken in this dialect region in the Bronze Age, it is clear that the Dorians overran it but were unable to take Attica. The Dorians went on from Argos to Crete and Rhodes.

Ample inscriptional material of a legal, political and religious content exists from at least the sixth century BC.

Corinthian

Map of Corinthia

Corinthian was spoken first in the isthmus region between the Peloponnesus and mainland Greece; that is, the Isthmus of Corinth. The cities and states of the Corinthian dialect region were Corinth, Sicyon, Archaies Kleones, Phlius, the colonies of Corinth in western Greece: Corcyra, Leucas, Anactorium, Ambracia and others, the colonies in and around Italy: Syracuse, Sicily and Ancona, and the colonies of Corcyra: Dyrrachium, and Apollonia. The earliest inscriptions at Corinth date from the early sixth century BC. They use a Corinthian epichoric alphabet. (See under Attic Greek.)

Corinth contradicts the prejudice that Dorians were rustic militarists, as some consider the speakers of Laconian to be. Positioned on an international trade route, Corinth played a leading part in the re-civilizing of Greece after the centuries of disorder and isolation following the collapse of Mycenaean Greece.

Northwest Greek

The Northwest Greek group is closely related to the Doric proper, while sometimes there is no distinction between the Doric and the Northwest Greek. Whether it is to be considered a part of the Doric Group or the latter a part of it or the two subgroups of West Greek: the dialects and their grouping remain the same. West Thessalian and Boeotian had come under a strong Northwest Greek influence. The Northwest Greek dialects differ from the Doric Group dialects in the below features:[7]

  1. Dative plural of the third declension in -οις (-ois) (instead of -σι (-si)): Ἀκαρνάνοις ἱππέοις Akarnanois hippeois for Ἀκαρνᾶσιν ἱππεῦσιν Akarnasin hippeusin (to the Acarnanian knights).
  2. ἐν (en) + accusative (instead of εἰς (eis)): en Naupakton (into Naupactus).
  3. -στ (-st) for -σθ (-sth): γενέσται genestai for genesthai (to become), μίστωμα mistôma for misthôma (payment for hiring).
  4. ar for er: amara /Dor. amera/Att. hêmera (day), Elean wargon for Doric wergon and Attic ergon (work)
  5. Dative singular in -oi instead of -ôi: τοῖ Ἀσκλαπιοῖ, Doric τῶι Ἀσκλαπιῶι, Attic Ἀσκληπιῶι (to Asclepius)
  6. Middle participle in -eimenos instead of -oumenos

The dialects are as follows:

Phocian

This dialect was spoken in Phocis and in its main settlement, Delphi. Because of that it is also sited as Delphian. Plutarch says that Delphians pronounce b in the place of p (βικρὸν for πικρὸν)[8]

Locrian

Elean

The dialect of Elis is considered, after Aeolic Greek, one of the most difficult for the modern reader of epigraphic texts[10] (earliest c. 600 BC)[11]

Northwest Greek Koiné

Calydon sanctuary (earliest c. 600-575 BC)[12] - Aetolian League 300-262 BC[13]

Epirotic

A school of thought maintains that the Ancient Macedonian language may have been a Greek dialect, possibly of the Northwestern group in particular,[19][20][21][22][23][24] although would classify Macedonian as a separate marginal or "deviant" item on its own.[25]

Phonology

Vowels

Long a

Proto-Greek long ā → Doric ā ~ Attic long open ē (eta) in at least some positions.

Compensatory lengthening of e and o

In certain Doric dialects (Severe Doric), e and o lengthen by compensatory lengthening or contraction to eta or omega ~ Attic ei and ou (spurious diphthongs).

Contraction of a and e

Contraction: Proto-Greek ae → Doric ē (eta) ~ Attic ā.

Synizesis

Proto-Greek eo, ea → some Doric dialects' io, ia.

Proto-Greek a

Proto-Greek short a → Doric short a ~ Attic e in certain words.

Consonants

Proto-Greek -ti

Proto-Greek -ti is retained (assibilated to -si in Attic).

Proto-Greek ss

Proto-Greek -ss- between vowels is retained (shortened to -s- in Attic).

Digamma

Initial w (ϝ) is preserved in earlier Doric (lost in Attic).

Literary texts in Doric and inscriptions from the Hellenistic age have no digamma.

Future tense

The aorist and future of verbs in -izō, -azō has x (versus Attic/Koine s).

Similarly k before suffixes beginning with t.

Morphology

Numeral tetores ~ Attic tettares, Ionic tesseres "four".

Ordinal prātos ~ Attic–Ionic prōtos "first".

Demonstrative pronoun tēnos "this" ~ Attic–Ionic (e)keinos

t for h (from Proto-Indo-European s) in article and demonstrative pronoun.

Third person plural, athematic or root aorist -n ~ Attic -san.

First person plural active -mes ~ Attic–Ionic -men.

Future -se-ō ~ Attic -s-ō.

Modal particle ka ~ Attic–Ionic an.

Temporal adverbs in -ka ~ Attic–Ionic -te.

Locative adverbs in -ei ~ Attic/Koine -ou.

Glossary

Common

Doric proper

Argive

Cretan

Laconian

Magna Graecian Doric

North-West

Aetolian-Acarnanian

Delphic-Locrian

Elean

Epirotic

See also

References

  1. ↑ Roger D. Woodard (2008), "Greek dialects", in: The Ancient Languages of Europe, ed. R. D. Woodard, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, p. 51.
  2. ↑ Buck, Carl Darling (1900). "The Source of the So-Called Achaean-Doric κοινη". American Journal of Philology. 21 (2): 193–196. doi:10.2307/287905.
  3. ↑ Çabej, E. (1961). "Die alteren Wohnsitze der Albaner auf der Balkanhalbinsel im Lichte der Sprache und der Ortsnamen". VII Congresso internaz. di sciense onomastiche: 241–251.; Albanian version BUShT 1962:1.219-227
  4. ↑ Eric Hamp. Birnbaum, Henrik; Puhvel, Jaan, eds. The position of Albanian, Ancient IE dialects, Proceedings of the Conference on IE linguistics held at the University of California, Los Angeles, April 25–27, 1963.
  5. ↑ Huld, Martin E. (1986). "Accentual Stratification of Ancient Greek Loanwords in Albanian". Zeitschrift für vergleichende Sprachforschung (99.2): 245–253.
  6. ↑ SEG 49:776
  7. ↑ Mendez Dosuna -Doric dialects,p.452
  8. ↑ Goodwin, William Watson (1874). Plutarch's Morals, tr. by several hands. Corrected and revised by W.W. Goodwin. Greek questions 9
  9. ↑ IG IX,1² 3:609
  10. ↑ Sophie Minon, Les Inscriptions Éléennes Dialectale - Reviewed by Stephen Colvin
  11. ↑ Die Inschriften von Olympia - IvO 1
  12. ↑ IG IX,1² 1:152,a
  13. ↑ IG IX,1² 1:15
  14. ↑ Potter, John (1751). Archaeologia Graeca Or the Antiquities of Greece.
  15. ↑ Lamelles Oraculaires 77
  16. ↑ Lewis, D. M.; Boardman, John (1994). The Cambridge Ancient History. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-23348-4.
  17. ↑ Auroux, Sylvain (2000). Geschichte der Sprachwissenschaften. Bd. 2/1.: Ein internationales Handbuch zur Entwicklung der Sprachforschung von den Anfängen bis zur Gegenwart. Walter de Gruyter. ISBN 978-3-11-011103-3.
  18. ↑ Cabanes, L'Épire 534,1
  19. ↑ Masson, Olivier (2003) [1996]. "[Ancient] Macedonian language". In Hornblower, S. and Spawforth A. (eds.). The Oxford Classical Dictionary (revised 3rd ed.). USA: Oxford University Press. pp. 905–906. ISBN 0-19-860641-9.
  20. ↑ Hammond, N.G.L (1993) [1989]. The Macedonian State. Origins, Institutions and History (reprint ed.). USA: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-814927-1.
  21. ↑ Michael Meier-Brügger, Indo-European linguistics, Walter de Gruyter, 2003, p.28, on Google books
  22. ↑ Roisman, Worthington, 2010, "A Companion to Ancient Macedonia", Chapter 5: Johannes Engels, "Macedonians and Greeks", p. 95:"This (i.e. Pella curse tablet) has been judged to be the most important ancient testimony to substantiate that Macedonian was a north-western Greek and mainly a Doric dialect".
  23. ↑ "...but we may tentatively conclude that Macedonian is a dialect related to North-West Greek.", Olivier Masson, French linguist, “Oxford Classical Dictionary: Macedonian Language”, 1996.
  24. ↑ Masson & Dubois 2000, p. 292: "...<<Macedonian Language>> de l'Oxford Classical Dictionary, 1996, p. 906: <<Macedonian may be seen as a Greek dialect, characterized by its marginal position and by local pronunciation (like Βερενίκα for Φερενίκα etc.)>>."
  25. ↑ Brian Joseph sums up that "[t]he slender evidence is open to different interpretations, so that no definitive answer is really possible", but cautions that "most likely, Ancient Macedonian was not simply an Ancient Greek dialect on a par with Attic or Aeolic" (B. Joseph (2001): "Ancient Greek". In: J. Garry et al. (eds.) Facts about the world's major languages: an encyclopedia of the world's major languages, past and present. Online paper) In this sense, some authors also call it a "deviant Greek dialect."
  26. ↑ Plutarch Greek question 51
  27. ↑ Dionysism and Comedy by Xavier Riu
  28. ↑ Raphael Kühner, Friedrich Blass, Ausführliche Grammatik der Griechischen Sprache
  29. ↑ Elis — Olympia — bef. c. 500-450 BC IvO 7
  30. ↑ Epeiros — Dodona — 4th c. BC SEG 15:397
  31. ↑ The Oracles of Zeus: Dodona, Olympia, Ammon - Page 261 by Herbert William Parke
  32. ↑ Epeiros — Dodona — ~340 BC SEG 26.700 - Trans.
  33. ↑ Alexander the Great: A Reader by Ian Worthing
  34. ↑ Greek Mythography in the Roman World By Alan Cameron (Aspetides)
  35. ↑ (cf. Athenian secretary: Aspetos, son of Demostratos from Kytheros ~340 BC)
  36. ↑ Pokorny - aspetos

External links

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