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Doric Greek
Ancient Greek dialect
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It is widely accepted that Doric originated in the mountains of Epirus in 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,[4][5] probably via traders from a now-extinct Illyrian intermediary.[6] Local epigraphical evidence is restricted to the decrees of the Epirote League and the Pella curse tablet (both in the early 4th century BC) as well to the Doric eponym Machatas, first attested in Macedonia (early 5th century BC).[7]
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.
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. Taras 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.
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 Doric proper, while sometimes there is no distinction between 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 considered 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:[8]
Dative plural of the third declension in - (-ois) (instead of - (-si)): ? ?Akarnanois hippeois for Akarnasin hippeusin (to the Acarnanian knights).
(en) + accusative (instead of (eis)): en Naupakton (into Naupactus).
- (-st) for - (-sth): genestai for genesthai (to become), ?mistôma for misthôma (payment for hiring).
ar for er: amara /Dor. amera/Att. hêmera (day), Elean wargon for Doric wergon and Attic ergon (work)
Dative singular in -oi instead of -ôi: , Doric , Attic (to Asclepius)
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 cited as Delphian.[]Plutarch says that Delphians pronounce b in the place of p ( for )[9]
The dialect of Elis is considered, after Aeolic Greek, one of the most difficult for the modern reader of epigraphic texts[11] (earliest c. 600 BC)[12]
Northwest Greek Koiné
hybrid dialect of Attic and certain Northwest Greek and Doric features
chiefly associated with the Aetolian Confederacy and dates to the second and third centuries BC.
Calydon sanctuary (earliest c. 600-575 BC)[13] - Aetolian League 300-262 BC[14]
A school of thought maintains that the Ancient Macedonian language may have been a Greek dialect, possibly of the Northwestern group in particular,[20][21][22][23][24][25] although other scholars would classify Macedonian as a separate marginal or "deviant Greek dialect" on its own.[26]
Phonology
Vowels
Long a
Proto-Greek long *? is retained as ?, in contrast to Attic developing a long open ? (eta) in at least some positions.
Doric g? m?t?r ~ Attic g? m?t?r 'earth mother'
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, in contrast to Attic ei and ou (spurious diphthongs).
Severe Doric -? ~ Attic -ou (second-declension genitive singular)
-?s ~ -ous (second-declension accusative plural)
-?n ~ -ein (present, second aorist infinitive active)
bernômetha Attic klêrôsômetha we will cast or obtain by lot (inf. berreai) (Cf.Attic meiresthai receive portion, Doric bebramena for heimarmenê, allotted by Moirai)
anchôrixantas[31] having transferred, postponed[32]Chaonian (Attic metapherô, anaballô) (anchôrizo anchi near +horizô define and Doric x instead of Attic s) (Cf. Ionic anchouros neighbouring) not to be confused with Doric anchôreô Attic ana-chôreô go back, withdraw.
?eskichremen lend out (Lamelles Oraculaires 8 of Eubandros) (Attic eis + inf. kichranai from chraomai use)
Weidus knowing (Doric ) weidôs) (Elean weizos) (Attic ) eidôs) (PIE *weid- "to know, to see", Sanskrit veda I know) Cabanes, L'Épire 577,50
kaston wood Athamanian (Attic xylon from xyô scrape, hence xyston); Sanskrit kham ("wood, timber, firewood") (Dialectical kalon wood, traditionally derived from kaiô burn kauston sth that can be burnt, kausimon fuel)
?lêïtêres Athamanian priests with garlands Hes.text . (LSJ: lêitarchoi public priests ) (hence Leitourgia
?manu small Athamanian (Attic mikron, brachu) (Cf. manon rare) (PIE *men- small, thin) (Hsch. banon thin) ( manosporos thinly sown manophullos with small leaves Thphr.HP7.6.2-6.3)
Naios or Naos epithet of DodonaeanZeus (from the spring in the oracle) (cf. Naiades and Pan Naios in Pydna SEG 50:622 (Homeric naô flow, Attic nama spring) (PIE *sna-)
pagaomai 'wash in the spring' (of Dodona) (Doric paga Attic pêgê running water, fountain)
pampasia (to ask peri pampasias cliché phrase in the oracle) (Attic pampêsia full property) (Doric paomai obtain)
^Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds. (2017). "Doric". Glottolog 3.0. Jena, Germany: Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History.
^Roger D. Woodard (2008), "Greek dialects", in: The Ancient Languages of Europe, ed. R. D. Woodard, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, p. 51.
^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
^Huld, Martin E. (1986). "Accentual Stratification of Ancient Greek Loanwords in Albanian". Zeitschrift für vergleichende Sprachforschung (99.2): 245-253.
^Hammond, N.G.L (1993) [1989]. The Macedonian State. Origins, Institutions and History (reprint ed.). USA: Oxford University Press. ISBN0-19-814927-1.
^Michael Meier-Brügger, Indo-European linguistics, Walter de Gruyter, 2003, p.28, on Google books
^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".
^"...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.
^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 for etc.)>>."
^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."
Bakker, Egbert J., ed. 2010. A companion to the Ancient Greek language. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell.
Cassio, Albio Cesare. 2002. "The language of Doric comedy." In The language of Greek comedy. Edited by Anton Willi, 51-83. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Christidis, Anastasios-Phoivos, ed. 2007. A history of Ancient Greek: From the beginnings to Late Antiquity. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
Colvin, Stephen C. 2007. A historical Greek reader: Mycenaean to the koiné. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Horrocks, Geoffrey. 2010. Greek: A history of the language and its speakers. 2nd ed. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell.
Palmer, Leonard R. 1980. The Greek language. London: Faber & Faber.
External links
"The Doric Dialects" by J. Méndez Dosuna in: A History of Ancient Greek: From the Beginnings to Late Antiquity, Cambridge University Press, 2007