Editing Ancient Greek (section)

==Dialects==
{{Main|Ancient Greek dialects}}
Ancient Greek was a [[pluricentric language]], divided into many dialects. The main dialect groups are [[Attic Greek|Attic]] and [[Ionic Greek|Ionic]], [[Aeolic Greek|Aeolic]], [[Arcadocypriot Greek|Arcadocypriot]], and [[Doric Greek|Doric]], many of them with several subdivisions. Some dialects are found in standardized literary forms in [[Ancient Greek literature|literature]], while others are attested only in inscriptions.

There are also several historical forms. [[Homeric Greek]] is a literary form of Archaic Greek (derived primarily from Ionic and Aeolic) used in the [[epic poetry|epic poems]], the ''[[Iliad]]'' and the ''[[Odyssey]]'', and in later poems by other authors.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Hose |first1=Martin |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DgBSCgAAQBAJ&pg=PA445 |title=A Companion to Greek Literature |last2=Schenker |first2=David |publisher=John Wiley & Sons |year=2015 |isbn=978-1118885956 |page=445 |language=en-US}}</ref> Homeric Greek had significant differences in grammar and pronunciation from Classical Attic and other Classical-era dialects.

===History===
The origins, early form and development of the Hellenic language family are not well understood because of a lack of contemporaneous evidence. Several theories exist about what Hellenic dialect groups may have existed between the divergence of early Greek-like speech from the common [[Proto-Indo-European language]] and the Classical period. They have the same general outline but differ in some of the detail. The only attested dialect from this period{{efn|[[Mycenaean Greek]] is imprecisely attested and somewhat reconstructive due to its being written in an ill-fitting syllabary ([[Linear B]]).}} is [[Mycenaean Greek]], but its relationship to the historical dialects and the historical circumstances of the times imply that the overall groups already existed in some form.

Scholars assume that major Ancient Greek period dialect groups developed not later than 1120&nbsp;BC, at the time of the [[Dorian invasion]]s—and that their first appearances as precise alphabetic writing began in the 8th century BC. The invasion would not be "Dorian" unless the invaders had some cultural relationship to the historical [[Dorians]]. The invasion is known to have displaced population to the later Attic-Ionic regions, who regarded themselves as descendants of the population displaced by or contending with the Dorians.

The Greeks of this period believed there were three major divisions of all Greek people – Dorians, Aeolians, and Ionians (including Athenians), each with their own defining and distinctive dialects. Allowing for their oversight of Arcadian, an obscure mountain dialect, and Cypriot, far from the center of Greek scholarship, this division of people and language is quite similar to the results of modern archaeological-linguistic investigation.

One standard formulation for the dialects is:<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/Greek-language#ref74651 |title=Greek Language |encyclopedia=Encyclopædia Britannica |date=13 April 2018 |first1=Brian E. |last1=Newton |first2=Cornelis Judd |last2=Ruijgh |access-date=22 May 2019 |archive-date=20 May 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190520201202/https://www.britannica.com/topic/Greek-language#ref74651 |url-status=live }}</ref>
{{Ancient Greek dialects}}
* West Group
** Northwest Greek
** [[Doric Greek|Doric]]
* [[Aeolic Greek|Aeolic Group]]
** Aegean/Asiatic Aeolic
** Thessalian
** Boeotian
* Ionic-Attic Group
** [[Attic Greek|Attic]]
** [[Ionic Greek|Ionic]]
*** Euboean and colonies in Italy
*** Cycladic
*** Asiatic Ionic
* [[Arcadocypriot Greek]]
** Arcadian
** Cypriot
West vs. non-West Greek is the strongest-marked and earliest division, with non-West in subsets of Ionic-Attic (or Attic-Ionic) and Aeolic vs. Arcadocypriot, or Aeolic and Arcado-Cypriot vs. Ionic-Attic. Often non-West is called 'East Greek'.

Arcadocypriot apparently descended more closely from the Mycenaean Greek of the Bronze Age.

[[Boeotian Greek]] had come under a strong Northwest Greek influence, and can in some respects be considered a transitional dialect, as exemplified in the poems of the [[Boeotia]]n poet [[Pindar]] who wrote in Doric with a small Aeolic admixture.<ref>{{cite book |last=Gerber |first=Douglas E. |year=1997 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Zzlnqb_64SYC |title=A Companion to the Greek Lyric Poets |publisher=Brill |page=255 |isbn=90-04-09944-1}}</ref> [[Thessalian]] likewise had come under Northwest Greek influence, though to a lesser degree.

[[Pamphylian Greek]], spoken in a small area on the southwestern coast of Anatolia and little preserved in inscriptions, may be either a fifth major dialect group, or it is Mycenaean Greek overlaid by Doric, with a non-Greek native influence.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Skelton |first1=Christina |title=Greek-Anatolian Language Contact and the Settlement of Pamphylia |journal=Classical Antiquity |year=2017 |volume=36 |issue=1 |pages=104–129 |doi=10.1525/ca.2017.36.1.104 |url=https://www.christinaskelton.com/files/CA3601_04_Skelton.pdf |access-date=2021-04-17 |archive-date=2021-04-17 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210417143016/https://www.christinaskelton.com/files/CA3601_04_Skelton.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref>

Regarding the speech of the [[ancient Macedonians]] diverse theories have been put forward, but the epigraphic activity and the archaeological discoveries in the [[Macedonia (Greece)|Greek region of Macedonia]] during the last decades has brought to light documents, among which the first texts written in [[Ancient Macedonian language|Macedonian]], such as the [[Pella curse tablet]], as Hatzopoulos and other scholars note.<ref name= Hornblower2002>{{cite book | last = Hornblower | first = Simon | chapter = Macedon, Thessaly and Boiotia | title = The Greek World, 479–323 BC | publisher = Routledge | date = 2002 | edition = Third | page = 90 | isbn = 0-415-16326-9 }}</ref><ref name= Hatzopoulos2018>{{cite book | last = Hatzopoulos | first = Miltiades B. | chapter = Recent Research in the Ancient Macedonian Dialect: Consolidation and New Perspectives | title = Studies in Ancient Greek Dialects: From Central Greece to the Black Sea | editor1-last = Giannakis | editor1-first = Georgios K. | editor2-last = Crespo | editor2-first = Emilio | editor3-last = Filos | editor3-first = Panagiotis | date = 2018 | publisher = Walter de Gruyter | chapter-url = https://books.google.com/books?id=XXFLDwAAQBAJ&q=ancient+macedonian+speech&pg=PT301 | pages = 299–324 | isbn = 978-3-11-053081-0 | access-date = 8 November 2020 | archive-date = 27 April 2021 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20210427041016/https://books.google.com/books?id=XXFLDwAAQBAJ&q=ancient+macedonian+speech&pg=PT301 | url-status = live }}</ref> Based on the conclusions drawn by several studies and findings such as [[Pella curse tablet]], Emilio Crespo and other scholars suggest that [[Ancient Macedonian dialect|ancient Macedonian]] was a [[Doric Greek|Northwest Doric dialect]],<ref name= Crespo2018>{{cite book | last = Crespo | first = Emilio | chapter = The Softening of Obstruent Consonants in the Macedonian Dialect | title = Studies in Ancient Greek Dialects: From Central Greece to the Black Sea | editor1-last = Giannakis | editor1-first = Georgios K. | editor2-last = Crespo | editor2-first = Emilio | editor3-last = Filos | editor3-first = Panagiotis | date = 2018 | publisher = Walter de Gruyter | page = 329 | isbn = 978-3-11-053081-0 }}</ref><ref name= Dosuna2012>{{cite book | last = Dosuna | first = J. Méndez | chapter = Ancient Macedonian as a Greek dialect: A critical survey on recent work (Greek, English, French, German text) | title = Ancient Macedonia: Language, History, Culture | editor-last = Giannakis | editor-first = Georgios K. | date = 2012 | publisher = Centre for Greek Language | page = 145 | isbn = 978-960-7779-52-6 }}</ref><ref name= Hatzopoulos2018 /> which shares isoglosses with its neighboring [[Thessalian Greek|Thessalian dialects]] spoken in northeastern [[Ancient Thessaly|Thessaly]].<ref name= Crespo2018 /><ref name= Hatzopoulos2018 /> Some have also suggested an Aeolic Greek classification.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Hammond|first=N.G.L|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1mwiAQAAIAAJ|title=Collected Studies: Further studies on various topics|date=1997|publisher=A.M. Hakkert|pages=79|language=en|archive-date=28 September 2024|access-date=17 July 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240928040622/https://books.google.com/books?id=1mwiAQAAIAAJ|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|last=Worthington|first=Ian|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LSOpAgAAQBAJ|title=Alexander the Great: A Reader|date=2012|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-136-64003-2|pages=71|language=en|archive-date=28 September 2024|access-date=17 July 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240928041122/https://books.google.com/books?id=LSOpAgAAQBAJ|url-status=live}}</ref>

The [[Lesbos|Lesbian]] dialect was Aeolic. For example, fragments of the works of the poet [[Sappho]] from the island of [[Lesbos]] are in Aeolian.<ref>{{cite book |last=Reynolds |first=Margaret |year=2001 |title=The Sappho Companion |location=London |publisher=Vintage |page=18 |isbn=978-0-09-973861-9}}</ref>

Most of the dialect sub-groups listed above had further subdivisions, generally equivalent to a city-state and its surrounding territory, or to an island. Doric notably had several intermediate divisions as well, into Island Doric (including [[Doric Greek#Cretan|Cretan Doric]]), Southern Peloponnesus Doric (including [[Doric Greek#Laconian|Laconian]], the dialect of [[Sparta]]), and Northern Peloponnesus Doric (including [[Doric Greek#Corinthian|Corinthian]]).

All the groups were represented by colonies beyond Greece proper as well, and these colonies generally developed local characteristics, often under the influence of settlers or neighbors speaking different Greek dialects.

After the conquests of [[Alexander the Great]] in the late 4th century BC, a new international dialect known as [[Koine Greek|Koine]] or Common Greek developed, largely based on [[Attic Greek]], but with influence from other dialects. This dialect slowly replaced most of the older dialects, although the Doric dialect has survived in the [[Tsakonian language]], which is spoken in the region of modern Sparta. Doric has also passed down its aorist terminations into most verbs of [[Demotic Greek]]. By about the 6th century AD, the Koine had slowly metamorphosed into [[Medieval Greek]].

===Related languages===
{{main|Phrygian language}}

[[Phrygian language|Phrygian]] is an extinct [[Indo-European languages|Indo-European]] language of West and Central [[Anatolia]], which is considered by some linguists to have been closely related to [[Greek language|Greek]].<ref name="Brixhe pp. 165–178">Brixhe, Cl. "Le Phrygien". In Fr. Bader (ed.), ''Langues indo-européennes'', pp. 165–178, Paris: CNRS Editions.</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Brixhe |first=Claude |year=2008 |chapter=Phrygian |editor-last=Woodard |editor-first=Roger D |title=The Ancient Languages of Asia Minor |url=https://archive.org/details/ancientlanguages00wood |url-access=limited |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0-521-68496-5 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/ancientlanguages00wood/page/n91 69]–80}} "Unquestionably, however, Phrygian is most closely linked with Greek." (p. 72).</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last=Obrador-Cursach|first=Bartomeu|date=2019-12-01|title=On the place of Phrygian among the Indo-European languages|journal=Journal of Language Relationship|language=ru|volume=17|issue=3–4|pages=243|doi=10.31826/jlr-2019-173-407|s2cid=215769896|doi-access=free |quote=With the current state of our knowledge, we can affirm that Phrygian is closely related to Greek. }}</ref> Among Indo-European branches with living descendants, Greek is often argued to have the closest genetic ties with [[Armenian language|Armenian]]<ref>James Clackson. ''Indo-European Linguistics: An Introduction''. Cambridge University Press, 2007, pp. 11–12.</ref> (see also [[Graeco-Armenian]]) and [[Indo-Iranian languages]] (see [[Graeco-Aryan]]).<ref>Benjamin W. Fortson. ''Indo-European Language and Culture''. Blackwell, 2004, p. 181.</ref><ref>Henry M. Hoenigswald, "Greek", ''The Indo-European Languages'', ed. [[Anna Giacalone Ramat]] and Paolo Ramat (Routledge, 1998 pp. 228–260), p. 228.<br>[[BBC]]: [https://www.bbc.co.uk/languages/european_languages/languages/greek.shtml Languages across Europe: Greek] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201114002806/http://www.bbc.co.uk/languages/european_languages/languages/greek.shtml |date=14 November 2020 }}</ref>