Editing Doric Greek (section)

==Varieties==
===Doric proper===
[[File:Doric Greek Dialects.png|thumb|350px|Doric Greek dialects]]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 [[Ancient Greek dialects|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 language|Tsakonian]], a descendant of Laconian Doric (Spartan), is still spoken on the southern [[Argolis|Argolid]] coast of the Peloponnese, in the modern prefectures of [[Arcadia (regional unit)|Arcadia]] and [[Laconia]]. Today it is a source of considerable interest to linguists, and an endangered dialect.

====Laconian====
[[Image:GreeceLaconia.png|thumb|upright=0.6|Laconia in Greece]]

'''Laconian''' was spoken by the population of [[Laconia]] in the southern [[Peloponnese]] and also by its colonies, [[Taranto|Taras]] and [[Heraclea Lucania|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. 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''.

====Argolic====
[[Image:GreeceArgolis.png|thumb|upright=0.6|Argolis in Greece]]
'''Argolic''' was spoken in the thickly settled northeast Peloponnese at, for example, [[Argos, Peloponnese|Argos]], [[Mycenae]], [[Ermioni|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 [[Dorian invasion|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====
[[Image:GreeceCorinth.png|thumb|upright=0.6|Corinthia in Greece]]

'''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: [[Corfu|Corcyra]], [[Lefkada|Leucas]], [[Anaktorio|Anactorium]], [[Ambracia]] and others, the colonies in and around Italy: [[Syracuse, Sicily]] and [[Ancona]], and the colonies of [[Corfu|Corcyra]]: [[Dyrrachium]], and [[Apollonia (Illyria)|Apollonia]]. The earliest inscriptions at Corinth date from the early sixth century BC.<ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0SDG/is_3_73/ai_n13493402/pg_6 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081011033627/http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0SDG/is_3_73/ai_n13493402/pg_6 | archive-date=11 October 2008 | title=Apollo and the Archaic temple at Corinth &#124; Hesperia &#124; Find Articles at BNET }}</ref> 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 Doric===
The '''Northwest Doric''' (or "Northwest Greek", with "Northwest Doric" now considered more accurate so as not to distance the group from Doric proper) group is closely related to Doric proper.<ref name=Filos227>{{cite encyclopedia |author=Panagiotis Filos |editor1=Georgios Giannakis |editor2= Emilio Crespo |editor3= Panagiotis Filos |title=The Dialectal Variety of Epirus |encyclopedia= Studies in Ancient Greek Dialects: From Central Greece to the Black Sea |date=2017 |publisher=Walter de Gruyter|location= Berlin and Boston | page=227|quote=The North-West group together with Doric (proper) formed the so-called 'West Greek' major dialectal group (or simply 'Doric' […]). However, the term 'North-West Doric' is considered more accurate nowadays […] since there is more emphasis on the many features that are common to both groups rather than on their less numerous and largely secondary differences.}}</ref> Whether it is to be considered a part of the southern 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. [[Aeolic Greek#Thessalian|West Thessalian]] and [[Aeolic Greek#Boeotian|Boeotian]]  had come under a strong Northwest Doric influence.

While Northwest Doric is generally seen as a dialectal group,<ref name=Filos227/> dissenting views exist, such as that of Méndez-Dosuna, who argues that Northwest Doric is not a proper dialectal group but rather merely a case of areal dialectal convergence.<ref>{{cite book|title=Los dialectos dorios del Noroeste. Gramática y estudio dialectal|place=Salamanca|language=es|page=508|date=1985}}</ref> Throughout the Northwest Doric area, most internal differences did not hinder mutual understanding, though Filos, citing Bubenik, notes that there were certain cases where a bit of accommodation may have been necessary.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |author=Panagiotis Filos |editor1=Georgios Giannakis |editor2= Emilio Crespo |editor3= Panagiotis Filos |title=The Dialectal Variety of Epirus |encyclopedia= Studies in Ancient Greek Dialects: From Central Greece to the Black Sea |date=2017 |publisher=Walter de Gruyter|location= Berlin and Boston |page=230}}</ref>

The earliest epigraphic texts for Northwest Doric date to the 6th–5th century BC.<ref name=Filos227/> These are thought to provide evidence for Northwest Doric features, especially the phonology and morphophonology, but most of the features thus attributed to Northwest Doric are not exclusive to it.<ref name=Filos227/> The Northwest Doric dialects differ from the main Doric Group dialects in the below features:<ref>Mendez Dosuna, ''Doric dialects,'' p. 452 [https://books.google.com/books?id=WJbd0m6YaFkC&pg=PA444 online] at Google Books).</ref>
# Dative plural of the [[Ancient Greek nouns#Third declension|third declension]] in {{lang|grc|-οις}} (''-ois'') (instead of {{lang|grc|-σι}} (''-si'')):  {{lang|grc|Ἀκαρνάνοις ἱππέοις}} ''Akarnanois hippeois'' for {{lang|grc|Ἀκαρνᾶσιν ἱππεῦσιν}} ''Akarnasin hippeusin'' (to the Acarnanian knights).
# {{lang|grc|ἐν}} (''en'') + accusative (instead of {{lang|grc|εἰς}} (''eis'')):  ''en Naupakton'' (into Naupactus).
# {{lang|grc|-στ}} (''-st'')  for {{lang|grc|-σθ}} (''-sth''):   {{lang|grc|γενέσται}} ''genestai'' for ''genesthai'' (to become), {{lang|grc|μίστωμα}} ''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'':  {{lang|grc|τοῖ Ἀσκλαπιοῖ}},  Doric  {{lang|grc|τῷ Ἀσκλαπιῷ}}, Attic {{lang|grc|Ἀσκληπιῷ}} (to Asclepius)
# Middle participle in ''-eimenos'' instead of ''-oumenos''

Four or five dialects of Northwestern Doric are recognised.

====Phocian====
This dialect was spoken in [[Phocis (ancient region)|Phocis]] and in its main settlement, [[Delphi]]. Because of that it is also cited as Delphian.{{citation needed|date=August 2016}} [[Plutarch]] says that [[Delphi]]ans pronounce ''b'' in the place of ''p'' ({{lang|grc|βικρὸν}} for {{lang|grc|πικρὸν}})<ref>{{cite book|last=Goodwin|first=William Watson|author-link=William Watson Goodwin|title=Plutarch's Morals, tr. by several hands. Corrected and revised by W.W. Goodwin|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7ugIAAAAQAAJ&pg=PR1|year=1874}} ''Greek questions'' 9.</ref>

====Locrian====
[[Locrian Greek]] is attested in two locations:
* [[Ozolian Locris]], along the northwest coast of the [[Gulf of Corinth]] around [[Amfissa]] (earliest {{Circa|500 BC}});<ref>IG IX,1² 3:609</ref>
* [[Opuntian Locris]], on the coast of mainland Greece opposite northwest [[Euboea]], around [[Opus, Greece|Opus]].

====Elean====
The dialect of [[ancient Elis|Elis]] (earliest {{Circa|600 BC}})<ref>''Die Inschriften von Olympia,'' IvO 1.</ref> is considered, after [[Aeolic Greek]], one of the most difficult for the modern reader of epigraphic texts.<ref>Sophie Minon, ''Les Inscriptions Éléennes Dialectale'', reviewed by Stephen Colvin ([http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/bmcr/2007/2007-11-07.html online]).</ref>

====Epirote====
{{main|Epirote Greek}}
Spoken at the [[Dodona]] oracle, (earliest {{Circa|550}}–500 BC)<ref>''Lamelles Oraculaires'' 77.</ref> firstly under control of the [[Thesprotians]];<ref>{{cite book|author=John Potter|title=Archaeologia Graeca Or the Antiquities of Greece|publisher=C. Strahan|url=https://archive.org/details/archaeologiagrae01pottiala|year=1751}}</ref> later organized in the [[Epirote League]] (since {{Circa|370 BC}}).<ref>Cabanes, ''L'Épire de la mort de Pyrrhos a la conquête romaine (272–167 av. J.C.).'' Paris 1976, p. 534,1.</ref>

====Ancient Macedonian====
Most scholars maintain that [[Ancient Macedonian language|ancient Macedonian]] was a Greek dialect,<ref>{{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 = 2017 | publisher=Walter de Gruyter | chapter-url = https://books.google.com/books?id=XXFLDwAAQBAJ&q=ancient+macedonian+speech&pg=PT301 | page=299 | isbn = 978-3-11-053081-0 }}</ref> probably of the Northwestern Doric group in particular.<ref name=Hammond1>{{cite book| last= Hammond| first= Nicholas Geoffrey Lemprière |author-link= Nicholas Hammond (historian)|title= The Macedonian State. Origins, Institutions and History| orig-year = 1989| edition = reprint |publisher= Oxford University Press|location=Oxford |year= 1993|isbn=0-19-814927-1}}</ref><ref>Michael Meier-Brügger: ''Indo-European linguistics.'' Walter de Gruyter, Berlin and New York 2003, p. 28 ([https://books.google.com/books?id=49xq3UlKWckC&pg=PA28 online] on Google books): "The Macedonian of the ancient kingdom of northern Greece is probably nothing other than a northern Greek dialect of Doric".</ref><ref name= Crespo2017>{{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 = 2017 | publisher = Walter de Gruyter | page = 329 | isbn = 978-3-11-053081-0 }}</ref> [[Olivier Masson]], in his article for ''The Oxford Classical Dictionary'', talks of "two schools of thought": one rejecting "the Greek affiliation of Macedonian" and preferring "to treat it as an Indo-European language of the Balkans" of contested affiliation (examples are Bonfante 1987, and Russu 1938); the other favouring "a purely Greek nature of Macedonian as a northern Greek dialect" with numerous adherents from the 19th century and on (Fick 1874; Hoffmann 1906; Hatzidakis 1897 etc.; Kalleris 1964 and 1976).<ref name= OxfordCD1>{{cite encyclopedia | author = Olivier Masson | title=Macedonian language|editor = Simon Hornblower |editor2=Antony Spawforth| encyclopedia = [[Oxford Classical Dictionary|The Oxford Classical Dictionary]] | orig-year = 1996 | edition = revised 3rd | year = 2003 | publisher = Oxford University Press | location = Oxford | isbn =0-19-860641-9 | pages =905–906 | url=http://www.ucc.ie/staff/jprodr/macedonia/macanclan.html}}</ref>

Masson himself argues with the largely Greek character of the Macedonian [[onomastics]] and sees Macedonian as "a Greek dialect, characterised by its marginal position and by local pronunciations" and probably most closely related to the dialects of the Greek North-West (Locrian, Aetolian, Phocidian, Epirote). Brian D. Joseph acknowledges the closeness of Macedonian to Greek (even contemplating to group them into a "Hellenic branch" of Indo-European), but retains that "[t]he slender evidence is open to different interpretations, so that no definitive answer is really possible".<ref>Brian D. Joseph: "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.'' [http://www.ling.ohio-state.edu/~bjoseph/articles/gancient.htm Online paper] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161001113024/http://www.ling.ohio-state.edu/~bjoseph/articles/gancient.htm |date=2016-10-01 }}, 2001.</ref>  Johannes Engels has pointed to the [[Pella curse tablet]], written in Doric Greek: "This has been judged to be the most important ancient testimony to substantiate that Macedonian was a north-western Greek and mainly a Doric dialect".<ref>Johannes Engels: "Macedonians and Greeks", p. 95. In: Joseph Roisman, Ian Worthington: ''A Companion to Ancient Macedonia.'' Chapter 5. John Wiley & Sons, New York 2011.</ref> [[Miltiades Hatzopoulos]] has suggested that the [[Ancient Macedonian language|Macedonian dialect]] of the 4th century BC, as attested in the [[Pella curse tablet]], was a sort of Macedonian 'koine' resulting from the encounter of the idiom of the '[[Aeolic Greek|Aeolic]]'-speaking populations around [[Mount Olympus]] and the [[Pierian Mountains]] with the Northwest Greek-speaking [[Argead dynasty|Argead]] Macedonians hailing from [[Argos Orestiko]]n, who founded the kingdom of [[Lower Macedonia]].<ref name= Hatzopoulos2017>{{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 = 2017 | publisher=Walter de Gruyter | chapter-url = https://books.google.com/books?id=XXFLDwAAQBAJ&q=ancient+macedonian+speech&pg=PT301 | pages=321–322 | isbn = 978-3-11-053081-0 }}</ref> However, according to Hatzopoulos, B. Helly expanded and improved his own earlier suggestion and presented the hypothesis of a (North-)'[[Mycenaean Greece|Achaean]]'  substratum extending as far north as the head of the [[Thermaic Gulf]], which had a continuous relation, in prehistoric times both in [[Ancient Thessaly|Thessaly]] and [[Macedonia (ancient kingdom)|Macedonia]], with the Northwest Greek-speaking populations living on the other side of the [[Pindus]] mountain range, and contacts became cohabitation  when the Argead Macedonians completed their wandering from [[Orestis (region)|Orestis]] to Lower Macedonia in the 7th c. BC.<ref name= Hatzopoulos2017 /> According to this hypothesis, Hatzopoulos concludes that the [[Ancient Macedonian language|Macedonian]] [[Ancient Greek dialects|Greek dialect]] of the historical period, which is attested in inscriptions, is a sort of koine resulting from the interaction and the influences of various elements, the most important of which are the North-[[Mycenaean Greek|Achaean]] substratum, the Northwest Greek idiom of the [[Argead dynasty|Argead]] [[Ancient Macedonians|Macedonians]], and the [[Thracian language|Thracian]] and [[Phrygian language|Phrygian]] adstrata.<ref name= Hatzopoulos2017 />

====Achaean Doric====
Achaean Doric most probably belonged to the Northwest Doric group.<ref>{{Cite book |editor-last=Woodard |editor-first=Roger D. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=aPEENAEp938C |title=The Ancient Languages of Europe |date=2008 |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |isbn=978-1-139-46932-6 |at=between pages 49 and 50 |language=en}}</ref> It was spoken in [[Achaea]] in the northwestern Peloponnese, on the islands of [[Cephalonia]] and [[Zakynthos]] in the Ionian Sea, and in the Achaean colonies of Magna Graecia in Southern Italy (including [[Sybaris]] and [[Crotone]]). This ''strict'' Doric dialect was later subject to the influence of ''mild'' Doric spoken in [[Corinthia]]. It survived until 350 BC.<ref>''Classification of the West Greek dialects at the time about 350 B.C.'' by Antonín Bartoněk, Amsterdam, Adolf M. Hakkert, 1972, p. 186.</ref>

====Achaean Doric koine====
By [[Hellenistic period|Hellenistic]] times, under the [[Achaean League]], an Achaean Doric [[Koiné language|koine]] appeared, exhibiting many peculiarities common to all Doric dialects, which delayed the spread of the [[Attic Greek|Attic]]-based [[Koine Greek]] to the Peloponnese until the 2nd century BC.<ref name="Buck" />

====Northwest Doric koine====
[[File:Macedonia_and_the_Aegean_World_c.200.png|thumb|right|300px|Political situation in the Greek world around the time at which the Northwest Doric koine arose]]

The Northwest Doric koine refers to a supraregional North-West common variety that emerged in the third and second centuries BC, and was used in the official texts of the [[Aetolian League]].<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |author= Vit Bubenik| title= Variety of speech in Greek linguistics: The dialects and the ''koinè''|editor=Sylvain Auroux |display-editors=etal| encyclopedia=Geschichte der Sprachwissenschaften. Ein internationales Handbuch zur Entwicklung der Sprachforschung von den Anfängen bis zur Gegenwart.|volume= Band 1| url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mL9erLJ5afUC&pg=RA1-PA439|year=2000|publisher=Walter de Gruyter|place=Berlin and New York|page=441 f| isbn=978-3-11-011103-3}}</ref><ref name=Filos230_3>{{cite encyclopedia |author=Panagiotis Filos |editor1=Georgios Giannakis |editor2= Emilio Crespo |editor3= Panagiotis Filos |title=The Dialectal Variety of Epirus |encyclopedia= Studies in Ancient Greek Dialects: From Central Greece to the Black Sea |date=2017 |publisher=Walter de Gruyter|location= Berlin and Boston |pages=230–233}}</ref> Such texts have been found in W. Locris, Phocis, and Phtiotis, among other sites.<ref>{{cite book|author=Vit Bubenik|title=Hellenistic and Roman Greece as a Sociolinguistic Area|place=Amsterdam|year=1989|pages=193–213}}</ref> It contained a mix of native Northwest Doric dialectal elements and Attic forms.<ref>{{cite book |author1=Wojciech Sowa|editor1=Matthias Fritz |editor2=Brian Joseph |editor3=Jared Klein |page=715|title=Handbook of Comparative and Historical Indo-European Linguistics |date=2018 |publisher=De Gruyter Mouton |isbn=978-3-11-054036-9 |chapter=The dialectology of Greek|quote=In different regions of Greece, however, different sorts of koinai emerged, of which the best known was the Doric Koinē, preserving general Doric features, but without local differences, and with an admixture of Attic forms. As in the case of the Doric Koinē, the Northwest Koinē (connected with the so-called Aetolian League) displayed the same mixture of native dialectal elements with Attic elements.}}</ref> It was apparently based on the most general features of Northwest Doric, eschewing less common local traits.<ref name=Filos230_3/><ref>{{cite book|author=S. Minon|date=2014|chapter=Diffusion de l'attique et expansion des ''koinai'' dans le Péloponnèse et en Grèce centrale|title=Actes de la journée internationale de dialectologie grecque du 18 mars 2011, université Paris-Ouest Nanterre|place=Geneva|pages=1–18}}</ref>

Its rise was driven by both linguistic and non-linguistic factors, with non-linguistic motivating factors including the spread of the rival Attic-Ionic koine after it was recruited by the Macedonian state for administration, and the political unification of a vast territories by the Aetolian League and the state of Epirus. The Northwest Doric koine was thus both a linguistic and a political rival of the Attic-Ionic koine.<ref name=Filos230_3/>