Editing Dorians (section)

===Distinctions of language===
{{Main|Doric Greek}}
The [[Doric Greek|Doric]] dialect was spoken in northwest Greece, the [[Peloponnese]], [[Crete]], southwest [[Asia Minor]], the southernmost islands of the [[Aegean Sea]], and the various Dorian colonies of [[Magna Graecia]] in [[Southern Italy]] and [[Sicily]]. After the classical period, it was mainly replaced by the [[Attic Greek|Attic]] dialect upon which the [[Koine Greek|Koine]] or "common" Greek language of the [[Hellenistic period]] was based. The main characteristic of Doric was the preservation of [[Proto-Indo-European]] {{IPA|[aː]}}, long {{angbr|α}}, which in Attic-Ionic became {{IPA|el|ɛː|}}, {{angbr|η}}. A famous example is the valedictory phrase uttered by Spartan mothers to their sons before sending them off to war: ἢ τὰν ἢ ἐπὶ τᾶς (''ḕ tàn ḕ epì tâs'', literally "either with it or on it": return alive with your shield
or dead upon it) would have been ἢ τὴν ἢ ἐπὶ τῆς (''ḕ t'''ḕ'''n ḕ epì t'''ê'''s'') in the [[Attic Greek|Attic]]-[[Ionic Greek|Ionic]] dialect of an Athenian mother. [[Tsakonian language|Tsakonian]], a descendant of Doric Greek, is still spoken in some parts of the southern [[Regions of ancient Greece#Argolis|Argolid]] coast of the [[Peloponnese]], in the modern prefecture of [[Arcadia (regional unit)|Arcadia]].{{citation needed|date=November 2019}}