Editing Doric Greek (section)

===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.