Editing Doric Greek (section)

====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''.