Chief Characteristics of the Greek Dialects
1. Arcadian and Cyprian.—As Cyprian was written in a syllabary which could not represent a consonant by itself, did not distinguish between voiced, unvoiced and aspirated consonants, did not represent at all a nasal before another consonant, and did not distinguish between long and short vowels, the interpretation of the symbols is of the nature of a conundrum and the answer is not always certain. Thus the same combination of two symbols would have to stand for τότε, τόδε, δότε, δοθῆ, τόνδε, τῶδε, τὸ, δή. No inscription of more than a few words in length is found in either dialect earlier than the 5th century B.C. In both dialects the number of important inscriptions is steadily increasing. Both dialects change final ο to υ, ἀπό passing into ἀπύ. Arcadian changes the verb ending -αι into -οι. Arcadian uses δ or ζ for an original gw-sound, which appears in Attic Greek as β: ζέλλω, Attic βάλλω, “throw.” In inflexion both agree in changing -ᾶο of masculine -α stems into αυ (Arcadian carries this form also into the feminine -α stems), and in using locatives in -αι and -οι for the dative, such locatives being governed by the prepositions ἀπύ and ἐξ (before a consonant ἐς in Arcadian). Verbs in -αω, -εω and -οω are declined not as -ω, but as -μι verbs. The final ι of the ending of the 3rd plural present changes the preceding τ to σ: φέρονσι, cp. Laconian (Doric) φέροντι, Attic φέρουσι, Lesbian φέροισι. Instead of the Attic τίς, the interrogative pronoun appears as σίς, the initial σ in Arcadian being written with a special symbol ϟ. The pronunciation is not certain. The original sound was qw, as in Latin quis, whence Attic τίς and Thessalian κίς. In Arcadian καν the Aeolic particle κε and the Ionic αν seem to be combined.
2. Aeolic.—Though Boeotian is overlaid with a Doric element, it nevertheless agrees with Thessalian and Lesbian in some characteristics. Unlike Greek generally, they represent the original qw of the word for four by π before ε, where Attic and other dialects have τ: πέτταρες, Attic τέτταρες. The corresponding voiced and aspirated sounds are similarly treated: Βέλφαιος the adjective in Thessalian to Δελφοί, and φήρ for θήρ. They all tend to change ο to υ: ὄνυμα, “name”; ου for ω in Thessalian: Ἄπλουν, “Apollo”; and υ in Boeotian for οι: ϝυκία (οἰκία), “house.” They also make the dative plural of the third declension in -εσσι, and the perfect participle active is declined like a present participle in -ων. Instead of the Athenian method of giving the father’s name in the genitive when a citizen is described, these dialects (especially Thessalian) tend to make an adjective: thus instead of the Attic Δημοσθένης Δημοσθένους, Aeolic would rather have Δ. Δημοσθένειος. Thessalian stands midway between Lesbian and Boeotian, agreeing with Lesbian in the use of double consonants, where Attic has a single consonant, with or without lengthening of the previous syllable: ἐμμί, Attic εἰμί for an original *esmi; στάλλα, Attic στήλη; ξέννος for an earlier ξένϝος, Attic ξένος, Ionic ξεῖνος, Doric ξῆνος. Where Attic has -ᾶς from an earlier -ανς or -αντς, Lesbian has -αις: ταὶς ἄρχαις accusative in Lesbian for older τὰνς ἄρχανς. Lesbian has no oxyton words according to the grammarians, the accent being carried back to the penult or ante-penultimate syllable. It has also no “rough breathing,” but this characteristic it shared with the Ionic of Asia Minor, and in the course of time with other dialects. The characteristic particle of the dialects is κε, which is used like the Doric κα, the Arcadian καν, and the Attic and Ionic ἄν. Thessalian and Lesbian agree in making their long vowels close, η belonging ει (a close ē, not a diphthong), πατείρ, “father.” The υ sound did not become ü as in Attic and Ionic, and hence when the Ionic alphabet was introduced it was spelt ου, or when in contact with dentals ιου, as in ὀνίουμα = ὄνυμα, “name,” τιούχα = τύχη, “chance”; the pronunciation, therefore, must have been like the English sound in news, tune. Boeotian developed earlier than other dialects the changes in the vowels which characterize modern Greek: αι became ē, καὶ passing into κή: compare πατείρ and ϝυκία above: ει became ι in ἔχι, “has.” Thessalian shows some examples of the Homeric genitive in -οιο: πολέμοιο, &c.; its ordinary genitive of ο- stems is in -οι.
There are some points of connexion between this group and Arcadian-Cyprian: in both Thessalian and Cyprian the characteristic πτόλις (Attic, &c., πόλις) and δαυχνα- for δάφνη are found, and both groups form the “contracting verbs” not in -ω but in -μι. In the second group as in the first there is little that precedes the 5th century B.C. Future additions to our materials may be expected to lessen the gap between the two groups and Homer.
3. Ionic-Attic.—One of the earliest of Greek inscriptions—of the 7th century, at least—is the Attic inscription written in two lines from right to left upon a wine goblet (οἰνοχόη) given as a prize: hός νῦν ὀρχεστον πάντον | ἀταλότατα παίζει τοτο δεκᾶν μιν. The last words are uncertain. Till lately early inscriptions in Ionic were few, but recently an early inscription has been found at Ephesus and a later copy of a long early inscription at Miletus.
The most noticeable characteristic of Attic and Ionic is the change of α into η which is universal in Ionic but does not appear in Attic after another vowel or ρ. Thus both dialects used μήτηρ, τιμή from an earlier μᾱτηρ, τιμα, but Attic had σοφία, πρᾶγμα and χώρα, not σοφίη, πρῆγμα and χώρη as in Ionic. The apparent exception κόρη is explained by the fact that in this word a digamma ϝ has been lost after ρ, in Doric κόρϝα. That the change took place after the Ionians came into Asia is shown by the word Μῆδοι, which in Cyprian is Μᾶδοι; the Medes were certainly not known to the Greeks till long after the conquest of Ionia. While Aeolic and the greater part of Doric kept ϝ, this symbol and the sound w represented by it had disappeared from both Ionic and Attic before existing records begin—in other words, were certainly not in use after 800 B.C. The symbol was known and occurs in a few isolated instances. Both dialects agreed in changing u into ü, so that a u sound has to be represented by ου. The short o tended towards u, so that the contraction of ο + ο gave ου. In the same way short e tended towards i, so that the contraction of ε + ε gave ει, which was not a diphthong but a close ē-sound. In Attic Greek these contractions were represented by O and E respectively till the official adoption of the Ionic alphabet at Athens in 403 B.C. So also were the lengthened syllables which represent in their length the loss of an earlier consonant, as ἔμεινα and ἔνειμα, Aeolic ἔμεννα, ἔνεμμα, which stand for a prehistoric *ἔμενσα and *ἔνεμσα, containing the -σ- of the first aorist, and τοὺς, οἴκους, ἔχουσι representing an earlier τόνς, οἴκονς, ἔχοντι (3 pl. present) or *ἔχοντσι (dative pl. of present participle). Both dialects also agreed in changing τ before ι into σ (like Aeolic), as in ἔχουσι above, and in the 3rd person singular of -μι verbs, τίθησι, δίδωσι, &c., and in noun stems, as in δόσις for an earlier *δότις. Neither dialect used the particle κε or κα, but both have ἄν instead. One of the effects of the change of ᾱ into η was that the combination ᾱο changed in both dialects to ηο, which in all Attic records and in the later Ionic has become εω by a metathesis in the quantity of the vowels: νᾱός, earlier νᾱϝός, “temple,” is in Homeric Greek νηός, in later Ionic and Attic νεώς. In the dative (locative) plural of the -ᾱ stems, Ionic has generally -ηισι on the analogy of the singular; Attic had first the old locative form in -ησι, -ᾱσι, which survived in forms which became adverbs like Ἀθήνησι and θύρᾱσι; but after 420 B.C. these were replaced by -αις, θύραις, &c. The Ionic of Asia Minor showed many changes earlier than that of the Cyclades and Euboea. It lost the aspirate very early: hence in the Ionic alphabet H is ē, not h; it changed αυ and ευ into αο and εο, and very early replaced to a large extent the -μι by the -ω verbs. This confusion can be seen in progress in the Attic literature of the 5th and 4th centuries B.C., δείκνυμι gradually giving way to δεικνύω, while the literature generally uses forms like ἐφίει for ἐφίη (impft.). In Attica also the aspiration which survived in the Ionic of Euboea and the Cyclades ceased by the end of the 5th century. The Ionic of Asia Minor has -ιος as the genitive of ι-stems; the other forms of Ionic have -ιδος.
4. Doric.—As already mentioned, the dialects of the North-West differ in several respects from Doric elsewhere. As general characteristics of Doric may be noted the contractions of α + ε into η, and of α + ο or ω into ᾱ, while the results in Attic and Ionic of these contractions are ᾱ and ω respectively: ἐνίκη from νικάω, Attic ἐνίκα; τιμᾶμες 1 pl. pres. from τιμάω, Attic τιμῶμεν; τιμᾶν gen. pl. of τιμᾱ “honour,” Attic τιμῶν. In inflection the most noticeable points are the pronominal adverbs in locative form: τουτεῖ, τηνεῖ (this from a stem limited to a few Doric dialects and the Bucolic Poets), τεῖδε, ὅπει, &c.; the nom. pl. of the article τοί, ταί, not οἱ, αἱ and so τοῦτοι in Selinus and Rhodes; the 1st pl. of the verb in -μες, not in -μεν, cp. the Latin -mus; the aorist and future in -ξ-, where other dialects have -σ-, or contraction from presents in-ζω; δικάζω, δικάσω, Doric δικάξω, &c.; the future passive with active endings, ἐπιμεληθησεῦντι (Rhodes), found as yet only in the Doric islands and in the Doric prose of Archimedes; the particles αἱ “if” and κα with a similar value to the Aeolic κε and the Attic-Ionic ἄν. Doric had an accentuation system different both from Aeolic and from Ionic-Attic, but the details of the system are very imperfectly known.
In older works Doric is often divided into a dialectus severior and a dialectus mitis. But the difference is one of time rather than of place, the peculiarities of Doric being gradually softened down till it was ultimately merged in the lingua franca, the κοινή, which in time engulfed all the local dialects except the descendant of Spartan, Tzakonian. Here it is possible to mention its varieties only in the briefest form. (a) The southern dialects are well illustrated in the inscriptions of Laconia recently much increased in number by the excavations of the British School at Athens. Apart from some brief dedications, the earliest inscription of importance is the list of names placed on a bronze column soon after 479 B.C. to commemorate the tribes which had repulsed the Persians. The column, originally at Delphi, is now at Constantinople. The most striking features of the dialect are the retention of ϝ at the beginning of words, as in the dedication from the 6th century ϝαναξίβιος (Annual of British School, xiv. 144). The dialect changed -σ- between vowels into -h-, μῶhα for μῶσα “muse.” Later it changed θ into a sound like the English th, which was represented by σ. Before o-sounds ε here and in some other Doric dialects changed to ι: θιός, σιός for θεός “god.” The result of contraction and “compensatory lengthening” was not ει and ου as in Attic and Ionic, but η and ω: ἦμεν infinitive = εἶναι from *esmen; gen. sing. of o-stems in ω: θεῶ, acc. pl. in -ως: θεώς; dy was represented by δδ, not ζ, as in Attic-Ionic; μύσιδδε = μύθιζε. The dialect has many strange words, especially in connexion with the state education and organization of the boys and young men. The Heraclean tables from a Laconian colony in S. Italy have curious forms in -ασσι for the dat. pl. of the participle πρασσόντασσι = Attic πράττουσι. Of the dialect of Messenia we know little, the long inscription about mysteries from Andania being only about 100 B.C. From Argolis there are a considerable number of early inscriptions, and in a later form of the dialect the cures recorded at the temple of Asklepios at Epidaurus present many points of interest. There is also an inscription of the 6th century B.C. from the temple of Aphaia in Aegina. ϝ survives in the old inscriptions: ϝεϝρεμένα (= εἰρημένα); νς, whether original or arising by sound change from -nty, persists till the 2nd century B.C.: hαντιτυχόνσα = ἡ ἀντιτυχοῦσα, τὸνς υἱόνς = τοὺς υἱούς. The dialect of the Inachus valley seems to resemble Laconian more closely than does that of the rest of the Argolic area. Corinth and her colonies in the earliest inscriptions preserve ϝ and ϙ (= Latin Q) before ο and υ sounds, and write ξ and ψ by χσ and φσ, the symbols which are used also for this purpose in old Attic. In the Corcyrean and Sicilian forms of the dialect, λ before a dental appears as ν: Φιντίας = Φιλτίας; and in Sicilian the perfect-active was treated as a present: δεδοίκω for δέδοικα, &c. From Megara has come lately an obscure inscription from the beginning of the 5th century; its colony Selinus has inscriptions from the middle of the same century; the inscriptions from Byzantium and its other Pontic colonies date only from Hellenistic times. In Crete, which shows a considerable variety of subdialects, the most important document is the great inscription from Gortyn containing twelve tables of family law, which was discovered in 1884. The local alphabet has no separate symbols for χ and φ, and these sounds are therefore written with κ and π. As in Argive the combination -νς was kept both medially and finally except before words beginning with a consonant; -ty- was represented by ζ, later by -ττ-, as in Thessalian and Boeotian: ὁπόττοι, Attic ὁπόσοι; and finally by -θθ-; λ combined with a preceding vowel into an au-diphthong: αὐκά, Attic ἀλκή, cp. the English pronunciation of talk, &c. In Gortyn and some other towns -σθ—was assimilated to—θθ, where θ must have been a spirant like the English th in thin; ζ of Attic Greek is represented initially by δ, medially by δδ, but in some towns by τ and ττ: δοός (= ζωός), δικάδδεν (= δικάζειν). Final consonants are generally assimilated to the beginning of the next word. In inflection there are many local peculiarities. In Melos and Thera some very old inscriptions have been found written in an alphabet without symbols for φ, χ, φ, ξ, which are therefore written as πh, κh or ϙh, πσ, κσ. The contractions of ε + ε and of ο + ο are represented by E and O respectively. The old rock inscriptions of Thera are among the most archaic yet discovered. The most characteristic feature of Rhodian Doric is the infinitive in -μειν: δοῦναι, &c. (= Attic δοῦναι), which passed also to Gela and Agrigentum. The inscriptions from Cos are numerous, but too late to represent the earliest form of the dialect.
(b) The dialects of N.W. Doric, Locrian, Phocian, Aetolian, with which go Elean and Achaean, present a more uncouth appearance than the other Doric dialects except perhaps Cretan. Only from Locris and Phocis come fairly old inscriptions; later a κοινή was developed, in which the documents of the Aetolian league are written, and of which the most distinctive mark is the dative plural of consonant stems in -οις: ἀρχόντοις (= Attic ἄρχουσι), ἀγώνοις (= Attic ἀγῶσι), &c. Phocian and the Locrian of Opus have also forms like Aeolic in -εσσι. In place of the dative in -ῳ, locatives in -οι are used in Locrian and Phocian. Generally north of the Corinthian gulf the middle present participle from -εω-verbs ends in-ειμενος; similar forms are found also in Elean. Locrian changed ε before ρ into α: πατάρα for πατέρα; cf. English Kerr and Carr, sergeant and Sargeaunt. στ appears for σθ, and ϙ and ϝ are still much in use in the 5th century B.C. Many thousands of inscriptions were found in the French excavations at Delphi, but nothing earlier than the 5th century B.C. In the older inscriptions the Aeolic influence—datives in -εσσι, ὄνυμα for ὄνομα—is better marked than later. In the Laws of the Labyad phratry (about 400 B.C.) the genitive is in ου, but a form in -ω is also found, ϝοίκω, which seems to be an old ablative fossilized as an adverb. The nom. pl. δεκατέτορες is used for the acc.; similar forms are found in Elean and Achaean.
The more important of the older materials for Achaean come from the Achaean colonies of S. Italy, and being scanty give us only an imperfect view of the dialect, but it is clearly in its main features Doric. Much more remarkable is the Elean dialect known chiefly from inscriptions found at Olympia, some of which are as early as the beginning of the 6th century. The native dialect was replaced first by a Doric and then by the Attic κοινή, but under the Caesars the archaic dialect was restored. Many of its characteristics it shares with the dialects north of the Corinthian gulf, but it changes original ē to α: μά = μη, &c.; δ was apparently a spirant, as in modern Greek (= th in English the, thine), and is represented by ζ in some of the earliest inscriptions. Final -σ became -ρ; this is found also in Laconian; -ty- became -σσ-, but was not simplified as in Attic to -σ-: ὄσσα = Attic ὄσα.