Doric or Dorian (), also known as West Greek, was a group of Ancient Greek dialects; its varieties are divided into the Doric proper and Northwest Doric subgroups. Doric was spoken in a vast area, including northern Greece (Acarnania, Aetolia, Epirus, western and eastern Locris, Phocis, Doris, Orestis, Elimiotis, Pelagonia, Lynkestis and possibly Macedon), most of the Peloponnese (Achaea, Elis, Messenia, Laconia, Argolid, Aegina, Corinthia, and Megara), the Southern Aegean (Kythira, Milos, Thera, Crete, Karpathos, and Rhodes), as well as the colonies of some of those regions in Cyrene, Magna Graecia, the Black Sea, the Ionian Sea and the Adriatic Sea, and Asia Minor. It was also spoken in the Greek sanctuaries of Dodona, Delphi, and Olympia, as well as at the four Panhellenic festivals; the Isthmian, Nemean, Pythian, and Olympic Games.

By Hellenistic times, under the Achaean League, an Achaean Doric koine appeared, exhibiting many peculiarities common to all Doric dialects, which delayed the spread of the Attic-based Koine Greek to the Peloponnese until the 2nd century BC. The only living descendant of Doric is the Tsakonian language which is still spoken in Greece today; though critically endangered, with only a few hundred – mostly elderly – fluent speakers left.

It is widely accepted that Doric originated in the mountains of Epirus in northwestern Greece, the original seat of the Dorians. It then expanded to all other regions and the colonisations that followed. The presence of a Doric state (Doris) in central Greece, north of the Gulf of Corinth, led to the theory that Doric had originated in northwest Greece or maybe beyond in the Balkans. The dialect's distribution towards the north extends to the Megarian colony of Byzantium and the Corinthian colonies of Potidaea, Epidamnos, Apollonia and Ambracia; there, it further added words to what would become the Albanian language, probably via traders from a now-extinct "Adriatic Illyrian" intermediary. In the north, local epigraphical evidence includes the decrees of the Epirote League, the Pella curse tablet, three additional lesser known Macedonian inscriptions (all of them identifiable as Doric), 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. 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. West Thessalian and Boeotian had come under a strong Northwest Doric influence.

While Northwest Doric is generally seen as a dialectal group, 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.

The earliest epigraphic texts for Northwest Doric date to the 6th–5th century BC.

  1. Dative plural of the third declension in (-ois) (instead of (-si)): Akarnanois hippeois for Akarnasin hippeusin (to the Acarnanian knights).
  2. (en) + accusative (instead of (eis)): en Naupakton (into Naupactus).
  3. (-st) for (-sth): genestai for genesthai (to become), mistôma for misthôma (payment for hiring).
  4. ar for er: amara /Dor. amera/Att. hêmera (day), Elean wargon for Doric wergon and Attic ergon (work)
  5. Dative singular in -oi instead of -ôi: , Doric , Attic (to Asclepius)
  6. Middle participle in -eimenos instead of -oumenos

Four or five dialects of Northwestern Doric are recognised.

Phocian

thumb|upright=0.6|Ancient Phocis in Greece

This dialect was spoken in Phocis and in its main settlement of Delphi, where a local form known as the Delphian dialect was spoken. Plutarch says that Delphians pronounce b in the place of p ( for ).

Locrian

Locrian Greek is attested in two locations:

  • Ozolian Locris, along the northwest coast of the Gulf of Corinth around Amfissa (earliest );
  • Opuntian Locris, on the coast of mainland Greece opposite northwest Euboea, around Opus.

Elean

The dialect of Elis (earliest ) is considered, after Aeolic Greek, one of the most difficult for the modern reader of epigraphic texts.

Aetolian

The dialect of ancient Aetolia.

Acarnanian

The dialect of ancient Acarnania.

Epirote

Spoken at the Dodona oracle, (earliest –500 BC) firstly under control of the Thesprotians; later organized in the Epirote League (since ) under the control of Molossians.

Ancient Macedonian

thumb|upright=1.2|Macedon (orange)

In the region of Upper Macedonia, the tribes of Elimiotae, Orestae, Lyncestae, and Pelagones, were all Epirotic tribes and used the Northwest Greek dialect.

Most scholars maintain that ancient Macedonian was a Greek dialect, probably of the Northwestern Doric group in particular. 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).

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". 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". Georgios Giannakis supports the view that recent scholarship has established the position of ancient Macedonian within the dialect map of North-West Greek. There has been some recent scholarly agreement, often expressed as cautious or tentative, that ancient Macedonian belongs to the Northwest Greek group. However, according to Hatzopoulos, B. Helly expanded and improved his own earlier suggestion and presented the hypothesis of a (North-)'Achaean' substratum extending as far north as the head of the Thermaic Gulf, which had a continuous relation, in prehistoric times both in Thessaly and 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 to Lower Macedonia in the 7th c. BC. Angelos Boufalis suggests that "several features can be established as local and most of them seem indeed to be shared with the NW Doric and/or the Thessalian dialect"; but also that "rather than a monolithic dialect throughout, different local or regional idioms may have had been spoken in this extensive geographical area".

Achaean Doric

Achaean Doric most probably belonged to the Northwest Doric group. 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.

Achaean Doric koine

By Hellenistic times, under the Achaean League, an Achaean Doric koine appeared, exhibiting many peculiarities common to all Doric dialects, which delayed the spread of the Attic-based Koine Greek to the Peloponnese until the 2nd century BC. Such texts have been found in W. Locris, Phocis, and Phtiotis, among other sites. It contained a mix of native Northwest Doric dialectal elements and Attic forms. It was apparently based on the most general features of Northwest Doric, eschewing less common local traits.

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.

  • brykainai (Attic hiereiai) "priestesses"
  • bryketos (Attic brygmos, brykēthmos) "chewing, grinding, gnashing with the teeth"
  • Elōos – epithet of Hephaestus ()
  • Karrōn (Attic kreittōn; Ionic kreissōn; Cretan kartōn) "stronger"
  • korygēs (Attic kēryx; Aeolic karoux) "herald, messenger"
  • laios (Homeric, Attic, and Modern Greek aristeros) "left". Cretan: laia; Attic aspis "shield"; Hesychius: laipha, laiba – because the shield was held with the left hand. Cf. Latin laevus.
  • laia (Attic, Modern Greek leia) "prey"
  • leiō (Attic ethelō) "will"
  • oinōtros "vine pole" (cf. Greek oinos "wine"; see Oenotrus)
  • mogionti (Ionic pyressousi) "they are on fire, have fever" (= Attic mogousi "they suffer, take pains to")
  • Myrmēdones (Attic myrmēkes) "ants" (cf. Myrmidons)
  • optillos or optilos "eye" (Attic ophthalmos; Latin oculus; cf. Attic optikos "of sight", source of "optics")
  • paomai (Attic ktaomai) "acquire"
  • rhapidopoios "poet, broiderer, pattern-weaver, boot-maker" (from rhapis "needle"; cf. Attic rhaphis)
  • skana (Attic skēnē "tent, stage, scene"; Homeric klisiē; Doric skanama "encampment")
  • tanthalyzein (Attic tremein) "to tremble"
  • tunē or tounē "you" (nominative; Attic sy); dative: teein (Attic soi)
  • chanaktion (Attic mōron) "foolish"; cf. chan "goose"

Doric proper

Argolic

  • Ballakrádes – title of Argive athletes on a feast-day (Cf. achras wild pear-tree)
  • Daulìs – mimic festival at Argos (acc. Pausanias 10.4.9; daulis means thicket) (Hes.daulon – fire log)
  • droón (Attic ischyron, dynaton) – strong
  • késter (Attic neanias) – youngman
  • kyllárabis – discus and gymnasium at Argos
  • semalía (Attic rhakē, cf. himatia) – ragged, tattered garments
  • ôbea (Attic ôa) – eggs

Cretan

  • agela – "group of boys in the Cretan agōgē" (Cf. Homeric Greek agelē "herd") (Cretan apagelos not yet received in agelê, boy under 17)
  • adnos – "holy, pure" (Attic hagnos) (Ariadne)
  • awtos (Attic autos) – Hsch. aus
  • akara – "legs" (Attic skelê)
  • hamakis – "once" (Attic hapax)
  • argetos – juniper, cedar (Attic arkeuthos)
  • auka – "power" (Attic alkê)
  • aphrattias – "strong"
  • balikiôtai – Koine synepheboi (Attic hêlikiotai "age-peers" of the same age hêlikia)
  • britu – "sweet" (Attic glyku)
  • damioô – Cretan and Boeotian for Attic zêmioô "to damage, punish, harm"
  • dampon – first milk curdled by heating over embers (Attic puriephthon, puriatê)
  • dôla – "ears" (Attic ôta) (Tarentine ata)
  • Welchanos – for Cretan Zeus and Welchanios, Belchanos, Gelchanos (Elchanios Cnossus month)
  • wergaddomai – "I work" (Attic ergazomai)
  • wêma – "garment" (Attic heima; Aeolic emma; Koine himmation)
  • ibên – "wine" (Dialectal woînos; Attic oinos; accusative ibêna)
  • itton – "one" (Attic hen)
  • karanô – "goat"
  • kosmos – in Crete, used of the body of archontes; Attic kosmos = "order, ornament, honour, world"; kormos = "trunk of a tree"
  • kypheron, kuphê – "head" (Attic kephalê)
  • lakos – "rag, tattered garment" (Attic rhakos; Aeolic brakos "long robe")
  • malkenis – (Attic parthenos; Hsch: malakinnês)
  • othrun – "mountain" (Attic oros) (Cf. Othrys)
  • rhyston – "spear"
  • seipha – "darkness" (Attic zophos, skotia; Aeolic dnophos)
  • speusdos – "title of Cretan officer" (Cf. speudô "rush")
  • tagana – "these things" (Attic tauta)
  • tiros – "summer" (Homeric, Attic theros)
  • tre – "you", accusative (Attic se)

Laconian

  • abêr storeroom
  • awôr dawn (Attic ἠώς êôs) (Latin aurora)
  • adda need, deficiency (Attic endeia) Aristophanes of Byzantium(fr. 33)
  • addauon dry (i.e. azauon) or addanon (Attic xêron)
  • aikouda (Attic aischunē)
  • haimatia blood-broth, Spartan Melas Zomos Black soup) (haima haimatos blood)
  • aïtas (Attic erōmenos) "beloved boy (in a pederastic relationship)"
  • akkor tube, bag (Attic askos)
  • akchalibar bed (Attic skimpous)(Koine krabbatos)
  • ambrotixas having begun, past participle(amphi or ana..+ ?) (Attic aparxamenos, aparchomai) (Doric -ixas for Attic -isas)
  • ampesai (Attic amphiesai) to dress
  • apaboidôr out of tune (Attic ekmelôs) (Cf.Homeric singer Aoidos) / emmelôs, aboidôr in tune
  • apella (Attic ekklēsia) "assembly in Sparta" (verb apellazein)
  • arbylis (Attic aryballos) (Hesychius: ἀρβυλίδα λήκυθον. Λάκωνες)
  • Ἄρταμις Ártamis (Attic Ἄρτεμις Ártemis)
  • attasi wake up, get up (Attic anastêthi)
  • babalon imperative of cry aloud, shout (Attic kraugason)
  • bagaron (Attic χλιαρόν chliaron 'warm') (Cf. Attic φώγω phōgō 'roast') (Laconian word)
  • bapha broth (Attic zômos) (Attic baphê dipping of red-hot iron in water (Koine and Modern Greek βαφή vafi dyeing)
  • weikati twenty (Attic εἴκοσι eikosi)
  • bela sun and dawn Laconian (Attic helios Cretan abelios)
  • bernômetha Attic klêrôsômetha we will cast or obtain by lot (inf. berreai) (Cf.Attic meiresthai receive portion, Doric bebramena for heimarmenê, allotted by Moirai)
  • beskeros bread (Attic artos)
  • bêlêma hindrance, river dam (Laconian)
  • bêrichalkon fennel (Attic marathos) ( bronze)
  • bibasis Spartan dance for boys and girls
  • bidyoi bideoi, bidiaioi also "officers in charge of the ephebes at Sparta"
  • biôr almost, maybe (Attic , ) wihôr ()
  • blagis spot (Attic kêlis)
  • boua "group of boys in the Spartan agōgē"
  • bo(u)agos "leader of a boua at Sparta"
  • bullichês Laconian dancer (Attic )
  • bônêma speech (Homeric, Ionic eirêma eireo) (Cf.Attic phônêma sound, speech)
  • gabergor labourer (ga earth wergon work) (Cf.geôrgos farmer)
  • gaiadas citizens, people (Attic )
  • gonar mother Laconian (gonades children Eur. Med. 717)
  • dabelos torch (Attic dalos)(Syracusan daelos, dawelos)(Modern Greek davlos) (Laconian ' (Attic kauthêi) it should be burnt)
  • diza goat (Attic aix) and Hera aigophagos Goat-eater in Sparta
  • eirēn (Attic ephēbos) "Spartan youth who has completed his 12th year"
  • eispnēlas (Attic erastēs) one who inspires love, a lover (Attic eispneô inhale, breathe)
  • exôbadia (Attic ; ears)
  • ephoroi (Attic archontes) "high officials at Sparta". Cf. Attic ephoros "overseer, guardian"
  • Thoratês Apollon thoraios containing the semen, god of growth and increase
  • thrônax drone (Attic kêphên)
  • kapha washing, bathing-tub (Attic loutêr) (Cf.skaphê basin, bowl)
  • keloia (kelya, kelea also) "contest for boys and youths at Sparta"
  • kirafox (Attic ) (Hsch kiraphos).
  • mesodma, messodoma woman and (Attic )
  • myrtalis Butcher's broom (Attic oxumursinê) (Myrtale real name of Olympias)
  • pasor passion (Attic pathos)
  • por leg, foot (Attic )
  • pourdain restaurant (Koine mageirion) (Cf.purdalon, purodansion (from pyr fire hence pyre)
  • salabar cook (Common Doric/Attic )
  • sika 'pig' (Attic hus) and grôna female pig.
  • siria safeness (Attic )
  • psithômias ill, sick (Attic asthenês)
  • psilaker first dancer
  • ôba (Attic kōmē) "village; one of five quarters of the city of Sparta"

Magna Graecia's Doric

  • astyxenoi Metics, Tarentine
  • bannas king basileus, wanax, anax
  • beilarmostai cavalry officers Tarentine (Attic ilarchai) (ilē, squadron + Laconian harmost-)
  • dostore 'you make' Tarentine (Attic )
  • Thaulia "festival of Tarentum", thaulakizein 'to demand sth with uproar' Tarentine, thaulizein "to celebrate like Dorians", Thaulos "Macedonian Ares", Thessalian Zeus Thaulios, Athenian Zeus Thaulon, Athenian family Thaulonidai
  • rhaganon easy Thuriian (Attic ) (Aeolic )
  • skytas 'back-side of neck' (Attic )
  • tênês till Tarentine (Attic )
  • tryphômata whatever are fed or nursed, children, cattle (Attic thremmata)
  • huetis jug, amphora Tarentine (Attic hydris, hydria)(huetos rain)

North-West

Aetolian-Acarnanian

  • agridion 'village' Aetolian (Attic chôrion)(Hesychius text: dim. of agros countryside, field)
  • aeria fog Aetolian (Attic omichlê, aêr air)(Hsch.)
  • kibba wallet, bag Aetolian (Attic pêra) (Cypr. kibisis) (Cf.Attic kibôtos ark kibôtion box Suid. cites kibos)
  • plêtomon Acarnanian old, ancient (Attic palaion,palaiotaton very old)

Delphic-Locrian

  • deilomai will, want Locrian, Delphian(Attic boulomai) (Coan dêlomai) (Doric bôlomai) (Thessalian belloumai)
  • Wargana female worker epithet for Athena (Delphic) (Attic Erganê) (Attic ergon work, Doric Wergon, Elean wargon
  • Werrô go away Locrian (Attic errô) (Hsch. berrês fugitive, berreuô escape)
  • Wesparioi Lokroi Epizephyrian (Western) Locrians (Attic hesperios of evening, western, Doric wesperios) (cf. Latin Vesper)
  • opliai places where the Locrians counted their cattle

Elean

  • awlaneôs without fraud, honestly IvO7 (Attic adolôs)(Hsch.alanes true)(Tarentinian alaneôs absolutely)
  • amillux scythe (Attic drepanon) in accus. (Boeotian amillakas wine)
  • attamios unpunished (Attic azêmios) from an earliest addamios (cf.Cretan, Boeotian damioô punish)
  • babakoi cicadas Elean (Attic tettiges) (in Pontus babakoi frogs)
  • baideios ready (Attic hetoimos) (heteos fitness)
  • beneoi Elean
  • borsos pole, stake (Attic stauros)
  • bra brothers, brotherhood (Cf.Attic phratra)
  • bratana ladle (Attic torune) (Doric rhatana) (cf. Aeolic bradanizô brandish, shake off)
  • deirêtai small birds (Macedonian drêes or drêges) (Attic strouthoi) (Hsc. trikkos small bird and king by Eleans)
  • wratra law, contract (Attic rhetra)
  • seros yesterday (Attic chthes)
  • sterchana funeral feast (Attic perideipnon)
  • philax young oak (Macedonian ilax, Latin ilex (Laconian dilax ariocarpus, sorbus)(Modern Cretan azilakas Quercus ilex)
  • phorbuta gums (Attic oula) (Homeric pherbô feed, eat)

Epirote

  • anchôrixantas having transferred, postponed Chaonian (Attic metapherô, anaballô) (anchôrizo anchi near +horizô define and Doric x instead of Attic s) (Cf. Ionic anchouros neighbouring) not to be confused with Doric anchôreô Attic ana-chôreô go back, withdraw.
  • akathartia impurity (Attic/Doric akatharsia) (Lamelles Oraculaires 14)
  • apotrachô run away (Attic/Doric apotrechô)
  • aspaloi fishes Athamanian (Attic ichthyes) (Ionic chlossoi) (Cf.LSJ aspalia angling, aspalieus fisherman, aspalieuomai I angle metaph. of a lover, aspalisai: halieusai, sagêneusai. (hals sea)
  • Aspetos divine epithet of Achilles in Epirus (Homeric aspetos 'unspeakable, unspeakably great, endless' (Aristotle F 563 Rose; Plutarch, Pyrrhus 1; SH 960,4)
  • gnôskô know (Attic γιγνώσκω gignôskô) (Ionic/Koine ginôskô) (Latin nōsco)(Attic gnôsis, Latin notio knowledge) (ref.Orion p. 42.17)
  • diaitos (Hshc. judge kritês) (Attic diaitêtês arbitrator) Lamelles Oraculaires 16
  • eskichremen lend out (Lamelles Oraculaires 8 of Eubandros) (Attic eis + inf. kichranai from chraomai use)
  • weidus knowing (Doric ) weidôs) (Elean weizos) (Attic ) eidôs) (PIE *weid- "to know, to see", Sanskrit veda I know) Cabanes, L'Épire 577,50
  • kaston wood Athamanian (Attic xylon from xyô scrape, hence xyston); Sanskrit kāṣṭham ("wood, timber, firewood") (Dialectical kalon wood, traditionally derived from kaiô burn kauston sth that can be burnt, kausimon fuel)
  • lêïtêres Athamanian priests with garlands Hes.text (LSJ: lêitarchoi public priests ) (hence Leitourgia
  • manu small Athamanian (Attic mikron, brachu) (Cf. manon rare) (PIE *men- small, thin) (Hsch. banon thin) ( manosporos thinly sown manophullos with small leaves Thphr.HP7.6.2–6.3)
  • Naios or Naos epithet of Dodonaean Zeus (from the spring in the oracle) (cf. Naiades and Pan Naios in Pydna SEG 50:622 (Homeric naô flow, Attic nama spring) (PIE *sna-)
  • pagaomai 'wash in the spring' (of Dodona) (Doric paga Attic pêgê running water, fountain)
  • pampasia (to ask peri pampasias cliché phrase in the oracle) (Attic pampêsia full property) (Doric paomai obtain)
  • Peliganes or Peligones (Epirotan, Macedonian senators)
  • prami do optative (Attic prattoimi) Syncope (Lamelles Oraculaires 22)
  • tine (Attic/Doric tini) to whom (Lamelles Oraculaires 7)
  • trithutikon triple sacrifice tri + thuo(Lamelles Oraculaires 138)

Achaean Doric

  • kairoteron (Attic: ἐνωρότερον enôroteron) "earlier" (kairos time, enôros early cf. Horae)
  • kephalidas (Attic: κόρσαι korsai) "sideburns" (kephalides was also an alternative for epalxeis 'bastions' in Greek proper)
  • sialis (Attic: βλέννος blennos) (cf. blennorrhea) slime, mud (Greek sialon or sielon saliva, modern Greek σάλιο salio)

See also

  • Griko language

Notes

References

Inline

General

Further reading

  • Bakker, Egbert J., ed. 2010. A companion to the Ancient Greek language. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell.
  • Cassio, Albio Cesare. 2002. "The language of Doric comedy." In The language of Greek comedy. Edited by Anton Willi, 51–83. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
  • Colvin, Stephen C. 2007. A historical Greek reader: Mycenaean to the koiné. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
  • Horrocks, Geoffrey. 2010. Greek: A history of the language and its speakers. 2nd ed. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell.
  • Palmer, Leonard R. 1980. The Greek language. London: Faber & Faber.
  • Doric Greek in Encyclopædia Britannica
  • Grammar of the Greek Language (<!-- pg=242 quote=Doric dialect. --> M1 Doric by Benjamin Franklin Fisk (1844)
  • The Elements of Greek Grammar <!-- pg=309 quote=Doric dialect. --> Doric by Richard Valpy, Charles Anthon (1834)
  • Doric/Northwest Greek Brill's New Pauly Online