Ionic Greek

Ionic or Ionian Greek () was a subdialect of the Eastern or Attic–Ionic dialect group of Ancient Greek. The Ionic group traditionally comprises three dialectal varieties that were spoken in Euboea (West Ionic), the northern Cyclades (Central Ionic), and from BC onward in Asiatic Ionia (East Ionic), where Ionian colonists from Athens founded their cities. The works of Homer and Hesiod are among the most popular poetic works that were written in a literary form of the Ionic dialect, known as Epic or Homeric Greek. The oldest Greek prose, including that of Heraclitus, Herodotus, Democritus, and Hippocrates, was also written in Ionic. By the end of the 5th century BC, Ionic was supplanted by Attic, which had become the dominant dialect of the Greek world.

History

The Ionic dialect appears to have originally spread from the Greek mainland across the Aegean around the 11th century BC, during the early Greek Dark Ages. According to tradition, the ancestors of Ionians first set out from Athens, in a series of migrations, to establish their colonies on the coast of Asia Minor and the islands of the Cyclades, around the beginning of the Protogeometric period (1075/1050BC). Between the 11th and 9th century BC, the Ionians continued to spread around those areas. The linguistic affinity of Attic and Ionic is evident in several unique features, like the early loss of /w/, or the merger of /ā/ and /ē/, as seen in both dialects.

By the end of Archaic Greece and early Classical Greece in the 5th century BC, the central west coast of Asia Minor, along with the islands of Chios and Samos, formed the heartland of Ionia proper. The Ionic dialect was also spoken on islands across the central Aegean and on the large island of Euboea north of Athens. The dialect was soon spread by Ionian colonization to areas in the northern Aegean, the Black Sea, and the western Mediterranean, including Magna Graecia in Sicily and Italy.

The Ionic dialect is generally divided into two major time periods, Old Ionic (or Old Ionian) and New Ionic (or New Ionian). The transition between the two is not clearly defined, but 600BC is a good approximation.

The works of Homer (The Iliad, The Odyssey, and the Homeric Hymns) and of Hesiod were written in a literary dialect called Homeric Greek or Epic Greek, which largely comprises Old Ionic, but with some admixture from the neighboring Aeolic dialect to the north, as well as with some Mycenaean elements as a result of a long pre-Homeric epic tradition.

1. Western Ionic, the dialect of Euboea and parts of Attica, like Oropos;

2. Central or Cycladic Ionic, the dialect of the Cycladic Islands;

3. Eastern Ionic, the dialect of Samos, Chios, and the west coast of Asia Minor.

Eastern Ionic stands apart from both other dialects because it lost at a very early time the /h/ sound (psilosis) (Herodotos should therefore properly be called Erodotos). The /w/ sound (digamma) is also completely absent from Eastern Ionic, but was sometimes retained in Western and Cycladic Ionic. Also pronouns that begin with /hop-/ in Western and Cycladic Ionic (ὅπου where, ὅπως how), begin with ok- (conventionally written hok-) in Eastern Ionic (ὅκου/ὄκου, ὅκως/ὄκως).

Western Ionic differs from Cycladic and Eastern Ionic by the sounds -tt- and -rr- where the other two have -ss- and -rs- (τέτταρες vs. τέσσαρες, four; θάρρος vs. θάρσος, bravery). Western Ionic also stands apart by using the form ξένος (xenos, foreigner, guest), where the other two use ξεῖνος (xeinos).

Cycladic Ionic may be further subdivided: Keos, Naxos, and Amorgos retained a difference between two /æ/ sounds, namely original /æ/ (written as Ε), and /æ/ evolved from /ā/ (written as Η); for example ΜΗΤΕΡ = μήτηρ < μάτηρ, mother. On the other Cycladic Islands this distinction was not made, Η and Ε were used there interchangeably.

Within Eastern Ionic, Herodotus recognized four subgroups (Histories, I.142), three of them apparently influenced by a neighbouring language:

a. The dialect of Miletus, Myus, and Priene, and their colonies, influenced by Carian;

b. The Ionic of Ephesos, Kolophon, Lebedos, Teos, Klazomenai, and Phokaia, and their colonies, influenced by Lydian;

c. The dialect of Chios and Erythrai and their colonies, influenced by Aeolic Greek;

d. The dialect of Samos and its colonies.

Differences between these four groups are not clearly visible from inscriptions, probably because inscriptions were usually ordered by a high social group that everywhere spoke the same kind of "civilized Ionic". However, local speech by the "man in the street" must have shown differences. An inkling of this may be witnessed in the language of Ephesian "beggar poet" Hipponax, who often used local slang (νικύρτας, σάβαυνις: terms of abuse; χλούνης, thief; κασωρικός, whorish) and Lydian loanwords (πάλμυς, king).

Phonology

Vowels

Proto-Greek ā > Ionic ē; in Doric, Aeolic, ā remains; in Attic, ā after e, i, r, but ē elsewhere.

Attic νεᾱνίᾱς neāníās, Ionic νεηνίης neēníēs "young man"
original and Doric ἁ (ᾱ) hā > Attic-Ionic ἡ hē "the" (feminine nominative singular)
original and Doric μᾱ́τηρ mātēr > Attic-Ionic μήτηρ mḗtēr "mother"

Proto-Greek e, o > East/Central Ionic ei, ou: compensatory lengthening after loss of w in the sequences enw-, erw-, onw-, orw-. In Attic and West Ionic, e, o are not lengthened.

Proto-Greek *kórwā > Attic κόρη kórē, East Ionic κούρη koúrē "girl"
*órwos > ὄρος óros, οὖρος oúros "mountain"
*ksénwos > ξένος xénos, ξεῖνος xeĩnos "guest, stranger"

East Ionic generally removes initial aspiration (Proto-Greek hV- > Ionic V-).

Proto-Greek *hāwélios > Attic hēlios, Homeric (early East Ionic) ēélios "sun"

Ionic contracts less often than Attic.

Ionic γένεα génea, Attic γένη génē "family" (neuter nominative plural)

Consonants

Proto-Greek *kʷ before o > Attic, West/Central Ionic p, some East Ionic k.

Proto-Greek *hókʷōs > East Ionic ὅκως hókōs, Attic ὅπως hópōs "in whatever way, in which way"

Proto-Greek *ťť > East/Central Ionic ss, West Ionic, Attic tt. This feature of East and Central Ionic made it into Koine Greek.

Proto-Greek *táťťō > Ionic τάσσω tássō, Attic τάττω táttō "I arrange"

Glossary

ábdês scourge ( Hipponax .98)
áethlon (Attic athlon prize)
aeinaûtai archontes in Miletus and Chalcis (aeí always + naûtai sailors)
algeíē illness (Cf.Attic algēdṓn pain) Algophobia
ámpōtis ebb, being sucked back, i.e. of sea (Attic anápōtis, verb anapínō) (Koine, Modern Greek ampotis)
anou (Attic ánō, up)
Apatoúria Pan-ionic festival ( see also Panionium )
appallázein (Attic ekklesiázein gather together, decide) (Doric ἀπελλαζειν apellazein)
achántion (Attic akánthion small thorn acanthus)
báthrakoi (Attic bátrachoi, frogs) in Pontus βαβακοι babakoi
broûkos species of locust (Attic akrís) (Cypriots call the green locust broúka)
byssós (Attic bythós depth, bottom, chaos)
gánnos Ephesian (Attic huaina (glanos Aristotle.HA594a31.) (Phrygian and Tsakonian ganos
eídē (Attic hýle forest) (Aeolic Greek εἴδη eídē also) (Greek Eidos)
enthaûta here (ἐντοῦθα entoutha also) (Attic entaûtha) (Elean entaûta)
ergýlos (Attic ergátēs worker)
hestiâchos ionic epithet for Zeus, related to Hestia (οἰκουρός oikourós, housekeeper, oikônax)
ēgós (Attic eudaímon happy) (Hesychius s.v. ) (τ 114)
êélios (Attic hḗlios sun) (Cretan abelios)
Iastí, "the ionic way" ( , Iáones, Ionians; , Iás, old name of Attica, Strabo IX, 1.5 )
ídē forested mountain (Attic drymôn óros) (Herodotus 4,109,2) (Mount Ida)
iētrós, iētēr (Attic ιἀτρος, ιἀτηρ iatrós, iatēr doctor)
íkkos (Attic híppos, horse) (Mycenaean i-qo )
kárē head (Common κάρα kára) (Poetic κράς kras)
kithṓn (Attic chitṓn)
koeîn (Attic noeîn to think) noesis
koîos (Attic poîos who?)
kýthrē (Attic chýtra cooking pot)
mýttax (Attic pṓgōn beard)
Xouthidai Ionians from Xuthus
odmḗ (Attic osmḗ scent, smell)
pēlós thick wine, lees (Attic πηλός pelós mud, silt) (proverbial phrase mê dein ton Oinea Pêlea poiein, don't make wine into lees, Ath.9.383c, cf. Demetr.Eloc.171)
rhêchíê flood-tide, loanword to Attic as rhachía (Homeric, Koine, Modern Greek plêmmurís -ída)
sabakís (Attic sathrís decayed) Chian
sármoi lupins (Attic thermoi} Carystian
skorpízô scatter, disperse (probably from skorpios scorpion and an obsolete verb skerpô, penetrate)
taûroi (Attic ταυροι bulls) (Ephesian word, the youths who acted as cupbearers at the local festival of Poseidon)
phoinikḗia grámmata Lydians and Ionians called so the letters
chlossós (Attic ichthús fish)
ô oioî exclamation of discontent

History

Phonology

Vowels

Consonants

Glossary

See also

Notes

References

Sources

Further reading