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GREEK LANGUAGE
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See also:GREEK See also:LANGUAGE . Greek is ohe of the eight See also:main the See also:north See also:Aegean probably the See also:Dorians reached See also:Crete, where alone branches into which the Indo-See also:European See also:languages (q.v.) are their existence is recorded by See also:Homer (Odyssey, xix. 175 ff.; Diodorus divided. The See also:area in which it is spoken has been curiously A Siculus v. 80. 2) ; Cp. Fick, pre-Dorian See also:period See also:Herodotus distin-• See also:constant throughout its recorded See also:history. These limits are, guishes various See also:stocks. Though the name is not Homeric. both roughly speaking, the shores of the Aegean, on both the Herodotus and See also:Thucydides recognize an Aeolian stock which must European and the See also:Asiatic See also:side, and the intermediate islands have spread over See also:Thessaly and far to the See also:west till it was suppressed (one of the most archaic of Greek dialects being found on the and absorbed by the Dorian stock which came in from the north- eastern side in the See also:island of and the Greek See also:peninsula west. The name of See also:Aeolis still attached in Thucydides' See also:time to the See also:Cyprus), P western area of See also:Calydon between the mountains and the N. side of generally from its See also:southern promontories as far as the the entrance to the Corinthian gulf (iii. 102). In See also:Boeotia the same mountains which shut in Thessaly on the north. Beyond stock survived (Thuc. vii. 57. 5), overlaid by an influx of Dorians, Mt. See also:Olympus and the Cambunian mountains See also:lay See also:Macedonia, and it came down to the See also:isthmus; for the See also:Corinthians, though in which a closely kindred See also:dialect was spoken, speaking in See also:historical times a Doric dialect, were originally Aeolians Y so closely (Thus. iv. 42). In the Peloponnese Herodotus recognizes (viii. ?3) related, indeed, that O. See also:Hoffmann has argued (See also:Die Makedonen, three See also:original stocks, the Arcadians, the See also:Ionians of Cynuria, and the See also:Gottingen, 1906) that Macedonian is not only Greek, but See also:Achaeans.. In See also:Arcadia there is little doubt that the pre-Dorian a See also:part of the See also:great Aeolic dialect which included Thessalian See also:population maintained itself and its language, just as in the moun- to the See also:south and Lesbian to the See also:east. In the north-west, tains of See also:Wales, the Scottish See also:Highlands and See also:Connemara the See also:Celtic language has maintained itself against the Saxon invaders. By Greek included many See also:rude dialects little known even to the Herodotus' time the Cynurians had been doricized, while the Ionians, See also:ancient Greeks themselves, and it extended northwards beyond along the south side of the Corinthian gulf, were expelled by the See also:Aetolia, and See also:Ambracia to southern See also:Epirus and Thesprotia. Achaeans (vii. 94, viii. 73), apparently themselves driven from their How-In the Homeric a the See also:shrine of Pelas ran See also:Zeus was at own homes by the Dorian invasion (See also:Strabo viii. p. 333 fin.). How- ge great g ever this may be, the Achaeans of historical times spoke a dialect See also:Dodona, but, by the time of Thucydides, Aetolia and all north akin to that of See also:northern See also:Elis and of the Greeks on the north side of of it had come to be looked upon as the most backward of Greek the Corinthian gulf. How See also:close the relation may have been between lands, where men' lived a See also:savage See also:life, speaking an almost unin- the language of the Achaeans of the Peloponnese in the Homeric See also:age telli Ible language, and eating flesh and their contemporaries in Thessaly we have no means of ascertain- g g raw (aryvclurorarot S~'fXiavo-av See also:ing definitely, the documentary See also:evidence for the history of the Kai wµocba-yor, Thuc. iii. 94, of the Aetolian Eurytanes). The dialects being all very much later than Homeric times. Even in Greeks themselves had no memory of how they came to occupy the Homeric See also:catalogue See also:Agamemnon has to lend the Arcadians See also:ships this See also:land. Their earliest legends connected the origin of their to take them to See also:Troy (Iliad, ii. 612). But a population speaking the with Thessaly and Mt. See also:Pindus, but Athenians and Arcadians same or a very similar dialect was probably seated on the eastern See also:race Y See also:coast, and migrated at the beginning of the Doric invasion to Cyprus. also boasted themselves of autochthonous race, inhabiting a As this population wrote not in the Greek See also:alphabet but in a See also:peculiar See also:country wherein no See also:man had preceded their ancestors. The syllabary and held little communication with the See also:rest of the Greek Greek language, at any See also:rate as it has come down to us, is See also:world, it succeeded in preserving in Cyprus a very archaic dialect perfect, vowel sounds being most See also:primitive very closely akin to that of Arcadia, and also containing a consider- remarkably Pe g P able number of words found in the Homeric vocabulary but lost or of any of the Indo-European languages, while its verb See also:system modified in later Greek elsewhere. has no See also:rival in completeness except in the earliest See also:Sanskrit of On this historical See also:foundation alone is it possible to understand the Vedic literature. Its noun system, on the other See also:hand, is clearly the relation of the dialects in historical times. The prehistoric movements of the Greek tribes can to some extent be realized in much less See also:complete, its cases being more broken down than their dialects, as recorded in their See also:inscriptions, though all existing those of the See also:Aryan, Armenian, See also:Slavonic and See also:Italic families. inscriptions belong to a much later period. Thus from the ancient The most remarkable characteristic of Greek is one conditioned Aeolis of northern See also:Greece sprang the historical dialects of Thessaly by the See also:geographical aspect of the land. Few countries are so broken and See also:Lesbos with the neighbouring coast of See also:Asia See also:Minor. At an See also:early up with mountains as Greece. Not only do See also:mountain ranges as period the Dorians had invaded and to some extent affected the elsewhere on the European See also:continent run east and west, but other See also:character of the southern Thessalian and to a much greater extent ranges See also:cross them from north to south, thus dividing the portions that of the Boeotian dialect. The dialects of Locris, See also:Phocis and of Greece at some distance from the See also:sea into hollows without outlet, Aetolia were a somewhat uncouth and unliterary See also:form of Doric. every valley being separated for a considerable part of the See also:year According to accepted tradition, Elis had been colonized by Oxylus from contact with every other, and inter-communication at all the Aetolian, and the dialect of the more northerly part of Elis, as seasons being rendered difficult. Thus till See also:external See also:coercion from already pointed out, is, along with the Achaean of the south side of Macedon came into See also:play it was never possible to establish a great the Corinthian gulf, closely akin to those dialects north of the central See also:government controlling the Greek mainland. The geo- I Isthmus. The most southerly part of Elis—Triphylia—has a dialect graphical situation of the islands in the Aegean equally led to the akin to Arcadian. Apart from Arcadian the other dialects of the See also:isolation of one little territory from another. To these geographical Peloponnese in historical times are all Doric, though in small details considerations may be added the inveterate See also:desire of the Greeks they differ among themselves. Though we are unable to check the to make the abacs, the See also:city See also:state, everywhere and at all times an statements of the historians as to the area occupied by Ionic in See also:independent unit, a desire which, originating in the geographical prehistoric times, it is clear from the legends of the Jose connexion conditions, even accentuated the isolating effect of the natural between See also:Athens and Troezen that the same dialect had been spoken features of the country. Thus at one time in the little island of on both sides of the Saronic gulf, and may well have extended, as Amorgos there were no less than three See also:separate and independent Herodotus says, along the eastern coast of the Peloponnese and the See also:political See also:units. The inevitable result of geographical and political south side of the Corinthian gulf. According to See also:legend, the Ionians See also:division was the See also:maintenance of a great number of See also:local character- expelled from the Peloponnese collected at Athens before they ' istics in language, differentiating in this respect also each political started on their migrations to the coast of Asia Minor. Be that as community from its nearest neighbours. It was only natural that it may, legend and language alike connected the Athenians with the the inhabitants of a country so little adapted to maintain a numerous Ionians, though by the 5th See also:century B.C. the Athenians no longer population should have early sent off swarms to other lands. The cared to be known by the name (Hdt. i. 143). See also:Lemnos, See also:Imbros and earliest See also:stage of colonization lies in the borderland between myth See also:Scyros, which had See also:long belonged to Athens, were Athenian also in and history. The Greeks themselves knew that a population had language. The great island of See also:Euboea and all the islands of the preceded them in the islands of the See also:Cyclades which they identified central Aegean between Greece and Asia were Ionic. See also:Chios, the most' 2. Aeolic.—Though Boeotian is overlaid with a Doric See also: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 r before E, where See also:Attic and other dialects have r: rfrrapes, Attic TfrrapES. The corresponding voiced and aspirated sounds are similarly treated: BEa4,acos the See also:adjective in Thessalian to DEa4oi, and Epilp for th p. They all tend to See also:change o to v: ovvua, " name”; ov for win Thessalian: "AirXovv, " See also:Apollo "; and v in Boeotian for ot: FuKia (olela), " See also:house." They also make the See also:dative plural of the third declension in -See also:Earn., and the perfect participle active is declined like a See also:present participle in -wv. Instead of the Athenian method of giving the See also:father's name in the genitive when a See also:citizen is described, these dialects (especially Thessalian) tend to make an adjective: thus instead of the Attic AripoeBEvrir Ortuo08EVOVS, Aeolic would rather have A. O,IpooOisecoc. Thessalian stands midway between Lesbian and Boeotian. agreeing with Lesbian in the use of See also:double consonants, where Attic has a single consonant, with or without lengthening of the previous syllable: Eppi, Attic Eiui for an original *esmi; aTaaaa, Attic 0-.Han; Ifvvos for an earlier Eh'Fos, Attic Evos, Ionic Lives, Doric Iivos. Where Attic has -as from an earlier -See also:ass or -avrs, Lesbian has -acs: rats &pxaes See also:accusative in Lesbian for older nays apxays. Lesbian has no oxyton words according to the grammarians, the See also: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 See also:ICE, which is used like the Doric Ka, the Arcadian Kan, and the Attic and Ionic ay. Thessalian and Lesbian agree in making their long vowels close, ri belonging EL (a close e, not a diphthong), See also:rat-See also:Lip, " father." The v See also:sound did not become ti as in Attic and Ionic, and hence when the Ionic alphabet was introduced it was spelt ov, or when in contact with dentals See also:cos, as in bvlovpa =ovvpa, name," rcouxa =T6xri, " See also:chance "; the See also:pronunciation, therefore, must have been like the See also:English sound in See also:news, tune. Boeotian See also:developed earlier than other dialects the changes in the vowels which characterize See also:modern Greek: at became e, Kal passing into Kii: compare raTEtp and FuKia above: EL became c in Exc, " has." Thessalian shows some examples of the Homeric genitive in -ow: roafpoco, &c.; its See also:ordinary genitive of o- stems is in -at. There are some points of connexion between this See also:group and Arcadian-See also:Cyprian: in both Thessalian and Cyprian the characteristic rrbacs (Attic, &c., rbacs) and Savxva- for S6 .vii are found, and both See also:groups form the " contracting verbs " not in -w but in -pc. 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 See also: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 See also:left upon a See also:wine See also:goblet (otvoxbri) given as a See also:prize: hoc 'iv OpXEOTOV raVTOn araabrara rac' cs TOTO SEKav Lay. The last words are uncertain. `See also:ill lately early inscriptions in Ionic were few, but recently an early inscription has been found at See also:Ephesus and a later copy of a long early inscription at See also:Miletus. The most noticeable characteristic of Attic and Ionic is the change of a into ri which is universal in Ionic but does not appear in Attic after another vowel or p. Thus both dialects used pi niip, repii from an earlier petTrip, Tepa, but Attic had oo¢ia, rpdypa and xc,pa, not eo4iri, Tipitapa and xclipri as in Ionic. The apparent exception Kbp,1 is explained by the fact that in this word a digamma F has been lost after p, in Doric KbpFa. That the change took See also:place after the Ionians carne into Asia is shown by the word M$See also:Soc, which in Cyprian is M&Soc; the See also:Medea were certainly not known to the Greeks till long after the See also:conquest of See also:Ionia. While Aeolic and the greater part of Doric kept F, this See also: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 so that a u sound has to be represented by ov. The See also:short o tended towards u, so that the contraction of 0+o gave ov. In the same way short e tended towards i, so that the contraction of E+E gave Et, which was not a diphthong but a close for TOTE, See also:rOSE, See also:Sari, SoOii, T6P6E, TWEE, TO, Sri. No inscription of more e-sound. In Attic Greek these contractions were represented by 0 and E respectively till the See also:official See also: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 4pEina and E&Eiiia, Aeolic ipevva, 'ha paa, which stand for a prehistoric *fpEVO-a and *Tvepoa, containing the -o- of the first See also:aorist, and Tots, oTKOVS, Exouoc representing an earlier rbvs, o*KOVS, Exovrc (3 pl. present) or *fxovroe (dative pl. of present participle). Both dialects also agreed in changing r before e into o (like Aeolic), as in Txouoc above, and in the 3rd See also:person singular of -pc verbs, TWBfiac, btbwoc, &c., and in noun stems, as in Mats for an earlier *Mr Ls. Neither dialect used the particle KE or Ka, but both have its instead. One of the effects of the change of a into ,i was that the See also:combination ao changed in both dialects to no, which in all Attic records and in the later Ionic has become See also:ea by a metathesis in the quantity of the vowels: vain, earlier vaF6s, " See also:temple," is in Homeric Greek vpbs, in later Ionic and Attic sews. In the dative (locative) plural of the -a stems, Ionic has generally -won on the See also:analogy of the singular; Attic had first the old locative form in -,See also:lac, -Ewa, which survived northerly Ionic island on the Asiatic coast, seems to have been origin-ally Aeolic, and its Ionic retained some Aeolic characteristics. The most southerly of the mainland towns which were originally Aeolic was See also:Smyrna, but this at an early date became Ionic (Hdt. i. 149). The last important Ionic See also:town to the south was Miletus, but at an early period Ionic widened its area towards the south also and took in See also:Halicarnassus from the Dorians. According to Herodotus, there were four kinds of Ionic (xapasr3ipes ryat{wogs rfaospes, i. 142). Herodotus tells us the areas in which these dialects were spoken, but nothing of the See also:differences between them. They were (I) See also:Samos, (2) Chios and See also:Erythrae, (3) the towns in See also:Lydia, (4) the towns in Carla. The language of the inscriptions unfortunately is a Kocvii, a conventional See also:literary language which reveals no differences of importance. Only recently has the characteristic so well known in Herodotus of ic appearing in certain words where other dialects have r (Saws for Srws, KOU for raj), &c.) been found in any inscription. It is, how-ever, clear that this was a popular characteristic not considered to be sufficiently dignified for official documents. We may conjecture that the native languages spoken on the Lydian and Carian coasts had affected the character of the language spoken by the Greek immigrants, more especially as the settlers from Athens married Carian See also:women, while the settlers in the other towns were a mixture of Greek tribes, many of them not Ionic at all (Hdt. 146). The more southerly islands of the Aegean and the most southerly peninsula of Asia Minor were Doric. In the Homeric age Dorians were only one of many peoples in Crete, but in historical times, though the dialects of the eastern and the western ends of the island differ from one another and from the See also:middle whence our most valuable documents come, all are Doric. By Melos and See also:Thera Dorians carried their language to Cos. Calymrus, See also:Cnidus and See also:Rhodes. These settlements, Aeolic, Ionic and Doric, See also:grew and prospered, and like flourishing hives themselves sent out fresh swarms to other lands. Most prosperous and energetic of all was Miletus, which established its trading posts in the See also:Black Sea to the north and in the See also:delta of the See also:Nile (See also:Naucratis) to the south. The islands also sent off their colonies, carrying their dialects with them, See also:Paros to See also:Thasos. Euboea to the peninsulas of Chalcidice; the Dorians of See also:Megara guarded the entrance to the Black Sea at See also:Chalcedon and See also:Byzantium. While Achaean See also:influence spread out to the more southerly Ionian islands, See also:Corinth carried her dialect with her colonies to the coast of See also:Acarnania, Leucas and Corcyra. But the greatest of all Corinthian colonies was much farther to the west—at See also:Syracuse in See also:Sicily. Unfortunately the continuous occupation of the same or adjacent sites has led to the loss of almost all that is early from Corinth and from Syracuse. Corcyra has bequeathed to us some interesting See also:grave inscriptions from the 6th century B.C. Southern See also:Italy and Sicily were early colonized by Greeks. According to tradition See also:Cumae was founded not long after the Trojan See also:War; even if we bring the date nearer the See also:founding of Syracuse in 735 B.C., we have apparently no See also:record earlier than the first See also:half of the 5th century B.C., though it is still the earliest of Chalcidian inscriptions. See also:Tarentum was a Laconian foundation, but the longest and most important document from a Laconian See also:colony in Italy comes from See also:Heraclea about the end of the 4th century B.c.—the See also:report of a See also:commission upon and the See also:lease of temple lands with description and conditions almost of modern precision. To See also:Achaea belonged the south See also:Italian towns of Croton, See also:Metapontum and See also:Sybaris. The ancestry of the Greek towns of Sicily has been explained by Thucydides (vi. 2-5). See also:Selinus, a colony of Megara, bewrays its origin in its dialect. See also:Gela and See also:Agrigentum no less clearly show their descent from Rhodes. According to tradition the great city of See also:Cyrene in See also:Africa was founded from Thera, itself an offshoot from See also:Sparta. Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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