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THE DIALECT GEOGRAPHY OF ANCIENT GREECE
By ROBERT COLEMAN RECURRENT REFERENCES
BECHTEL, F. Die Briechischela Dialekte 1-111 (Berlin 19214) .
BUCK, C. D. The Breek Dialects (Chicago 1955). PORZIQ, W. '
Sprachgeographische Untersuchungen zu den altgriochische
Dialekte,' 1.F. 61 (1964), 147-169. RISCH, E. 'Die Gliederung
dor Griechischen Dialekte in neuer sicht,'
Mus. Helv. 12 (1955), 61-76. RODRUIQEZ ADRADOS, F. La
Dialectologia Oriega coma fuente para el estudio
de las migraciones indoeuropeas en Qrecia (Acta Salmaticensia
1952). RUIPEREZ, M. S. Sobre la prehistoria de 10s dialectos
Griegos, Emerita 21
SCHWYZER, E. Dialectorurn Graecarum Exenzpla Epigruphica
Potiora
THUMB, A. Handbuch der Giechischen Dialekte I (rev. E.
Kieckers,
(1963), 263-66.
(Leipzig 1923).
Heidelberg 1932), I1 (rev. A. Scherer, ib. 1958).
1
THE student of morbid dialectology has to contend with a number
of difficulties imposed by the actual data that are not shared by
his colleagues who work with living dialect material, These are
well enough known but their methodological implications are not
always sufficiently recognized, and Greek dialect studies are often
conducted as if they were dealing with a living language.
In the first place we are severely hampered by the closedness of
the corpus. We cannot return to the field to elicit new sets of
responses in order to verify or refute our conclusions, nor can we
fill out an imprecise or incomplete picture of dialect usage by
framing and putting new questions. What we have as our data are a
fixed store of potential answers, which determine the range of
questions we can usefully ask. We are compelled not by any
doctrinaire choice on our part but because no choice is possible to
frame our analysis in such a way that the same body of facts will
yield answers to the maximum number of questions.
Then there ia the limitation imposed by the geographical * See
for example : E. Risch, ' Altgriechische Dialektgeographie,' M Z M
.
Helv. 6 (1949), esp. 20-21.
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R. COLEMAN-THE DIALECT GEOGRAPHY OP ANCIENT GREECE 59
unevenness of our data. We may find that the dialectal shape of
a whole vaguely defined area has to be inferred from the evidence
of one or two localities. Where, as in Elean and Phocian, these
localities are important centres of pan-Hellenic cults, liable to
steady infiltration from other dialects, this difficulty is
especially acute. Conversely the material may be widespread over an
area but very fragmentary a t any particular point, as in N.W.
Greek or in Laconian, where before the Hellenistic period there is
scattered material from the surrounding countryside but little
enough from Sparta itself. In both cases there is the danger of
falsification: either through taking one locality as typical of a
region and so presenting a much more clear-cut boundary between
dialect groups than could possibly have existed, or else by piecing
together the fragments from neighbouring localities into an
artificially unified dialect.
Given the nature of the materials and the fact that
archaeologists are unlikely to uncover large amounts of new
inscriptions, the obstacles are unavoidable. The only way in which
our methodology can allow for these difficulties is by operating
with as large a number of geographical units as possible, If we
persist in talking as if for example Dorian were a monolithic
group, then major divergences within the group will be blurred and
comparisons with non-Dorian dialects marred in consequence.
Thumb-Kieckers for instance divided Greek into seven dialect groups
: Dorian, N.W. Greek, Boeotian, Thessalian (subdivided into E. and
W.), Lesbian, Arcadian and Ionic ; and this division, with the
addition of Linear B and Cyprian, is still adhered to explicitly by
Risch and implicitly by most other investigators, As a result we
are forced to ascribe the two reflexes of "esmi, +.I and +i!,
indiscriminately to Dorian, and even more unsatisfactorily the
three reflexes of *pant@, ndvoa m%a naiaa, indiscriminately to N.W.
Greek and Dorian. Even Buck's nineteen dialectal divisions are
still inadequate to differentiate local variants,
Thumb-Iiieckers, 5s 61, 76 ; Risch, 75. See espccially Buck's
Charts I and 11.
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60 TRANSACTIONS OF THE PHILOLOGICAL SOCIETY 1963
for instance as between Rhodes and COB or within Cretan. An
examination of the table of contents in Schwyzers Exempla shows
that to obtain anything like a precise picture of geographical
variation upwards of forty entries would be needed.
The fact that material from most areas is widely scattered in
time brings us to the further problem of chronological disparity.
There are two quite separate aspects of this. Firstly the
diachronic scatter within any given dialect. The earliest central
Ionic text is a single-line Naxian inscription from Delos dated to
the seventh century (Schwyzer 757) and the first of any substantial
length is more than two centuries later (Schwyzer 766). Prom
Boeotia we have a few brief inscriptions from the sixth century
(Schwyzer 440, Buck 37, 38), but there is nothing extensive till
the fourth century (Schwyzer 467). The situation is a t least as
bad elsewhere in Greek.
Sometimes this scatter is useful, in providing evidence of the
patterns of change within the dialect, e.g. the loss of /w/
generally or of secondary intervocalic /s/ in Laconian. Internal
reconstruction could sometimes have enabled us to estimate the
earlier forms, as in the Laconian example just quoted, but direct
evidence establishes the chronology of the change more exactly.
More often however the material from different periods does not
correspond in this way. In that case we can occasionally make
reasonable inferences from structural considerations. Thus, again
in Laconian, our evidence for vowel-contraction is very incomplete
before the introduction of the Ionic alphabet. But the falling
together of /oo/ with /o*/ attested in fifth century 76 air6
(Schwyzer 12) supports the assumption that /ee/ similarly fell
together with /c/, and this is confirmed both by the results of
compensatory lengthening a t this period, with o6&, not 066cir
(
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R. COLEMAN-THE DIALECT GEOGRAPIIY OF ANCIENT GREECE 61
reminder that in morbid linguistics as a whole the phonemic
system and the range of free variation and allophonic alterna- tion
has to be inferred from the written language. We are completely a t
the mercy of the discrepancies between writing and speech that are
common to all written languages. In Cyprian for instance the
syllabic system of writing deprives us of precise evidence on
compensatory lengthening or vowel contraction. The problem of
opaque graphemes such as rr in Boeotian or L/1 in Arcadian' is too
well known to require detailed discussion.
The other chronological problem arises in comparing material of
different dates from two or more dialects. No dialectologist of
modern English in his right mind would treat material from
eiyhteenth century Devon and twentieth century Buchan as equivalent
items in a single descriptive account. But in ancient Greek the
choice is not ours to make. The earliest evidence from Pamphylian
and Cyprian for instance belongs to a period when many of the
Aegean dialects were already showing signs of contamination from
the Ionic-Attic lcoinz.
In considering the methodological implications of this let us
imagine as an extreme example two dialects A and B, where the
material from A is exclusively earlier than from B. If we select
two equivalent items x1 in A and x2 in B, both derived from an
earlier *x in the unified dialect to which A and B had belonged, we
have the formula :
Now if x1 represents a stage through which x2 must have passed
in the development from *x-thus :
then the contrast between A and B with reference to x1/x2 is
useless. But if on the contrary x, represents a stage through which
x1 must have passed in its development-thus :
or if x1 and x, are not mutually derivable-thus :
(i) *x(AB) > zl(A) and > x,(B)
(ii) *x(AB) > *xl(B) > z,(B)
(iii) *x(AB) > *",(A) > z,(A)
(iv) *z1> 5 2 , *% > 2 1 1 Buck, 347-349, discusses these
and other l0Cd alphabetic variants.
PHILO. TRANS. 1963. E
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62 TILANSACTIONF, OF THE PHILOLOGICAL SOCIETY 1063
then the contrast between z , (A) and a,(B) is useful, in spite
of the chronological discrepancy. To take two specific instances of
a less extreme kind. By (ii) the contrast between 6eoO in fifth
century Ionic and t e -o jo in Linear B is useless, since the Ionic
form derives from *&oio ; but by (iii) the Ionic form can be
set beside the third century Thessalian form T O X ~ ~ O C O .
Again by (iv) we can admit the contrast of rraiua in fourth century
Lesbian with TSua in fifth century Ionic and by (iii) the contrast
of both with rrdvoa in third century Thessalian.
This criterion depends upon the diachrony of divergences.
Siwdarities between dialects of discrepant dates cannot be
subjected to any comparable method and so cannot be admitted in a
descriptive account without qualification.
Where two dialects share a common item which is not ruled out by
chronological discrepancy, the correspondence may be significant in
one of several ways.
Firstly, i t may be genealogical : evidence for the derivation
of the two dialects concerned from an earlier conimon dialect. It
is important in this connexion to see the individual item in
relation to other items characteristic of the two dialects
respectively, and also to take account of the isogloss pattern to
which the correspondence belongs within the language as a whole. In
this way we avoid the dangers on the one hand of setting up a
spurious *proto-AB on the basis of atypical agreements between A
and B and on the other of misrepre- senting a genuine *proto-ABCD
or the like as an exclusive "proto-AB simply because we have not
recognized that the agreements are shared by other dialects.
Secondly agreements may be typologically significant : evidence
for independent development in a similar direction. There are
several conditions under which such similarities may occur. For
instance where the speakers of two distinct dialects are racially
identical, the physiological determinants of lin- guistic change
will be similar over the whole area. Or again
1 Much still remains to be done in oxploring the character and
range of these genetically transmitted determinants by
collaborative resoarch in
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R. COLEMAN-THE DIALECT GEOGRAPHY OF ANCIENT GREECE 63
within a homogeneous culture-pattern one can expect a priori
similar patterns of semantic and lexical change. Even morpho- logy
is susceptible to cultural factors. As Meillet and others have
pointed out, the dual survived as a living grammatical category
much later in predominantly rural dialects (where the social
pattern and closer kinship structure presumably made it more
useful) than in areas of high urbanization. Moreover otherwise
distinct dialects may cover a homo- geneous linguistic substrate
which produces pressures towards convergence especially a t the
phonological level. Finally even widely divergent dialects will
share not only a substantial corpus of inherited morphological
material but also a prevalent structure, which is after all what we
mean by classing them as dialects of the same language : hence
purely structural pressures may result in similar innovations quite
independently.
Thirdly the agreement may be geographically significant : as
evidence for interpenetration between the dialects con- cerned a t
a period when they were contiguous. Although convergence of this
kind is often employed as a category of explanation in
dialectological studies, some caution is needed. For this
interpenetration depends upon a long period of settled bidialectal
contact over considerable areas of a t least one of the dialects
concerned, or over an area of it that can plausibly be regarded as
a focus for the diffusion of the intrusive phenomena. During the
immigration of Greek speakers into the Aegaean area, which began in
the early Bronze Age and continued into the period of the " Dorian
invasions ", there must have been many opportunities for contact
between dialects that were subsequently far removed
linguistics, physiology and genetics. The ideas set out by C. D.
Darlington, The genetic component of language, Heredity I (1947),
175 ff. have already been developed by L. F. Brosnahan, Tlae
Boulacls of Lalagwge (1961). At this stage it seems legitimate at
least to distinguish in principle between those factors in
linguistic change that can be attributed directly to the structure
of the preceding language (linguistic substrate proper) and those
that can be attributed directly to the physiological processes in
linguistic behaviour that are constant in a population regardless
of what language has preceded (physiological determinants).
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64 TllANSACTIONS 01 TlIB PHILOLOCilCAI, SOlIlCTY 1OW3
from each other. But these contacts may not have been prolonged
enough to produce much dialectal c0ntamination.l On the other hand
in the centuries of more stable settlement following the Dorian
invasions and the trans-Aegaean migra- tions intercommunication
cannot have been so prolonged or extensive in most areas as to
permit more than the most super- ficial convergence. The
pan-Hellenic literary languages-of the Homeric sagas and the
dialectally orientated genres of lyric and iambic verse and of
literary prose-could have played some part, though only a very
limited one in the processes of diffusion. One thinks for instance
of Aeolisms in Alcman like .rraicrai, 28pLrvai, K X E V V ~ ,
8am+dvEuui, which are without parallel in epigraphic Laconian. The
increase in commercial and cultural communications and the
emergence of large religious and political federations like the
Amphic- tyonic and Peloponnesian Leagues provided conditions
favourable to bidialectalism and convergence. The Koine
super-dialects of N.W. Greek, Sicilian Dorian and Ionic-Attic are
clear results of this.
Obviously dissimilarities can be classed under the same three
headings. Their significance may be genealogical- evidence that two
dialects were not inimediately derived from an earlier common
dialect ; typological-evidence that the racial composition or the
linguistic substrate of the two areas concerned were not
homogeneous ; geographical -evidence for prolonged separation
between two dialects or the con- vergence of one of them with a
typologically more remote dialect or even with a foreign
language.
In attempting to ascertain the significance of any given
similarity or dissimilarity in terms of the categories just
discussed, we must take account especially of the hierarchy of
1 The immigrations, including the Dorian invasion (see Ruiperez,
202), were probably more complex and less clear-cut events than is
often assumed. J. Chadwick, The Greek Dialects and Greek
Prehistory, G.R. (1966), aptly reminds us (48-9) that the dialectal
differencee in the second millennium B.C. must have been much less
marked than in, say, the fifth century. This might have facilitated
convergence, but i t makes i t correspondingly harder to
detect,.
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it. COLEMAN--TISF. DIALECT OEOGILAPHY OF ANCIENT GREECE 65
levels. The more highly structured parts of a language system
are less susceptible to infiltration than the less structured
parts,l and similarities a t the deeper levels therefore more
likely to be the result of genealogical relationship.
The pressures to borrow are primarily extra-linguistic in that
the deficiencies in the linguistic system become apparent only in
the light of new behavioural contexts. A new situation, to which no
adequate linguistic response can be made in terms of the existing
lexicon-whether by semantic extension, compounding or analogical
formation, can only be met by the importation (via bilinguals) of
lexical material specifically identified with that situation. As
between dialects it is often impossible to distinguish independent
possession of a particular lexeme from borrowing, unless there is
some phonological or morphological characteristic which reveals the
foreignness of the loan in its new setting. It may happen too that
a lexeme borrowed from dialect A into dialect B is then lost in A ,
or- what amounts to the same thing-is not attested in our sources.
This raises the whole question of the reliability of lexical
evidence in dialect studies.
Although lexicon has been the basis for a great deal of
linguistic comparativism, including the statistical study of
relationship,Z it is the least satisfactory field for such
enquiries especially with morbid material. And that not only
because of the problem of borrowing which we have just noted. For
there is a natural mortality in the lexical stock of a language,
and we do not need to follow the glottochronologists all the way in
their fanciful and arbitrary attempts to give precision to this
process in order to recognize this neglected truth to which they
have rightly recalled our attention.
It is misleading here to point to the apparently dominant
Lexicon is obviously the most susceptible level.
1 See U. Weinreich, Language8 in Contact, New York (1953), 5
2.53 and 54, for a cautious discussion of this matter.
2 See G. Herdan, The Calculus of Linguistic Observations (1962),
ch. 11.9, 87 ff., and the use made there of A. S. C. Rosss PIE
lexical material from J.B. Stot. Soc. (B) 12 (1960), 39.
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66 TRANSACTIONS OF THE PHILOLOGICAL SOCIETY 1063
place given to lexical matters in modern dialect surveys.' For
the eliciting of lexical material direct from native inform- ants
in live linguistic contexts automatically reveals a large amount of
data a t other levels-phonological, morphological, etc. Moreover as
the corpus of a living language is open, it is possible to
ascertain whether a particular item forms part of the lexical
stock, and if not, whether there is a semantic equivalent for it.
But we are completely a t the mercy of morbid material, A long
ritual or legal text may yield abundant information a t other
levels but hardly a typical sample of the dialect's vocabulary.
To take a specific instance. In the bi-dialectal inscription
Schwyzer 731 we find the E. Ionic noun ~ T ~ O K ~ T ~ T ~ P L O V
rendered on the Attic portion by halmarov. The former occurs in
other Ionic texts e.g. a t Naucratis (SIG 1121) and (in the
diminutive form) in Herodotus 1-25, as well as in the North Dorian
dialect of Aegina ( IG. IV.39.11, with the expected -&PEP).
Later Ionic examples of iakurarov are found, but 6 ~ 0 ~ p a ~ r j
p ~ o v ie not recorded at all from Attic. Since the semantic field
of the Ionic word, ' that which is placed underneath a bowl ' is
much more restricted and so more precisely appropriate to the
context here than that of the Attic word, which means simply ' that
which is placed upon' or ' that on which something is placed ', we
may conclude that the former was indeed unknown to Attic. However,
it is only the chance availability of this bidialectal text that
enables us to infer this. Where we have no such testimony, more
caution is needed. Even where we can say that lexeme x in dialects
A B C etc. is the semantic equivalent of lexeme y in dialects M N 0
P etc. (which is not very often), the possibility always remains
that in A B C etc. y was retained with a different meaning. We can
rarely assert that what has not survived did not occur. This is why
isoglosses based on pairs like kkm/(+Aw or 7 q V O S / ( ; ) K
& V O S cannot be used
1 e.g. E. Dieth and H. Orton, A Queationnnire for a Linguistic
Atlas of Pnglund, (1951).
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R. COLEMAN-THE DIALECT GEOGRAPHY OF ANCIENT GREECE 67
with much confidence, though of course they need not be
dismissed completely.
At the phonological level i t is often difficult to decide among
the various possible interpretations of an isogloss. Occasionally
the same phonetic change in several dialects can represent
independent instances of a general tendency. For instance three
stages in the history of initial /h/ can be discerned. The first,
represented by Corinthian, Laconian, and West Ionic among others,
is the general retention of the phoneme. The second, represented by
East Ionic, Cretan, Lesbian, etc., shows general loss
prehistorically. A third group, including Thessalian, Boeotian,
Pamphylian and probably Achaean shows loss of initial /h/ only in
the nominative singular masculine and feminine of the definite
article, and there is evidence from Locrian and Phocian that this
stage was reached there also within the period covered by our
records. Now it is possible that diffusion through bidialectalism
explains the distribution in this third group (though Pam- phylian
would in any case have to be excluded). But given the likelihood
that the situation seen in the second group began precisely with
the loss of /h/ in the atonal forms of the article and the fact
that the tendency t o loss of initial /h/ was pan-Hellenic, then
all these instances of restricted loss could be independent.
Another interesting phenomenon here is the change : /rs/ >
/rr/. This is found in Arcadian, Phocian, Attic, W. Ionic, Rhodian
and Theran, with traces of both clusters in Laconian, W. Locrian
and Megarian. Adrados argued that this was a Dorian change which
then spread to Attic and Arcadian. The difficulty with this is that
many Dorian dialects, e.g. Messenian, Corinthian, Argive and Coan,
do not show the change. However, it is geographically restricted to
a band acros8 central Greece (excluding the isthmus !) ; so the
occurrences can hardly be independent. Beyond this we cannot say
very much: for we have 110 way of deciding whether the change was
diffused from a focal area
As Ruiperez, 259, observed against Adrados, 55.
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68 TRANSACTIONS OF THE PHII,Ol.OC:IC'AL SOCIE'PY 1963
in this band--which for a cluster-reduction of this kind seems a
priori improbable-or due to community of linguistic substrate or of
physiological determinants. This uncertainty is one that arises
again and again in morbid phonology, whenever we pass beyond mere
description to attempt to explain the phenomena.
Finally there is the most highly structured level, that of
morphology and syntax. Here diffusion is very unlikely. Even the
massive infiltration of English lexicon from Romance sources in the
centuries following the Norman Conquest had very little effect on
the morphological system (e.g. the estab- lishment of -able as an
adjectival suffix) and even less on the syntax. Clearly where
contiguous dialects exhibit similar developments at this level,
contact between them will reinforce these trends. But in general we
may start from the hypothesis that similarities here are
significant genealogically or typo- logically rather than for
diffusion through geographical contiguity.
A typologically significant example is the spread of thematic
forms from the present to the perfect, which is a feature of
Aeolic. In Ionic the phenomenon is confined to the participles and
occurs only at Chios and Smyrna. We know from the ancient
historical tradition that these two areas were originally
Aeolic-speaking and subsequently conquered by Ionians : so that a
bidialectal situation followed by linguistic substrate has to be
reckoned with here, and we can thus connect the geo- graphically
limited Ionian use of -wv, -0vros with the generalization of
thematic forms in Lesbian, which has not only yeydvovra etc. but
also ~ T T ~ G T ~ K E , r&&cr)v, eta.
However the extension of thematic forms to the perfect is not
peculiar to Aeolic. Besides Phocian, where forms like clhd+a, &
~ O T E T E I K E V , 6e6wKo&oas could be due t o the influence
of Thessalian or Boeotian, we have examples of the spread in
Argive, Heraclean, Cretan, Rhodian and Cyprian, where it could not
be so explained, unless we substitute for diffusion some vague
prehistoric Aeolic substrate (see I1 below). The correct
explanation is probably to be seen in terms of structural
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It. COLEMAN-THE DIALECT GEOGEAPHY OY ANCIENT GREECE 69
pressures operating independently over the whole of Greek. It is
well known that the temporal orientation of the perfect in Greek, a
t least before the Hellenistic period, is towards the present
rather than the past tenses of the verbal system (to which latter
of course the pluperfect corresponded). Given the morphological
anomaly of the whole perfect paradigm and this semantic-syntactic
orientation, it is not surprising that there should be analogical
pressures from the present system. In Lesbian and Phocian we have
evidence for the wholesale spread of thematic present forms.
EIsewhere the data suggest a partial disturbance of the inherited
system, e.g. Rhodian yEyOIvEiv, r E r i p & . K E i but
8E8&avri, Argive hda/34KEiv but heha/3rpctds, Boeotian
Kara/3e/3&wv but &o&SdavOi. This is precisely the
spasmodic pattern of interference between the two tenses that we
should expect to find in such circumstances. We need not reject for
Chios and Smyrna the possibility of Lesbian in%uence, but we must
see it as reinforcing a general tendency operating in different
ways a t different places throughout the Greek language.
I1 In the light of the preceding general discussion we may
now
pass on to consider certain hypotheses that have been put
forward or restated in recent years regarding Greek dialectal
relationships and to examine in detail the arguments on which these
are based.
(A) Ionic-Attic and Arcado-Cyprian were in close contact before
the Dorian invasions as parts of a sinqle dialect complex.
This view has in one form or another been accepted by a number
of modern investigat0rs.l The supporting arguments turn on a number
of shared isoglosses :
A. Tovar, Esayo sobre la estratigrafia de 10s dialectos Griegos
: I, Emerita 12 (1944), 245ff., esp. 330-331; Porzig, 156-164;
Risch, 7 0 ; Chadwick op. cit. 42-3. L. R. Palmer, in A Companion
to Homer (ed. tA. J. B. Wace-F. H. Stubbings, London 1962), 88-91,
revives the older view of an Achaean group unjting Aeolic and
Arcado-Cyprian ageinst Ionic (see below).
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70 TRANSACTIONS OF THE PITILOLOGICAL SOCIETY 1063
(I) The change */ti/ > /si/ by way of the palatalization of
the dental stop : *[ti] > "[tli] > *[tail > [si] ; e.g.
+t?povai (Arc.), 2'xoiai (Lesb.), beside &iaouvn (Them), ~ ~ ~
C T O V T L (Cret.).
/si/ here characterizes Linear B, Arcado-Cyprian, Ionic-Attic
and Lesbian. We know that this change was also a feature of
Anatolian phonology,' so that the Greek phenomenon may be due to
some older substrate extending over the areas occupied by the
dialects listed. This would support the view that Ionic-Attic and
Arcado-Cyprian (with Linear B) formed part of a pre-Dorian complex
and would also account for the divergence between Lesbian and
Thessalian, without recourse to the assumption of Ionic influence
upon the former.
The few examples of /sio/ for /ti./ in West Greek need not be
counted against the general retention of /ti/ in that area. For we
cannot be certain that the immediate starting point for these was
not a positional variant *[tjo], which would then bring these
adjectival forms into the orbit of the regular West Greek shift
*/tj/ > /s/, seen in *nav~~a > ndvaa etc. * 7 0 7 L O S >
T ~ U U O S , but with the retention of /i/ by morphological
analogy with /ti/. However most of the instances of /sio/ forms are
proper names, geographical and religious, e.g. KapvEiCIuiov
(Messenian, cf. Kapveidras in Sicyon), Fa8wutw (Boeot., cf. Att. r
A 8 ~ u u ~ ~ u ) , AtOfhca (Laconian), 'A+opSiaiius (Pamp.),
~UT&UlOV (Cret.), and so belong to a lexical class that is
particularly susceptible to diffusive influences, so that they need
not be West Greek a t all in origin.
A special case of diffusion is perhaps t o be found in the
variant forms of the god's name, Poseidon.
(a) 1. IloTEi8dluV--Cret., Boeot. 2. I~OTELSEV -Cor., Cret.,
Rhod., Aet., Phoc., Meg. 3. LlorciSoCv -Them. 4. I ~ O T O L ~ ~ V
-Lesb?
See H. Kronaaser, Vergleichcnde Laut- und Fmmenlehre des
Retldlschen (1956), 8 72.
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R. COLEMAN-THE DIALECT GEOGRAPHY OF ANCIENT GREECE 7 1
(b) 1. Ifouer8dov-Lin. B (po-se-da-o) 2. 1 7 0 ~ ~ ~ 6 6 ~ -lit.
Lesb., Arg., Cor., E. Cret., Ther.,
Rhod., Coan, Ach. and Arc. 3. 17oaci8Bv -Att., Ion. 4. I7ouoi86v
-Lac. (with /s/ > /h/), Arc.
Presumably the starting point is PoteidGGa, *PotoidGa, with the
change of /t/ to /s/ before a front vowel in certain dialects, cf.
nduis, which was then generalized in the proper name. The fact that
individual dialects often show more than one variant is precisely
what we should expect from diffusive influences working across
dialect boundaries. There is no justification whatever for arguing
that the s-forms are due to pre-Dorian Aeolic substrate in West
Greek, especially as only Lesbian among the Aeolic dialects shows
/s/ here ! The diffusion is much more likely to have been by way of
the pan-Hellenic cults and the Homeric poems.
Another particular instance of the t i /si isogloss that
requires special discussion is the words for ' twenty, two hundred
', etc. For these we have the following distribution :
( a ) ( F ) l K a n -West Greek generally (except Ach.),
Pamp.,
ZKOUl -Ach. and (beside Z K a r i ) Phoc. EilKoui -Lesb., Arc.
and Ion.-Att.
( b ) rpiatcdrioi-West Greek generally (except Ach.),
Thess.,
Thess. and Boeot.
etc. Boeot. rpLaKdo~oL-Lesb., Ion.-Att. rpia Kduioi-Arc.
As Adrados rightly pointed out, the community of an inherited
feature, implying no change in the dialects concerned, is less
significant for relationship than the community of an innovation.'
Hence the distribution of Fkari (< *wTkpti, cf. Skt. vimdatih,
Lat. Ggint;) is less significant than that of E?KOUl (<
*e-wikoti). Although Risch and others have argued for a change */?/
> /o/ in Lesbian, the examples are in- conclusive, as we shall
see later, A more probable factor in
The relative significance of archaism and innovation is
thoroughly discussed and illustrated by Adrados, 15-17, 30-38,
46-59.
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72 TJLANXACTIONS OW THX PHILOLOGICAL SOCIETY 1983
the emergence of -0- forms is the influence of T ~ L C ~ K O V T
C L (< -*komta), etc. The same analogical spread is seen in
TPLCLKOGT~S for * T ~ L ~ K ~ U T ~ S (< -*kpt-to'-, cf. Skt.
trimiat- tamah), etc. In Boeotian we find both FLKarL and F L K C L
U T ~ S , in Thessalian Z K ~ T L but I K O G T ~ S , with
analogical -0- already established in the ordinal. In Lesbian
alongside EZKOUL we have ~ Z K O L U T O S with -01 - from T ~ L $
I C O L U T O S , in which -01s- (< -*om) has spread from the
cardinal. The details of the analogical extension are thus very
varied.
The Arcadian data are interesting. For a t Tegea we find, on the
same inscription, the forms ~ I K O U L and Z K ~ U T ~ (or
E)IKCLUTCL), which suggest that analogy from the cardinal forms had
not yet penetrated the ordinal system: thus providing the
complementary situation to Thessalian.
A point that is perhaps insufficiently stressed in the discus-
sion of these forms is the association of the -0- forms exclusively
with -01. This means that the doubly innovating EZKOGL is
particularly important for gencalogical grouping. Whether or not we
attribute the doublets "wzkpti and *ew6koti to proto-Greek and
interpret the subsequent situation as due to selection,l the
distribution between West and East (viz. non-West !) Greek, with
Aeolic overlapping the two, is striking.
The appearance of CZKoaL, r p t a t c d o i o e in Megarian and
Corinthian has been ascribed by Porzig (p. 164) to Aeolic substrate
a t the Isthmus. As with the -s- forms of Poseidon, this depends on
the assumption that it was the Lesbian division of Aeolic, with
/ti/ already > /si/, that provided the prehistoric substrate:
and this is assuming rather a lot, Moreover there is evidence of
-ti- forms a t the Isthmus, not only in Argive FLKarL but also in
Megarian ] ~ a r l a ~ s . In fact the -s- forms noted by Porzig
are all late enough to be explained in terms of influence from the
Koine, thus belonging with Coan - K ~ U L O L and probably Achaean
ZKOUL, where -UL is contrary to the general retention of /ti/ in
that dialect.
Thus we do not find * ( F ) i K o r i or E Z K ~ U L .
For the use of this concopt and its relation to archaism and
innovation see Adrados, 19, 27, 31-39.
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R. COLEMAN-THE DIALECT GEOGRAPHY OF ANCIENT GREECE 73
(2) The reflexes of */tj/, e.g. o"uor (Attic) o"ouor (Argive).
Porzig lays great emphasis on this isogloss, but a closer
inspection of it reveals a more complicated picture. We find the
following distribution of /tj/ reflexes :
/ss/-Tar., Arg., Cor., El., Phoc., Thess., Lesb., Pamp.
/tt/-Boeot. /s/ and /ss/-C. and E. Ion., Arc. /s/ and /tt/-Att., W.
Ion.
In Cretan there are some peculiar developments, e.g. o"ooa in
Dreros, Itanos, but a t Gortys ~ { o L , later deBdKw, and later
still GTTOL. The graphemic conventions of Linear B and Cyprian are
opaque, though both show sibilant reflexes of some sort.
There are clearly two distinct aspects of this isogloss. First
the phonetic one : whether the development is a stop or fricative
cluster. Secondly the phonological one : whether or not the
phoneme-cluster was split, i.e. whether /VtjV/ > /VssV/ or
/VttV/ exclusively or > partly /VsV/, partly /VssV/ or /VttV/.
The split is seen clearly in Ionic-Attic :
(a) * T O - T ~ O S > T ~ U O S , cp. *TOT-;OS > T ~ O U O
S (Lesb.), T ~ T T O S (Boeot.)
(Boeot.) *pE-#!Los > ~ & o s , CP. *pee-Los > ~ &
T O S (Lesb.), p&OS
(b ) * + T - p > zp&ow (Ion.), KpE)UUwV (Ion.), Kpl!TTWV
(Att.)
The phonological junctures here are clearly affected by
morphological structure, the demarcation of root from suffix being
more prominent in words of type (6) than of type (a).
Thus Attic is phonologically comparable to Ionic with the
distinction between simple and geminate, but phonetically
comparable to Boeotian in the form taken by the geminate. It is
therefore misleading to construct an isogloss solely on the
1 A complete account of these phenomena would also include e.g.
npLmw (Att.), n p l j ~ ~ w (Eretr.) < - * K ~ J , ihanov
(Oropus) < -*xiov, +UA&TW (Att.) < * - K ~ J . See M.
Lejeune, Traite' de Phondttique Grecque (Par is, 1955) 87 ff.,
Adrados, 5 6 7 , Risch, 66-7.
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74 TRANSACTIONS OF THE PHILOLOGICAL SOCIETY lD63
basis of &ros/&ruos, ignoring on the one side the
distinction between Attic and Boeotian, and on the other the
divergence within Ionic-Attic. The correct pattern of relationship
on this isogloss appears as :
t t & S 4- tt
5 ssas4-/ ss
where the top line represents locally restricted phonetic de-
velopments (whether due to diffusion or substrate) in contrast to
the general tendency towards sibilants represented in the lower
line. The left-hand vertical represents a locally restricted
phonological development (in this instance no doubt significant
genealogically) which overlaps both phonetic developments.
What emerges from all this is that while the isogloss brings
Attic and Ionic close together, their relationships outside of this
group are too complex to admit easy generalization.
(3) &opa in Ionic-Attic and Arcado-Cyprian against o"vvpa
elsewhere. This isogloss is based on inadequate factual evidence.
For Cyprian there are apparently no data. Arcadian K ~ E C ~ V O ~
O S , which as a proper name is in any case not decisive, can be
contrasted with ]wv6po in the same dialect. Moreover the change
/om/ > /urn/ is attested in Arcadian 6polocs, urvpi'ov, as i t
is in Lesbian. Even in Ionic-Attic, which thus remains as the only
certain area for the survival of o"vopa,l we have also
Irr&vvpos, &v&vvp,~s. This isogloss must there- fore be
rejected as insignificant.
(4) Nominative plural ot in the definite article appears in
Ionic-Attic and Arcado-Cyprian as an innovation for inherited 701,
which is found generally in West Greek. The innovation is shared by
Lesbian and in part by Thessalian (o l in Pelas- giotic, roi in
Thessaliotic) and Cretan (o l a t Gortys, ro i a t Itanos). In this
last dialect the analogy of the nominative
irvopa turns up in Cretan (Dreros), Rhodian and Aetolian, but
earlier instances of bupa are attested in all three areas, so that
the -0- forms may be due to the Koine.
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R. COLEMAN-THE DIALECT GEOGRAPHY OF ANCIENT GREECE 75
singular 6, which accounts for the innovation elsewhere, could
have operated independently, though ' Mycenean ' substrate should
not be discounted. With this one exception the innovation is
confined to East Greek, including Lesbian and partially Thessalian,
but not Boeotian.
(5) The athematic infinitive in -Val, - E V ~ L , as against - p
w . We find Etvai (Ion.-Att.), +ai (Arc.), cp. Zpp~v (Them.), $ p ~
v (Lac.) ; 8oGvai (Ion.-Att.), 6Gvm (Arc.), cp. 8 d p ~ v (Them.,
Lac.). The evidence from Cyprian is thin but KvpepZvai, 8oFbai
point clearly to - V a l , not - p ~ v , here also. In fact the
restriction of -vai and -mai to Arcado-Cyprian and Ionic-Attic is
c1ear.l
Lesbian - p ~ v a ~ in Zppwai, Gdpcvai is unique. Porzig argued
that it represents a contamination of Aeolic Z p p ~ v , 8dpw (cf.
Thessalian) by Ionic EFvai, 8oGvar (or more strictly &ai,
GoFCvai). This is not impossible, but against it must be set the
equal possibility that -pcvai was inherited. Sanskrit shows among
many other infinitive forms both karman and vidmcine. Porzig
arbitrarily dismisses the latter as a coinci- dence. It is true
that in Sanskrit this form in -mane can be identified with a living
paradigm type, whereas - p ~ v a i cannot ; but the same could be
said of all the Greek infinitive forms. Moreover, it is strange
that only a t this point in the entire verbal system should Lesbian
show infiltration from Ionic.
It is better to treat - p ~ v a i as an instance of independent
selection from among the group of fossilized case forms which
provided the various Greek infinitives. These might well have
included pairs such as -*men, -*menai (cf. the Skt. forms cited),
-*wen (cf. Hitt. eswan), -*wenai (as in *8F&ai, re- modelled
later to give c16CvaiJ and 6oF&ai), -*sen (as in *qkvyrurv >
+ & y w in Attic, +6yqv in Lesb.) and *-senai (cf. -seni in
Skt. bhzi&ni, nesdni). It is even possible to regard Sdp.~vai
as a contamination within Lesbian itself of
The isolated 8 a f v ~ r at Troezene, cp. +EU, 8dp~tv, eto.,'
elsewhere in Argive, could be an early Ionism. For a different
explanation see Thumb- Kieckers, 122.26a.
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76 TRANSACTIONS OF THE PHILOLOQICAL SOCIETY 1003
8dpw and So Fivai, but in view of the Sanskrit parallel
selection seems a preferable explanation. The motivation for this
isolated retention of an earlier doublet form could well have been
the expediency of distinguishing the infinitive and first person
plural flexions. The possibility of homonymy here could only arise
in Aeolic, since West Greek regularly shows - ~ E S in the first
plural alongside - p ~ v in the infinitive. Although Thessalian
shows no trace of any attempt to differentiate in this way, this is
no reason to reject the possi- bility that this affected the
Lesbian selection.
(6) The appearance of -0- vowels in the verb ' to wish ' marks
off Arcado-Cyprian and Attic-Ionic, together with Lesbian from the
rest of Greek, where -e- predominates. Typical instances are
GEIAopai (Phoc.), /3kAAopub (Thess.), /3dMopaL (Lesb.), /3odAopai
(Att.), /3dAopai (Eretrian). The Phocian form is typical of West
Greek, including (so far as the vocalism is concerned) Boeotian. An
/o*/ is found in Cretan as well as in Attic and Central and East
Ionic, /o/ in W. Ionic, Arcadian, Cyprian and perhaps Pamphylian,
where the length of the -0- in /3oAtp~vus is uncertain.
The general pattern of distribution is reminiscent of that seen
in (4)) and with certain exceptions we may reckon -0- forms as East
Greek, -e- forms as West Greek. What makes the isogloss less
convincing for affiliation is the problem of derivation. This
arises particularly in Aeolic, where it has been argued by some
that /3dAAopai (Lesb.) is the original form, and /3lAAopaL (Thess.)
due to West Greek influence, and by others that /3kMopaL is
original Aeolic and PdMopai due to Ionic influence.
The root is clearly *gwel. For proto-Greek we may recon- struct
the following theoretical possibilities :
(a) *gweZ-o-with e-grade and thematic suffix, as in A+, Gixopat,
cf. the cognate gdlati (Skt.). No direct Greek reflexes.
(b) *g*el-so- -with e-grade and -so- suffix, as in A&,bopar.
This could be reflected in some a t least of the attested forms,
with */els/ > /el/ or /ell/.
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R. COLEMAN-THE DIALECT GEOGRAPHY OF ANCIENT GREECE 77
( c ) *gwj-jo- -with zero-grade and j-suffix as in /3alvwJ cf.
the cognate quellan (OHG) with secondary -e-. This would yield
/3dhhw and, if we accept */i/ > /ol/ in Lesbian, j3dMopal
also.
(a) *gwol-ejeThe iterative-causative suffix with o-grade of the
stem, as in $0/3lw. This would give /3oXlw and /3ohlopar, which,
transferred to the -pl class, could be the origin of the Pamphylian
form.
(e) *gwol-o- -with o-grade and thematic suffix, as in Xdyos,
-60x0s would provide substantival forms /3dhos, /3dXii etc.,
derivative verbs from which (cf. c&Gw) would be
indistinguishable from the reflexes of (a).
( f ) *gwol-nE-with o-grade of the stem and -n& suffix, cf.
AoMrjs (< -*nes-) beside E&J. This would give etc. whence /
~ O A E & etc. and the denominative /36X~&w etc.
The only unproductive type here is, rather remarkably, (a).
Conversely the only attested forms that cannot be derived from this
scheme are /36Xopal and fldhopal. It looks therefore as if a t an
early stage in Greek *gwelomai was affected by analogical pressure,
partly from within its own paradigm, e.g. the perfect *gwegwola,
and partly from forms with -0- in the same semantic field, e.g. in
(d ) and (e), and so replaced by *gwolomai. The pressure from the
very productive Greek class ( f ) might have led to the creation of
a verb *gwolnomai as a doublet to *gwolomai ; alternatively the
reflexes of (f) /36Ad, /36X~dw might a t a later stage have
contaminated /3dAopal to produce /36hopal,
All this is of course very speculative and may seem unduly
complex. But the attested forms are complex and do not admit an
easy solution. It is perhaps safest to conclude that the
distinction between e and o which characterizes broadly West and
East Greek (with Aeolic again astride the division) is the result
of selection and independent analogical extensions operating within
these respective areas.
The distribution is as follows :
(7) The conditional particles E L , 4 as against al.
&-Arc.
PHILO. TRANS. 1963. F
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78 TRANSACTIONS OF THE PHILOLOGICAL SOCIETY 1863
4-Cypr. ~ t , 4 (in i t i v < *4 &)-Ion.-Att. at-Dor.,
N.W. Gk., Aeol.
Here we have once again a clear division between East Greek,
with E L (the locative of *o-) and 4 (the instrumental of *o-), and
West Greek with at (the locative of *&), Aeolic being aligned
with West Greek, This selection from a cluster of synonymous or
quasi-synonymous forms is reminiscent of Italic, with Osc. svai and
Lat. sei. The original selection within the ' Southern ' group of
East Greek is represented by Ionic-Attic, and the further
specialization by Arcadian and Cyprian respectively.
(8) The presence of a"v in Ionic-Attic and Arcadian over against
Cyprian has been used as evidence for a period of unity among the
three following the departure of the Cyprian colonists. This seems
plausible. The distribution of the modal particles is :
&--Ion., Att., Arc. KE-cypr., Lesb., Thess. Ka-W. Gk.,
including Boeot.
The relation between these three is uncertain. It has recently
been suggested that K a < *kp beside KEV, and that a"v arises
from wrong division of 06 Kav; cf. E ~ K & and ~l 6'a"v in
Arcadian and the distribution of Homeric 06 KEV, O ~ K a"v.2 The
idea is ingenious ; but there are a number of difficulties. In the
first place although KEV is regular before vowels in Lesbian and
Homeric texts, the epigraphy of Lesbian, Thessalian and Cyprian
shows only KE, This is strange, if KEY was in fact the original
form. There is only one instance of W.Gk. KUV beside KU, in
Boeotian. Moreover, in literary Dorian KU regularly shows a long
vowel, which can hardly
K. Forbes, Qlotta 49 (1958), 179-82, whose argument against tho
traditional connexion of dv with Latin and Gothic an seems
definitive. See also Palmer, op. cit., 90-91.
a J. van Leeuwen, Enchiridion Dictionis Epicae (1918), 8 326,
especially p. 409.
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R. COLEMAN-THE DIALECT GEOGRAPHY OF ANCIENT GREECE 79
be written off as metrical licence. Finally the alterna- tion of
*kp and ken is apparently without parallel in Greek. Thessalian pd
beside p b is not strictly comparable, since the two are
functionally distinct, p& . . . pcl . . . regularly
corresponding to ,U&J . . . 66 in other dialects.
The comparative material adduced for ken, or rather *kern
outside Greek is not as impressive as it seems a t first sight. The
prepositions kam (Skt.) and ZB (Slavonic) are functionally remote
and phonologically suggest *kwem a t least as plausibly as *kern.
The Hittite particle kam used in conjunction with nzi, szi and hi
seems more attractive as a cognate.
However the doubtful status of the -m in Greek is still
troublesome. If we assume ke, not ken as the original form, then we
could connect this with the Latin deictic particle ce, a
flexionless pronominal stem, with k6 as the corresponding feminine
and ka, if it existed a t all1 as the reflex of k6 in hiatus. Then
we might also adduce the Hittite particles ha and ki (e.g. in the
combination ki-nu-un) and kan in nu-kan. A deictic particle would
correspond functionally to the locatives E L and al, and KC could
even be interpreted as a feminine instrumental, parallel to the
neuter 4. The addition of -n could be in part ephelcystic, though
there are other instances of particles with doublet forms in -n,
e.g. T O M ~ K L (Horn.) beside TOM~KLV (Cret., Lac.) and T O M ~ K
K (Ion.), vd beside v h . It is tempting to relate the conjunction
~ a l / ~ c l s to the same deictic root, Kai being either the
feminine locative or ~6 + deictic - L , and K ~ S being analysed as
~d + s.
None of these speculations of course disturbs Forbes's plausible
derivation of a"v from K ~ V . If it is accepted, however, then it
does mean that K C ~ V survived in Arcadian right through to the
historical period. Hence a"v in itself cannot be used to support an
association of Arcadian, Ionic and Attic in pre- historic times.
Instead it is the acquisition of -n, following the selection of KU
as against KE, that is significant for this hypothesis.
1 ~d is perhaps supported by Phocian hivrr K ' & O T ~ U ~ ~
L (Schwyzer 323B), though one could wish for an example where the
following vowel was not /&/.
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80 TRANSdCTIONS OF THE PHILOLOGICAL SOCIETY 11M3
(9) &E, T ~ T E as against &a, T ~ K U (W. Greek)
&a, ZAAOTU (Lesb.). Porzig used this isogloss plausibly to
isolate Arcado- Cyprian and Ionic-Attic from West Greek. &a
seems to be original in Aeolic. &a turns up in Boeotian, but
there are too many West Greek features in this dialect to justify
our separating this one from West Greek. Thessalian d ~ is opaque,
but in view of Lesbian GTU probably represents ~ T U also.
The connexion between these three forms is obscure. Adrados (p.
33) suggested that &a and d r ~ contain reflexes of the
labiovelar *Ico/e-. This is very plausible for GTE, more difficult
for &a. Por the latter Ionic ~ K W S , ~ K O ~ U , etc., would
provide a parallel, and indeed it is tempting to regard ~ K U and ~
K W S as fossilized case forms of the same pronominal root, the
former a neuter plural, the latter an instrumental with secondary
additions of -s. The labio-velar hypothesis makes both - K a and -
r e relatives in origin, which is appropriate functionally. This
still leaves &a. Remembering that in Lesbian and Thessalian the
article (or deictic pronoun) is regularly employed as a relative,
we can analyse &a as *jo + the neuter plural of the article. It
would then be functionally a precise equivalent of W. Greek
&a.
The results of this section may be briefly summarized as follows
: A close association between Ionic-Attic and Arcado- Cyprian is
demonstrated by the exclusive isoglosses (5), (7) and (9), and
supported by (1) and (6), which include also, in particular,
Lesbian, Linear B agrees with the four on (l), the only one of
these isoglosses for which it shows any clear evidence. (a), (3),
(4) and (8) do not support the association, though it is fair to
add that they cannot be used to overthrow it either. As we shall
see, the results of factorial analysis strengthen the hypothesis
considerably.
(B) lhe divergence within Aeolic between Thessalian and
Some of the isoglosses relevant to this topic have already been
discussed in A : KaTLyViTOS (Thess.)/tcaa/yvq.ros (Lesb.)
1 See Porzig, 149-155 ; Risch, 70-71 ; Chadwick, op. cit.,
46.
Lesbian.1
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R. COLEMAN-THE DIALECT GEOGRAPHY OF ANCIENT GREECE 81
and ~'KUTL (Thess.)/ei'Koui (Lesb.) in (I), 8 d p v
(Thess.)/Sdpvai (Lesb.) in (5), /3&lopui (Thess.)//3dMopai
(Lesb.) in (6). We must now consider the other items cited in this
connexion.
(1) The reflexes of *.rravqu : ~IT$vuu (Thew.), .rraiua
(Lesb.),
This pattern of distribution was used by Porzig to support his
view that the Lesbian divergences from Thessalian were due to Ionic
influence. In considering the evidence it is important to take
account of the reflexes of */entj/ and */ontj/ as well as of
*/antj/.
No dialect, not even Linear B, shows -*Vnti- in any of these
contexts.
/Vns/ is probably concealed by Lin. B pa-sa and is clearly
attested in early Thessalian, in parts of Crete, and in Argive and
Arcadian. As all the other dialects must have passed through this
stage, this part of the isogloss is of limited importance though it
does serve to illustrate the conservatism of the dialects which
exhibit it.
.rrG:aa (Ion.-Att. and W. Gk.).
Three distinct reflexes of this /Vns/ are attested : (a) /V,.s/,
with simplification of the cluster and com-
pensatory lengthening of the preceding vowel, which in the case
of */e/ and */o/ falls together with the inherited long- vowel
phonemes, e.g. @puua. Examples occur in Laconian, Heraclean,
Theran, Elean, Boeotian and Pamphylian (in part a t least).
(b) /V,.s/, where the resultant long vowel in the case of
original */e/ and */o/ is kept distinct from the inherited
long-vowel phonemes, e.g. ( ~ Q O V U U . Examples occur in
Corinthian, Megarian, Rhodian, Coan, N.W. Greek, Attic and
Ionic.
This development is peculiar to Lesbian. Its appearance in the
text of Alcman is interpreted by some as a genuine Laconism, but
this is improbable in view of the subsequent appearance of /V,.s/
in tho epigraphic material. The only other occurrence of -Viu-
epigraphically is a t Cyrene. It is not a feature of the
mother-dialect Theran,
(c ) /Vis/, e.g. qGpoioa.
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82 TRANSACTIONS OF THE PHILOLOGICAL SOCIETY 1963
and so could be an independent development in the colony.
However there are other Lesbian features too in Cyrene (see
Thumb-Kieckers 0 146) which could be due to the participation of a
Lesbian group in the sixth century re-colonization.
The reflexes of original */ns/ in final position are comparable
in many respects to those of */ntj/, though there is a greater
range of variants :
(a ) /Vns/ unchanged, e.g. rdvs : a t Troezene (Arg.) and Gortys
(C. Cret.).
( b ) /V,-s/, e.g. &s, 7;s : Lac., Tar., Boeot., Pamp. ( c )
/V,.s/, e.g. 706s : Cor., Meg., Rhod., Aetol., Phoc.,
(d) /Vis/, e.g. 701s : Lesb., Elean. Att., Ion.
The Elean situation can hardly be due to Lesbian influence in
view of the remoteness of the two dialects from each other and the
relatively recent character of this pattern of change in Greek.
Moreover, as */Vntj/ reflexes in Elean do not show this form,
whereas they do in Lesbian, it seems best to regard the shift as
independent in the W. Greek dialect. This is con- firmed by the
early orthography of Elean which shows -0s in this context, as
distinct from -os, perhaps denoting a nasal vowel or some other
intermediate stage between /om/ and /oh/.
( e ) /Vs/, e.g. T ~ S : Thess., Arc., Coan, Theran. In many
dialects, e.g. Arg., Cret., Rhod., and Phoc., there is evidence for
this treatment alongside one of those noted above. The distribution
of 769, T ~ V S , T& must in origin have been deter- mined
phonologically , 76s before consonants, T ~ V S before vowels (cf.
2s E)VS is), with subsequent generalization resulting in the
situation seen in Thessalian, etc.
Both these changes are thus pan-Hellenic. The realization of a
general trend in the language most probably occurred in each
dialect independently. Contacts with nearby dialects might confirm
a trend already in existence, but there is no justification for
assuming that the contrast between, say, the conservative situation
in Thessalian and the innovatory one in Lesbian is due to any
external influences.
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R. COLEMAN-TEE DIALECT GEOGRAPHY OF ANCIENT GREECE 83
(2) The genitive singular of the thematic declension: The
divergence of Lesbian -w from Thessalian -010 has been attributed
to the influence of Ionic, which shows -ow, viz. -0. Here as in (1)
the argument is vitiated by concentrating attention on too
restricted a sector, via. Thessalian, Lesbian, Ionic, without
taking account of the pattern of variation over the whole Greek
area.
In the inherited genitive -*/osjo/ [s] was lost prehistorically.
-/ojo/ is already attested in Linear 13 -0-jo, and later in
Thessalian and Homeric -010. In all of these the phonetic value is
probably [ojjo]. For all the other forms of the Greek 0- stem
genitive the immediate starting point seems to have been [ojo].
This was replaced first by [ O O ] , a stage attested only in the
-00 forms restored on metrical grounds in some Homeric passages,
and then by the contract reflexes set out below. The diachronic
relationship between [ojo] and [ojjo] is uncertain. Loss of [s]
from */osjo/ could have been accom- panied by compensatory
lengthening of the semivowel, and the resultant [ojjo] later
reduced to [ojo]. Alternatively loss of [s] could have led directly
to [ojo], with [j] thereafter either lost (as in most dialects) or
lengthened to [jj].
Two reflex types result from the contraction of [OO] : (a) a
vowel identical with inherited /o-/, e.g. 8 4 beside
OrGv. This development is seen in Lac., Her., Mess., Arg.,
Cret., El., W. Locr., Boeot., Lesb., Arc. and perhaps Cypr.
(b) a vowel distinct from the inherited /o./, e.g. 8eoC beside
8cGv. Examples are found in Cor., Meg., Ther., Rhod., Coan, Ach.,
Aet., Phoc., Pamp., Att., Ion.
The pattern is very similar to that for compensatory lengthening
in (1) and (2) above and can be interpreted as the independent
realization in all dialects of a general Greek tendency. In fact
even Thessalian shows a reduction of /ojo/ within the historical
period : in Pelasgiotic we find /oi/, e.g. MvaacpaXdoL beside
noX+oio (Larissa), MEVEUT~IOL beside @ ~ h d y p o ~ o (Gyrtun), in
Thessaliotis /o,/ as in (a) above, e.g. ZwudvGp6, later Aapa~pclov
(Kierion). For the change
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84 TRANSACTIONS OF THE PHILOLOGICAL SOCIETY 1983
*/ojo/ > /o-/ in Lesbian the influence of Ionic-or any other
dialect-is thus wholly redundant.
(3) The dative plural of -6- and -0- stems shows Thessalian -ais
and -OK, e.g. FoiKLdraLS, Lesbian -aim, - o m , e.g. cip+orkpami,
ZAAoiui. This has been claimed as an example of W. Greek influence
in Thessalian, but in fact the distribution of the two types is
more complex than this reasoning implies :
-s forms-Lac., Meg., El., W. Locr., Boeot. ( T O X ~ T ~ S <
-*ars,
-si forms-Pamph., Lcsb. Both types are attested in Corinthian,
Cretan (where -si belongs mainly but not exclusively to the central
region) and in Ionic.
From inscriptions dated to the fifth century or earlier we find,
e.g. ~rjis a t Paros, $ULV at Naxos, $pkpprliuiv a t Chios and
ripais a t Erythrae. From the same period we have in -0- stems
kpoiuiv a t Miletus, vBpo~s a t Oropus. Most of these variants are
attested in MSS. of Ionic authors as well.
Both Sanskrit and Latin show syncretism of the dative and
ablative cases in the plural, e.g. uivvebhyah, equis. In Greek the
syncretism of ablative and genitive, found in Sanskrit only in the
(non-thematic) singular, was extended to the plural, where the
ablatival functions are taken over by the genitive forms. The Greek
dative plural is a mixture of inherited locatival and instrumental
forms, corresponding to the functional syncretism of the case.
-01 in 0-, ci-, consonant-stems reflects the inherited locative.
For -OLOL cf. Skt. uivqu, for -auc cf. uivcisu. The Greek - L may
be due to analogy with the dative singular, but the possibility of
an inherited variant cannot be ruled out, in view of Avestan
hafs'i, tanus'i (not attested however in vocalic stems).
-01s reflects the inherited instrumcntal -*/o.is/, cf. Skt.
aivuih, with the regular Greek reduction of the long diphthong in
this position. -ais seems to have been formed on analogy with -01s.
The inherited &stem instrumental -*/a*bhi/,
rrpo&~vs < - *OK), Thess., Arc., Cypr., Att.
Ionic shows a remarkable diversity.
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R. COLEMAN-THE DIALECT GEOGRAPBY OF ANCIENT GREECE 85
attested in Skt. aivvdbhih (where the final -*/s/ is perhaps
secondary) is found only in the Linear B instrumental, e.g.
a-n.i-ja-pi = hzniciiphi, and in the fossilized multi-functional
-41 of Homeric.
In Linear B dative and instrumental cases are still distinct.
Beside a-ni-ja-pi we find e-re-pa-te-jo = elephantewis, etc. as
instrumentals, and the datives te-o-i = theoi(h)i, e-qe-ta-i =
hepetd(h)i or (by analogy with o-stems already) heqetai(h)i, which
reflect the inherited locative formation. The lost inter- vocalic s
was later restored by analogy with the consonant stems e-ke-si-qe =
enkhessi-qe, pa-si = pan(t)si, etc. Con- sonant stems here
apparently included those with -/e. w/- suffix, e.g. Ica-he-u-si =
khalhwsi, which might well have provided the starting point for the
restoration of s in purely vocalic stems. Both dative in -si, -(h)i
and instrumental in -pi also exhibit locative functions in Linear
B.
It is interesting to note the greater variety of :-stem than
o-stem datives in Ionic. In the latter paradigm the prehistoric
reduction of the long diphthongs had brought the reflexes of
inherited instrumental -*/o * is/ and locative -*/oisi/ closer
together, viz. -OK, -0iui. Phonetic change within Ionic itself
produced, in contrast, a greater disparity between the corre-
sponding &stem forms, viz. -air, -7oi (< -*aai). The
possibili- ties of analogical influence here are therefore more
numerous. Besides -aim, showing pressure on -*tior both from -ais
and -oiai, we find -71s and -7iai.
The presence of datives in -s and -UL side by side in Ionic and
in Cretan must represent a situation once common to the whole Greek
area, and the distribution pattern noted above provides an
admirable instance of the effects of selection. The nearest
parallel to Lesbian in this particular item is not Ionic, where the
ultimate selection over the whole region favoured -ais and -OK, but
Pamphylian. However the pressure to avoid homophony with the
accusative forms -air and -OK (< -*avs, -*ovs) in Lesbian cannot
have been a factor in the Pamphylian selection. (4) The sigmatic
tenses of verbs in -5w. The significance of
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86 TILANSACTIONS OF THE PHILOLOOICAI, SOCIETY 1983
the distribution of this isogloss has been much discussed,
Kretschmer long ago argued that - f - was an 'Achaean', -u- an
Ionic feature. Poraig maintained that Thessalian $a&fapkvas,
2pydfaro were due to West Greek, Lesbian zpdvr iaav to Ionic
influence. The correct interpretation of the isogloss depends once
again on two considerations : the historical origin of -5- and -a-
in these forms and the pattern of dialectal distribution.1
-5w verbs comprise two types of denominative suffix: voiced
dentals, with -5w < -*8kw, e.g. 2 h i s 2ArI8os : &l[w, and
voiced velars, with - [w < -*y-iw, e.g. QraE gprayos : Aprdlw.
The unvoiced stops yielded -rrw/-auw, e.g. 2p+s : 2pkrrwJ
rp&xos : rpdr rw. The geminate in these latter forms must,
originally a t least, have denoted the unvoiced equivalent of 5 :
viz. *[tj] > *[ts] > [tt]/[ss], beside *[dj] > [dz] >
[dd] in some areas /[zz].
The voiced-stops in sigmatic tenses (future and aorist) would
originally show two distinct developments : *[ds] > *[ts] >
[ss] ([tt] in Boeotian), "[gs] > [ks]. No dialect exhibits this
precise distribution. A number show both types of reflex, but not
distributed etymologically. This situation must have been
intensified, if not actually caused, by the fact that -5w was
extended to stems where there were no supporting stop-final forms,
e.g. 8apd[w, 8 i ~ d [ w , vop~cw. Examples include : Arg. uxluas
rapeve$&& GiKdfauBai but E'8l~au~av ; Coan 2pydfaa%ai,
8iKauakw, Boeot. &r~t,ba$haro &opifdpeBa, Thess. 2ppyd[uro,
~ p o v ~ [ l a ] a ~ i v (late enough, a t Larissa, to be due to
the Koine),2 Arg. ~61KdUUatLVJ rapherafd- ~ E V U S , Ion. 2rieaav,
T L E X B ~ V T ~ S , Horn. ;praaa,
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B. COLEMAN-THE DIALECT GEOGRAPHY OF ANCIENT GREECE 87
(including Pamphylian) the trend was towards -I-, though Argive
and Coan, as we have just seen, preserve an earlier stage.
While interdialectal contacts here as in other cases would
reinforce existing trends, the distribution pattern is most
plausibly explained in terms of independent development, the result
OP amalogical extension and selection. Within Aeolic all three
historically attested types are found : Boeotian like Argive (but
not N.W. Greek) shows both -&and -m-(-uu-) forms, Thessalian
like most West Greeks shows predominantly -f-, Lesbian like Attic
(but not Ionic) shows -a-.
(5 ) 2v + acc. (Thess.), is , cts (< *&s) + acc. (Lesb.).
Porzig (p. 150) regarded this divergence as also due to Ionic
influence. Indeed he argued that
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88 TRAKSACTIONS OF THE PHILOLOGICAL SOCIETY 1063
phonetic shift from /Vns/ in all the dialects concerned, as
Risch rightly saw, placing the innovation itself in the period
1200-900 B.C. However the wide diffusion that has to be assumed
(affecting all the dialects save those in (a) above) is so
improbable that one is prompted to seek an alternative
explanation.
The addition of -s to adverbial and prepositional forms is well
known in Greek e.g. aiWi, ad%is; 0;17w, ov"rws, Elean &v:vrvs
for ZVVEV, Dor. +rCv beside &mas, and in prepositions +$I,
a'&s ; r p d , rpds, where the variants were semantically
differentiated (see below) and 2 ~ , Zt, where they were not. We
may conclude therefore that the doublets Zv and Zvs were both used
originally in Greek with the accusative-though not with the
locatival dative, since no dialect shows Zvs + dative. The pattern
of distribution set out above would then result from independent
selection, some dialects retaining both forms with the accusative
function (cf. ZK and 2( + gen.), others showing differentiation of
function, with 2vs + acc., E)v + dat., others again levelling out
Zvs and employing Zv with both cases.
Different structural pressures would operate in different
dialects. Thus in Ionic thc use of rpds with the accusative in a
similar semantic function would favour the exclusive use of ZVS, in
Argive the change of 26 to 2s in certain contexts would lend to
homophony with 2s (< *Zvs), and this would favour 2v. The
selection hypothesis seems much more satisfactory here than the
assumption that an isolated morpheme was exported from one dialect,
especially as there was no functional gap for i t to fill in the
other dialects. We may therefore reject the idea of diffusion on
this item before the Koine period, when the appearance of Ionic ~ l
s in many dialects is accompanied by the intrusion of a host of
other Ionic forms.
(6) The preposition TOT/ in Thessalian corresponds to irpds
This divergence has been used on the one hand to associate
Thessalian with W. Greek against Lesbian and on the other Lesbian
with Ionic against Thessalian, cf. (4) above.
in Lesbian.
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R. COLEMAN-THE DIALECT GEOGRAPHY OF ANCIENT GREECE 89
Again we must consider both the distribution and the
(a ) m-rl-W.Gk. generally, Boeot., Thess. (6) roi-before dentale
in some W.Gk., generalized in Arg.,
Phoc. This looks like dissimilatory loss of /t/, but the
possibility of an original *PO-; cannot be ruled out.
(c) po-si-Lin. B, with /si/ < */ti/. (d ) rids-Arc.-Cypr.
Presumably < * r o u l , with the apocope
that is common in Arc., though it could represent original
*PO-s.
( e ) ~porl-in Homer. Some of the examples could conceal Tori,
e.g. /3ij G'haL n p o d v;ias but others must be genuine, e,g.
cklpovro rrpo-rl &pas. Homeric - 7 6 here and in no71 must
reflect an old Aeolic substrate in the dialect (we do not know a t
what date Lesbian */ti/ > /si/). r p o d could in theory
represent an artificial contamination of nor1 and rpds, but there
are also tracea of i t elsewhere. rp07' occurs once in Argive,
where i t is supported by Apollonius Dyscolus's testi- mony that ~
p o ~ l was a Dorian form.
(f) rop.rl-beside n o d in C. Crete. The latter cannot be a
derivative of 7 ~ 0 ~ 7 1 since the change */ort/ > /ot/ is not
otherwise attested for Cretan (or for any other dialect, e.g. in (a
) above). r rop~ l < *p$i is also phono- logically improbable
for this dialect. However the metathesis of op, ap for PO, pa in
Cretan is attested in 'A+opGira, araprds, KC~PTOS, so that we can
derive rrop71 from 1 ~ ~ 0 7 1 in ( e ) .
(9) vpds-Ion., Att., Lesb. In Lesbian, where apocope of
prepositions is common, npds < * ~ p o u ~ < pod is possible.
In Attic and Ionic apocope is almost unknown, so we cannot assume
the Lesbian pattern of change, Attic ~ p d s therefore < *po-s
.
Metathesis of the Cretan type is attested in 'A$opGlra, I
lp~rlas beside I l ~ p y l a s . Pamp. mp7l therefore <
*pre-ti,
derivation of the relevant forms :
(h) mp7l-Pamp. TEPT&OKE.
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90 TRANSACTIONS OF THE PHILOLOGICAL SOCIETY 1963
( i ) rpis-Lesb. shows the Ablaut alternant of (9) . cf. epi
This welter of variants can be derived from the following and
opi (Lin. R).
basic forms : *Po-ti and perhaps *PO-i, *PO-s
To these may be added the semantically differentiated *pro and
perhaps *PO, since .rrd occurs in a number of the ~ 0 7 1 -
dialects, where it may not always be due to apocope. We thus have
*PO and with some a t least of the suftixes zero, 4, -s, -ti. How
many of these were inherited it is hard to say. For *pos there are
parallels in Lith. pds = at, Italic *posti with additional *ti
(Lat. post and perhaps postid, Osc. pzist and perhaps pzistin,
Umbr. posti) ; for *poti Av. pa%, OPers. patiy ; for *pro Lat. pro,
Skt. p r a ; for *proti Skt. prati, OCS. protiva.
There is a double isogloss here : pro/po in the root and a t
least ti/s in the suffix. It is difficult to see how the complexity
of variation and distribution can be anything but the result of
independent selection from a number of such compounds with
overlapping functions in pGk. Thessalian seems to go along with W.
Greek ; Lesbian with East Greek but with a t least one peculiarity
of its own ( r p i s ) . This means nothing more than that in this
as in so many features Aeolic does not as a group fit neatly into
one division or the other. (7) The suffix of the adverbs .rrpdo%ev
etc. (Lesb.) contrasts
with that of Thessalian a[ov^Ba. This too has been used to
establish a connexion between Lesbian and Ionic. The isogloss need
not detain us long. For 1~pdo6c without -v is the epi- graphic form
in Lesbian ; .rrpduOev, which is regular in Attic and Ionic, also
occurs in Aetolian and in Thessalian ( ~ p d u r r v ) ! The
relation between these two forms and .rrpduBa etc. in Heraclean,
Cretan, Phocian and Arcadian is obscure. There is a great variety
of adverbial suffixes observable in most dialects : Thessalian has
~ ~ p d a r r v but E'eov^Ba, Argive ZprpouBa, +.rrpoo%a, Boeotian
etrcv, &ra, Ionic 2mua, t 'nm-w, &Ba, &Btv, Arc.
BV'oBev (= outside), Cypr. i;Ba. Not only does this
*prO/l,-ti and *pro/e-s
See Palmer, op. oit., 89.
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R. COLEMAN-THE DIALECT GEOGRAPHY O F ANCIENT GREECE 91
isogloss not divide Aeolic neatly but it fails to characterize
any of the Greek dialects.
In general it is clear that, where Thessalian and Lesbian
diverge, Lesbian is the innovating, Thessalian the conservative
dialect, e.g. A (1)) B (1) and (2) and perhaps A (6). Most of these
innovations are shared either wholly or in part by other dialects,
e.g. Kaolyqros, PdMopai, though in some instances the particular
development is peculiarly Lesbian, e.g. raicra. A (5 ) and (8)) B
(3), (4)) (5) and (6) are all examples of selection, and again we
may distinguish those features shared by other dialects, e.g. the
dative in -OLUL and the preposition ~ V S , from those peculiar to
Lesbian, e.g. S d p v a r , rp&. Even with Eikoai we cannot
assume Ionic influence, since the form is not confined to these two
dialects, and it is better to see this and other items as uniting
Lesbian (more closely than Thessalian) to a loosely-knit East Greek
complex, As for Thessalian itself) the items that it shares with W.
Greek are either ones originally common to all the dialects and so
inconclusive genealogically and unlikely to be due to convergence,
or else they can be plausibly ascribed to independent selection.
Nevertheless the fact that Thessalian is more " westward-looking ')
than Lesbian remains significant.
We may now summarize this part of the discussion.
(C) The dtffUsi0.n of Aeolic features in non-Aeolic dialects.
This argument has appeared in various though not mutually
exclusive forms. The commonest is the setting up of a pre-
historic ' Central Greek ' or ' Achaean ) ) with a considerable
Aeolic content. Adrados in fact used the term ' Aeolic' almost as a
synonym for ' Achaean '.l In addition to ' Aeolic ) substrate of
this kind there are also occasional instances of
Thumb-Iiieckers, 8 76, follow Kretschmer in setting up a Central
Greek group (Aeolic, Old Achaean) between Ionic-Att,ic and West
Greek, com- prising Arc.-Cypr., Boeot. and Lesb.-Them So too
Palmer, op. cit., 88-91. Adrados, M-61, etc., divides Aeolic from
Arc.-Cypr., but his use of the notion of ' Aeolic ' substrate is
rightly chastised by Ruiperez, 261. Porzig, 161-168, postulates a
southward migration of Pelasgians in the middle Bronze Age.
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92 TRANSACTIONS OF THE PHILOLOGICAL SOCIETY 1083
more recent change in non-Aeolic areas that have been ascribed
to diffusion from an Aeolic source.
Two relevant items have already been examined : L'oa~r6Gv in A
(l), and the -8- signatic tenses of -50 verbs in B (4). Further
examples are :
(1) The close-vowel reflexes of the contraction of */ee/ and
*/oo/ which Porzig saw as the result of diffusion southwards from
Thessaly a t a relatively recent date (uncontracted forms appear
still in early Boeotian, Argive and Cretan).
As with the reflexes of */tj/ considered in A (l), it is
essential to distinguish in our pattern of distribution between
phonetic and phonological aspects of the isogloss. Phono- logically
two types of development are attested :
viz. no distinction between the contract reflexes and the
inherited long vowels, both being represented by c, 0 (later 7, w )
, e.g. Lac., Her., Mess., Arg., Meg., Cret., Ther., El., Boeot.,
Thess., Lesb., Arc. and probably Cypr.
(b) */ee/ > Q: /e/, */oo/ > 4 /w/. vie. the contract
reflexes and inherited long vowels are kept distinct, the former as
EL, ouJ the latter as 7, w . e.g. Cor., Rhod., Coan, Ach., Aet.,
Phoc., W. Locr., Pamp., Att., Ion.
In Thessalian both /el/ and /o./ were raised prehistorically,
e.g. SOUK KC, dvd8ecrcc. It is therefore impossible to say whether
the contract reflexes (also denoted by E L and ou) fell together
with the long vowels before or after this change occurred. On
either diachrony the Thessalian contract reflexes in E L and ou
must be kept phonologically separate from the phonetically similar
1 and ou of other dialects, which were structurally contrasted with
7 (or i ) and w (or 6). Hence Thessalian is placed in (a).
In ( b ) it is hard to be certain of the precise phonetic inter-
pretation of the digraphs. They could represent either diphthongs
resulting from end-closure, viz. *[eel > [ei], *[oo] > [ou] ;
or the ' spurious ' diphthongs, established for Attic and Ionic,
viz. [y] and [y], which could of course be
(a) */ee/ > < /v/, */oo/ > < /w/.
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R. COLEMAN-TEE DIALECT QEOQRAPHY OF ANCIENT GREECE 93
related in some instances to an original diphthongal stage, as
*[eel > *[ei] > [+,I. It is possible that (a) represents
phono- logically a later stage than (b) ; with the loss of
distinction between the reflexes of /ee/ and /e./, /oo/ and /o./.
Now it is worth remembering that the distinction between EL and q
as [y] and [E'], which we are familiar with in Attic and Ionic,
need not have been so marked in other dialects, where /a*/ and /e./
had not fallen together. The probable phonetic values E L = [e.], Z
or q = [e.] in these dialects would present a more favourable
context for the merging of the two phonemes in question.
We must also take note here of the change that resulted from the
introduction of the Ionic alphabet into the areas listed in (a).
Very Boon the Ionic graphemic distinction of a / q , ov/w began to
appear in some places, e.g. Argos, Thera and perhaps Megara (though
the original situation is not certain there), while in others, like
Laconia, the previous situation remains, 2 and 0 being replaced by
q and w in both contexts. It is of course possible that the
epichoric graphemic conventions really concealed a phonemic
distinction, and that some of the dialects classified under (a)
above properly belong to (b) . More probably however the phonemic
distinction was introduced along with the Ionic spellings. This
intrusion would not be violent, since by the fourth century, when i
t occurred, the Ionic long vowels /e* 9 . 0- ?./ (7 EL w ou) were
already becoming raised from [c y 3' 9'1 towards [e, i. 0' u.3 and
the difference between the Ionic original long vowels and contract
reflexes slightly reduced in consequence.
The raising of the contract reflexes in (b) was far too wide-
spread to be due to Thessalian, which even vis-8-vis Central and
South Greece was for centuries too isolated and remote to be a
focus of diffusion. The fact that the dialects listed in (b) form a
band right across central Greece suggests the possi- bility either
of diffusion, though hardly from Thessalian, or else of substrate
of one kind or the other, though again in view of the Lesbian
divergence from Thessalian unlikely to be Aeolic.
PHILO. TRANS. 1903. a
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94 TRANSACTIONS 01' TlIE PHILOLOGICAL SOCIETY 1003
On the other hand the early raising of /e./ as a whole was
confined to Thessalian, Boeotian and Cyprian. The shift in Boeotian
could be due to Thessalian influence, though if 80, it is strange
that /o./ in Boeotian was not similarly affected, since both
phonemes were raised in Thessalian. The Cyprian change must be
independent. It is tempting to see the raising of /v/ in these
three (or two) areas as an independent early realization of the
general tendency to iotacism throughout Greek. Subsequently Ionic
and Attic also exhibit the shift, and diffusion through the
Hellenistic Koine of which Ionic- Attic was the focus no doubt
hastened the development in other regions too.
(2) The occurrence of -VV- as a reflex of */sn/ in Laconian has
been taken as an instance of pre-Dorian Aeolic substrate.
For the reflexes of */Vsn/ we have the following distri- bution
:
(a) /Vl.n/ where for */V/ = */e/ or */o/ /Vl,/ > < /e./ or
/o,/. Lac., Tar., Mess., Arg., Cret., Ther., Rhod., Coan, El.,
Boeot., Arc.
( b ) /V,m/ where for */V/ = */e/ or */o/ /V,,/ > < /e*/
or /o*/. Cor., Meg., Ach., Phoc., W. Locr., Aet., Att., Ion.
Thess., Lesb. The Laconian examples : @cij3~vvos, @a&va and
Alcman's &vva are anomalous in view of e.g. +EV < "esmen,
and not very serious ones at that, since two are proper names and
the other occurs in a literary genre which shows a number of Aeolic
features. We may therefore dismiss Aeolic substrate in Laconian, so
far as this item is concerned.
Risch (p. 71) used this isogloss (o~Adv6 in his table) to
establish a contact between Ionic and Dorian a t the time of the
Dorian invasion, Given that all the dialects apart from Thcssalian
and Lesbian show a similar kind of change, (a) and (b) above, and
that Dorian dialects are evenly distributed in both (a ) and (b) ,
Attic and Ionic were bound to be aligned
(4 /Vnn/.
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It. COLEMAN-THE DIALECT GEOGRAPHY OF ANCIENT GREECE 95
with some Dorians. However, as in other changes resulting in
long vowels, e.g. in B (i) and C (i), Attic and Ionic belong to a
Central Greek band, so diffusion or substrate including N.W. Greek,
North Dorian and Ionic-Attic remains a real possibility.
( 3 ) dv for dvd occurs in Lesbian dvEleEKc etc., Thessalian
dv&IKat.v etc. beside dv&lKarv, Arcadian liv&lvac etc.,
Cyprian 6vEleEKr. The ' Aeolic ' hypothesis here rests on several
very dubious assumptions. The first is that dv and olvd are strict
doublets. There appear to be no instances of dv or dvd standing
alone (the compounds cited above are typical) and the only example
of dvd at all is in Cyprian dva40pcil where contamination of dv and
dvd has been suggested. dv could equally well be regarded as an
Ablaut alternant of &, though its original relation to dvd
remains obscure. The second assumption is that */$/ would give in '
Aeolic ' /on/ or /o/ instead of the usual Greek /an/ or /a/.
Lejeune is rightly sceptical about this change, for which the
examples cited from Arcadian and Lesbian, e.g. 8dKoros hacordv, are
too easily explicable by analogy from other numerals to be
convincing. It is better to avoid building one vague hypothesis
upon another, and instead to regard dv in Aeolic and Arcado-
Cyprian as an instance of common selection as between dv and dvci a
t a time in the history of E. Greek when both forms were living
alternatives. (4) The apocope of prepositions has been interpreted
by
Porzig as an Aeolic feature. In fact apocope of these proclitics
is widespread everywhere except in Ionic-Attic. Thus hv, K a r l
Tap, TOT are common in all other regions, with sandhi forms like KA
T ~ V (Her.), T ~ K K U T ~ T T U ~ (Boeot.), K a pqva (Arc.) and
KdMmcv (Lesb.) ; rep is attested in Messenian, Phocian, Cretan,
etc. Thessalian, which is most affected by apocope, shows d ~ ,
&, GT, which are almost unknown elsewhere. In some of these we
may wonder whether the apocopated forms are not in fact the older
ones : e.g. &rl < k + I, cf. Lat. ob, Osc. zip, m p I <
rep + I, cf. Latin per. But in
1 Lejeune, op. cit., 169.
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96 TRANSACTIONS OF THE PHILOLOGICAL SOCIETY lees
any case the phenomenon serves only to isolate Ionic-Attic and
is too pan-Hellenic otherwise to be attributed to any particular
dialect substrate .
( 6 ) The simplification of if to i s before a following con-
sonant has also been considered to be due to Aeolic substrate.
Examples include i s TOCV beside if cipxlis (Them.), ioydvor and
even 20s i&'@v beside i x s 'Epxop [evG], (Boeot.), ia6CMowes
but E'fZvac (Arc.), 2s 7~08' (Cypr. : Hesychius), i s rdhcos, i
.&&/as (Arg.), iaydvois and even is6cKaKaeS (C. Cret.).
Clearly the phenomenon entails not only the phonetic change [eks]
> [es] but also, in part a t least, an initial selection as
between if and G K . In Attic and other dialects that retained
both, the distribution was phonetically determined: 2f before
vowels, E)K before consonants. In Thessalian, Boeotian, Arcadian,
Cyprian and Central Cretan only if (> i s ) is attested. In
Argive and Phocian i~ is also found alongside i s : e.g. b ~ ~ p d
f a u ~ a ~ and K{a?rpafd [UTW] (Phoc.).
The reduction of [eks C] to [es C] is an expected change, so it
is highly probable that in those widely scattered dialects where
selection had eliminated E'K the change occurred independently.
(6) The dative plural of consonant stems e.g. 7~oXl~oac (Lesb.),
K~TOCKCWECTUL (Them.), a"vSpcaac (Boeot.). -EUUC forms are also
found in Phocian, E. Locrian, Corinthian colonies, Elean (+~ydSeoac
), Cyrenaean and Pamphylian (SiKaurtpcao~ ) . Although 'EmreXiSEouc
is cited from Argive, the last three letters here are a
restoration. Ot/laaai in a metrical inscription (Schwyzer 102) may
be relevant, but other Argive datives like Odovoc, V V ~ A L U L
make the restoration inconclusive. Aeolic (or ' Achaean ')
substrate has been claimed for this form.
The origin within the paradigm system is still disputed. Its
motivation is presumably the phonetic disruption of the stem final
before the datival-si. e.g. #2powes, c$kp~?oc iXnlSt.s, ~ X ~ T L '
U L etc. Heraclean Zvracrar represents an independent remodelling
of the dative to bring it into line with the
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R. COLEMAN-THE DIALECT GEOGRAPHY OF ANCIENT GREECE 97
remainder of the paradigm. -EUUL appears to be extracted from
the -s- stems e.g. ykvea-ul, T ~ A E U - U L (Att. etc. ykveoc,
.r&hcui), and this seems to be the source (perhaps
independently in each dialect) of Attic rdhcol for *rdAcul, Rhodian
N ~ ~ E U L and Arcadian 2u8dueac-in all of which the older -L-
forms were not in fact anomalous ! Another influential factor may
have been the relation of nominative to dative in ~MoL, &loiuL,
whence e.g. Bv8pes, &dpeouc, though this could only happen in
dialects with - o m , -ULUL in the -0- and -a- stem paradigms, e.g.
in Lesbian, Corinthian and Pamphylian. Given that the anomalous
forms of the dative plural were common to all dialects and that
more than one formative factor might have produced -EUUL, the
innovation could have been independent in some areas, e.g.
Pamphylian.
With regard to the rest we may ask : was the innovation due to
Aeolic substrate or diffusion 1 Now within Aeolic Lesbian, which
has - o m and -acuc datives is (like Pamphylian) a likely place to
look for the independent extension of -coal. But Lesbian on the
other side of the Aegaean seems too remote to be a source of
diffusion, unless this took place before the migration and so
formed a substrate in areas later occupied by other dialects. Here
however we encounter a difficulty. Thessalian shows beside
KUTOLK~VTCUUL (Larissa) 6rdpXoual (in the same locality) and
Xptpaaw (Thetonion), which suggests that -cum is recent in this
dialect. In spite of this it is tempting to explain the emergence
of these forms in Thessalian, Boeotian, Phocian, Locrian and Elean
in terms of diffusion of some sort, though not from Aeolic. And we
have a parallel in the later spread of -01s in consonant stems
(another independent replacement of the anomalous dative plural : +
k p o v m +pdwocs supplanting r p k p o ~ e s +kppoul) from N.W.
Greek to Boeotian, Elean and even Laconian. Our conclusion is that
-EU (u )c emerged independently in several areas of Greek, along
with -auui, -OK, to replace the older dative case, and in N.W.
Greek and Continental Aeolic was diffused from an undefined source.
There is no need in all this to assume any pre-Dorian Aeolic
substrate.
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98 TRANSACTIONS OF THK PHILOLOGICAL SOCIETY 1963
(7) The athematic conjugation of verbs with vocalic suffix (
contract verbs ), e.g. +caXqp-bwu (Lesb.), beside KaXro- plvwv,
etc. (Ion.-Att.), yaopyeiprv (Thess.) beside y r w p y ~ i v
(Ion.-Att.) q5iXapL (Boeot. : grammarians) beside +ch&
(Ion.-Att.).
A number of scholars have held that where this paradigm- type
occurs outside Aeolic it is due to Aeolic substrate. Risch (p. 71)
saw the community of i w etc. in Dorian and Ionic as evidence for
contact between these two groups at the time of the Dorian
invasion.
Once more we must start from the pattern of distribution. Three
groups emerge :
(a ) - l w etc.-Cor., Rhod., Att., Ion. Laconian shows ~ K / ~ ~
V T B S from i ~ i 3 & ~ , but only in a literary text.
( b ) -qpc etc.-Arg., El., Pamp., Arc., Cypr. ( c ) Both -do and
- q p ~ types: Her., Ther., Coan, Phoc.,
Cret., Aet., to which must be added Boeot., e.g. 2iroX+ov and
dirLmr+avw&rv (with thematic -cpcv but -w- ) , Thess.
hvX?ipcowos and Lesb. ciypcdpcvo~ (for all of which cp. the
athematic forms cited above).
Relevant here is the reverse tendency, aided by inherited
doublets like -vi ip/-Vuw, to extend -rw, etc., to inherited - p
paradigms, e.g. Phocian ciroKa6mrdovrrs , Cyrenean 6cSdv, Lesbian
dpvav , Euboean T L ~ E ~ V , KaBLu76V. The distribution in (a) ,
(b), (c ) , is clearly more complex than the neat divisions in
Rischs table suggest.
Contract verbs in -EW, -ow, -aw reflect the inherited
denominative (-*o/~-, -*Ii- + -*j6) and iterative-causative (-*ej6)
types, while their doublets in - q p J -up, -+L represent
analogical extensions from inherited root-class verbs with long
final : r & p , 816wp~, ZurEp. Several possible factors can be
discerned in this analogical extension. Firstly denomi- natives
from the -a- stem declension like rrpdw would originally have /a./,
with a long vowel comparable to tartip. Secondly the generalization
of the long vowel in the paradigms of inherited -pi verbs, e.g.
8iSwu6ai for 6i6ouBaL in Lesbian,
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R. COLEMAN-THE DIALECT GEOGRAPEY OF ANCIENT GREECB 99
would lead to similarities in some dialects with contract vowel
reflexes, e.g. *{apidEuBai > {apiBuBai. Moreover patterns
resulting from contraction in one class, e.g. SovAov^v (<
-*o-EV) : 8ovAodp~vos (< -*o-op~vos) might be extended to give
&kiv : +~helpevos in place of ~#tAo&p~vos.
Some of these structural pressures through internal analogy and
the like would be operative in all dialects, so that in view of the
evidence of a two-way analogy mentioned above, the complex pattern
of distribution, cutting across the usually defined major groups
and including all three stages of develop- ment, is best explained
in terms of independent change in each dialect. In any case, given
the occurrence of both -Cw and -qpi types in all the Aeolic
dialects, we can hardly explain -7pc elsewhere as an Aeolism
(however we define that term). The fact that Ionic-Attic and some
Dorians agree in showing -&, etc. is insignificant, in view of
the fact that this is the inherited type of conjugation for stems
with vocalic suffix.
(8) The form Cu is used as the feminine of ECS in Boeotian,
Thessalian and Lesbian, in contrast to pia elsewhere. A form Ids
turns up in Messenian (if rdv ytdv 2vtavrdv is the right reading)
and Cretan. Porzig, rightly connecting this with la, regarded it as
an Aeolism surviving as a substrate feature in Dorian.
Ids in both the Messenian and Cretan texts and in the unique
Homeric example Iwi . . . +ari (Iliad 6.422) seems to have a
deictic force equivalent to 2tceivos. It is probably connected with
C