| Ionic Greek | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ἰωνικὴ διάλεκτος | ||||||
| Region | Circum-Aegean,Magna Graecia | |||||
| Ethnicity | Ionians | |||||
| Era | c. 1000–300 BC | |||||
Early form | ||||||
| Greek alphabet | ||||||
| Language codes | ||||||
| ISO 639-3 | – | |||||
grc-ion | ||||||
| Glottolog | ioni1244 | |||||
_en.svg) Distribution ofGreek dialects in Greece in theclassical period.[1]
 Distribution ofGreek dialects inMagna Graecia (Southern Italy and Sicily) in the classical period.
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Ionic orIonian Greek (Ancient Greek:Ἰωνική,romanized: Iōnikḗ) was asubdialect of the Eastern orAttic–Ionicdialect group ofAncient Greek. The Ionic group traditionally comprises three dialectal varieties that were spoken inEuboea (West Ionic), the northernCyclades (Central Ionic), and fromc. 1000 BC onward inAsiatic Ionia (East Ionic), whereIoniancolonists fromAthens founded their cities.[2] Ionic was the base of several literary language forms of theArchaic andClassical periods, both in poetry and prose.[3] The works ofHomer andHesiod are among the most popularpoetic works that were written in a literary form of the Ionic dialect, known as Epic orHomeric Greek. The oldestGreek prose, including that ofHeraclitus,Herodotus,Democritus, andHippocrates, was also written in Ionic. By the end of the 5th century BC, Ionic was supplanted by Attic, which had become the dominant dialect of the Greek world.[2]
The Ionic dialect appears to have originally spread from the Greek mainland across theAegean at the time of theDorian invasions, around the 11th century BC, during the earlyGreek Dark Ages. According to tradition, the ancestors of Ionians first set out from Athens, in a series of migrations, to establish their colonies on the coast of Asia Minor and the islands of the Cyclades, around the beginning of theProtogeometric period (1075/1050 BC).[4] Between the 11th and 9th century BC, the Ionians continued to spread around those areas. The linguistic affinity ofAttic and Ionic is evident in several unique features, like the early loss of /w/, or the merger of /ā/ and /ē/, as seen in both dialects.[4]
By the end ofArchaic Greece and earlyClassical Greece in the 5th century BC, the central west coast ofAsia Minor, along with the islands ofChios andSamos, formed the heartland ofIonia proper.[citation needed] The Ionic dialect was also spoken on islands across the central Aegean and on the large island ofEuboea north of Athens. The dialect was soon spread by Ionian colonization to areas in the northern Aegean, theBlack Sea, and the western Mediterranean, includingMagna Graecia inSicily andItaly.[citation needed]
The Ionic dialect is generally divided into two major time periods, Old Ionic (or Old Ionian) and New Ionic (or New Ionian). The transition between the two is not clearly defined, but 600 BC is a good approximation.[citation needed]
The works ofHomer (The Iliad,The Odyssey, and theHomeric Hymns) and ofHesiod were written in a literary dialect calledHomeric Greek orEpic Greek, which largely comprises Old Ionic, but with some admixture from the neighboringAeolic dialect to the north,[5] as well as with someMycenaean elements as a result of a long pre-Homeric epic tradition.[2] This Epic Ionic was used in all later hexametric andelegiac poetry, not only by Ionians, but also by foreigners such as theBoeotianHesiod.[2] Ionic would become the conventional dialect used for specific poetical and literary genres. Ιt was used by many authors, regardless of their origin; like the DorianTyrtaeus, composing elegies in a form of Ionic.[6] This ability of poets to switch between dialects would eventually temper regional differences, while contributing to the awareness of the Greekness that all dialects had in common.[6] The poetArchilochus wrote in late Old Ionic.
The most famous New Ionic authors areAnacreon,Theognis,Herodotus,Hippocrates, and, in Roman times,Aretaeus,Arrian, and theLucianic or Pseudo-LucianicOn the Syrian Goddess.[citation needed]
Ionic acquired prestige among Greek speakers because of its association with the language used by both Homer andHerodotus and the close linguistic relationship with theAttic dialect as spoken in Athens.[citation needed] This was further enhanced by the writing reform implemented in Athens in 403 BC, whereby the old Attic alphabet was replaced by the Ionic alphabet, as used by the city ofMiletus. This alphabet eventually became the standard Greek alphabet, its use becoming uniform during theKoine era. It was also the alphabet used in the ChristianGospels and the book ofActs.[citation needed]
On the basis of inscriptions, three subdialects of Ionic may be discerned:[7]
1. Western Ionic, the dialect ofEuboea and parts ofAttica, likeOropos;
2. Central or Cycladic Ionic, the dialect of theCycladic Islands;
3. Eastern Ionic, the dialect ofSamos,Chios, and thewest coast ofAsia Minor.[8]
Eastern Ionic stands apart from both other dialects because it lost at a very early time the /h/ sound (psilosis) (Herodotos should therefore properly be called Erodotos). The /w/ sound (digamma) is also completely absent from Eastern Ionic, but was sometimes retained in Western and Cycladic Ionic. Also pronouns that begin with /hop-/ in Western and Cycladic Ionic (ὅπουwhere, ὅπωςhow), begin with ok- (conventionally written hok-) in Eastern Ionic (ὅκου/ὄκου, ὅκως/ὄκως).
Western Ionic differs from Cycladic and Eastern Ionic by the sounds -tt- and -rr- where the other two have -ss- and -rs- (τέτταρες vs. τέσσαρες,four; θάρρος vs. θάρσος,bravery). Western Ionic also stands apart by using the form ξένος (xenos,foreigner, guest), where the other two use ξεῖνος (xeinos).[9]
Cycladic Ionic may be further subdivided:Keos,Naxos, andAmorgos retained a difference between two /æ/ sounds, namely original /æ/ (written as Ε), and /æ/ evolved from /ā/ (written as Η); for example ΜΗΤΕΡ = μήτηρ < μάτηρ,mother. On the other Cycladic Islands this distinction was not made, Η and Ε were used there interchangeably.[10]
Within Eastern Ionic, Herodotus recognized four subgroups (Histories, I.142), three of them apparently influenced by a neighbouring language:
a. The dialect ofMiletus,Myus, andPriene, and their colonies, influenced byCarian;
b. The Ionic ofEphesos,Kolophon,Lebedos,Teos,Klazomenai, andPhokaia, and their colonies, influenced byLydian;
c. The dialect ofChios andErythrai and their colonies, influenced byAeolic Greek;
d. The dialect ofSamos and its colonies.
Differences between these four groups are not clearly visible from inscriptions, probably because inscriptions were usually ordered by a high social group that everywhere spoke the same kind of "civilized Ionic". However, local speech by the "man in the street" must have shown differences. An inkling of this may be witnessed in the language of Ephesian "beggar poet"Hipponax, who often used local slang (νικύρτας, σάβαυνις: terms of abuse; χλούνης,thief; κασωρικός,whorish) and Lydian loanwords (πάλμυς,king).[11]
Proto-Greekā > Ionicē; inDoric,Aeolic,ā remains; inAttic,ā aftere, i, r, butē elsewhere.[12]
Proto-Greeke, o > East/Central Ionicei, ou:[note 1]compensatory lengthening after loss ofw in the sequencesenw-, erw-, onw-, orw-. In Attic and West Ionic,e, o are not lengthened.[13]
East Ionic generally removes initial aspiration (Proto-Greek hV- > Ionic V-).[15]
Ionic contracts less often than Attic.[16]
Proto-Greek*kʷ beforeo > Attic, West/Central Ionicp, some East Ionick.
Proto-Greek*ťť > East/Central Ionicss, West Ionic, Attictt.[17] This feature of East and Central Ionic made it into Koine Greek.
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