Abstract

The Greeks settled in Sicily in the 8th and 7th centuries BCE. There were Euboean colonies (where Ionic was spoken) and Doric colonies (where West Greek was spoken). Over the course of time, as a result of the political upheavals that engulfed the Ionic cities, Ionic was abandoned in favor of Doric, which became (with the Hellenization of the indigenous populations) the sole dialect spoken on the island. This Doric…