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[German version] A. Greek and Italian names of gods ─ subsidiary tradition Although important Greek gods or heroes were adopted in Italy (including Etruria), the Italian names of gods are as a rule different from the Greek ones, cf. Ἄρης :  Mārs (Etruscan Laran); Ἀφροδίτη :  Venus (Etruscan Turan); Ἑρμῆς :  Mercurius (Etruscan Turms), whose traits have a parallel in Vedic Pūṣán- [8]; or Ἥφαιστος :  Vulcānus (Etruscan Śeθlans). There are formal correspondences or similarities only in the case of the subsidiary tradition of Greek names of gods or heroes in Ita…

[German version] Dialect (Greek διάλεκτος; diálektos) is defined as a geographical variation of a linguistic continuum whose spatial extent can be classified in a variety of ways. For example, the  Arcadian or  Thessalian dialects of Greek are themselves differentiated by a number of local variations. Isoglosses (common features, esp. phonological, morphological, and lexical ones) result in a dialect geography. The earliest levels of a dialect structure of the Greek language, beginning in the 2nd millennium BC, and, linked with that, the homelands and m…

[German version] Ethnic names of all kinds (e.g. Κρῆτες, Κορίνθιοι, Campānī, Ligurēs) have been passed down to us in abundance from Graeco-Roman antiquity, as have ktetika to describe objects or abstract concepts (κρητικός, κορινθιακός, campānicus, ligustīnus). Ethnic names (EN) can act as place names (Λοκροί, Tarquiniī) and as personal names (Mycenaean dat. i-ja-wo-ne /Iāwonei/). As in the case of place names, progenitors were also invented in antiquity for EN (Ἕλλην, Δῶρος, Αἴολος, Ἰταλός;  Aeolus [1],  Dorus,  Hellen,  Italus). Among the ethnic…

[German version] Boeotian is known from inscriptions from, i.a., Lebadea, Orchomenus, Tanagra, Thebes, Thespiae (unified alphabet since the 1st half of the 4th cent.), as also from  Corinna, whose text mirrors the spelling on the inscriptions from Tanagra ( Greek literary languages). Notwithstanding the influence of Attic and koinḗ, Boeotian survives in inscriptions into the first half of the 2nd cent. BC. Especially characteristic is the development of the vowel system (monophthongization of diphthongs, stressing of * ē and * e,* o), which had been evident since the 5th ce…

[German version] A. Types: place names and vocabulary In antiquity, the different types of place names (esp. names of regions and cities or settlements, also names of mountains, lakes, rivers, islands, fields, and roads) are thoroughly documented and transmitted in Greek and Latin, however, there are many variations in form, e.g. Πιθηκοῦσσα : Aenāria (today Ischia). If a place name cannot be interpreted from within the vocabulary of the language in which it is documented, it usually goes back to the language(s) of prehistorical populations. On the o…

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[German version] Records of Thessalian in the Archaic and Classical Periods are rare (exception: the inscription of Sotaerus from Thetonium in western Thessaly, 5th cent. BC). They only become more numerous from the end of the 3rd cent. BC (sites: Larisa [3], Atrax, Crannon, Pherae, Scotussa; Cierium, Pharsalus; Metropolis [4]; Phalanna). In addition, there are c.…

[German version] To date, Pamphylian (the Greek dialect of Pamphylia) is very sparsely attested: epigraphical evidence at Sillyum (1st h…

[German version] I. General remarks The pre-Greek languages (PGL, cf. Greece, Languages) that were spoken on Greek soil prior to the settlement of the Greeks did not leave behind any comprehensible text: The language of Linear A, as well as Lemnian, Eteo-Cretan and Eteo-Cyprian remain undeciphered. It has not proved possible to link the autochthonous ethnic names that were documented in the ancient world with any known language, and archeological finds are of little help for a linguistic assessment. …

[German version] Arcadian is documented through inscriptions (most important sites: Mantinea, Orchomenos, Tegea), which since the middle of the 4th cent. BC show traces of the influence of supradialectic official languages; in official documents in Achaean-Dor. koin…

[German version] Lesbian (called ‘Aeolian’ in antiquity) is documented in inscriptions from Lesbos (locations: Mytilene, Methymna, Eresus), Aeolis (Aegae, Cyme) and Troas (Assus), also, sometimes reliably, in the lyric poets ( Alcaeus [4],  Sappho,  Iulia Balbilla). …

[German version] I. Pre-classical period to the Koine …

[German version] A. Spread The Doric dialects in the broader sense are well documented since the pre-classical period (see map): in central and northwest Greece (Phocis: 1, with Delphi, Western and Eastern Locris: 2 and 3), Peloponnese and Isthmus (only Elis: 15, Laconia: 13, Argolis: 11-12, Corinthia: 10, M…

[German version] A. Attic of the older era (until the 5th/4th cents.) …

I. Ancient Greek dialects [German version] A. Dialect and standard language Greek is attested in dialectal form from the first texts in  Linear B onwards. Local dialects are used in every city or region from the Archaic to the Hellenistic period (in competition with the  Koinḗ and regional Koinaí). In the Imperial period some dialects (e.g.  Aeolic [Lesbian], La…

I. General [German version] A. Function The PN is an individual, generally valid sign for naming a person. The need to use a PN exists when a  social co…