Search

[German version] A. Greek and Italian names of gods ─ subsidiary tradition…

[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.…

[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 …

[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 inscr…

…

[German version] Before the arrival of the Greeks (beginning of the 2nd millennium BC) and the consequent spread of the Greek language in Greece (mainland, Peloponnese, Aegean) already in the Mycenaean period, other  pre-Greek languages were spoken; they have left traces especially in the vocabulary and  onomatology and they co-existed with the Greek language in conditions that varied from region to region until the classical period. Written materials of the second millennium are limited to a hieroglyphic-pictographic script (Crete, end of the third millennium until about 1500;  Hieroglyphic script, Crete) that has not been deciphered until today,  Linear A (Crete, about 1650 until about 1400: transliterated, but the language has not been deciphered) and the Cypro-Minoan clay tablets (esp. Enkomi, 1500 until the end of the …

…

[German version] To date, Pamphylian (the Greek dialect of Pamphylia) is very sparsely attested: epigraphical evidence at Sillyum (1st half of 4th cent. BC: only parts of sentences decipherable); brief funerary inscriptions from the early Hellenistic period onward, most wi…

[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 t…

[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. koina…

[German version] Lesbian (called ‘Aeolian’ in antiquity) …

[German version] I. Pre-classical period to the Koine Beginning in the pre-classical period, Ionic is attested in three main regions, from where it spread in the course of the second  colonization to the end of the Pontus and to Hispania: (1) West Ionic: Euboea (and Oropus) with colonies in Chalcidice (Olynthus), Lower Italy (Cyme, Pithekussa), and Sicily, (2) Ionic of the Cyclades: i.a. Ceos, Delos, Paros (and Thasos), Naxos (and Amorgos), (3) East Ionic: (Ionia and the offshore islands of Chios and Sa…

[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, Megaris: 9), Crete (16) and the Doric Islands (Thera: 17c, Rhodos: 17a, etc.: 17), and since the classical period also in Cos (17b), Cyrene and in the Doric colonies of  Magna Graecia (above all  …

[German version] A. Attic of the older era (until the 5th/4th cents.) Attic, which occupies a paramount position in literature, is verifiable since the end of the 7th cent. through a plethora of inscriptions: private inscriptions, official proclamations, and also inscriptions on vases and ostraca as well as curse tablets (4th-3rd cents.), which in some cases reflect ‘Vulgar Attic’. Since the foundation of the 1st  Delian League (478/7) and during the time when Athens stood at the centre of Greek politics, …

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], Laconian ( Doric/Northwest Greek, Tsakonian) are used in a rather archaizing manner. Variants of the old dialects still survive today in Laconia (Tsa…

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 contact group is too large to name its members after their role (e.g. mother) and exists in all historically tangible languages. The PN is a universal. Rix, Helmut (Freiburg) [German version] B. Creation of names In antiquity as also today, the PN is usually given soon after birth and kept later; yet it could also be supplemented or replaced by a new name (pseudonyms!). In developed languages, the possibility …