Ionic Greek ( grc, Ἑλληνικὴ Ἰωνική, Hellēnikē Iōnikē) was a subdialect of the Attic–Ionic or Eastern dialect group of

Ancient Greek Ancient Greek includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Dark Ages (), the Archaic p ...

History

The Ionic dialect appears to have originally spread from the Greek mainland across the Aegean at the time of the Dorian invasions, around the 11th century BC during the early Greek Dark Ages. By the end of Archaic Greece and early Classical Greece in the 5th century BC, the central west coast of

Asia Minor Anatolia, tr, Anadolu Yarımadası), and the Anatolian plateau, also known as Asia Minor, is a large peninsula in Western Asia and the westernmost protrusion of the Asian continent. It constitutes the major part of modern-day Turkey. The re ...

, along with the islands of

Chios Chios (; el, Χίος, Chíos , traditionally known as Scio in English) is the fifth largest Greek island, situated in the northern Aegean Sea. The island is separated from Turkey by the Chios Strait. Chios is notable for its exports of masti ...

and

Samos Samos (, also ; el, Σάμος ) is a Greece, Greek island in the eastern Aegean Sea, south of Chios, north of Patmos and the Dodecanese, and off the coast of western Turkey, from which it is separated by the -wide Mycale Strait. It is also a se ...

, formed the heartland of Ionia proper. The Ionic dialect was also spoken on islands across the central Aegean and on the large island of

Euboea Evia (, ; el, Εύβοια ; grc, Εὔβοια ) or Euboia (, ) is the second-largest Greek island in area and population, after Crete. It is separated from Boeotia in mainland Greece by the narrow Euripus Strait (only at its narrowest poin ...

north of Athens. The dialect was soon spread by Ionian colonization to areas in the northern Aegean, the

Black Sea The Black Sea is a marginal mediterranean sea of the Atlantic Ocean lying between Europe and Asia, east of the Balkans, south of the East European Plain, west of the Caucasus, and north of Anatolia. It is bounded by Bulgaria, Georgia, Rom ...

, and the western Mediterranean, including Magna Graecia in

Sicily (man) it, Siciliana (woman) , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = Ethnicity , demographics1_footnotes = , demographi ...

and

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...

. 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. The works of

Homer Homer (; grc, Ὅμηρος , ''Hómēros'') (born ) was a Greek poet who is credited as the author of the ''Iliad'' and the ''Odyssey'', two epic poems that are foundational works of ancient Greek literature. Homer is considered one of the ...

(''

The Iliad The ''Iliad'' (; grc, Ἰλιάς, Iliás, ; "a poem about Ilium") is one of two major ancient Greek epic poems attributed to Homer. It is one of the oldest extant works of literature still widely read by modern audiences. As with the '' Ody ...

'', ''

The Odyssey The ''Odyssey'' (; grc, Ὀδύσσεια, Odýsseia, ) is one of two major ancient Greek epic poems attributed to Homer. It is one of the oldest extant works of literature still widely read by modern audiences. As with the ''Iliad'', th ...

'', and the

Homeric Hymns The ''Homeric Hymns'' () are a collection of thirty-three anonymous ancient Greek hymns celebrating individual gods. The hymns are "Homeric" in the sense that they employ the same epic meter— dactylic hexameter—as the ''Iliad'' and '' Odyssey' ...

) and of

Hesiod Hesiod (; grc-gre, Ἡσίοδος ''Hēsíodos'') was an ancient Greek poet generally thought to have been active between 750 and 650 BC, around the same time as Homer. He is generally regarded by western authors as 'the first written poet ...

were written in a literary dialect called

Homeric Greek Homeric Greek is the form of the Greek language that was used by Homer in the ''Iliad'', ''Odyssey'', and Homeric Hymns. It is a literary dialect of Ancient Greek consisting mainly of Ionic, with some Aeolic forms, a few from Arcadocypriot, and ...

Epic Greek Homeric Greek is the form of the Greek language that was used by Homer in the ''Iliad'', ''Odyssey'', and Homeric Hymns. It is a literary dialect of Ancient Greek consisting mainly of Ionic, with some Aeolic forms, a few from Arcadocypriot, and a ...

, which largely comprises Old Ionic, with some borrowings from the neighboring

Aeolic In linguistics, Aeolic Greek (), also known as Aeolian (), Lesbian or Lesbic dialect, is the set of dialects of Ancient Greek spoken mainly in Boeotia; in Thessaly; in the Aegean island of Lesbos; and in the Greek colonies of Aeolis in Anato ...

dialect to the north. The poet Archilochus wrote in late Old Ionic. The most famous New Ionic authors are

Anacreon Anacreon (; grc-gre, Ἀνακρέων ὁ Τήϊος; BC) was a Greek lyric poet, notable for his drinking songs and erotic poems. Later Greeks included him in the canonical list of Nine Lyric Poets. Anacreon wrote all of his poetry in the ...

Theognis Theognis of Megara ( grc-gre, Θέογνις ὁ Μεγαρεύς, ''Théognis ho Megareús'') was a Greek lyric poet active in approximately the sixth century BC. The work attributed to him consists of gnomic poetry quite typical of the time, f ...

Herodotus Herodotus ( ; grc, , }; BC) was an ancient Greek historian and geographer A geographer is a physical scientist, social scientist or humanist whose area of study is geography, the study of Earth's natural environment and human society ...

Hippocrates Hippocrates of Kos (; grc-gre, Ἱπποκράτης ὁ Κῷος, Hippokrátēs ho Kôios; ), also known as Hippocrates II, was a Greek physician of the classical period who is considered one of the most outstanding figures in the history o ...

, and, in Roman times,

Aretaeus Aretaeus ( grc-gre, Ἀρεταῖος) is one of the most celebrated of the ancient Greek physicians. Little is known of his life. He presumably was a native or at least a citizen of Cappadocia, a Roman province in Asia Minor (modern day Turkey ...

, Arrian, and the Lucianic or Pseudo-Lucianic ''

On the Syrian Goddess ''On the Syrian Goddess'' ( grc-gre, Περὶ τῆς Συρίης Θεοῦ; ) is a Greek treatise of the second century AD which describes religious cults practiced at the temple of Hierapolis Bambyce, now Manbij, in Syria. The work is writ ...

''. Ionic acquired prestige among Greek speakers because of its association with the language used by both

and

and the close linguistic relationship with the

Attic dialect Attic Greek is the Greek dialect of the ancient region of Attica, including the ''polis'' of Athens. Often called classical Greek, it was the prestige dialect of the Greek world for centuries and remains the standard form of the language that is ...

as spoken in Athens. 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 of Miletus. This alphabet eventually became the standard Greek alphabet, its use becoming uniform during the Koine era. It was also the alphabet used in the Christian

Gospel Gospel originally meant the Christian message (" the gospel"), but in the 2nd century it came to be used also for the books in which the message was set out. In this sense a gospel can be defined as a loose-knit, episodic narrative of the words a ...

s and the book of

Acts The Acts of the Apostles ( grc-koi, Πράξεις Ἀποστόλων, ''Práxeis Apostólōn''; la, Actūs Apostolōrum) is the fifth book of the New Testament; it tells of the founding of the Christian Church and the spread of its message ...

Ionic subdialects

On the basis of inscriptions three subdialects of Ionic may be discerned: 1. Western Ionic, the dialect of

and

Oropos Oropos ( el, Ωρωπός) is a small town and a municipality in East Attica, Greece. The village of Skala Oropou, within the bounds of the municipality, was the site an important ancient Greek city, Oropus, and the famous nearby sanctuary of ...

; 2. Ionic of the

Cycladic Islands The Cyclades (; el, Κυκλάδες, ) are an island group in the Aegean Sea, southeast of mainland Greece and a former administrative prefecture of Greece. They are one of the island groups which constitute the Aegean archipelago. The name ...

(Central or Cycladic Ionic); 3. Eastern Ionic, the dialect of the west coast of

. Eastern Ionic stands apart from both other dialects because it lost at a very early time the /h/ sound (

psilosis Psilosis () is the sound change in which Greek lost the consonant sound /h/ during antiquity. The term comes from the Greek ''psílōsis'' ("smoothing, thinning out") and is related to the name of the smooth breathing (ψιλή ''psilḗ''), ...

) (

Herodotos Herodotus ( ; grc, , }; BC) was an Classical Greece, ancient Greek historian and geographer from the List of ancient Greek cities, Greek city of Halicarnassus, part of the Achaemenid Empire, Persian Empire (now Bodrum, Turkey) and a later ci ...

should therefore properly be called Erodotos). The /w/ sound (

digamma Digamma or wau (uppercase: Ϝ, lowercase: ϝ, numeral: ϛ) is an archaic letter of the Greek alphabet. It originally stood for the sound but it has remained in use principally as a Greek numeral for 6. Whereas it was originally called ''waw' ...

) 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 (ὅπου ''where'', ὅπως ''how''), 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). Cycladic Ionic may be further subdivided:

Keos Kea ( el, Κέα), also known as Tzia ( el, Τζια) and in ancient history, antiquity Keos ( el, Κέως, la, Ceos), is a Greece, Greek island in the Cyclades archipelago in the Aegean Sea. Kea is part of the Kea-Kythnos regional unit. Geog ...

Naxos Naxos (; el, Νάξος, ) is a Greek island and the largest of the Cyclades. It was the centre of archaic Cycladic culture. The island is famous as a source of emery, a rock rich in corundum, which until modern times was one of the best ab ...

, and

Amorgos Amorgos ( el, Αμοργός, ; ) is the easternmost island of the Cyclades island group and the nearest island to the neighboring Dodecanese island group in Greece. Along with 16 neighboring islets, the largest of which (by land area) is Nik ...

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. Within Eastern Ionic, Herodotus recognized four subgroups (''Histories'', I.142), three of them apparently influenced by a neighbouring language: a. The dialect of Miletus,

Myus Myus ( grc, Μυοῦς), sometimes Myous or Myos, was an ancient Greek city in Caria. It was one of twelve major settlements of the Ionian League. The city was said to have been founded by Cyaretus ( grc, Κυάρητος) (sometimes called Cyd ...

, and

Priene Priene ( grc, Πριήνη, Priēnē; tr, Prien) was an ancient Greek city of Ionia (and member of the Ionian League) located at the base of an escarpment of Mycale, about north of what was then the course of the Maeander River (now called th ...

, and their colonies, influenced by

Carian The Carian language is an extinct language of the Luwic subgroup of the Anatolian branch of the Indo-European language family. The Carian language was spoken in Caria, a region of western Anatolia between the ancient regions of Lycia and Lydia, ...

; b. The Ionic of

Ephesos Ephesus (; grc-gre, Ἔφεσος, Éphesos; tr, Efes; may ultimately derive from hit, 𒀀𒉺𒊭, Apaša) was a city in ancient Greece on the coast of Ionia, southwest of present-day Selçuk in İzmir Province, Turkey. It was built in ...

, Kolophon, Lebedos,

Teos Teos ( grc, Τέως) or Teo was an ancient Greek city on the coast of Ionia, on a peninsula between Chytrium and Myonnesus. It was founded by Minyans from Orchomenus, Ionians and Boeotians, but the date of its foundation is unknown. Teos was ...

Klazomenai Klazomenai ( grc, Κλαζομεναί) or Clazomenae was an ancient Greek city on the coast of Ionia and a member of the Ionian League. It was one of the first cities to issue silver coinage. Its ruins are now located in the modern town Urla n ...

, and

Phokaia Phocaea or Phokaia (Ancient Greek: Φώκαια, ''Phókaia''; modern-day Foça in Turkey) was an ancient Ionian Greek city on the western coast of Anatolia. Greek colonists from Phocaea founded the colony of Massalia (modern-day Marseille, in F ...

, and their colonies, influenced by Lydian; c. The dialect of

and

Erythrai Erythrae or Erythrai ( el, Ἐρυθραί) later Litri, was one of the twelve Ionian cities of Asia Minor, situated 22 km north-east of the port of Cyssus (modern name: Çeşme), on a small peninsula stretching into the Bay of Erythrae ...

and their colonies, influenced by

Greek; d. The dialect of

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'').

Phonology

Vowels

Proto-Greek The Proto-Greek language (also known as Proto-Hellenic) is the Indo-European language which was the last common ancestor of all varieties of Greek, including Mycenaean Greek, the subsequent ancient Greek dialects (i.e., Attic, Ionic, Aeo ...

''ā'' > Ionic ''ē''; in

Doric Doric may refer to: * Doric, of or relating to the Dorians of ancient Greece ** Doric Greek, the dialects of the Dorians * Doric order, a style of ancient Greek architecture * Doric mode, a synonym of Dorian mode * Doric dialect (Scotland) * Doric ...

, ''ā'' remains; in Attic, ''ā'' after ''e, i, r'', but ''ē'' elsewhere. * Attic νεᾱνίᾱς ''neāníās'', Ionic νεηνίης ''neēníēs'' "young man" * original and Doric ἁ (ᾱ) ''hā'' > Attic-Ionic ἡ ''hē'' "the" (feminine nominative singular) * original and Doric μᾱ́τηρ ''mātēr'' > Attic-Ionic μήτηρ ''mḗtēr'' "mother" Proto-Greek ''e, o'' > East/Central Ionic '' ei, ou'':Among Greek dialects, Ionic was the fondest of long vowels and was thus considered especially suited to solo singing; the more austere, broad-sounding Doric was preferred in choral singing.

compensatory lengthening Compensatory lengthening in phonology and historical linguistics is the lengthening of a vowel sound that happens upon the loss of a following consonant, usually in the syllable coda, or of a vowel in an adjacent syllable. Lengthening triggered b ...

after loss of ''w'' in the sequences ''enw-, erw-, onw-, orw-''. In Attic and West Ionic, ''e, o'' are not lengthened. (“East” refers to the Ionic of Anatolia, “Central” refers to the Ionic of the Cyclades, and “West” refers to the Ionic of Euboea.) * Proto-Greek ''*kórwā'' > Attic κόρη ''kórē'', East Ionic κούρη ''koúrē'' "girl" * ''*órwos'' > ὄρος ''óros'', οὖρος ''oúros'' "mountain" * ''*ksénwos'' > ξένος ''xénos'', ξεῖνος ''xeĩnos'' "guest, stranger" East Ionic generally removes initial aspiration (Proto-Greek h V- > Ionic V-). * Proto-Greek ''*hāwélios'' > Attic ''hēlios'', Homeric (early East Ionic) ''ēélios'' "sun" Ionic contracts less often than Attic. * Ionic γένεα ''génea'', Attic γένη ''génē'' "family" (neuter nominative plural)

Consonants

Proto-Greek ''*kʷ'' before ''o'' > Attic, West/Central Ionic ''p'', some East Ionic ''k''. * Proto-Greek ''*hókʷōs'' > East Ionic ὅκως ''hókōs'', Attic ὅπως ''hópōs'' "in whatever way, in which way" Proto-Greek ''*ťť'' > East/Central Ionic ''ss'', West Ionic, Attic ''tt''. This Ionic feature made it into Koine Greek. * Proto-Greek ''*táťťō'' > Ionic τάσσω ''tássō'', Attic τάττω ''táttō'' "I arrange"

Grammar

Word order

* Ionic had a very analytical word-order, perhaps the most analytical one within ancient Greek dialects.

Glossary

*
ábdês
' scourge ( Hipponax .98) *
áethlon
' (Attic athlon prize) *
aeinaûtai
' archontes in Miletus and Chalcis (''aeí'' always + ''naûtai'' sailors) *
algeíē
' illness (Cf.Attic algēdṓn pain)

Algophobia Algophobia or algiophobia is a phobia of pain - an abnormal and persistent fear of pain that is far more powerful than that of a normal person.Barker, R. L. (1992). Fear and Phobias. Mental Health and the Elderly: A Social Work Perspective, 271. It ...

*
ámpōtis
' ebb, being sucked back, i.e. of sea (Attic anápōtis, verb anapínō) (Koine, Modern Greek ampotis) *
anou
' (Attic ánō, up) * Apatoúria Pan-ionic festival ( see also

Panionium The Panionium (Ancient Greek: Πανιώνιον, ''Paniōnion'') was an Ionian sanctuary dedicated to Poseidon Helikonios and the meeting place of the Ionian League. It was on the peninsula of Mycale, Mt. Mycale, about south of Smyrna—now İzmi ...

) *
appallázein
' (Attic ekklesiázein gather together,decide) (Doric apellazein) *
achántion
' (Attic akánthion small thorn acanthus) *
báthrakoi
' (Attic bátrachoi, frogs) in

Pontus Pontus or Pontos may refer to: * Short Latin name for the Pontus Euxinus, the Greek name for the Black Sea (aka the Euxine sea) * Pontus (mythology), a sea god in Greek mythology * Pontus (region), on the southern coast of the Black Sea, in modern ...

br>babakoi
*
broûkos
' species of

locust Locusts (derived from the Vulgar Latin ''locusta'', meaning grasshopper) are various species of short-horned grasshoppers in the family Acrididae that have a swarming phase. These insects are usually solitary, but under certain circumstanc ...

(Attic akrís) ( Cypriots call the green locust broúka) *
byssós
' (Attic bythós depth, bottom, chaos) *
gánnos
'

Ephesian Ephesus (; grc-gre, Ἔφεσος, Éphesos; tr, Efes; may ultimately derive from hit, 𒀀𒉺𒊭, Apaša) was a city in ancient Greece on the coast of Ionia, southwest of present-day Selçuk in İzmir Province, Turkey. It was built in ...

(Attic huaina (glanos

Aristotle Aristotle (; grc-gre, Ἀριστοτέλης ''Aristotélēs'', ; 384–322 BC) was a Greek philosopher and polymath during the Classical period in Ancient Greece. Taught by Plato, he was the founder of the Peripatetic school of ph ...

.HA594a31.) ( Phrygian and Tsakonian ganos * eídē (Attic hýle forest) ( Aeolic Greek eide also) (Greek Eidos) *
enthaûta
' here (''entoutha'' also) (Attic entaûtha) (

Elean Elis () or Eleia ( el, Ήλιδα, Ilida, grc-att, Ἦλις, Ēlis ; Elean: , ethnonym: ) is an ancient district in Greece that corresponds to the modern regional unit of Elis. Elis is in southern Greece on the Peloponnese, bounded on ...

entaûta) *
ergýlos
' (Atti
ergátēs
worker) *
hestiâchos
' ionic epithet for Zeus, related to

Hestia In ancient Greek religion and mythology, Hestia (; grc-gre, Ἑστία, meaning "hearth" or "fireside") is the virgin goddess of the hearth, the right ordering of domesticity, the family, the home, and the state. In myth, she is the firstborn ...

(oikourós, housekeeper, ''oikônax'') *''
ēgós
(Attic eudaímon happy) (Hesychius s.v. ) (τ 114) *
êélios
' (Attic hḗlios sun) (Cretan abelios) * Iastí, "the ionic way" ( , ''Iáones'', Ionians; , ''Iás'', old name of Attica, Strabo IX, 1.5 ) * ídē forested mountain (Attic drymôn óros) (

4,109,2) ( Mount Ida) *
iētrós, iētēr
' (Attic iatrós, iatēr doctor) *
íkkos
' (Attic híppos, horse) ( Mycenaean i-qo ) *
kárē
' head (Common kara) (Poeti
kras
*
kithṓn
' (Attic chitṓn) *
koeîn
' (Attic noeîn to think)

noesis Noesis is a philosophical term, referring to the activity of the intellect or nous. Noesis may also refer to: Philosophy * Noesis (phenomenology), technical term in the Brentano–Husserl "philosophy of intentionality" tradition * Noetics, a bra ...

*
koîos
' (Attic poîos who?) *
kýthrē
' (Attic chýtra cooking pot) *
mýttax
' (Attic pṓgōn beard) * Xouthidai Ionians from

Xuthus In Greek mythology, Xuthus (; grc, Ξοῦθος ''Xouthos'') was a Phthian prince who later became a king of Peloponnesus. He was the founder (through his sons) of the Achaean and Ionian nations. Etymology According to the author, Robert ...

*
odmḗ
' (Attic ''osmḗ'' scent, smell) *
pēlós
' thick wine, lees (Attic πηλός pelós mud,

silt Silt is granular material of a size between sand and clay and composed mostly of broken grains of quartz. Silt may occur as a soil (often mixed with sand or clay) or as sediment mixed in suspension with water. Silt usually has a floury feel ...

) (

proverbial phrase A proverb (from la, proverbium) is a simple and insightful, traditional saying that expresses a perceived truth based on common sense or experience. Proverbs are often metaphorical and use formulaic language. A proverbial phrase or a proverbia ...

''mê dein ton Oinea Pêlea poiein'', don't make wine into lees, Ath.9.383c, cf. Demetr.Eloc.171) *
rhêchíê
' flood-tide, loanword to Attic as ''rhachía'' (Homeric, Koine, Modern Greek plêmmurís -ída) *
sabakís
' (Attic sathrís decayed) Chian * ''sármoi'' lupins (Atti
thermoi
Carystian *
skorpízô
' scatter, disperse (probably from skorpios

scorpion Scorpions are predatory arachnids of the order Scorpiones. They have eight legs, and are easily recognized by a pair of grasping pincers and a narrow, segmented tail, often carried in a characteristic forward curve over the back and always en ...

and an obsolete ver
skerpô
penetrate) *Athenaeus Deipnosophist

/ref>
taûroi
' (Attic bulls) (

word, the youths who acted as cupbearers at the local festival of

Poseidon Poseidon (; grc-gre, Ποσειδῶν) was one of the Twelve Olympians in ancient Greek religion and myth, god of the sea, storms, earthquakes and horses.Burkert 1985pp. 136–139 In pre-Olympian Bronze Age Greece, he was venerated as a ...

) *
phoinikḗia
grámmata''

Lydians The Lydians (known as ''Sparda'' to the Achaemenids, Old Persian cuneiform 𐎿𐎱𐎼𐎭) were Anatolian people living in Lydia, a region in western Anatolia, who spoke the distinctive Lydian language, an Indo-European language of the ...

and Ionians called so the

letters Letter, letters, or literature may refer to: Characters typeface * Letter (alphabet), a character representing one or more of the sounds used in speech; any of the symbols of an alphabet. * Letterform, the graphic form of a letter of the alphabe ...

*
chlossós
' (Attic ichthús fish) * ô oioî exclamation of discontent

Notes

References

Sources

* ''A History of Ancient Greek: From the Beginnings to Late Antiquity'' by A. Panayotou
Ionic and Attic
* ''A Grammar of the Greek Language'' by Benjamin Franklin Fisk
Ionic

History

Ionic subdialects

Phonology

Vowels

Consonants

Grammar

Word order

Glossary

See also

Notes

References

Sources

Further reading