Ionic Greek ( grc, Ἑλληνικὴ Ἰωνική, Hellēnikē Iōnikē) was a

subdialect Subdialect (from Latin , "under", and Ancient Greek , "discourse") is a linguistic term designating a dialectological category between the levels of dialect and idiolect. Subdialects are basic subdivisions of a dialect. Subdialects can be divid ...

of the Attic–Ionic or Eastern

dialect group The term dialect (from Latin , , from the Ancient Greek word , 'discourse', from , 'through' and , 'I speak') can refer to either of two distinctly different types of linguistic phenomena: One usage refers to a variety of a language that ...

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 pe ...

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 The term Greek Dark Ages refers to the period of History of Greece, Greek history from the end of the Mycenaean civilization, Mycenaean palatial civilization, around 1100 BC, to the beginning of the Archaic Greece, Archaic age, around 750 ...

. By the end of

Archaic Greece Archaic Greece was the period in Greek history lasting from circa 800 BC to the second Persian invasion of Greece in 480 BC, following the Greek Dark Ages and succeeded by the Classical period. In the archaic period, Greeks settled across the M ...

and early

Classical Greece Classical Greece was a period of around 200 years (the 5th and 4th centuries BC) in Ancient Greece,The "Classical Age" is "the modern designation of the period from about 500 B.C. to the death of Alexander the Great in 323 B.C." ( Thomas R. Marti ...

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 mast ...

and

Samos Samos (, also ; el, Σάμος ) is a 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 sepa ...

, formed the heartland of

Ionia Ionia () was an ancient region on the western coast of Anatolia, to the south of present-day Izmir. It consisted of the northernmost territories of the Ionian League of Greek settlements. Never a unified state, it was named after the 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 poi ...

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 Odyssey'', 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 i ...

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, ...

or Epic Greek, which largely comprises Old Ionic, with some borrowings from the neighboring Aeolic 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 t ...

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, ...

Herodotus Herodotus ( ; grc, , }; BC) was an ancient Greek historian and geographer from the Greek city of Halicarnassus, part of the Persian Empire (now Bodrum, Turkey) and a later citizen of Thurii in modern Calabria (Italy). He is known fo ...

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, Arrian, and the Lucianic or Pseudo-Lucianic '' On the Syrian Goddess''. 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 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 Miletus (; gr, Μῑ́λητος, Mī́lētos; Hittite transcription ''Millawanda'' or ''Milawata'' ( exonyms); la, Mīlētus; tr, Milet) was an ancient Greek city on the western coast of Anatolia, near the mouth of the Maeander River in ...

. This alphabet eventually became the standard Greek alphabet, its use becoming uniform during the

Koine Koine Greek (; Koine el, ἡ κοινὴ διάλεκτος, hē koinè diálektos, the common dialect; ), also known as Hellenistic Greek, common Attic, the Alexandrian dialect, Biblical Greek or New Testament Greek, was the common supra-reg ...

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.

Ionic subdialects

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

and Oropos; 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) ( Herodotos 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 ''wa ...

) 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, Naxos, and Amorgos 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

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 C ...

, and Priene, and their colonies, influenced by Carian; b. The Ionic of Ephesos, Kolophon,

Lebedos Lebedus or Lebedos ( grc, Λέβεδος) was one of the twelve cities of the Ionian League, located south of Smyrna, Klazomenai and neighboring Teos and before Ephesus, which is further south. It was on the coast, ninety stadia (16.65 km) ...

, Teos, Klazomenai, 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 ...

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

and Erythrai and their colonies, influenced by Aeolic 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 ''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 ...

, Aeolic, ''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 ...

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

and

Chalcis Chalcis ( ; Ancient Greek & Katharevousa: , ) or Chalkida, also spelled Halkida (Modern Greek: , ), is the chief town of the island of Euboea or Evia in Greece, situated on the Euripus Strait at its narrowest point. The name is preserved fro ...

(''aeí'' always + ''naûtai'' sailors) *
algeíē
' illness (Cf.Attic algēdṓn pain) Algophobia *
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 ) *
appallázein
' (Attic ekklesiázein gather together,decide) (Doric

apella The ecclesia or ekklesia (Greek: ἐκκλησία) was the citizens' assembly in the Ancient Greek city-state of Sparta. Unlike its more famous counterpart in Athens, the Spartan assembly had limited powers, as it did not debate; citizens coul ...

zein) *
achántion
' (Attic akánthion small thorn acanthus) *
báthrakoi
' (Attic bátrachoi, frogs) in Pontusbr>babakoi
*
broûkos
' species of locust (Attic akrís) ( Cypriots call the green locust broúka) *
byssós
' (Attic bythós depth, bottom, chaos) *
gánnos
' Ephesian (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 ...

.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 ...

entaûta) *
ergýlos
' (Atti
ergátēs
worker) *
hestiâchos
' ionic epithet for Zeus, related to Hestia (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 Strabo''Strabo'' (meaning "squinty", as in strabismus) was a term employed by the Romans for anyone whose eyes were distorted or deformed. The father of Pompey was called " Pompeius Strabo". A native of Sicily so clear-sighted that he could s ...

IX, 1.5 ) * ídē forested mountain (Attic drymôn óros) (

4,109,2) (

Mount Ida In Greek mythology, two sacred mountains are called Mount Ida, the "Mountain of the Goddess": Mount Ida (Crete), Mount Ida in Crete, and Mount Ida (Turkey), Mount Ida in the ancient Troad region of western Anatolia (in modern-day Turkey), which wa ...

) *
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 bran ...

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

) *
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 th ...

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 alpha ...

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