Aeolic Greek


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; in the Greek colonies of Aeolis in Anatolia and adjoining islands; and possibly in Lower Macedonia.
The Aeolic dialect shows many archaisms in comparison to the other Ancient Greek dialects, as well as many innovations; it is, consequently, considered to be—for the modern reader—perhaps the most difficult of the dialects.
Aeolic Greek is widely known as the language of Sappho and of Alcaeus of Mytilene. Aeolic poetry, which is exemplified in the works of Sappho, mostly uses four classical meters known as the Aeolics: Glyconic, hendecasyllabic verse, Sapphic stanza, and Alcaic stanza.
Additionally, based on the conclusions drawn by several studies and findings such as Pella curse tablet, Emilio Crespo and other scholars suggest that the Ancient Macedonian dialect was a Northwest Doric dialect, that shared isoglosses with its neighboring Thessalian dialects spoken in northeastern Thessaly. Other scholars have suggested an Aeolic Greek classification with strong Northwest Greek influence for the ancient Macedonian dialect. Hellanicus of Lesbos considered Makedon to be a son of Aeolus.

Phonology

Consonants

Labiovelars

and Proto-Greek *kʷ changed to Aeolic p everywhere. By contrast, PIE kʷ changed to Attic/Ionic, Arcadocypriot, and Doric t before e and i.
  • PIE kʷetwores → Lesbian písures, Boeotian péttares ~ Attic téttares, Ionic tésseres, Doric tétores "four"
Similarly PIE/PGk gʷ always became b and PIE gʷʰ > PGk kʰʷ always became ph.
Labiovelars were treated the same way in the P-Celtic languages and the Sabellic languages.

Sonorant clusters

A Proto-Greek consonant cluster with h and a sonorant changed to the double sonorant in Lesbian and Thessalian by assimilation. In Attic/Ionic, Doric, and Boeotian Aeolic, the h assimilated to the vowel before the consonant cluster, causing the vowel to lengthen by compensatory lengthening.
  • PIE h₁ésmi → Proto-Greek *ehmi → Lesbian-Thessalian emmi ~ Attic/Ionic ēmi "I am"

    Loss of h

Lesbian Aeolic lost initial h- from Proto-Indo-European *s- or *y-. By contrast, Ionic sometimes retains it, and Attic always retains it.
  • PIE sh₂wélyos → Proto-Greek *hāwélios → Lesbian āélios, Ionic ēélios ~ Attic hēlios "sun"

    Retention of w

In Thessalian and Boeotian and Doric, the Proto-Indo-European and Proto-Greek semi-vowel w was retained at the beginning of a word.
  • PIE wekʷ-es- → Boeotian, Doric wépos ~ Attic-Ionic épos "word", "epic"

    Vowels

Long a

In Aeolic and Doric, Proto-Greek long ā remains. By contrast, in Attic, long ā changes to long ē in most cases; in Ionic, it changes everywhere.
Compensatory lengthening of a, e, o in Lesbian gives ai, ei, oi for example in the accusative plural of a and o stem nouns, or in many 3 Pl verb conjugations.

Boeotian

In Boeotian, the vowel-system was, in many cases, changed in a way reminiscent of the modern Greek pronunciation.
  • Attic/Ionic αι ~ Boeotian η ~ Modern Greek αι
  • Attic/Ionic ει ~ Boeotian ει ~ Modern Greek ει
  • Attic/Ionic οι ~ Boeotian υ ~ Mediaeval Greek and Old Athenaean οι ~ Modern Greek οι

    Accent

In Lesbian Aeolic, the accent of all words is recessive, as is typical only in the verbs of other dialects.
  • Attic/Ionic potamós ~ Lesbian pótamos "river"

    Morphology

Contracted or vowel-stem verbs that are thematic in Attic/Ionic are often athematic in Aeolic.
  • Ionic philéō, Attic philô ~ Aeolic phílēmi "I love"
Aeolic athematic infinitive active ends in -men or -menai. ~ Attic/Ionic has -enai.
  • Lesbian émmen, émmenai; Thessalian, Boeotian eîmen ~ Attic/Ionic eînai "to be"
In the Lesbian dialect this ending also extends to the thematic conjugation, where Attic/Ionic has -ein. All three of these Aeolic endings occur in Homer.
Proto-Greek -ans and -ons → -ais and -ois ~ Attic/Ionic -ās and -ōs.
Dative plural -aisi and -oisi ~ Attic/Ionic -ais and -ois.
The participle has -ois and -ais for Attic -ōs, -ās.

Glossary

Below is a list of several words in the Aeolian dialect, written in the Greek alphabet, along with a transcription in the Latin alphabet. Each word is followed by its meaning and compared to similar words in other ancient Greek dialects. The "notes" section provides additional information, and if applicable, an etymology is given.

Aeolian

  • ἄγωνος ágōnos "struggle"
  • ἀθρήματα gifts sent by kin to Lesbian brides
  • Αἰολίωνες Aiolíōnes "Aeolians"
  • ἀκλάδες
  • ἀκόντιον akontion
  • ἀμένης -τος ' -tos thin skin, membrane.
  • ἀμώνες ' Μηθυμναῖοι
  • ἄρπυς attested in Crinagoras, ἁρπάζειν harpazein to snatch. Homeric ' attractive, devouring
  • ἄσφε ' to them
  • βακχόα
  • βάλλα threshold
  • βλῆρ incitement τὸ δὲ αὐτὸ καὶ αἶθμα. παρὰ Ἀλκαίῳ ἡ λέξις
  • βραδανίζω brandish, shake off.
  • βρᾴδιον
  • βράκειν to understand
  • βροδόπαχυς with pink, rosy forearms and with rosy fingers
  • βροχέως brocheos or βρουκέων broukeon
  • δράσειν drasein
  • εἴδη eide
  • ζάδηλον with holes in it, open
  • ἴμβηρις eel Μηθυμναῖοι
  • Ἰσσα Issa old name of Lesbos Island Cf. Antissa
  • ἴσσασθαι
  • καγκύλη
  • κάμμαρψις dry Measure
  • καραβίδες Μηθυμναῖοι
  • καυαλέον Hsch
  • Mεσοστροφώνια Mesostrophonia Lesbian festival
  • μόλσος
  • ξίμβρα
  • ὄθματα
  • ὄν ὄνα óna upon, through, again
  • πασσύριον
  • πεδαμείβω , pedoikos metoikos for meta
  • Πέῤῥαμος Priamus
  • σάωμι save
  • σίγλαι ear-rings
  • σκίφος Attic xiphos sword
  • σπόλα equipment, garment
  • σύρξ
  • τενεκοῦντι
  • τράγαις you break, grow rough and hoarse and smell like a goat
  • τῦδε tudai and here)
  • φαυόφορος priestess

    Boeotian

  • ἀμίλλακας wine Theban
  • ἀνωδόρκας a fish ὁ ἰχθῦς, ὑπὸ Thebes, Greece
  • βαιδύμην
  • βανά woman ; βανῆκες, banēkes βάττικες women
  • βάστραξ or bastax pl. bastraches
  • βλεερεῖ Cf. eleairei
  • ἐμπυρία divination
  • ζεκελτίδες gourds Amerias zakeltides
  • ἴδηφιν idephin sweet-voiced. Hsch.: ἴδηφιν ἴδαις· Βοιωτοί.
  • ἰστάκη istake scythe
  • ἰυγοδρομεῖν
  • ἰώ iō and
  • Καραιός Boeotian epithet for Zeus meaning tall, head. Boeotian eponym Karaidas
  • κριδδέμεν Cf.
  • κόριλλα little girl
  • μηλάτας
  • μνάριον
  • ὀπισθοτίλα
  • ὀπίττομαι opittomai
  • ὀφρυγνᾷ
  • σεῖα I persecuted
  • συοβοιωτοί Hog-Boeotians
  • τρίπεζα
  • ψώσματα Boeotian word

    Thessalian

  • ἀβρεμής
  • ἀσπάλεια aspaleia safeness
  • ἀστραλός
  • βεβυκῶσθαι to be swollen
  • βουσία
  • δάρατος Thessalian bread
  • ἔνορμος
  • θεανῶσται
  • ἰθείη
  • ἴμψας impsas past participle of impto
  • κάλαφος
  • καπάνη chariot also, a helmet Homeric swift eager, ravenous.
  • νεαλεῖς nealeis new-comers, newly caught ones
  • νεβεύω nebeuō pray
  • ὀνάλα onala, ὀνάλουμα onalouma
  • ταγεύω to be tagos archon in Thessaly ταγευόντουν τοῦμ Πετθαλοῦν

    General references

  • General studies

  • Bakker, Egbert J., ed. 2010. A companion to the Ancient Greek language. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell.
  • Colvin, Stephen C. 2007. A historical Greek reader: Mycenaean to the koiné. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
  • Horrocks, Geoffrey. 2010. Greek: A history of the language and its speakers. 2nd ed. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell.
  • Palmer, Leonard R. 1980. The Greek language. London: Faber & Faber.

    On the Boeotian dialect

  • Pantelidis, Nikolaos. "Boeotian and its Neighbors: A Central Helladic Dialect Continuum?" In: Studies in Ancient Greek Dialects: From Central Greece to the Black Sea. Edited by Georgios Giannakis, Emilio Crespo and Panagiotis Filos. Berlin, Boston: De Gruyter, 2018. pp. 167–188.
  • Page, Denis L. 1953. Corinna. London: Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies.
  • West, Martin L. 1990. "Dating Corinna." Classical Quarterly 40 : 553–557.