The Dialects of North Greece

by Herbert Weir Smyth

THE

Dialects of North Greece

 

BY

HERBERT WEIR SMYTH, Ph. D.

Johns Hopkins University.

Read at the Meeting of the American Philological Association
held at Ithaca, July 1886.

Reprinted from The American Journal of Philology, Vol. VII, No. 4.

BALTIMORE

Press of Isaac Friedenwald

1887

The Dialects of North Greece.^[1]

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The statement of Strabo (VII 1, 2, p. 333) πάντες οἱ γὰρ ἐκτὸς Ἰσθμοῦ πλὴν Ἀθηναίων καὶ Μεγαρέων καὶ τῶν περὶ τὸν Παρνασσὸν Δωριέων καὶ νῦν ἔτι Αἰολεῖς καλοὺνται is a statement which epigraphic testimony proves to contain an illegitimate use of Αἰολεῖς, but which is doubtless to be explained by reference to that plastic use of tribal names the most patent case of which is the extension of the term Ἕλληνες. By the Greeks before Aristotle Thessaly was regarded as the cradle of the Greek race, and bore origmally, i. e. before the incursion of the Thesprotians under Thessalus, the name Αἰολίς. This incursion gave the impetus to a series of revolutions in tribal relations which it is impossible for the historian to control with certainty. The Αἰολιδέων πόλις in Phocis on the way from Daulis to Delphi (Hdt. VIII 35), and the territory of Pleuron and Calydon, called Αἰολίς, in Southern Aetolia, received in all probability their names from exiled Aeolians, In the case of Pleuron (Πλευρωνία) such a conjecture has at least the testimony of antiquity in its favor (Strabo X 3, 6, p. 465), and, as Meister remarks, the statement of a historian in Steph. Byz., ἐν μέν τοι Δωριεῦσιν Αἰτωλοί, can readily be brought into agreement with the assertions of Thuc. III 102, and the scholion on Theocr. I 56 (Αἰολὶς γὰρ ἡ Αἰτωλίς), by regarding the Doric Aetolians as the inhabitants of the ἀρχαία Αἰτωλία. The passage from Strabo quoted above is the only authority which affixes to the inhabitants of northwestern and north-central Greece the name Aeolic. On the other hand, the consentient testimony of the ancients regarded Thessaly and Boeotia alone as Aeolic, and the grammarians restrict the use of the term “Aecolic dialect” to the idiom of Lesbian poetry, very infrequently characterizing as Aeolic a form which is Boeotian or Thessalian.

Giese (Der aeolische Dialekt, p. 131) has well remarked, in discussing the difficulties presented by the utterances of the Greeks in reference to their tribal and dialectological relations: “Nicht in den Meinungen der Alten liegen die wahrhaft historischen Zeugnisse, sondern in ihrer Sprache selbst.” If we supplement this statement by another, which in reality is not excluded by the first: “Ohne Rücksicht auf das Leben des Volks ist die Sprachwissenschaft todt und werthlos” (Fick, Ilias, p. 564), we open up the two avenues by which the science of Greek dialectology is to be approached. It will, therefore, in the first instance be necessary to pass in review the various phenomena which constitute each of the cantonal idioms of that wide territory reaching from the Aegean Sea to the western part of Epirus, and from Olympus to the southernmost parallel of those states washed by the Corinthian Gulf Upon this scientific basis alone can we hope to attain results, the value of which will doubtless be enhanced by the fact that so comprehensive an investigation has as yet net been attempted in Germany.

To establish the position of the dialects of Thessaly and Boeotia as dialects of North Greece, in their connection with Asiatic-Aeolic and in their relation to one another, I present the following table of their chief distinctive morphological features.

I.—Dialect of Thessaly.

A. Peculiarities which belong specifically to Thessaly.

1. eforein dé, 2. ovforw; @ has ceased to exist, 3. « for Tin kg. 4, ¢ for #in dcip. 5. tH? for a? in ‘Artlévevroc. 6. 8S for din iddiew, 7. Gen. sing. -odecl.in -0a! §. Demonslr, pron ove. 9. Infin. pass. in -offex, to, 3 pl. pass. in -flee, 11, Infin, oor, act. in -seav. 92, we for de, £3, datyen for Saovy in apydanyvegupeicar, 13, 60 for in éxdarisover, 14. -ev in 3 pl. im- pert. aorist (2darxriewzud).

B. Points of agreement with the dialect of Boeotia.

i. ¢ fora in tepeog Wepre also is Boeot.). 2. a for # 3. A labial for a dental: Thess, Her@azaes Bavot, derrazdc, 4. A dental sunt and aspirate in “Phess.a double dental in Boeot, so in Aic. See example under 3.

5. Uforz; épfruntle inauypdaticny Viuss., mapytantly, exneioante Borol. 6. sperec for guarée, 7 F =v in middle of a word, S$, hexnog = pexpor {granu }. 9. yepyay for yepvenad from the analogy of the -2x ye verbs. Thechange must hare taken place afler the withdrawal of the Asialic Acolians, 10. Gat, pl. cons.

1 in the Pharsalian inscr the gen. ends in ov. stems ju -esor {also Leshian), rr. Inf. in -ever (not Pharsalian), Veshian <wever ant -«v, 42, Part. perf, ‘Thess. -evv, Boeot,, Lesh, -ov, This is ane of the proofs thal these dialects sprang from a common source. 14. é¢ = ¢2 before acans. Vhess., Boeot.: éo¢ in B. before a vowel (cx in Lesbian before a cons., 2§ before a vowel), rq. év for etc, 15. Patronymics in -sevr, aoc, 16, 3e2 in HB. Perdoueroc, Thess. pizrecree; Ui. also for in podd, Locrian detzauer 17, aire ., Aeolie metic, spéc. 18. Doubling of o before 7,4. 3. tq. Absence of qyizwow, 20. 7 for g before vowels. 25. Absence of v SoeAx. in the prose in-' seriplions.

C. The Thessalian dialect has these points of similarity with Asiatic-Aeolic:

1. € fora in Bépoon 2. ¢ for ¢ (ez) 2iDeoc. 13. o fora in vr ave, 4. v fore ina@rzt. 5. Assimilation of a liquid with a spirant, éxat, 6. e@ foro between vowels, éocraHesv, 7. Dat. pl ar. consan, deel.in-eom. §. Personal pronoun dppé, dupiow; Lesb. duue, dpuéev, g. Contract verbs are treated as -pe verbs} not in Boeotian insetiptions, £0, Part. perf act. in -orw, Lesh. -or, 11, Part, of the substantive verb in four = fav, Lesh. and Boeot. 12. Article oi,ef 13, fa for Doric and Tonic xia, Goth. sz, or eéva olny. The feminine of cic is not found in any Boeotian literary or epigraphic monument, 14. sé for dv. 15. The name of the father is indicated by a patronymical adjective im -tor, 16, yuk- Kae = pixoce (gramm.), 7, Agrvucug = Aiolic Zévevsec, 18. Aiv ithe accent is uneertain) ; cf, Lesbic ata, aiy and Doeot. 7,47, 1g, f = vin middle of a word, 20. Absence of v igedx. in non-Koa) inscriptions,

II.—The Dialect of Boeotia.

A. The Boeotian dialect is akin to that of Lesbos and Aeolis herein:

1, € for a, Gépooy, Bagot, also fhuaqog, 2. Betdal, Aeol. Bitoo. 3. 0 for a, orporée,^[2] Boeot, also otparéc. 4. Tépgrew) for mapray, Acol. Mapwarion, 5. v for 0, dvtya (but dzé). 6. arepuc (gramm.) J. e¢-- ome §, op ard, 9. Gen, odecl.in-w. 10. -ew yerbs treated as -/ verbs, according to the grammazians, and at least at the time of Aristaphanes (Achar. gt4). 11. Name of the father is expressed ly a patronymic adjective. 12. Meeseorporidac 13, mizve Lesh. for THADGE. Le juRKKOG = pueKpor (gramm.). Ig. FO v in middle of a word (F is also preserved in 13.) 1§. Cds dat, Corinna die, 16. Absence of v deka. in the prose inscriptions. a

B. The following are the chief peculiarities of the dialect of Boeotia, and not found either in Thessaly or in Lesbos. (Many later peculiarities are here incluclded,)

1. @ for ¢ in iapéc, Thessal. fepdv, Agol. [suc <i tepoe or *topoc. 2. ¢ for et throughout. , 3. Accas. pl. o decl. in -wc, Aeol, -ar, Thessal, -o¢, 4. w from compens, length. This transformation of eve occurred after the separation of the three dialects. 5. 9 for», cov after 2, v and dentals, 6, ov fore in Arevexe- pidav, 7. oc is written or, ve, 5. g fora g. y for fin xpisyeiec, ta. cr for oo. If. rr fromer, 12, and, Thessal., Lesbian art. 19. Saved for yey. yuvacsi is, however, also Bocot, 14. ¢heev=iupev, 15, Inflection Gite; Lesb,, Thess. He egTuC.

C, Divergences between Boeotian and Asiatic-Aeolic:

1. Vrep. a; Aeol., Thessal, dv alone; 4 is the only farm in Roeot. and Doric. 2. wétraprg, Aeol. wésarpes, zfovpre, 3. xpdrtoc, also Thessal,: Aeol, npiveg. 4. xa, AeoL xf; “Apreae, Acol, “Aptymtic. §. & for 4 thronghout. The solitary example of ce in Leshic is worezuevec. 6. 7 for & throughout. 3. « from compensatory length: Burd, Aupinaye; aceus. pl. seryypdder; fem. part. H4woa, §. ov for x, ov after 2,» and deutals. 9. ov fora. 10. oF, v, o¢ for on ir. yforen, 12, 1 before vowels =e, et. 13. Gen. pl, ~iwy, Lesh, -ar, 14, €f = Goeat. ue Lesb. 7%, 15. sai-+ & = Boeat. », Lesh, @ seldom 3, 16. Aecolie ynezwme js not found in Boeot. 17, Acolic Papurduyoe. 18. Aeolic od, Koeot. §,dS = 55 ef. the Elean ¢, which is Doric, not Aeolic. 9. foc far €. 20, w verbs inf,; Boeot, -ver, Lesh. -, -ev. 21, hwe, de for Acol, éwe. “he jatter has heen attributed to Tonic influence. 22. Imperative -vfa, Lesbic wre. The Boeotian form is, of course, a later development. 23. Boeot. sare, Aso. niure. 23. Absence of yisware,

D. The dialect of Boeotia differs from that of Thessaly herein. (Many later peculiarities of B. are here included.)

1. iapic B, irpoe Thess., with the exceplion of C2 400,23 Crannon., 2. 4, Thess, ov, 3. Thessal. chanye to ein def, Fexidapocr; Boeot,a. 4. Ts. arperoc and orperde, hess, evpardc, §. Boeot. , Thess,on 6. ec in Roeot.= 4, Thess. é. 7, afin Docot.= 4, Thess. er or ce in the ending Tre, 8. vin Boeot, = on, wa, Thess, 2. g. a= Boeot. vs, r, £6 = Thess, o. 10. © hefore yowels Tioeat. ©, 4, €¢=2 Thessal. ¢,4 11. ¢@-- o = Roeot. ev, ev,@== Vhessal.d. 12.0 = Hoeat, cos Thess. co, 13. 0¢ = Neeot. 2 = Thess, opin -reog. ty. Thess.cc between vowels (cesotexr} = Boeot. o. 15. Thessal. 4 for x in pyar yre- onpecar, 16. Thessal, has nov teetuverendr, 17, Thess. semination of nasals and liquids. 18, avy, ores Roeot, uc, we = Thess. @¢, os, 19. C= Hoeat. J, dd = Thess. {, ae, 20, o¢ 2= Boeat, tr = Thess. ti, detredic, Wetiasde. 21, x for

7 in Thess, sic, 22. Gen. sing. -0 decl = Rueot. w, Thessal. ae. 23. Tocot. Tidate Phess, recacer, 24, Boeatxa = Vhess, xf.

III.—Points of Similarity between the Dialects of Thessaly, Boeotia and Lesbos.

1, ¢ fore in Pepooc, 2 Formation of patronymies. 3. Pronunciation of x {prohalily). 4. Termination of the perf. act. part. (or), 5. Participle of the substantive verb dor, 6. Termination -e¢e: in eonsonautal declension. 7. F in middle of a words, §. Absence of « Foetn, in the non xvrg prose in- suriptions,

From this summary it is clear that the dialect of Boeotia occupies an intermediate position between that of Thessaly and that of Lesbos, is nearer akin to that of Thessaly, and that the dialect of Thessaly has a distinctively Aeolic coloring.^[3] Aside from those special evolutions in vocalization to which the Boeotian dialect first gave graphical expression, and the Aeolisms af Boeotian speech, there is a remainder of Dorisms the explanation of which has offered no inconsiderable difficulty to the dialectologist.^[4]

That the inhabitants of Boeotia and Thessaly were of the Aeolic race is proved by the close similarity of their dialects, and by the indisputable belief of the ancients that the Boeotians were of kindred race with the Aeolians. Boeotians joined the κτίσαντες Αἰολεῖς expelled by the Dorians, in the emigration to Aeolis, Lesbos and Tenedos, a union of émigrés scarcely possible had there existed no ties of consanguinity between them.

Two great tribes occupied Greece north of the Corinthian Gulf—the Aeolic in the east, the Doric chiefly in the west and centre,^[5] the Dores themselves being referred to North Thessaly. From that western clement came the Pelopennesian Doric as an offshoot,^[6] now expelling the idiom of the original settlers, now absorbing its forms, which stand out as isolated landmarks of a bygone age (e. g. Ποοἵδαια in Sparta, the only example of the οι ablaut in this name). Though the Locrian dialect offers certain peculiarities, reappearing in Elean, it can nevertheless be adjudged to be a descendant of North-Doric speech.

Whether a dialectical separation between Peloponnesian and North-Greek Dorians took place at the time of the return of the Heraclidae, or whether they continued to use one and the same speech, is a question admitting merely a tentative solution, though the latter seems the more probable assumption, since there exist in North Doric a few remnants which are parallel to Pelopannesian Doric (gen. in -ω and -ως).

While the similarity between Thessalian and Boeotian was rendered more apparent by the dialectological ἑρμαῖον of the inscription from Larissa, their points af difference still await a final explanation. Upon the solution of the problem whether the original inhabitants of Boeotia were of Aeolic or of Doric blood depends the exact position of its dialect in its relation not only to that of Thessaly, but also to that of Western and Central Greece, We enter here upon a tortuous path, which is illuminated solely by the occasional rays of light cast by ancient literature.

It has been asserted by many, and, for example, by Merzdorf, that there existed an Aeolo-Doric period. This favorite assumption rests upon a probability that is purely specious, and has flourished upon the sterile soil of reverence for Strabo from the time of Salmasius to the present day. Its correctness has never been demonstrated by a detailed investigation, nor is it easily supportable by any more cogent argument than that in a both Aeolic and Doric have preserved a common inheritance, and that they retained ϝ with greater tenacity than the Ionians. But these considerations, together with some other minor points of agreement, by no means prove the existence of an Aeolo-Doric unity in any determinable prehistoric period, much less elevate such a unity to that degree of certainty sufficient to serve as a basis for exact dialectological investigation. Though Merzdorf accepts this unity as an incontrovertible fact, he fails to show that the Boeotian dialect, with its mixture of Aeolic and Doric forms, stands in direct succession to this primitive Aeolo-Doric period.^[7]

If, then, this contingent of Aeolic and Doric forms cannot be demonstrated to be an heirloom of an Aeolo-Doric period. it is necessary to take refuge in the theory of dialect intermixture through the agency of the influence of one race upon another.

The opinion has prevailed in many quarters that the inhabitants of Boeotia were originally Doric, and that they were Aeolized at the time of the irruption of the “Boeotians” from Arne in Thessaly, whence they were driven by the Thesprotians under Page:The dialects of north Greece (IA dialectsofnorthg00smytrich).pdf/13 Page:The dialects of north Greece (IA dialectsofnorthg00smytrich).pdf/14 Page:The dialects of north Greece (IA dialectsofnorthg00smytrich).pdf/15 Page:The dialects of north Greece (IA dialectsofnorthg00smytrich).pdf/16 Page:The dialects of north Greece (IA dialectsofnorthg00smytrich).pdf/17 Page:The dialects of north Greece (IA dialectsofnorthg00smytrich).pdf/18 Page:The dialects of north Greece (IA dialectsofnorthg00smytrich).pdf/19 Page:The dialects of north Greece (IA dialectsofnorthg00smytrich).pdf/20 Page:The dialects of north Greece (IA dialectsofnorthg00smytrich).pdf/21 Page:The dialects of north Greece (IA dialectsofnorthg00smytrich).pdf/22 Page:The dialects of north Greece (IA dialectsofnorthg00smytrich).pdf/23 Page:The dialects of north Greece (IA dialectsofnorthg00smytrich).pdf/24 Page:The dialects of north Greece (IA dialectsofnorthg00smytrich).pdf/25 Page:The dialects of north Greece (IA dialectsofnorthg00smytrich).pdf/26 Page:The dialects of north Greece (IA dialectsofnorthg00smytrich).pdf/27 Page:The dialects of north Greece (IA dialectsofnorthg00smytrich).pdf/28 Page:The dialects of north Greece (IA dialectsofnorthg00smytrich).pdf/29 Page:The dialects of north Greece (IA dialectsofnorthg00smytrich).pdf/30 may lead to sub-dialect, and how each dialect may thus be bound together with the life of another by a “continuous series of minute variations.” But we are confronted in the science of Greek dialectology with phenomena dating from historical periods; for these phenomena we must seek a historical explanation as far as is permitted by the dim light of history. The wave-theory regards as merely interesting confirmations of its suppositions those causes of differentiation of a linguistic territory which to its opponents are the very sinew of the genealogical theory, It may well be questioned whether Schmnidt’s theory does not confuse these processes which caused dialects originally to come into existence, and those processes which give birth to phenomena that have become in historical times the property of two adjacent dialects which have flourished for a long period of time. Peculiarities which link together two dialects may be ascribed to the influence of one upon the other; but in periods antedating all historical ken the influence of a neighboring speech-territory need not necessarily have been the cause of dialectic peculiarities.

If linguistic phenomena alone be taken as the point of departure, we must confess that we thereby seek a refuge in a sauve qui peut, and renounce that ideal whose every patient endeavor aims at discovering in the disiecta membra of dialect-speech a clue that will reinforce those utterances of antiquity which make for the intimate connection between parent-stock and the offspring which, in periods subject to conjecture alone, left an ancestral home. This ideal in dialectology is as important a guiding motive as the ideal of the freedom from exception to phonetic law is in the science of comparative philology. We have, then, at least no mean purpose, if we search for the golden thread that shall lead us to an explanation of the genealogy of each separate form. With this ideal in view we may perhaps discover that, when the forms of adventitious growth have been separated from those which are indigenous, it is not impossible to construct genealogical trees for the Greek dialects, which will stand in harmonious interdependence. If we endeavor to sift the material which a kind chance has preserved to us, and believe that terra mater noua miracula suis ex uisceribus numquam emittere cessabit, we may trust that a solution may not be far off for many problems which the vigorous dialect-life of Hellas presents.

Herbert Weir Smyth.

1. Read at the meeting of the American Philological Association held at Ithaca, July, 1886.
2. This word is one of the few examples in which the relationship of Boeotian and Aeolic is proven without the concurrence of Thessalian.
3. This is not the place to enter upon a discussion of Collitz’s assertion: die thessalische Muadart bildet . . . die Uebergangstufe vom böotischen zum lesbischen, vom lesbischen zum kyprisch-arkadischen und vom kyprisch-arkadischen zum böotischen Dialekte.
4. Wilamowitz-Möllendorf regards the Boeotian idiom as a mixture of Achaean and Aeolic elements. Of the exact nature of the former we know too little to permit us to treat it as a basis of argumentation. When Aeolic and Doric agree it is difficult to determine to which the phenomenon in question is to be referred, e. g. Boeot. gen. in -ω.
5. The authority of Herodotus should not be invoked to militate against this assertion, since it rests solely on the supposition of the Ionic historian that the Dorians alone were originally pure Hellenes. From this πρῶτον ψεῦδος he concludes that the Dorians lived in Phthiotis, the seat of Hellen.
6. The consensus of historical investigation now relegates the wanderings of the Dorians to a period anterior to the irruption of the Boeotians.
7. Merzdorf finds four characteristic marks of the Aeolo-Doric period; 1. The treatment of -εω as -μι verbs. 2. ἐν for ἐις. 3 πέρ for περι. 4. Dat. plur. in -εσσι. The incorrectness of all these assumptions will be shown later on, when we come to a discussion of the intermixture of dialects in Central North Greece. Merzdorf assumes that in the Aeolo-Doric period the Dorians, who remained in North Greece, were more closely connected with the Aeolians than the Peloponnesian Dorians, i. e, that the North-Doric dialect is one of the bridges which lead from the Αἰολίς to the Δωρίς.