Laconian dialect
Date
1984Author
Mitchell, Eva A.
Metadata
Abstract
Laconian was one of the group of West Greek dialects known as
Doric. Few archaic Laconian inscriptions remain extant, so information
about the dialect must be gleaned from a variety of other sources. In
the following pages all the available material has been collected and
an attempt has been made to analyse how much of it is relevant for an
understanding of the ancient dialect.
The greater part of the work consists of a complete list of words
found in all available Laconian inscriptions, dating from the period VII
B.C. - II/III A.D. Personal names and many geographical names have not
been included in this section, since space did not permit, and as so many
of the personal names come directly from Latin forms. Many of the
inscriptions were written in standard xolvn forms, but several were
drawn up by draftsmen who were attempting to imitate an archaic style.
Their knowledge of the ancient dialect was not always accurate, so
every feature must be examined individually in relation to other known
factors. Inscriptions from areas speaking related dialects have also
been taken into account. The Messenians must originally have spoken
another dialect belonging to the Doric tradition, but, when they were defeated
by the Laconians in the seventh century, they adopted many of their traditions,
including their language. The Heraclean and Tarentine dialects, on the other
hand, developed from Laconian when colonists from Sparta settled in Italy.
They continued to speak in their mothertongue, but it was now interspersed
with native forms as well as being influenced by the xolvn which was beginning
to become predominant throughout the Greek-speaking world. The remaining
vocabulary in the Word List has been extracted from literature covering a wide
range of authors, lexical, historical etc. Some of these words, especially
those in the lexica, are specifically attributed to a particular dialect,
but others are assumed to be Laconian because the author is discussing
Laconian affairs and implies that the word derives from that region.
Within the resulting Word List any deviations from the more familiar
AttiC/xolvn forms have been noted and discussed, together with any
other particularly interesting features, such as the derivation of, and
relationships between, individual words.
The other major part of this work is an Analysis of the dialectal
forms found in the Word List, with particular features grouped together
in individual sections. Examples of personal and geographical words
have been included here, since they sometimes retained dialectal features
for longer than other words.
From these two sections it should be possible for the reader to
see at a glance whether a particular word or dialectal feature was
found in Laconia.