Doric Greek

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Doric Greek
Region	Acarnania, Aetolia, Epirus, western and eastern Locris, Phocis, Doris, Achaea, Elis, Messenia, Laconia, Argolid, Aegina, Corinth, Megara, Kythira, Milos, Thera, Crete, Karpathos, Rhodes, and possibly ancient Macedonia Also, colonies of the aforementioned regions in Cyrene, Magna Graecia, Black Sea, Ionian Sea and Adriatic Sea
Era	c. 800 – c. 100 BC; evolved into the Tsakonian language
Language family	Indo-European Hellenic Ancient Greek Western Doric Greek
Early form	Proto-Greek
Dialects	Doric proper: Laconian Argolic Corinthian Northwest Doric: Phocian Locrian Elean Epirote (?) Ancient Macedonian Achaean Doric Achaean Doric koine Northwest Doric koine
Writing system	Greek alphabet
Language codes
ISO 639-3	–
Linguist List	grc-dor
Glottolog	dori1248
Distribution of Greek dialects in Greece in the classical period.[1] Western group:   Doric proper   Northwest Doric   Achaean Doric (probably Northwest Doric) Central group:   Aeolic   Arcado-Cypriot Eastern group:   Attic   Ionic Distribution of Greek dialects in Magna Graecia (Southern Italy and Sicily) in the classical period. Western group:   Doric proper   Northwest Doric   Achaean Doric (probably Northwest Doric) Eastern group:   Attic-Ionic

Doric or Dorian (Ancient Greek: Δωρισμός, romanized: Dōrismós), also known as West Greek, was a group of Ancient Greek dialects; its varieties are divided into the Doric proper and Northwest Doric subgroups. Doric was spoken in a vast area, including northern Greece (Acarnania, Aetolia, Epirus, western and eastern Locris, Phocis, Doris, and possibly ancient Macedonia), most of the Peloponnese (Achaea, Elis, Messenia, Laconia, Argolid, Aegina, Corinth, and Megara), the southern Aegean (Kythira, Milos, Thera, Crete, Karpathos, and Rhodes), as well as the colonies of some of those regions in Cyrene, Magna Graecia, the Black Sea, the Ionian Sea and the Adriatic Sea. It was also spoken in the Greek sanctuaries of Dodona, Delphi, and Olympia, as well as at the four Panhellenic festivals; the Isthmian, Nemean, Pythian, and Olympic Games.^[2][3][4]

By Hellenistic times, under the Achaean League, an Achaean Doric koine appeared, exhibiting many peculiarities common to all Doric dialects, which delayed the spread of the Attic-based Koine Greek to the Peloponnese until the 2nd century BC.^[5] The only living descendant of Doric is the Tsakonian language which is still spoken in Greece today;^[6] though critically endangered, with only a few hundred – mostly elderly – fluent speakers left.^[7]

It is widely accepted that Doric originated in the mountains of Epirus in northwestern Greece, the original seat of the Dorians. It expanded to all other regions during the Dorian invasion (c. 1150 BC) and the colonisations that followed. The presence of a Doric state (Doris) in central Greece, north of the Gulf of Corinth, led to the theory that Doric had originated in northwest Greece or maybe beyond in the Balkans. The dialect's distribution towards the north extends to the Megarian colony of Byzantium and the Corinthian colonies of Potidaea, Epidamnos, Apollonia and Ambracia; there, it further added words to what would become the Albanian language,^[8][9] probably via traders from a now-extinct "Adriatic Illyrian" intermediary.^[10] In the north, local epigraphical evidence includes the decrees of the Epirote League, the Pella curse tablet, three additional lesser known Macedonian inscriptions (all of them identifiable as Doric),^[11] numerous inscriptions from a number of Greek colonies. Furthermore, there is an abundance of place names used to examine features of the northern Doric dialects. Southern dialects, in addition to numerous inscriptions, coins, and names, have also provided much more literary evidence through authors such as Alcman, Pindar, and Archimedes of Syracuse, among others, all of whom wrote in Doric. There are also ancient dictionaries that have survived; notably the one by Hesychius of Alexandria, whose work preserved many dialectal words from throughout the Greek-speaking world.