Epirote Greek - Knowledge (XXG)

543:, bordered on southern Illyrian territory, and likely featured bilingualism with many (likely more) Illyrians tending to adopt Greek as well as a second language. Ultimately this would lead to language replacement with Illyrian as substrate in these regions. The extent of Illyrian participation in life in Epirus proper is uncertain; although only about a dozen names in the Dodona corpus are confirmedly Illyrian, onomastics is not necessarily a safe way to ascertain ethnic or linguistic identity in this case. On the other hand, penetration of Greek speech, including Epirote, was much more evident among the adjacent Illyrian tribes. On the Epirote coast, colonies of southern Greek provenance often spoke different dialects of Greek, but their incorporation into Epirote polities brought linguistic homogenization. 553:. Further destruction was inflicted by king Mithridates VI's Thracian mercenaries in 88-87 BCE as well as during cases (such as 31 BCE) where Epirus served as a theatre for Roman civil wars. Such depopulation was followed by the settlement by Latin speakers. Although the Greek language was not effaced from the region as a result of these changes and continued to demonstrate vitality, language contact effects are demonstrated, including interference, accommodation, code-switching, hybridization, and Greco-Latin interaction in onomastics and funerary inscriptions. Latinized place names became especially common on the coastline; the impact of Latin became especially strong in Southern Illyria's urban centers of Dyrrhachium and Apollonia, and was far heavier than that of Epirus proper. 213:

Hammond (1982) argued the converse, wherein it was southward and eastward Illyrian expansions that intruded upon an originally Greek Epirus. Filos (2017) notes that due to the limitations of our linguistic knowledge of Epirus during the relevant period, which is entirely lacking except for the onomastic evidence of anthronyms, tribe names, and toponyms, any assumptions either way about which element (Illyrian, Greek) was intrusive is "tantamount to plain guesswork", but one may reasonably assume a degree of bidialectalism along its coastline (cf. Corinthian and Elean colonies) and of bilingualism in its northern part which interacted with Illyria likely did exist, but this is hardly traceable nowadays. Filos does not posit which languages were specifically

250:. It contained a mix of native Northwest Doric dialectal elements and Attic forms. It was apparently based on the most general features of Northwest Doric, eschewing less common local traits. Its rise was driven by both linguistic and non-linguistic factors, with non-linguistic motivating factors including the spread of the rival Attic-Ionic koine after it was recruited by the Macedonian state for administration, and the political unification of a vast territories by the Aetolian League and the state of Epirus. The Northwest Doric koina was thus both a linguistic and a political rival of the Attic-Ionic koina. 98: 230: 238:

boundaries of Epirus proper, into former Illyrian territory. Though the distribution of texts would remain skewed in favor of Dodona and the coast, the peak of Epirote texts would occur in the late Hellenistic period, when the impact of the supraregional Northwest Doric koina began to be felt. Although the distribution remains skewed, texts from outside Dodona and Ambracia become markedly more common between the third century BCE and the Roman conquest in 167 BCE.

171: 4126: 5430:, although the inhabitants of the Ampilochian Argos had adopted Greek... under the influence of Ambracian colonists... the natural conclusion from Thucydides' statements is that the tribes of Epirus from Amphilochia northwards did not have Greek as their native language in his time, though they were already under strong Greek influence which led to the widespread adoption of Greek early in the fourth century... 455: 4136: 4146: 262: 5608:

some Kurgan peoples reached places in the territory of south-western Macedonia, central and southern Albanian and Leucas around the middle of the third millennium. From there two streams entered Greece, mainly in the MH period, one by sea and the other by land. The Indo - European language which they

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The Northwest Doric koina was politically linked to the Aetolian league, which had long had a mutually hostile relationship with Epirus. As such, some have argued that Epirotic during the Hellenistic period was marked by a tendency to avoid the use of features that marked an "Aetolian" identity, such

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by elite dominance over an originally non-Greek-speaking population, including Nilsson (1909), Crossland (1982), and Kokoszko & Witczak (2009) However, such views largely relied on subjective ancient testimonies and are not supported by the earliest evidence (epigraphic, etc.). On the other side,

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Méndez Dosuna argued for a distinction of four subgroups within Northwest Doric, in which Epirote, Eastern Locrian, Epizephyrian Locrian and Acarnian were "Medial Northwest" (on the other hand, the "most Northwest" were Delphic, Aetolian, Elean, and West Locrian). Dosuna argues that North-West Greece

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Except for the unrepresentative oracular tablets at Dodona, Epirus was among a set of Greek regions that practically lacked documentation until the Classical period, this set also including Macedonia, Pamphylia, and Aetolia. In terms of early written records, Epirus and the rest of north-west Greece

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In different regions of Greece, however, different sorts of koinai emerged, of which the best known was the Doric Koinē, preserving general Doric features, but without local differences, and with an admixture of Attic forms. As in the case of the Doric Koinē, the Northwest Koinē (connected with the

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Greek has interesting characteristics... This suggests that proto- Greek or pre- Greek was spoken in an easterly part of the Balkans at some time previous to its introduction into Greece. It seems possible, however, that the tribes who spoke it moved westwards

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Despite its success in halting the spread of Attic for a time, the Northwest Doric koina would ultimately be a mere intermediary stage before the final Atticization of Epirus. In the third and second centuries BCE texts are already encountered showing increasing influence of the Attic-Ionic koine.

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Crossland posited a posited (partial) Hellenization of pre-classical Epirus, with Greek elites ruling over non-Greek populations; cf. Nilsson (1909). A very brief synopsis of older works and views is available in Kokoszko & Witczak (2009,112) who in turn also favor a 'Hellenization' scenario.

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The distribution of epigraphic evidence would remain unequally distributed geographically; in later periods, sources still tend to come from Ambracia and Dodona, as well as Bouthrotos. The Corinthian and Elean colonies on the coast were gradually integrated into the emerging pan-Epirote political

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Our current knowledge of the ancient history of Epirus has been significantly boosted over the past few decades by numerous studies, which have been underpinned... by the ongoing archaeological research in both S. Albania. Nonetheless, there is no really up-to-date comprehensive work... namely a

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starting in the late Archaic period (sixth to fifth centuries BCE) as well as ancient literary evidence indicates that the people of Epirus spoke a dialectal variety of Northwest Doric. On the other hand, southern Greek dialects were spoken by some of the coastal colonies established by southern

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While the origins of Epirotic Greek are disputed, it is more certain that during the attested period, with its better studied corpora, there was a degree of bilingualism in the borderlands of Epirus that was likely not symmetrical in nature, and that Epirotic Greek expanded northward beyond the

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Epirote is considered to be under-investigated. Speaking in a broad sense of the history of Epirus, as of 2018, a number of advances have been made in the last few decades, largely powered by ongoing progress in archaeological research in both Greece and Southern Albania. However, there is no

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For good fortune. During the reign of Alexander, when Aristomachos from the Omphales was prostates and Menedamos from the Omphales was grammatistas, the koinon of the Molossoi awarded citizenship(-like) rights to Simias from Apollonia, who lives in Theptinos/-on, to him, his family and his

192:. There is earlier attestation of texts from the southern Greek colonies on the coast, but these spoke different varieties of Greek (Corinthian in Ambracia, Elean in Pandosia, etc.). The variety manifested in the early texts of Dodona is also not representative of Epirotic Greek. 4806: 318:

in Attic Koine around the first century CE). As with Macedonian, this phenomenon is sometimes attributed to non-Greek substrate and adstrate influence, with some linguists attributing such an influence on Epirote to Illyrian. Filos, however, notes, that the attribution of

217:. According to Crossman it is also possible that the region on the north of Epirus that became latter known as southern Illyria was home to proto-Greek populations for some generations or centuries before they moved southward into Greece. 155:(modern Butrint), Greek linguist Filos notes that there remains no holistic linguistic account of Epirus at all that extends beyond a "non-piecemeal description of the epichoric variety", though Filos himself offers a summarized account. 286:

Our understanding of Epirote phonology is limited; epigraphic data, glosses, and contemporary sources are often uncorroborated. However the existing evidence from the limited inscriptions is still considered to have certain insights.

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The (numerous) Northwest Doric oracular tablets from Dodona (the latter of which are indeed Epirotic) are typically short texts written on small lead plates, whose small size caused the text to be written in an elliptic style.

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into what was later southern Illyria, in the first stage of their migrations towards Greece, and were perhaps settled there for some generations or centuries before moving southwards into Greec

531:+ dative, which is elsewhere found mostly in poetry, has been found to occur a few times in Epirus. Scientific inquiry on the syntax and morphosyntax of Epirote is, to date, too weak in general to make strong statements. 404:

merely reflects the diverse origins of the inquirers. Although the earliest oracular sources feature the "blue" alphabet elsewhere seen in Corinth and Attica, the later instances primarily manifest what would become the

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Statistical analyses have corroborated that Attic was slowly supplanting the native dialect during the end of this period, while the record also shows texts of Epirote embedded in Attic during this period.

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scripts) hail from Ambracia, the letters resemble those of Corinth, because Ambracia was founded by Corinthians. Another early example using the Corinthian alphabet is the inquiry of a citizen of Orikos

1220:Ἀριστομάχου Ὄμ|φαλος, γραμματ|ιστᾶ δὲ Μενεδά|μου Ὄμφαλος ἔδω|<μ>καν ἰσοπολιτε||ίαν Μολοσσῶν τ|ὸ κοινὸν Σιμίαι Ἀ|πολλωνιάται κα|τοικοῦντι ἐν Θε|πτίνωι, αὐτῶι κα||15 γενεᾶι (-αῖ) καὶ γέν| γενεᾶς. 1214:

The following is one of the earliest public inscriptions in Epirote Greek. It is an honorary decree in which the Molossian citizenship is awarded to a certain Simias from Apollonia and his family:

397:), but Filos argues that this is of little use because Orikos is rather far from the center of Epirus. We do not know how many alphabets were in use in Epirus in the sixth to fourth centuries BCE. 147:

up-to-date comprehensive work incorporating all the recent archaeological advances, meaning the least outdated summary is Hammond 1967. Likewise, despite newly available epigraphic corpora from

109:, joining Epirotic with Locrian, Phocian, Delphic, Aenanian, Aetolian, and Acarnian. Doric, including Northwest Doric and its sister branches, may also be called "West Greek" or "North Greek". 5422:..he regards the Aetolians and the Acarnanians ... as 'Hellenes' (cf. Str. 334) ... He designates the Taulantii who lived around Epidamnus as Illyrian without question and classes them as 5284: 1247:‘The diatoi ask Zeus Naios and Diona whether they lawfully received the money from the city for the prytaneion’ – ‘The diatoi must expend that (money) for the prytaneion lawfully’ 6103:

P. Cabanes (1988). "Les habitants des régions situées au Nord-Ouest de la Grèce étaient-ils des étrangers aux yeux des gens de Grèce centrale et méridionale?". In R. Lonis (ed.).

5426:... He describes the Chaones as 'barbaroi' (11.80.5-6) though their leaders from the 'ruling family' ... have Greek names... In 11.68.5-6 he writes that most of the Ampilochi are 5593:

Bronze Age Migrations in the Aegean; Archaeological and Linguistic Problems in Greek Prehistory: Proceedings of the First International Colloquium on Aegean Prehistory, Sheffield

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The Attic alphabet made its appearance in Epirote texts (again) in the fourth century BCE. Over time, it drove all other Greek alphabets, in Epirus and elsewhere, out of usage.

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The Northwest Doric koina was a supraregional North-West common variety that emerged in the third and second centuries BCE, and was used in the official texts of the

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The war with Rome, ending in the Roman conquest of Epirus in 167 BCE, featured large-scale destruction and depopulation of Epirus, especially to the south of the

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So-called Doric-Northwest Greek comprises Northwestern dialects, such as Epirotic, Akarnanian, Aetolian, Aenanian, and also Locrian and Phocian with Delphic.

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Nonetheless, such views, which rely largely on some subjective ancient testimonies, are no supported by the earliest (and not only) epigraphic evidence.

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Nevertheless, Epirote lacked some of the features that are described as salient diagnostics of Northwest Doric, including the athematic dative plural

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The Greek population of Epirus proper (not including colonies founded on or near the coast by southern Greeks) spoke a dialectal variety of Northwest

1243:ἐπερετῶντι τοὶ διαιτοὶ τὸν Δία τὸν Νάϊον καὶ τὰ̣|τα ἰς τὸ πρυτανῆον τὰ πὰρ τα̑ς πόλιος ἔλαβε δικαί | διαιτοὺς ἀναλῶσαι ἰς τὸ πρυτανῆον δικαίως τοῦτα. 4816: 4182: 132:

was an area of dialectal convergence that became increasingly homogenous from the fifth century BCE onwards, coinciding with the rise of different

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A number of scholars have asserted a possible partial Hellenization of pre-classical Epirus, wherein Greek elites would have engendered a

6174: 1266: 5230:É Lhôte. J.L. Lamboley & M. P. Castiglioni (ed.). "Les ethniques de Bouthrôte: étude linguistique". Vol. 1. pp. 105–112. 2883: 2573: 2266: 2200: 5919: 5799: 5512: 5469: 5415: 5252: 5181: 2271: 2246: 1101: 1063: 1041: 985: 980: 963: 935: 931: 927: 912: 908: 904: 812: 747: 697: 687: 673: 659: 380:

between a long front mid-open vowel /ɛ:/ and a long front mid-close vowel /e:/, and an analogous difference between /ɔ:/ and /o:/.

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Kokoszko, M.; Witczak, K.T. (2009). "Stosunski etnolingwistyczne w starozytnym Epirze". In Sajkowskiego, R.; Wolnego, M. (eds.).

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Filos, Panagiotis (2018). "The Dialectal Variety of Epirus". In Giannakis, Georgios; Crespo, Emilio; Filos, Panagiotis (eds.).

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Filos, Panagiotis (2018). "The Dialectal Variety of Epirus". In Giannakis, Georgios; Crespo, Emilio; Filos, Panagiotis (eds.).

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Due to its geographic position and its history, Epirus had an internal linguistic diversity. Epirus' northern regions, such as

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also lagged behind other Northwest-Doric speaking areas, with areas such as Delphi and West Locris providing earlier sources.

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Epigraphic and ancient literary evidence indicates that the Epirotes spoke a form of West Greek, a dialect of ancient Greek.

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Coin of the Epirote League, depicting Zeus (left) and a lightning bolt with the word "ΑΠΕΙΡΩΤΑΝ" – of the Epirotes (right).

4740: 4645: 4102: 3152: 2668: 2588: 2286: 1996: 5398:

Crossland, R.A. (2006). "The Illyrians". In Boardman, John; Edwards, I. E. S.; Hammond, N. G. L.; Sollberger, E. (eds.).

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Giannakis, Georgios K. (2018). "Introductory Remarks". In Giannakis, Georgios; Crespo, Emilio; Filos, Panagiotis (eds.).

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Ancient Greek dialects per Woodard (2008), with Epirotic included in the chestnut brown area north of the Ambracian Gulf.

5557:"The dialectological position of Illyrian within the Indo-european, language-family and its implications for Prehistory" 4175: 4075: 2604: 2058: 6195: 4404: 3130: 2738: 2614: 2276: 2230: 2185: 1961: 1650: 3669: 89:, surviving until the first or second century CE, in part due to the existence of a separate Northwest Doric koine. 3791: 3664: 2797: 2792: 2768: 2678: 2195: 1293: 4791: 4446: 4149: 4092: 3048: 2851: 2836: 2758: 2693: 2162: 2013: 1908: 1382: 1316: 5671:

Wojciech Sowa (2018). "44. The dialectology of Greek". In Fritz, Matthias; Joseph, Brian; Klein, Jared (eds.).

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Wojciech Sowa (2018). "44. The dialectology of Greek". In Fritz, Matthias; Joseph, Brian; Klein, Jared (eds.).

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The Attic-Ionic koine eventually decisively established itself in Epirus firmly during the first century CE.

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Actes de la journée internationale de dialectologie grecque du 18 mars 2011, université Paris-Ouest Nanterre

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Ramón, José Luis García (December 18, 2017). Giannakis, Georgios; Crespo, Emilio; Filos, Panagiotis (eds.).

4771: 4719: 4650: 4569: 4168: 4129: 3253: 3053: 3038: 2841: 2824: 2804: 2773: 2673: 2609: 2225: 2210: 2180: 2141: 2018: 1870: 1372: 1239:(local magistrates?), dated to either the late 5th to early 4th century BCE, or the 4th to 3rd century BCE: 6328: 5840:

Vit Bubenik (2018). "40. The phonology of Greek". In Fritz, Matthias; Joseph, Brian; Klein, Jared (eds.).

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Vit Bubenik (2018). "40. The phonology of Greek". In Fritz, Matthias; Joseph, Brian; Klein, Jared (eds.).

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Epirote also experienced interaction with other NW Doric varieties, as well as Macedonian, as adstrates.

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so-called Aetolian League) displayed the same mixture of native dialectal elements with Attic elements.

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