20d - The Greek Language and the Historical Dialects

Summary

By 1000 B.C. the general characteristics that mark off Greek from other Indo-European languages had been long developed, and important internal distinctions had emerged by which the major dialectal groups were permanently distinguished from each other. Though an absolute chronology cannot be deduced from linguistic data alone, it is convenient to assume that this date is also approximately that of the establishment of the antecedent forms of the classical dialects in the areas of the homeland, the Asiatic coast, and Cyprus where they are later attested. The evolution of the language proceeded from this time undisturbed by cataclysmic internal movements of peoples. Neither was it seriously disturbed by external influences, even when, after 750 B.C., Greek was carried by colonization far beyond its primitive area. In the colonial regions a few loanwords were acquired (e.g. λιτρα in Sicily, τυραννος in Ionia), but the mass of Semitic and even Anatolian loanwords present in Greek appears to have entered the language during the second millennium. Indigenous non-Greek languages (enclaves of which persisted in Lemnos and East Crete) had made their contribution even earlier. Isolation may retard linguistic change, but does not stop it. The contact of mutually intelligible dialects throughout the Greek-speaking area and the operation of similar pressures upon similar phonetic and grammatical features resulted in a broad evolution, in differing degrees and at different rates of change, in the same general direction. The details are complicated and demand lengthy discussion. No more than an outline is attempted here (section I, below).