DORIAN HELLENIC

DORIAN (MACEDONIANS - SPARTANS - CRETANS-other) LANGUAGE

The Dorian Origin

There is still a great controversy about the origin of the Dorian people.
One theory widely believed in ancient times, but never proven beyond doubt, is that they originated in the north, north-eastern mountainous regions of Greece, ancient Macedonia and Epirus, whence obscure circumstances brought them south into the Peloponnese, to certain Aegean islands, Magna Graecia and Crete.
Another theory is that they originated from Asia Minor (Greek colonies) and that they either immigrated through the northeast of Greece and settled in southern Greece or immigrated from the coast of western Asian Minor into the Aegean islands and into southern Greece. Either way, mythology gave them a Greek origin and eponymous founder, Dorus son of Hellen, the mythological patriarch of the Hellenes.

The Dorian Language

Dorians were distinguished by the Doric Greek dialect and by characteristic social and historical traditions. People who spoke the Doric dialect lived along the coast of the Peloponnese, in Crete, southwest Asia Minor (Greek Colonis), various cities of Southern Italy and Sicily (Magna Grecia), all of which adds weight to the theory of Asia Minor (Greek Colonies) as the origin of the Dorians. Numerous historians link Doric, North-Western Greek and Ancient Macedonian. In later periods other dialects predominated, most notably the Attic, upon which the Koine or common Greek language of the Hellenistic period was based. The main characteristic of Doric was the preservation of Indo-European [aː], long <α>, which in Attic-Ionic became [ɛː], <η>. Tsakonian Greek, a descendant of Doric Greek and source of great interest to linguists, is extraordinarily still spoken in some regions of the Southern Argolid coast of the Peloponnese, on the coast of the modern prefecture of Arcadia.

Julius Pokorny derives Dorian from dōris, "woodland" (which can also mean upland). The dōri- segment is from the o-grade (either ō or o) of Proto-Indo-European *deru-, "tree". Dorian might be translated as "the country people", "the mountain people", "the uplanders", "the people of the woods" or some such appellation.

A popular derivation was given by the French linguist, Émile Boisacq, from the same root, but from Greek doru, "spear" (which was wood); i.e., "the people of the spear" or "spearmen", emphasizing the warrior ferocity of the Dorians.

Cultural Distinctions
Culturally, in addition to their Doric dialect of Greek, Doric colonies retained their characteristic Doric calendar revolving round a cycle of festivals of which the Hyacinthia and the Carneia were especially important..

The Dorian mode in music also was attributed to Doric societies and was associated by classical writers with martial qualities.

The Doric order of architecture in the tradition inherited by Vitruvius included the Doric column, noted for its simplicity and strength.

In the 5th century BC, Dorians and Ionians were the two most politically important Greek nationalities.

The Dorians Tribes

Crete

Homer
At first sight, the Homeric reference to Dorians has been regarded as an anachronism between the supposed 8th century BC writer of the poems and the supposed Dorian Invasion, two generations after the end of the Trojan War (1150 or 1100 BC), widely accepted chronologization in antiquity. The trichaikes Dorians are mentioned in Odyssey. The epithet trichaikes, an hapax legomenon, has been translated either as of threefold race (e.g. denoting the three Dorian sub-tribes Hylleis,Dymanes, Pamphyloi) or long-haired from the noun θρίξ (see Spartan hairstyle) .

“ There is a land called Crete, in the midst of the wine-dark sea, a fair, rich land, begirt with water, and therein are many men, past counting, and ninety cities. They have not all the same speech, but their tongues are mixed. There dwell Achaeans, there great-hearted native Cretans, there Cydonians, and Dorians of waving plumes, and goodly Pelasgians”

Strabo, who depends of course on the books available to him, goes on to elaborate:

“ Of these peoples, according to Staphylus, the Dorians occupy the part toward the east, the Cydonians the western part, the Eteo-Cretans the southern; and to these last belongs the town Praisos, where is the temple of the Dictaean Zeus; whereas the other peoples, since they were more powerful, dwelt in the plains. Now it is reasonable to suppose that the Eteo-Cretans and the Cydonians were autochthonous, and that the others were foreigners ...”

Beside this sole reference to Dorians in Crete, the mention of the Iliad] on the Heraclid Tlepolemus, a warrior on the side of Achaeans and colonist of three important Dorian cities in Rhodes has been also regarded as a later interpolation

South Greece

Laconian, Heraclean

Laconian was spoken by the population of Laconia in the southern Peloponnesus and also by its colonies, Tarentum and Heraclea, in southern Italy. Sparta was the seat of ancient Laconia.

Laconian is attested in inscriptions on pottery and stone from the 7th century BC. A dedication to Helen dates from the 2nd quarter of the 7th. Tarentum was founded in 706 BC. The founders must already have spoken Laconic.

Many documents from the state of Sparta survive, whose citizens called themselves Lacedaemonians after the name of the valley in which they lived. Homer calls it "hollow Lacedaemon", though he refers to a pre-Dorian period. The 7th century BC, Spartan poet, Alcman, used a dialect that some consider to be predominantly Laconian. Philoxenus of Alexandria wrote a treatise On the Laconian dialect.

Argolic

Map of ArgolisArgolic was spoken in the thickly settled northeast Peloponnesus at, for example, Argos, Mycenae, Hermione, Troezen, Epidaurus, and as close to Athens as the island of Aegina. As Mycenaean Greek had been spoken in this dialect region in the Bronze Age, it is clear that the Dorians overran it but were unable to take Attica. The Dorians went on from Argos to Crete and Rhodes.

Ample inscriptional material of a legal, political and religious content exists from at least the 6th century BC.

Corinthian

Map of CorinthiaCorinthian was spoken first in the isthmus region between the Peloponnesus and mainland Greece; that is, the Isthmus of Corinth. The cities and states of the Corinthian dialect region were Corinth, Sicyon, Cleonae, Phlius, the colonies of Corinth in western Greece: Corcyra, Leucas, Anactorium, Ambracia and others, the colonies in and around Italy: Syracuse and Ancona, and the colonies of Corcyra: Dyrrachium, Apollonia. The earliest inscriptions at Corinth date from the early 6th century BC. They use a Corinthian epichoric alphabet.

Corinth contradicts the prejudice that Dorians were rustic militarists, as some consider the speakers of Laconian to be. Positioned on an international trade route, Corinth played a leading part in the recivilizing of Greece after the centuries of disorder and isolation following the collapse of Mycenaean Greece.

Northwest Greece

The Northwest Greek group is closely related to the Doric Group, while sometimes there is no distinction between the Doric and the Northwest Greek. Whether it is to be considered a part of the Doric Group or the latter a part of it or the two subgroups of West Greek: the dialects and their grouping remain the same. West Thessalian and Boeotian had come under a strong Northwest Greek influence. The Northwest Greek dialects differ from the Doric Group dialects in the below features:

Dative plural of the Third declension in -οις (-ois) (instead of -σι (-si)) (Ἀκαρνάνοις The language being spoken by the Macedonian people was for a long time a fervent topic of multiple discussions & of different approaches. Few scientists like the American professor Borza and his students suggested that all Greek epigraphs found in the great area of Touba belonged to the loyal family relatives, since these tombs are royal-style and hence the language used is naturally Greek since only the royal family and the upper class were hellinizated.
But was this the reality? It is obvious that this argument would fail if we had found Greek scripts originated from common daily people of that time, chronologically dated before the era of Great Alexander (i.e before the mid of 4th century bc)

According to Herodotos, the Makednoi (Macedonians) who crossed Doris and
moved to the Peloponnese, taking up the name Dorians. The Dorians who formed
the Macedonian state came in contact with the local Pelasgic population whose size
was much smaller than the one residing at the sea shores and the islands of
Southern Greece.
It is for this reason that German historian K. Belloch considered the Macedonians
the purest Greeks of any other part of Greece. The Dorians (Makednoi) of
Macedonia were larger in number than those who moved southwards. Such a place of permanent residence for some Makednoi (Dorians) was Doris. When these Dorians (known until then as Makednoi only) moved to the Peloponnese, they became known there as Dorians (that is, the people [coming] from Doris).
Herodotus mentions that the "people now called the Dorians" were neighbors of the Pelasgians. According to Herodotus (Herodot, Book I, 56.3) the Dorians acquire their name on the way to Peloponnesus.
The people they displaced gathered at Athens under a leader Ion and became identified as "Ionians".
Most conspicuous among the Dorians as related by Herodotus were the Lacedaemonians, or Spartans of Lakonia, one of whose archaic legendary kings was named Dōrieus. The military Spartans, under Leonidas, including the famous 300 soldiers, sacrificed themselves to delay the Persian army at the Battle of Thermopylae.
Herodotus' list of Dorian states is as follows. From northeastern Greece were Phthia, Histiaea and Macedon. In central Greece were Doris (the former Dryopia) and in the south Peloponnesus, specifically the states of Lacedaemon, Corinth, Sicyon, Epidaurus, Troezen and Hermione. Dorians also colonised Crete including founding of such towns as Lato(Ancient Greek: Λατώ) was an ancient Dorian city of Crete, birthplace of Nearchos the Admiral of Alexander the Great, Dreros and Olous. Many other Greek colonies east & south Greece are also included.

The Pella curse tablet is a curse or magic spell (Greek: κατάδεσμος, katadesmos) inscribed on a lead scroll, dating to the 4th or 3rd century BC. It was found in Pella (at the time capital of Macedon) in 1986 and published in the Hellenic Dialectology Journal in 1993. It is possibly the only attested text in the ancient Macedonian language (O. Masson).
It is a magic spell or love charm written by a woman, possibly named Dagina, whose lover Dionysophōn (i.e. "Voice of Dionysus") is apparently about to marry Thetima (i.e. "she who honors the gods"; the standard Attic form would be Theotimē). She invokes "Makron and the demons" (parkattithemai makrōni kai [tois] daimosi, Attic would be para-kata-tithemai) to cause Dionysophon to marry her rather than Thetima, and never to marry another woman unless she herself recovers and unrolls the scroll.
The language is a harsh but distinctly recognizable form of North-West or Doric Greek, and the low social status of its writer, as evidenced by her vocabulary, strongly hint that a unique form of Doric Greek was spoken by lay people in Pella at the time the tab was written. Pella (Greek: Πέλλα) was the capital of the ancient kingdom of Macedon.
The main characteristic of Doric was the preservation of Indo-European [aː], long <α>, which in Attic-Ionic became [ɛː], <η>. Tsakonian Greek, a descendant of Doric Greek and source of great interest to linguists, is extraordinarily still
spoken in some regions of the Southern Argolid coast of the Peloponnese, on the coast of the modern prefecture of Arcadia.

Julius Pokorny derives Dorian from dōris, "woodland" (which can also mean upland).
The dōri- segment is from the o-grade (either ō or o) of Proto-Indo-European *deru-, "tree".
Dorian might be translated as "the country people", "the mountain people", "the uplanders", "the people of the woods" or some such appellation.
A second popular derivation was given by the French linguist, Émile Boisacq, from the same root, but from Greek doru, "spear" (which was wood); i.e., "the people of the spear" or "spearmen", emphasizing the warrior ferocity of the Dorians.

There is still some uncertainty as to the origins of the Dorians. Though they are generally believed to have originated from Epiros or Northern Macedonia, there are some historians who believed that they only arrived from there as they had previously been forced out of Doris in central Greece by the Mycenaeans.

After originally settling in the Peloponnese, the Dorians soon spread out all over mainland Greece overtaking the city-states and forcing the inhabitants into slavery. Crete and Asia Minor’s south-west coast were later taken over as well. This over-taking of states forced many tribes in resettling into other areas.

The Thessalians, who were an Indo-European tribe, settled in what we now know as Thessaly. The Aeolians, an original Greek tribe relocated to the North West coast of Asia Minor.

The islands of Samos, Levos and Chios as well as the central coast were where the Ionians fled to, although some were also able to remain in mainland Greece in Attica, and the city of Athens which was well protected.

The time period of 1200 – 800 BC is refered to as the Dark Age. This title however, does not do justice to Dorian civilization who brought with them the introduction of the Iron Age.

As well as bringing fourth the change of worshipping only male Gods instead or fertility goddesses, the Dorians developed into aristocrats who owned land. This resulted in the majority of farmers being worse off.

The idea of monarchy and kings as the method of government was also brought to an end, and was replaced by the land owning aristocrats as the new form of government. This was the beginning of the basis of the democratic government as a means of ruling.

People who spoke the Doric dialect lived along the coast of the Peloponnese, in
Crete, southwest Asia Minor, various Cities of Southern Italy, Sicily,….
Numerous historians link Doric, North-Western Greek and
Ancient Macedonian .
In ancient Greek History & Mythology, Greeks considered
Primer-Dorians to be Macedonians (who along with the Spartans had
Hercules as their Father-figure) who
took the name “Dorian” moving south

John M. Akamatis Assistant Professor of Aristotle University of Thessaloniki:

The language being spoken by the Macedonian people was for a long time a fervent topic of multiple discussions & of different approaches. Few scientists like the American professor Borza and his students suggested that all Greek epigraphs found in the great area of Touba belonged to the loyal family relatives, since these tombs are royal-style and hence the language used is naturally Greek since only the royal family and the upper class were hellinizated.
But was this the reality? It is obvious that this argument would fail if we had found Greek scripts originated from common daily people of that time, chronologically dated before the era of Great Alexander (i.e before the mid of 4th century bc)
The early cemetery of Agora in Pella, provided us with the most significant findings such as the tomb shaft of Xanthos, a relatively poor child, dated in the end of 5th century bc. In this tomb a piece of marble was used with the inscription “Ξάνθοs” (the son) / “Δημητρίου” (father’s name) / “Αμαδίκας” (mother’s name) son.
The name of the mother “Αμαδίκας” stems from the Homeric verb “αμά-ω” (αμά = crop) & the Macedonian ending “-δίκα” (instead of the ending “-δίκη” as in the case of the Macedonian name “Ευρυδίκα” instead of “Ευριδίκη” which was used in the rest of Greece).
There were also other findings in Pella cemetery like the two gold leafs with the names of two dead persons. In the one leaf was the name “Ηγησίσκα”, instead of “Ηγησίσκη” (both names stem from the Greek verb “ηγούμαι” = lead) and was the name of a little girl while in the other leaf there was the name of “Φιλοξένα”.
In the same area, archaeologists found also a “κατάδεσμο” which is an inscribed lead foil considered to be by many, as the most important finding in recent years in Macedonia. This script can help decisively all scholars to understand Macedonian dialect, since it is considered the only Macedonian true dialect script representation and belonged to a lower society person. It’s significance is denoted also by its extent and it will be surely a matter of prolonged discussions among linguisticians in the near future.
As can one see from this finding, the Macedonian (dorian) script has a lot of similarities with the attic (Ionian) dialect but it defers from it into the following areas:
1. The letter “α” replaces commonly used letter “η” in Ionian dialect like in the words “Θετίμα” instead of Θετίμη, “γάμαι” instead of “γήμαι”, “έρημα” instead of “έρημη” (deserted) and “κακά” instead of “κακή” (bad)
2. The synezisis of letters “α” and “ο” becomes no longer “ω” but “α”, like “χηράν” instead of “χηρών” (hands)
3. Taking into account the above differences and the particularities found all over the script, imply that this dialect to be originated from NW dorian Greek dialects. This dialect was also the mother language of Great Alexander through which he communicated with his soldiers and it was the prevailing language of ancient Macedonia.
So Pella seems to have become in the last years the epicentre of revelations for the Macedonian life and history in general. It was the capital of the Macedonian kingdom of Phillipos, Great Alexander and their successors and its findings support the assertion of Xenophon that it was the greatest of all Macedonian cities. It was the capital of the biggest, until that time, empire world has ever seen. Their leader’s ingeniousness in politics and military tactics created the Hellenistic world and brought Hellenism to Vaktria and Indian peninsula. This empire established over 70 cities between Mediterranean coasts and India diffusing Greek civilization all over the known world. This empire extension paved also the way for the establishment of the attic dialect as the main communication channel among various civilizations, also enabling afterwards the spread of the roman & west culture to these worlds.
One major & effective component of the Macedonian politics is the existence of a tolerant policy to all occupied civilizations and it was the logic sequence of its previous similar strategy versus their enemies in Greece. Its cosmopolitan spirit replaced the old discriminative pattern that Greeks had towards foreigners, whom they regarded as barbarians. In many cases, this unique administrative pattern (always stemming from Pella) was well ahead from its era, and this open-minded and pioneering policy is considered today as an astonishing phenomenon in world history.
Furthermore, the Pella example does not only provide us with multiple new information about the Makedonian language, religion, customs but also emerges itself as the cradle of modern world way of thinking. Furthermore the citizens of Pella seem to have adopted a more unique language pattern than other Greeks did, despite the different beliefs of some scholars. Almost all their institutions and Gods temples were accessible by all citizens and the sentiment of tolerance and assimilation of different ideas from other civilizations in their world, made them a guideline of today’s human-oriented societies.
Closing let us recall an abstract of the great Athenian rhetorician Isocrates (lived somewhere between 5th & 4th century bc): «Ομολογείται μεν γαρ την
Μακεδονίαν πόλιν αρχαιοτάτην είναι και ελληνικοτάτην και μεγίστην και πάσιν
ανθρώποις ονομαστοτάτην» which translated means that it is widely acceptable that Makedonia is an ancient land, completely Greek and the most widely known among all people!
These words emphasize our great Greek heritage but also our great proportionally responsibility.

Ancient Greek History
2900-2000 BC The Bronze Age - Early Aegean cultures emerge
2500 BC - The Minoan civilization
1200 BC - The Trojan War and the destruction of Priam's city at Troy (Ilium)
1050-750 BC - The Dark Ages of Greece and the fall of the Mycenean
850 - 700 BC - Development of the Greek Alphabet
776 BC - The First Olympic Games
750 -700 BC - Homer writes the Iliad and the Odyssey
750-500 BC - The Archaic Period
730-710 BC - the First Messenian War and the Spartans conquer southwest Peloponnese
650 Rise of the tyrants
621 BC Draco's code of law
600 BC Coin currency introduced
500-323 BC - the Classical Period
505 Cleisthenes founds democracy in Athens
490-479 BC - the Greek / Persian Wars led by Xerxes
468 BC - Sophocles writes his first tragedy
461-446 BC - The Peloponnesian Wars begins between Sparta and Athens
449-432 - Construction of the Parthenon and the Acropolis in Athens
441 BC - Euripides writes his first tragedy
443 - 429 BC Pericles becomes leader of Athens
430 BC Plague in Athens
431-405 BC - Second of the Peloponnesian Wars between Sparta and Athens
420 - 410 Construction of Temple of Athena Nike
399 BC - Socrates is tried and executed for his opposition to the Thirty Tyrants
386 BC - Plato, student of Socrates, founds the Academy
384 BC - Aristotle, student of Plato, is born
359 BC - Philip II becomes the king of Macedon
356 BC - Alexander the Great, son of Philip II, is born
333 BC - Alexander the Great of Macedonia defeats the Persians at Issus and is given Egypt by the Persian Satrap where he builds a capital at Alexandria
323 BC - Alexander the Great dies at Babylon
323-31 BC - The Hellenistic Period
300 BC - Ptolemy I founds museum in Alexandria
224 BC - Earthquake destroys the Colossus of Rhodes
200 - 196 BC First Roman victories over Greece
197 BC - King Philip V loses to Roman forces at Kynoskephalai
86 BC - The Roman General Sulla captures Athens
267 AD - The Goths sack Athens, Sparta, and Corinth
286 AD - The Roman Emperor Diocletian divides the Roman empire in two forming modern Greece (the Byzantine Empire)
641 AD - The Slavs overrun Greece
The above information provides a concise background to the Ancient Greek civilisation