Arcadocypriot Greek

Arcadocypriot Greek
Region Arcadia, Cyprus
Era c. 1200 – 600 BC
Dialects
Arcadian
Cypriot
Language codes
ISO 639-3 –
Linguist list
 grc-arc
Glottolog None

{{{mapalt}}}

Distribution of Greek dialects in the classical period.[1]
Western group: Central group:
  Aeolic
 Eastern group:
  Attic
  Ionic

Arcadocypriot or southern Achaean was an ancient Greek dialect spoken in Arcadia in the central Peloponnese and in Cyprus. Its resemblance to Mycenaean Greek, as it is known from the Linear B corpus, suggests that Arcadocypriot is its descendant. Proto-Arcadocypriot (~1200 BC) is supposed to have been spoken by Achaeans in the Peloponnese before the arrival of Dorians; for this, it is also called southern Achaean. The isoglosses of the Cypriot and Arcadian dialects testify that the Achaeans had settled in Cyprus. As Pausanias reported:

Agapenor, the son of Ancaeus, the son of Lycurgus, who was king after Echemus, led the Arcadians to Troy. After the capture of Troy the storm that overtook the Greeks on their return home carried Agapenor and the Arcadian fleet to Cyprus, and so Agapenor became the founder of Paphos, and built the sanctuary of Aphrodite at Palaepaphos (Old Paphos).[2]

The establishment happened before 1100 BC. With the arrival of Dorians in the Peloponnese, a part of the population moved to Cyprus and the rest was limited to the Arcadian mountains. After the collapse of the Mycenaean world, communication did not exist and Cypriot was differentiated from Arcadian. It was written up to the 3rd century BC with Cypriot syllabary.[3] [4]

Tsan was a letter only in use in Arcadia, up to c. the 6th century BC. Arcadocypriot kept many characteristics of Mycenaean, early lost in Attic and Ionic, such as the /w/ sound (digamma).

Glossary

Arcadian

Cypriotic

Paphian

See also

References

  1. ↑ Roger D. Woodard (2008), "Greek dialects", in: The Ancient Languages of Europe, ed. R. D. Woodard, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, p. 51.
  2. ↑ Pausanias, Description of Greece 8.5.1
  3. ↑ Kypros — Salamis — c. 600 BC
  4. ↑ Kypros — Kourion ~320 BC
  5. ↑ Mortals and Immortals by Jean-Pierre Vernant
  6. ↑ Arkadia — Tegea — 4th century BC IG V,2 6 38
  7. ↑ Arkadia — Mantineia — stoichedon. — 5th century BC
  8. ↑ LSJ
  9. ↑ Aristotle, Poetics, XXI

Bibliography