Arcadocypriot Greek Explained

Arcadocypriot Greek
Region:Arcadia, Cyprus
Familycolor:Indo-European
Fam2:Hellenic
Fam3:Ancient Greek
Fam4:Central
Linglist:grc-arc
Glotto:arca1234
Glottorefname:Arcadocypriot
Map:AncientGreekDialects_(Woodard)_en.svg
Isoexception:dialect
Ancestor:Proto-Greek
Ancestor2:Mycenaean Greek
Script:Greek alphabet
Cypriot syllabary

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.

In Cyprus the dialect was written using solely the Cypriot syllabary. The most extensive surviving text of the dialect is the Idalion Tablet.[1] A significant literary source on the vocabulary comes from the lexicon of 5th century AD grammarian Hesychius.

History

Proto-Arcadocypriot (around 1200 BC) is supposed to have been spoken by Achaeans in the Peloponnese before the arrival of Dorians, so 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:

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.

According to John T Hooker, the preferable explanation for the general historico-linguistic picture is

that in the Bronze Age, at the time of the great Mycenaean expansion, a dialect of a high degree of uniformity was spoken both in Cyprus and in the Peloponnese but that at some subsequent epoch the speakers of West Greek intruded upon the Peloponnese and occupied the coastal states, but made no significant inroads into Arcadia.[2]

Later developments

After the collapse of the Mycenaean world, communication ended, and Cypriot was differentiated from Arcadian. It was written until the 3rd century BC using the Cypriot syllabary.[3] [4]

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

Glossary

Arcadian

Arcadian word English transliteration Meaning Other Greek dialects
Greek, Ancient (to 1453);: ἀμφιδεκάτη amphidekatê 21st of the month Greek, Ancient (to 1453);: ἡ μετὰ εἰκάδα ἡμέρα (ampheikas)(dekatê tenth)
Greek, Ancient (to 1453);: ἄνωδα anôda up-side Attic Greek, Ancient (to 1453);: ἄνωθε anôthe
Greek, Ancient (to 1453);: ἄρμωλα armôla or Greek, Ancient (to 1453);: ἀρμώμαλα armômala food seasoning Attic Greek, Ancient (to 1453);: ἀρτύματα artymata; Greek, Ancient (to 1453);: ἀρτύω artyo
Greek, Ancient (to 1453);: ἄσιστος asistos nearest Attic Greek, Ancient (to 1453);: ἄγχιστος anchistos
Greek, Ancient (to 1453);: δάριν darin or dareir Attic Greek, Ancient (to 1453);: σπιθαμή spithame, inch)
Greek, Ancient (to 1453);: Ἑκατόμβαιος Hecatombaios epithet for Apollo in Athens and for Zeus in Gortys (Arcadia) and Gortyna, Crete
Greek, Ancient (to 1453);: Ϝιστίαυ Wistiau Attic Hestiou, eponym genitive of Hestios; Cf.Hestia and gistia)
Greek, Ancient (to 1453);: ϝοῖνος woinos wine Cypriot, Cretan, Delphic, Magna Graecian; Attic oinos
Greek, Ancient (to 1453);: ζέλλω zellô "throw, put, let, cast" Attic Greek, Ancient (to 1453);: βάλλω ballô
Greek, Ancient (to 1453);: ζέρεθρον zerethron pit (Homeric, Attic Greek, Ancient (to 1453);: βέρεθρον berethron; (Koine barathron)
Greek, Ancient (to 1453);: θύρδα thyrdaoutside Attic Greek, Ancient (to 1453);: ἔξω exô, thyra door; (Paphian Greek, Ancient (to 1453);: θόρανδε thorande
Greek, Ancient (to 1453);: ἴν in in, inside Attic en; Cypriot id.
Greek, Ancient (to 1453);: κάθιδος kathidos water-jug Attic Greek, Ancient (to 1453);: ὑδρία hydria; (Tarentine huetos)
Greek, Ancient (to 1453);: κάς kas and Attic Greek, Ancient (to 1453);: καί kai; Cypriotic id.
Greek, Ancient (to 1453);: κίδαρις kidaris Arcadian dance (Athenaeus 14.631d.)[5] and Demetra Kidaria in Arcadia.
Greek, Ancient (to 1453);: κόρϝα korwa girl Attic korê; Pamphylian name Greek, Ancient (to 1453);: Κορϝαλίνα Korwalina
Greek, Ancient (to 1453);: Κορτύνιοι Kortynioi (Kortys or Gortys (Arcadia))
Greek, Ancient (to 1453);: κυβήβη kubêbê boot, shoe Attic hypodema
Greek, Ancient (to 1453);: Λῆναι Lênai Bacchae (Lenaeus Dionysus, Lenaia festival
Greek, Ancient (to 1453);: μωρίαι môriai horses, cattle
Greek, Ancient (to 1453);: οὔνη ounê or ounei come on! GoAttic Greek, Ancient (to 1453);: δεῦρο, δράμε deuro, drame
Greek, Ancient (to 1453);: πέσσεται pessetai it is cooked, roasted Attic Greek, Ancient (to 1453);: ὀπτᾶται optatai
Greek, Ancient (to 1453);: πος pos towards, into Attic Greek, Ancient (to 1453);: προς pros; Cypriot id. !Greek, Ancient (to 1453);: ποσκατυβλάψη[6] poskatublapse (Attic proskatablapsei)
Greek, Ancient (to 1453);: σίς[7] sis who, anyone Attic tis; Laconian tir; Thessalian kis; Cypr. sis (si se)

Cypriot

Paphian

See also

Bibliography

Further reading

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Georgiadou. Anna. 2015. The Tablet of Idalion (ICS 217). Kyprios Character. History, Archaeology & Numismatics of Ancient Cyprus.
  2. John T Hooker, Mycenaean Greece (Routledge Revivals). Routledge, 2014 p164
  3. Kypros, Salamis, c. 600 BC http://epigraphy.packhum.org/inscriptions/oi?ikey=208992&bookid=353&region=9&subregion=0
  4. Kypros — Kourion ~320 BC http://epigraphy.packhum.org/inscriptions/oi?ikey=208432&bookid=350&region=9&subregion=0
  5. Mortals and Immortals https://books.google.com/books?id=cAxq_6svnOEC&pg=PA131 by Jean-Pierre Vernant
  6. Arkadia — Tegea — 4th century BC IG V,2 6 38
  7. Arkadia — Mantineiastoichedon. — 5th century BC http://epigraphy.packhum.org/inscriptions/oi?ikey=32298&bookid=12&region=2&subregion=4
  8. Web site: LSJ . 2021-02-20 . 2022-01-26 . https://web.archive.org/web/20220126152731/https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/?redirect=true . live .
  9. [Aristotle]