7
SocialDialectin Attica
StephenColvin
r
Social Dialect
Socialvarietiesof speechare conlrnonly designatedsocialdialectsor sociolects.The terms refer to speechvariation that is correlatedwith social
distinctions:irnmediatelytheterm is more complicatedthanthe unmarked
tenn dialect,which refersof courseto regionaldialect.To identift r:egional
dialectwe haveto know somebasicfactsabout the geographyof the speech
community; but in the caseof socialdialectwe arc comnritting ourselves
to a range of interlocking theorie.sabout the socialstructureof the conrmuniw, which-at leastin the caseof a corpuslanguage,and probabli'also
but must be abstractedfrorn
in other cases-cannot be merely observecl,
whatever data are availableto the investigator.
The distinction betweendialect and socialdialect is not necessarilyas
fundamentalas the de{initions might imply. The disciplineswhich both
in an exoticlinguistic and sociolinguisticcotrterms pertain to develope<i
text, namelyWesternEuropeand North America,and the languagemodel
that is in some sensebuilt into them recallstheir origin (large political
units with standardizednational languagesand a history of suppressing
linguistic competitors).However,in very many casesthe distribution of
socialvarietiesof languagewill correlatewith location: a regionalvariety
will havesocialimplications,for example,whether the rcgion concerned
'fhe
is a relativelylargeareaor a small sectionof an urban environment.
origins of a social dialect will in many casesbe local. One may then ask
how a socialdialectis maintaineclwithout the spatialseparationr.vhichis
'lherc'
are a number
for linguistic dill'crence.
normally thought necessary
research
to this. Firstly,and most importantly,sociolingLristic
of responses
over the last century has shown that the creationand maintenanceof distinct linguisticidentitiesarea centralfeatureof maintaininga speci{icsocial
with socio-ecouomic
iclentity.Secondly,in the caseof varietiesassociated
class,evensmall-scalespatialseparation(suchasa smallurban neighbourhood) may be sufficientto maitrtain a distinctivcspeechpattern; this will
96
StephenColvirr
be reinforcedby socialnetworksat home and in the rvgrkplace''ThirdlS
their
social dialectsmay indeed be lesslikely to survive unspottedthap
another,
one
rvith
interaction
constant
in
regionalcounterparts;they are
so-cialidentity is fluiti, and the rate of changemirv be rapid'
It hardly needsstressingthat a socialdialectis not a declinatiofrom the
in the
standardor prestigeuarieiy,thorrghit may be cgnstructe<las such
reference
by
described
be
cliscourseof the comrnunity.It neednot, in f'act,
is
to the standard,althoughthismay bc"convenient.A spcechvarietywhich
'social'*uy i^ fact havea history more or lessindependentof the
definedas
Iocalstandard,althoughinteractionwithotherlocalvarieties,includingthe
standard,is likely to playa role in its development.c)nereasonwhy a speech
variety may be clefinedas a socialdialectis that, ftrr the historicalreasons
per
sketchedabove,we are generallywilling tg allow just one local dialect
political unit; any further dialectsare thereforcliable to be classi{iedas
social dialects.sg, for example,in the caseof Attica: it is an unusually
largepolitical unit by pre-Hellenisticstandards,and unlikely to havebeen
owing in part to a standardized
hnluistically hom.geneous.Nevertheless,
in Attica we generally
variation
-e look for linguistic
ortiography, 1^/he1
we are used to
because
set oul to look for socialdialect.This is perhaps
called
thirrking of linguistic movementin terms of what Anna l)avies has
,verrical'diffqsion (betweena higher and a lower variety), as opposedto
'horiz6ntal' diffusign that takesplacewithout referenceto a standard
the
(Morpurgo Daviesryggi7).
Wearelhtrsi' dangerof beirrgmisledby our orvntertninoiogywhenwe
'social'variationin Greek,asppposedto geographical
look for evidence6f
variation.BartonEklong agopointed out that the term Attic-lonic is itself
a curious hybrid: for Attic i.sa geographicalterm, while ionic is an ethnic
g).
term-and ethrricityis a sociallyconstructedquantity (BartonEktgTz:
ltiswithAttic(arrdtoacertainextentitsrelatiorrshipwithionic)thatI
wish to deal in the presentpaper.on comparativegrounds we may start
by assumingthe existenceof socialvarietiesin Atticar next we needto see
ii we have.ui,l.rr.. for (a) the conceptof sociallydift'erentiatedspeechin
Athens,and (b) the thing itself.we haveplenty of evidencefor the former
from a variety of literary sources'rnost usefullyGreekConledy:
(PC(iZo0)
(r) Aristophanes
?' doret
rco.itiy i1 airil p'irt rin' xc.td" tilv dypotxkt'', f1 airil t5i rcirr
.
Erarptpirr*rt. nc,pd xoi 6 xoptxig 'll7er Aptorocl"i"Ts
I Seeespeciallythe work of I. and L. Milroy for smaller-scalc
nelworks, or contrnunities,
t4)'
(lvlilroy
t98o:
classes'
social
than
abstract
which are'less
SocialDialectin Attica
97
[,tripos?] 8rd,\exror'{yovra pdorlvrt5Ae<'ts
oitr' d.oreiaviro9qAurlpau
pav.
oiir' tu'd,ed|epov ir aypo,xory'.
fthc grammarianssay thatJ . . . the idiom of those who live in rural areas
is cliffcrentfrom that of city dwellers.Concerningwhich Ari.stophanesthe
'lhisl
languageis the normal dialectof the cit,v-not the fhncy
comic poet says:
high-s<lcietyaccent,nor uneducated,rustic talk'.
The question to be considered for my purPoses is whether there is evidencc
tbr a prestige variety within Attica, or simply for the recognition that diffbrent social groups speak in different ways. We are used to the notion
that there was uo standard language in ancient Greece; whether this was
true for the individual citv-states is a separate question, ancl is likely, in
my view, t6 have a differelt answer in each case, fbr it seems clear that
sociolinguistic culture was no more uniform across the Greek world than
the language it.self.My answer to this question is that we have some evidence
that certain idioms within Attica were disparaged,and for the corollary that
others were approved. It is true that some of the evidence conrprises what
we might consicler stylistic features: but sonte of it also ciearly pertains
for
we haveattackson populardemagogues
to phonology-for example,
Attic correctly:
allegedinabilityto articulate
(z) Plato,I-Iyperbohs(PCGtSf)
fl)d.rcovl,.ivrot iv'YnepBltAq 6'1r at{ e r}v dveuroi y lpfiou' ,is papSopol,
),ly<ovofirusci 6' orl 1,,ipirri.xriev, tt Motpat $iArut,
"6n1rr-1"r1r"
A(Yeu',
d),A'6n1rt, ptv ypeil
"6qn': <!:pqv",
6ndre 6' einetv\bt
t$aoxe
",\)[y,,v", ( "ri,\io,"') iA<ye,
Plato, however,in his Hyperbolusmocked the dropping of g as barbarous,as
'He
didn't spcakAttic, yc gods,but wheneverhe had to saydiefimal
fbllows:
he said djetoman,and when he had to sayoligoshe came out rvith olios . ' .'
Evidence for disfavoured morphological forms is lessdirect: but the fact of
'chancellery
language which retained forms such as c-stem
an Athenian
dative plurals in -aorl-rlorLtntil the late fifth centurt' at least indicates what
we would have expected, that morphological difference played a role in
linguistic variation within Attic:a.
What is interestjng is that some of the evidence connects the disparaged
2 SecDover (rq8r:
$z).
q8
StephenColvin
of
f'eaturesof Attic with a foreign idiom: either rvith the vague charge
lonic
perceived
F'or
example,
barbarism,or with other dialectsof Greck.
'chatteringclasses'
in the speechof what would be calledthe
characteristics
that
in the Murdoch pressarethe objectof comic attention'3The evidence
the
and
Attic
between
I wish to pr.r..rt here concernsthe relationship
irleologicalconverseof lonic, namelyBoeotian'
z
Ostracism
is
we have alreadynoted one of the ways in which epigraphiclanguage
governed by ruies which do not necessarilyapply to the Umgangssprache'
in a
and this is the greatparadoxin looking for colft:quialspeccirvaricties
tablets,
curse
In ihe caseof Attic we can examinegraffiti,
corpuslanguag"e.
of infor"nd ul,,uri*tyof privateinscriptions.A potentiallyvaluablesource
that-ostracon
likelihood
a
high
is
there
mation is piovided by ostraca'since
voteswere in many casescast by peoplewho did not in generalpractise
the epigraphichabit, and it is preciselyby virtuc of being semi-lettered
evidence
that suchwriters may provide evidencefr:r socialdialect.In fhct,
provided
is
unlettered
wholly
that many ostracon-wielclingcitizenswere
preboth by anecdote'rancl by the discoveryof a cacheof nearly 'oo
slopeof
inscribedostracabearingih. .tu-. of Themistocleson the north
either
democracy,
radical
the Acropolis.sOstracismwasintroducedby thc
before
in 5o8(accorclingto the 416, Pol.,zz.r) or shortly
under Cfeisthenes
the tirst ostracismin 481.The decisionwhether to hold an ostrakoplnria
vote
was macleeachyear by a full meeting of the popular assembly:the
cast
were
votes
itselfwas held perhapsaround ten weekslater. lf sulficient
do thereforein
for an indiviclual,he wasbanisiredfor ten years.6Ostraca
'texts'
are generally
that
is
problem
some senserepresentthe vox pttp;the
(that
say,name
is
t0
restrictedto the designationof a single individual
3 see cassio (rq8r) and Brixhe (rqS8)for the similaritiesbetween'barbarized'and lowclassAttic.
4 plut. Arirtides
the name of that citizen
7:'F.achvoter took an crstracon,wlote on it
placc
in the agora which rvas
to
a
it
brought
ancl
city,
the
frorn
whom he wished t6 remo\€
rvasspcaking,.asthe voters
all tfnced about rvith railings . . . Now at the time ol'wlrich I
fellow handed
were inscribing their ostraca',it is saiclthat an unlettered and utterly boorish
and askedhirn
his ostraconto Aristicles,whom he took to be one of the ordinary crowd'
the man rvhat possible,rvrong-Aristidcshad
to write Aristicleson it' lle' astonishecl'askecl
"None whatever,"was the ar]swer'"I don't cven know the fellow, but I arn tired
him.
done
(trals'[3.Perrin,LoebciassicalLibrary,reot)'
oir,.oti"ghirreverywherecallecl'fhelust"'
5 Broneer(1918);
l.ang(1990:161).
6 Detailsu..j,lirput.dl Sources(in translation)with bibliographyin Dillon and Garland
(rqg+:rjo-z); generaldiscussionin Thomsen (r97r)'
Sociall)ialect in Attica
99
with patronym and/or deme).Thereare,however,someexceptiuusto this,
particularly in some recentlypublished ostracafrom the so-calleclgreat
Kerameikosdeposit.
Bv the mid-r96osa total of arr:unclr,65oostracahad beenfound; in 1968
a further tl,5oowere discoveredin the Kerameikosexcavationsconducted
by the German Archaeologicallnstitute. A selectiotrof vcry interesting
texts ilom the collection was recently publishcd by StefanBrenne, wiro is
preparingthe lind for publication.TMany of the textswhich he publishes,
in addition to the obligatory name, contzrinabusedirecteciagainstthe
individual, his family, or his social class(in this case,the higher social
echelonsfrom which the political 6litc was drawn in the lirst part of the
fifth century).As Brennehaspointed out, tirereareinterestingsinrilarities
between the abusivelanguageof the ostracaand the abusc of political
figuresin Old (bmedys
However, the text which is of central interest in the present paper is
quoted merelyfor its interestasa spoilt ballot:
(3) Brenne(994: zt)- SEGxlvi. 93;Brenne(rocir:97)no.'I ri79.
(Fig.7.r)
td, .4qrdvdatpori66
'fhomsen
publishecla list
This text rvasknown about asearlyas1972,when
He ref'ersto
ostraca
in
his
Ongirr
of
Ostracisrn.
of nameswhich appear on
lbur unpublishedtextswhich designateLimosasa candidatefbr ostracism,
renrarkingthat on three ostracaLimoshasno patronymic or demotic; on
a fourth (now published)LimosEupatridesis read:
'l'honrsen
(t972:to$; Brcnne(zooz:97)no.'I rf5
Q) MDAI IA] ro6(r99r),r53;
.l,p6s EJnlplnrpi8€s
'hunger'.
Thomsensuggested
that this is not in facta name,but the noun fbr
He was not able to publish the verbalform which accompaniesthe noun,
and wirich is of central interestto linguists.The now-publishcdostracon
is rather poignant, standingas a comment on the dynasticf'cudingof tire
6lite Athenian firmilies which l'rad in fact been the driving force in the
introduction of ostracismto Attica. The comment comesfrom a different
socio-economicperspectiveand articulatesthe perennialcornplaint that
feuding among the political elite doesnot addressthe material problems
of the demos.The context(other tabletsfrom the clepositrvhichhavebeen
''
7 Brcnne (rq94);Willernsen(r96s)and (1968),Seenorv Brcnne (:ooz:
97-roo),
n Brenrre(1994:rr-r4); seeal-sr:
Brenne(r9gz).
loo
StephenColvitt
Frc;.7.r. ostracorr horrr the Kerarneikos.photograph courtesy'f
thc German ArchaeologicalInstilute, negativenr. Kerameikos36'6
published) and the letter forms point to a date in the early fi{th century
(Rrennezaoz:97 suggests47rvc).
The questionthat needstn be addressedis thc linguistic and sociolinguisticinterpretationo{'the writing do.qo,xiio.'t'he
cditorsot' s.EG(.xlvi.
'new
93) commenton the
verb':what we aredealingwith is surely. rnere
phonologicalvaria't ol'the familiar ttorpaxi.{ut
(t.e. dorpax,,o(D)o).
The
interchangeof 6 and i in Attic insr:riptionsis extrernel,v
rare (l shall corne
backt'the instances),
so this is not an obviousspellingnristakc.1'hereis,
.f course,a neighbouri.gdialectthat hasD or doubrc.6ice-,rrerpondine
to
r\ttic {, nanrelyl}oeotiarr.
I'hereis reallvno possibilirvthat the ostrairn
could havetreenlvrittcn by a l3oeotian.sincevotjng u,asrestricteclto citizensand policedby tribes;also,the D-shapeclrho in thc i'scription seenr.s
to be characteristicof Attic rather than }Joeotjanscript (although
Jeffcr:,v
t99o:67clatesthisletter-fcrrn"l
to 550-525,
Immenvahr r99o;r55*elirings the
datedown and quotesan exampleirom +go),'lire'otion that a lJoeotian
metic sat near the voting areaand wrcrteout ostracasec.rns
inrplausible.I
believethat we now haveenoughevidenceto posit tireexistenceof a varie-ty
o{'Attic,markcd by a gerninateapicalstop (singlein initial position) u,here
Attic has the cluster [sd] = 6. T'his variet_v]vas not thc.ianguageof Attic
epigraphy,but it r,vasa variet,vwhich coexisteclrvith it, unj ,"i can latrei
Social Dialect in Attica
101
it a socialdialect.ily this rve mean that it was spokenby a sectionof the
population Lrutwas not usedin epigraphy;it may havehacla regionalor
socialimplication in Attica.
S The Odd Couple: Attic and Boeotian
If this hypothesisis correct,let usconsiderwh,vwehaveso little evidencefbr
this Boeotian-lookingvariantin Attic. we mentionedearlierthe questionof
prestigedialectin ancientclreece:we can now askourselvesr.vhetherthere
is any e'r.idence
that the Athenians(say,in the post-persian\A/arperiocl)
felt good about the way they spoke.Did they fbel prourl of Attic?\t/c have
enough evidencefrom variouslitcrary sourcesto suggestthat they clid. lt
clocsnot fbllow from this that they felt disparagingabout all other rlialecrs:
but thcrreis alittle evidencethat their attitude towarclsBoeotianwasbound
up with more generalfeelingsof irostility and scorn towarclsBoeotia.ln
thc {blkrwing fragment of strattis, for example,the Boeotianidionr rs an
object of c:itical attenticrn:
(5) Strattis,
Phonricion
tr\brnen(P(lG
+q)
(u,[er' rtiS{r,, r[toa Orlfiait^t, na,tts,
oi'6/v mtr'il),\'. oi' np<ira p&, ll1v orln{av
3nc0ori.,\rr.v,
ds A$,ouo',ivopti(ere . .
Ybu r.inclerstandnothing, all you people of T'hebes,nothirrg whatsoever. Iiirst
of all, thev sav thar you cal.la cuttiefish opinhot:ih | ,back-fouler'l . . .
rhis was partly orving,no doubt, to sheercontiguity (conrparerelations
with ll'legara);u,zscompoundeclb,vl3oeotianbehaviourduring the persian
anclPeloponnesian
\&hrs( rhebesespecially
wasiletestecl
by;ithcns);and
seernsalso to have been aggravatecl
bv generalcuitural diltbrcr:ceswhich
resuitedin an Athenianstereoq?eof Boeotiansasgluttonous,.stupicl,
and
boorish.The Boeotianpig, in fhct.e
tlnhappily lbr the Athenians,tireir orvn dialectrryas
markecjrvith at least
ane striking isogk:rss
with Roeotianrvhichseparated
thcm offfi:om the o ther
djalectsof mainlandand AsianGreece,
namclythedor,rblc
rr iri plar:er.ifoo.
it doesnot seenlto nIeto bea coincidence
thatthisis thc {'eaturc
rif staridarrl
;\ttic rvhichdreAthenians\{.,ere
most embarrassed
atrout.one could ascribe
this shi,'rrc'ss
to tire ibeling rhat the featurewasiln Attic provincialisrrr:but
terms such as 'provincial'refiectan clementin nroclernthinking abcut
riialrctratherlhan an importantpart of Athenianattitudeson the srrbject.
"
Frind. O/, 6. go; Itlr-rt.l)r €siltnrrmutt1.6.
to2
StephenColvht
it wasa'provincialism'that Attic shared
because
The variantwassuppressed
with Boeotian.to
geminateshaslong
voiccless
This common developmentof palatalized
been recognizecl,and sincethe r95osa partial phonological.Sprachbund
1
betweenAttic and lloeotia hasbeenpositeclto accountftrr it.r An invisible
third rnemtrerof this group is Euboea,invisible sincewe classEuboean
with Ionic as though the strait of Euboeaconstitutedan important physicalbounclarybetweenEretria and the mainland. Bartonik was moved
to proposea changein the traditional terminology,replacing'Attic-Ionic'
wiih the tripartite'Attic-iluboean-Ionic',and I think that Eretriaand facing
Oropusarea usefulsymbolof the generalpictureof arealdevelopmentthat
is anotherdiaiectwhich hasa parallel
for my argument.l2'I'here
is necessary
developmentof palatalizedgerrinatesto tt and dd, that of central Crete.
This is not, of course,relevantto our ostracoll,but there is a theoretical
connection if we acceptthe idea that this developmentwas particularly
characteristicof WestGreek(slightlyparadoxicalin the caseof rr, which is
and that WestGreekinfluthonght of asthe markerof Attic par excellence),
.r.,.. .un be seenin the developmentof the lJoeotianand Attic consonant
systems.
with
which is associated
My suggestionis, then,that the doubledd retTex
rvay,
put
it
another
to
Boeotian was heard within the bordersof Attica:
therewasa varietyof Attic which contirinedthis feature,a varictywhich we
rnight call a socialdialect.Recaiiingthe divisionof Attic territoryirrto three
that
brtiaclareas(the City, the Coast,and the Inland), we couid specr"rlate
while
the
regiorrs,
with the Inland or the Coastal
this varietywasassociated
other basilectfor which we haveevidence.thc proto-Koinervhich the Old
of the City and the Piraeus
ol wasan (Jngangssprache
Oligarchc<rmplains
(that is, *. tt.i.i not assumea simpiesliding scaleof socialdialectin Attica
'bottom').1ttThere is other evidencethat this f'eaturewas
'top'
to
frorn
heardmore widelv in CentralGreece.Dnuble dd is t'ounclirr'l'hessalian,at
lea.stin the south-westernarea,the'Ihessaliotis(i!{avaxo6€r'IG ixlz. zSZ.
g-9, Sotairosinscription). There are alsospellingswith (i3) and (() froni
other areasof Thessaly,which indicatesthat there may have been sonte
variation:at any rate,Blilmel is perhapsincautiousin assumingthat the dd
r0 "I'he tn d.pp,vetc. is another f'eatureof Attic rviclelvregnrdedas cliagnosticof the
irp
6ialect,bui in faci tire distribution of this assimilationis so messyacrossthe Greekworicl
that it can harrily havebeenas markeda {'eatureasrz {c1.Buck l95s:$8i:).
rr Alletr (1958:176),folklwedby Divcr {1958)and others'
12 Bartonik (ro7z: For tire lluicl clialectof Oropus secMorpureo l)avies (1993)'
9).
'r Old Oliga..'h:ps.-Xcn.Ath. Pol.2.7-8 (.c.4r.s
nr:'?).
SocialDialea in Attica
103
is the standardor'original'reflex.raThe evidencefor Corinthian,qtroted
by Bartondk and Schwyzer,is an isolatedform zl{p}<uson a vasedated
to c.57o,and is dismissedby Mdndez Dosuna,perhapsrightly. Howevcr,
Wachterhas publisheda new readingzlels on a Corinthian pinax, rvhich
Megariand-forms are not
makesthe casefor Corinthian a little stronger.r5
epigrirplric,lrut attestedin the manuscriptsof Aristophanes'Acharniatrs
and open to the suspicionthat they are falsedialectforms. lt seemsto me
unlikely that Aristophaneswould have made such an egregiouserror in
the caseof Megarian,a dialectAtheniansmust havebcenperfectlyfamiliar
with (Colvin 1999:r6+-s). If it is the casethat N{egarian(likc Attic, on this
view) had both variants,we could imagine that the playwright used the
fbrm that was most rnarkedfrom the perspectiveof standardAttic, and
if in addition this featurewas stigmatizedby associationwith lloeotian,
'lhble
then so much the better.
z.r illustratesthe position of Attic between
conflicting influences:
Tanrr
Aricals and Dorsals
lt. Palat:alized
Boeotia
*t'r'(with *ts) and "k'k'tall together(probablyas *t'l'): mergewith rt
Attica, Eretria
(+ boundary)*t't' and .k'k'fhll together:mergewith /l
(- boundary)"t?'(with nh^)> s
Itpdno type\
I g 1 o o st y p e l
Clclades, Ionia
(- boundary) "r'r' (with *rr) > s
(r boundary)*f't'and "k'k'> ss
[p/oos typel
type]
Idpe/orrc,.'
A
V
v
v
Boeotia
* d'd' and *g'g' fall together and mergervith r/rJ
1'hessaLly?ivlcgara?C.orinthi
Attica,Erctria
*gg'fall together:mergewith drl]
[*diC'and
"d'd'and *g'g'fall togetheras"d'd'> zd
V
Cyclades,Ionia
*d'd' and *gg' fall together as "d'd' > zd
* d'd'and -gg'fall togetheras *d'd'> dz> zz
12.1^
' For rvhichseeNagy(tgzo:pl). The detailsof depalatalization
in Greekarecomplex
theoutlineherebroadly
followsDiver(rqs8).
anddisputed:
ra Bliinrel(rs8r:uo): cantraGarclt
Rarn6nbgSi:t,+z).
r5 BartonEk(r9zz:rsr) and Schwyzer
(gSg:S16)on z1[B]eus(Beaziey,
,4IJlr9tr,no. l4l,
contraNl|.ndez
l)osuna(1993:
9o);seenowWachter(zoor:r49,# COP7Sa).
rc)4
StephenColvin
I have tried to er.plain on general grounds why we need not exPectthat
eachof our conventionallydelineatedGreekdialectswould haveonly one
reflex of a depalatalizedgeminate,and why it might not be surprisingif a
gerninatestol'rwereheardin Attica in placeof the lamiliar clusterIzd]' Now
we can considerwhat cvidencethere might be besidesthe new ostracon.
We noted abovethat the interchangeof t\ and ( in Attic insriptions is
rare:thoseinstancesthat existcome,perhapsunsurprisingly,from Lang's
Athenian Agorapublication of gr:a{fitiand dipinti. The hrst exampleis a
graffito on a black skyphos:
(o) Lang(rgz6:t)t no' C 33,mid-fourthcenturyBC
(a) @eto}ooia
iarrd6eIr]er)
(h) A(amaorprn)
The obsceneverb lnrr<i(<lvand its cognatesarefrecluentin comedy:in this
caseonce could hardly ask for a better match betweenlinguistic register
and subjectmatter (the deltais broken,but still t1earlya delta).The second
example(inventoryscratchedon a saucer)is lessexciting,but could still be
regarrledas an appropriatelymundane object (the sort of word ttne might
get in comedy):
(z) Lang(rg76:ro):no.B t3,fourthcenturync
/3 rlr-]'tableware'
ir tr par.
These two exampleshardly prove the argun-Ient,although it should be
rememberedthatstatistically( is a rareletter.Theremayl"rea further pointer
to a non-standardpronunciation in a curious snippet of Old Comedy
by an ancient commentator,in which 6 ,tsEe'is quoted for
preserved
'd,
Zei.t6 Here the playwright has substitutedthe phonaestheticallyoffensivecluster (FS) for the initial (O of Zeus: added point comes from
'brcak wind'; and if the comment dgesrelateto
the echo of the verb p$i.o
(asc6mmonly assumed),then this meaningwill fit well with
Lysistrdtctg4o
Kinesias'irritation at his rvife'smessingaround with perfumewhen he has
more urgent concefns.Allen (1987:56) seesthis as support for an Attic
pronunciationof ( as [zd] ratherthan [dz], if anywereleeded: but the joke
works better,ir: my view, if the underlying for:mthat resonatesis /e0 (in
this caseKinesiasstartsolf with rude protestat the perfurneand changes
it half-way through to a standard expletive,one however associatedwith
substandardregister).
,u IrCG viii.83 (Anon, Decom.,proleg.de com.vl) d 7r1,\,rsrils xa7'qt6k,slx r< Al.f<<,tv
xai rpoypdrcov-lyet,rlv o6rrrrrorr',i* ptrl z{s ilJeds xctti rlt'inorts izrra ' ' ' €xrov xor'
t{alAayi1v,,,is "ri <1,B6eri6/oaotc,,d"tri 'o^ <" Ze^-'
SocialDialect in Attica
lo5
from Plato'sCnstyluswhich might appearto
Tlrereis, finally, a passage
lend support to the theory of a competingrl-variantin the fifth century:r7
(8) Plato,Cratylus
4r8n-n
(.!-r.) o[o1a 6rt of ro,)aroi of fiy"lrepotrQ itira xai rQ 6'!Ma e3 pdla
iyp<itvro,ra) oJx i1*rora of yuvaixes,atncpp<{Arorar}1, dpyalav$covilvolot{ouot.
vfv c\drivzl p.tv roi itiru I ei i) fira Trrraorpi.$ouow,lu,rt6d zof 31)z,r (i1ru, i,s
6'l p.eyoAotp<r(orepo6vra .
(Jarr.) xut 16 ye (uL1tyoto|,z <izrSuoytizol ron)arotlxdAouv.
(Kp".) II6.vuye.
(Iax,) . . vAv62 (uydv.
You know that our ancestorslovedthe soundsiota and delta,not leastthe wol.llen,
who are rnost liable to preserveold forrns of speech'But now people changeiota
to eta or epsilon,and delta to zeta,thinking that they sound grander. . . And you
know that the ancientspronounced(uydvas\uoydv . . . now,however,we say(uydu.
The evidence from the Cratylus is' however, dubious: for one thing, all
remarks in this diaiogue need to Lretreated with a great deal of cautiort;
'old'pronunciation
that Plato refers to is
and secondly, it might be that the
voiced
fricative [z] which
the
to
in fact the orthodox Attic [zd] as opposed
spreadquite rapidly in the fourth century.
4
SummaryandConclusion
The new ostracon is the best piece of evidencethat has corne to liglit
tbr a situation which is not a prior:i unlikely, namely the existenceof a
variety of Attic which shared a d-rellex with lloeotian as the result of
an earlier depalatalization.l'he ostraconwas a protest vote by a citizen
who was not eupatrid,and whose linguistic repertoirereflectedthis. We
have some reason to think that this feature, if it existed in Attic, will
have been stigmatized.Firstly, it is characteristicof Boeotian, a dialect
from, in spiteof some
which the Athenianswishedto dissociatethemselves
We canspeculatethat this maybe a reasonwhy the
isoglosses.ls
inescapable
chancellerylanguagetook sucha long time to let go of the disyllabicdativc
plural that we mentioned above.This phenomenonhas many parallelsin
" Teodorsson
(rg7g:3zg),
( = [zd]in Attic.
against
arguing
rs Intheostraconthesecondletterofdorpari66seemstohavebeencorrectedfrom(7).
'I'his
is interestingin vielv of the lact that zr for oz is fbund in literary (not cpigraphic)
sourcesfor Boeotian:c{. 6nn0otilu (6nw0o-) in passage(5) from Strattis (Lejeuner97z:
Srro). It suggeststhat the Atheniansheard somethingwhich the lloeotians chosenot to
systematizein the writing system.lror the possibleimplicationsof the reversca-bar sigma
seeLang (tg8z: Bt-z).
ro6
Coh,in
St:ephen
modern sociolinguisticresearch:in a language-attitudestudy in Indiana,
for example,Preston (rg88) found that respondentstried to dissociate
themselvesfiom Kentucky,wherethe languagevariety is almost identical,
butwhich is considered'southern'.Secondly,the Athenianshad a certaitr
pride in their dialect,and this seemsto havebeen extendedto their zeta
if we can trust the report of Dionysiusof Halicarnassus( first century Bc),
who describesit asa sweetsound,and the noblestof the doubleconsonants:
(q) D.I-t.Decontpositione
verborumt4
rd o{v9eraeh'at
"d ( ral zdll i)ro,"3rr).
orir,iIsc.ro rc ( xlo,i
Srz'l,i6dA(youorv
iv rais
rd pdu { Sid rorl o rai 5 . . . { Errird y<itpat'it(.yerv Sueivypaptp"d'rav
ypast"yd"rav
ii
{xtroror' , . . rptitv Di rciv rir\)c'rv
ouiiopnis napaloy.fiavdp"evov
6d Drrr,l,ixuAeiratli { p,i}iov-ri6ipgr-riv&xoiv r<iv tr(pav. ri p.tv yd'pt Erit'
tltlt?w dvruv d'p"$or(puv,
d.no6t6Loot
roJ r rai zd r/ 6rri rot, n r6v oupLyltt\v
.
\aodverotxot-ig:l-lllty utrnv*gt, vrrr"rr
roAro 6' ioixi rt! trvedp.art
They [sc, (, t,rl,l are called doubleeither becausethey are composite(the (
being composedol'o and 6) . . . or becausethey are eqrrivalenttcl two letters
in the syllablesin which they are for.rnd.. . . Of the three other letterswhich
are calleddouble the ( pleasesthe ear more than the rest.For the { and the I
give off a whistling sound (becausethey contain r and " respectively,and are
voiceless),whereas( has a pleasantvoiced qualitv and is the noblestof this
series.
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