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Ionic DialectIonic Greek was a sub-dialect of the so called Attic-Ionic dialectal group of the ancient Greek language, which was itself a member of the Greek branch of Indoeuropean language family. The other dialectal groups of ancient Greek were Doric, Aeolic, Arcado-Cypriot and Northwestern. Ionic Greek was mainly spoken in the Greek colonies of Asia Minor. It was the language in which Herodotus wrote his famous History, since he was a native of Halicarnassos, a Greek colony in Asia Minor. Many Ionic traits are also found in the - mainly Aeolic - language of Homer's epic poetry. Its main differences from standard ancient Greek or Attic was the following: - Attic long a: was turned into e: in every position, even after a vowel or r, something which was not the case in Attic, e.g. Attic nea:nia:s> Ionic nee:nie:s = a young person.
- In many cases, Attic initial aspiration lacked in Ionic, e.g. Attic hippos> Ionic ikkos = a horse.
- In many cases Ionic turned ur-Greek labiovelar sound qu in k rather than p in front of back vowels, e.g. Attic hopo:s> Ionic oko:s = the same way (as). Attic a p in front of back vowels (i.e. a, o, u) and a t, as a rule, in front of front vowels (i.e. e, i), whereas Aeolic had a p everywhere. It is worth mentioning that the same difference existed also in Celtic and Italic branches of the Indo-European language family, for example between Latin and Oscan, as well as between P-Celtic (Welsh) and Q-Celtic (Irish), something which may point to a close relationship between these three Indo-European branches.
- Ionic retained the original Greek hiatus (after the disappearance of some intervocalic consonants), whereas Attic turned it in a long vowel, according the case, e.g. Attic gene:> Ionic genea= genders, families.
- Ionic retained the double ss, as old Attic also did ; around 4th century B.C., Attic changed the aforementioned ss in tt, e.g. Attic tettares> old Attic tessares, the same as ionic tessares= four. Modern Greek, derived from the Koine (i.e. the "common" Greek language), returned to that older ss (nowadays pronounces as a single s), a phenomenon that was the result of many Ionic trait absorbed in Attic of the Hellenistic times.
- Very analytical word-order, perhaps the most analytical one within ancient Greek dialects.
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