Doric Greek

Doric or Dorian, also known as West Greek, was a group of Ancient Greek dialects; its varieties are divided into the Doric proper and Northwest Doric subgroups. West Greek was spoken in a vast area of the ancient Greek world, covering much of Central Greece and Northern Greece, most of the Peloponnese, islands of the Southern Aegean (including Crete and Rhodes), as well as many Doric Greek colonies further afield. It was also spoken in the Greek sanctuaries of Dodona, Delphi, and Olympia, as well as at the four Panhellenic festivals; the Isthmian, Nemean, Pythian, and Olympic Games.

By Hellenistic times, under the Achaean League, an Achaean Doric koine appeared, exhibiting many peculiarities common to all Doric dialects, which delayed the spread of the Attic-based Koine Greek to the Peloponnese until the 2nd century BC.

The only living descendant of Doric is Tsakonian, an outlying dialect of Modern Greek that is still spoken in a small area on the southern Argolid coast of the Peloponnese, in the modern prefectures of Arcadia and Laconia. It is now critically endangered, with only a few hundred – mostly elderly – fluent speakers left. Tsakonian is the only modern Greek dialect not descended from Attic-Ionic, and is considered a likely descendant of Laconic Doric.

Doric proper

Laconic

Laconic or Laconian was spoken by the population of Lacedaemon in the southern Peloponnese and also by its colonies, Taras and Herakleia in Magna Graecia. Sparta was the seat of ancient Laconia.

Laconian is attested in inscriptions on pottery and stone from the seventh century BC. A dedication to Helen dates from the second quarter of the seventh century. Taras was founded in 706 and its founders must already have spoken Laconic.