Doric features in Hellenistic inscribed epigrams: unveiling supra-regional and regional prestige in dialectal change

Dalia Pratali Maffei

doi:10.1515/jhsl-2024-0010

Article

Doric features in Hellenistic inscribed epigrams: unveiling supra-regional and regional prestige in dialectal change

Dalia Pratali Maffei

Published/Copyright: May 20, 2025

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From the journal Journal of Historical Sociolinguistics Volume 11 Issue 1

Abstract

This paper discusses dialectal change in Hellenistic inscribed epigrams through the analysis of Doric features in epigrams from Doric-speaking areas, from a historical sociolinguistic perspective. Epigrams were short poems written on inscriptions for different occasions, which attested a mixture of supra-regional poetic dialectal features and regional dialectal features from everyday speech. Scholars have argued that the dialect of inscribed epigrams underwent a change ‘from above’ in the Hellenistic age (4th – 1st century BC): regional features supposedly disappeared in favour of supra-regional varieties, because Koine Greek was replacing regional dialects as language of prestige in speech, while epigrams started to be produced for books and were written in literary dialects. I aim to gain a more nuanced understanding of this phenomenon, by examining the type of Doric features attested in the corpus of epigrams selected, their presence in poetry and/or prose inscriptions, their distribution by linguistic level, their synchronic and diachronic frequency in epigrams and their co-occurrence patterns. This analysis will show that the Doric features attested are those most resilient in contemporary prose inscriptions across the areas and that they were distributed in epigrams according to recurring patterns, and not accidentally. This reveals that, unlike previously thought, the local context and its dialects still had an influence on the dialect of inscribed epigrams. The relationship between supra-regional and regional dialectal forms can thus be interpreted as one of ‘overt’ and ‘covert’ prestige, where regional features held covert prestige and were used to allude to the local context.

Keywords: Greek epigram; Ancient Greek dialects; Doric; prestige; change from above; dialectology

Corresponding author: Dalia Pratali Maffei, Universiteit Gent, Gent, Belgium, E-mail: daliappmm@gmail.com

Funding source: Cambridge Trust

Funding source: Fonds Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek

Award Identifier / Grant number: 12A6J24N

Funding source: Prendergast Award, Faculty of Classics, University of Cambridge

Abbreviations

Cairon: Cairon, Élodie. 2009. Les épitaphes métriques hellénistiques du Péloponnése à la Thessalie. Budapest: Budapest-Debrecen University PhD Thesis.
CEG: Hansen, Peter A. (ed.). 1983–1989. Carmina epigraphica graeca. Berlin: De Gruyter.
GVCyr: Dobias-Lalou, Catherine. 2017. Greek verse inscriptions of Cyrenaica, in collaboration with A. Bencivenni, with help from J. M. Reynolds and C. Roueché. Bologna: CRR-MM.
GVI: Peek, Werner (ed.). 1955. Griechische Vers-Inschriften 1: Grab-Epigramme. Berlin: Akademie-Verlag.
IC: Guarducci, Margherita (ed.). 1935–50. Inscriptiones Creticae, 4 vols. Roma: Libreria dello Stato.
IG: Inscriptiones Graecae.
SEG: Supplementum Epigraphicum Graecum. Vols. 1–11, ed. Jacob E. Hondius, Leiden 1923–1954. Vols. 12–25, ed. Arthur G. Woodhead. Leiden 1955–1971. Vols. 26–41, eds. Henry W. Pleket and Ronald S. Stroud. Amsterdam 1979–1994. Vols. 42–44, eds. Henry W. Pleket, Ronald S. Stroud and Johan H.M. Strubbe. Amsterdam 1995–1997. Vols. 45–49, eds. Henry W. Pleket, Ronald S. Stroud, Angelos Chaniotis and Johan H.M. Strubbe. Amsterdam 1998–2002. Vols. 50-, eds. Angelos Chaniotis, Ronald S. Stroud and Johan H.M. Strubbe. Amsterdam 2003-.

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Received: 2024-02-13

Accepted: 2024-07-22

Published Online: 2025-05-20

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https://doi.org/10.1515/jhsl-2024-0010

Keywords for this article

Greek epigram; Ancient Greek dialects; Doric; prestige; change from above; dialectology