One of the most important differences between the Minoans and Mycenaeans is that they spoke completely different languages. As discussed in chapter 3, the Mycenaeans who wrote in Linear B used an early form of Greek. If ethnicity is determined by language, the Mycenaeans were Greeks. The Minoans, by contrast, spoke an as-of-yet-unknown language, written in Linear A. The close connections among these peoples, especially after 1450 b. c.e., make it inevitable that at least some people were bilingual.
Although there were probably regional variations in the Greek spoken during the Bronze Age, the dialectical and ethnic variations became significant only during and after the Dark Age. When Greek once again came to be written in the eighth century b. c.e., there were clear regional dialects appearing throughout the Greek world, each with its own history and, to a certain extent, culture. The main dialects of Greek were Cypro-Arcadian, Attic-Ionic, Aeolic, and West Greek, of which the primary dialect was Doric. The first three dialects have more in common with each other than with the last, which is generally seen as some manner of late intruder in the history of Greek linguistics.
For many years, Cypro-Arcadian was seen as the final remnant of Mycenaean Greek. It appeared that at the fall of the Bronze Age, several Myce-naeans either headed for the hills of Arcadia in the central Peloponnese or fled to Cyprus. The common dialect shared between these two distant regions was
Credited to their common source in Mycenaean Greek. Since then, however, differences in Linear B dialects have been distinguished, suggesting that the Cypro-Arcadian dialect is just the grandchild of one of several versions of Mycenaean, with a close relative being the Aeolic dialect spoken on Lesbos, parts of the coast of Turkey, and areas in central Greece such as Boiotia. The dialectical similarities between Cypro-Arcadian and Aeolic are close enough that they may be grouped together as the Achaean dialect.
Another descendant of Mycenaean is Attic-Ionic. Attic refers to the region surrounding Athens. According to the Greeks' history, at the fall of the Bronze Age, invaders came and took over the fertile regions of central and southern Greece, but they ignored the harsh, rocky soil of Attica. Thus, the Attic residents remained mostly in place throughout the Dark Age, sending off some colonies to the islands off the coast of Anatolia. The western coast of Anatolia, along with its islands, is called Ionia, where an Ionic dialect similar to its parent Attic was spoken.
Finally, there is the Doric dialect, spoken in the Peloponnese, Crete, and some of the smaller islands. Tradition had it that the Dorians were latecomers to Greece. Although the Achaeans and Attic residents had been in place since before the Trojan War, the Dorians invaded the Greek peninsula at the end of the Bronze Age, displacing many former residents. For their own part, the Dorians claimed they were the descendants of Heracles—the Heracledai—and that, although "newcomers," they were entitled to the land once owned by their divine ancestor. Until recently, the theory of this Doric invasion was accepted by most classicists and ancient historians, being used to explain both the fall of Mycenaean civilization and the geographic spread of the Greek dialects. Recently, however, it has been suggested that Doric was more likely another Bronze Age dialect, not as clearly expressed in the Linear B tablets. As nothing distinctive of a new ethnic group could be found in the archaeological remains of the Dark Age (see chapter 4), the theory of Dorians as latecomers has been replaced by one of Dorians as an alternate, long-standing linguis-tic/ethnic group in Greek (pre)history (Osborne 1996, 33-37).
Each of these dialectical groups understood itself to be distantly related to one another, either with a common ancestor, like the Dorians, or through early colonization, like the lonians. They called these broad divisions efhne, literally "ethnic groups," and each ethnos (sing.) was understood to share a number of cultural elements. For example, Attic-Ionic speakers shared several religious celebrations; Doric speakers had strong similarities in marriage and educational practices.
World History
