Dialect Competition: Arcadian as a test case

Monolingualism, understood as the ability to speak only one language, is rarer than multilingualism, even in antiquity. In ancient Greece, different dialects were spoken, written, and heard. The influence of some of them on others can be observed from an early period, particularly once the common language, the Koiné, was spreading widely. As expected, the Koiné is a prestigious language that competes with the local languages, which are clearly in decline. There were attempts to preserve the identity and autonomy of some Greek regions by using other language varieties, inspired by the supra-regional language but infused with local accents. Consequently, various official languages competed with the Koiné. Arcadian has been chosen as a test case on various grounds. Firstly, the dialect is well documented from the sixth century to the third century BCE. Secondly, some documents are composed in a mixed language combining dialect and Koiné and/or the local Koina. Thirdly, there are inscriptions written in the Attic-Ionic Koiné, and others that exhibit the influence of the Aetolian Koina