AEOLIC DIALECT

any of several dialects of Ancient Greek that were spoken in Thessaly, Boeotia, and, after approximately 1000 Bc in Asiatic Aeolis, including the island of Lesbos, where Aeolian colonists from the mainland founded their cities. West Thessalian and especially Boeotian varieties of Aeolic were influenced by the neighbouring West Greek (Doric) dialects, whereas Asiatic Aeolic was influenced by Ionic. The Lesbian poets Alcaeus (c. 620-c. 580 BC) and Sappho (fl. c. 610-c. 580 BC) used their vernacular Asiatic Aeolic dialect, whereas the Boeotian poet Corinna (fl. c. 500 BC?) used her vernacular Boeotian.