Aeolic Greek

Aeolic Greek
Region	Boeotia, Thessaly, Aeolis
Era	c. 800 – 300 BC
Language family	Indo-European Hellenic Ancient Greek Central Aeolic Greek
Language codes
ISO 639-3	–
Linguist list	grc-aeo
Glottolog	None
Distribution of Greek dialects in Greek in the classical period. Western group:   Doric proper   Northwest Doric   Achaean Doric Central group:   Aeolic   Arcado-Cypriot Eastern group:   Attic   Ionic

In linguistics, Aeolic Greek (/iːˈɒlɪk/; also Aeolian /iːˈoʊliən/, Lesbian or Lesbic dialect) is the set of dialects of Ancient Greek spoken mainly in Boeotia (a region in Central Greece); Thessaly, in the Aegean island of Lesbos; and the Greek colonies of Asia Minor (Aeolis).

The Aeolic dialect shows many archaisms in comparison to the other Ancient Greek dialects (Attic, Ionic, Doric, Northwestern and Arcadocypriot), as well as many innovations.

Aeolic Greek is widely known as the language of Sappho and of Alcaeus of Mytilene. Aeolic poetry, which is exemplified in the works of Sappho, mostly uses four classical meters known as the Aeolics: Glyconic (the most basic form of Aeolic line), hendecasyllabic verse, Sapphic stanza, and Alcaic stanza (the latter two are respectively named for Sappho and Alcaeus).