Greek Dialects in the Lexicon

This chapter considers the treatment of dialect forms in Liddell and Scott (LSJ), and the origins of LSJ’s practice. It shows that although Aeolic and Doric forms of words sometimes get their own LSJ entries, the main or most informative entry is for a non-Aeolic or non-Doric form wherever the observed data made this possible. At first sight, the obvious conclusion is that some non-Aeolic and non-Doric dialect, such as Attic, functions as the basic dialect for LSJ. On closer inspection, however, it turns out that the Lexicon is not built on a principle of treating any one variety of Greek as ‘basic’. Instead LSJ operates with the notion of a normal or default form: a form judged to be available for use in the widest range of Greek texts. By designating a form as the ‘common form’ or choosing it as the basic dictionary entry, LSJ make a judgement about the wide availability of the form in principle, not about its actual attestation.