Attic Greek
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Distribution of Greek dialects, ca. 400 BC.
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Distribution of Greek dialects, ca. 400 BC.

Attic Greek is the ancient dialect of Greek that was spoken in Attica, which includes Athens. Of the ancient dialects, it is the most similar to later Greek. It differs from most Greek dialects, including Doric, by frequently changing long ā to ē; from Ionic in not changing all of them. The Homeric dialect was an artificial compound, which resembled Ionic; but it also differed from Attic in losing the augment on the past tenses, and much more frequent use of the dual and other archaic forms. The later Koiné was largely Attic but Attic differed from it and most other dialects in saying "tt" for "ss" (e.g. tettares tattomenoi for tessares tassomenoi).