Attic Dialect

Language of Athens. It was originally a subdivision of the Ionic dialect, which was one of the main dialects of ancient Greece, the others being Arcadian-Cypriote, Aeolic, and Western. From the early 4th century BC, the Attic dialect became the common language of the Ionic cities, and with the conquests of Alexander the Great it became the lingua franca of the Hellenistic world. By about AD 500 the other dialects were extinct.