DORIC Dialect, one of the five dialects, or manners of speaking, which obtained among the Greeks.
It was first used by the Lacedemonians, and particularly those of Argos; thence it passed into Epirus, Libya, Sicily, the islands of Rhodes, and Crete. In this dialect, Archimedes and Theocritus wrote, who were both of Syracuse; as likewise Pindar.
In strictness, however, we should rather define Doric, the manner of speaking peculiar to the Dorians, after their retreat near Parnassus and Asopus; and which afterwards came to obtain among the Lacedemonian, &c. Some even distinguish between the Lacedemonian and Doric; but, in reality, they were the same; setting aside a few particularities in the
language of the Lacedemonians; as is shown by Rulandus, in his excellent treatise De Lingua Græcâ ejusque Dialectis, lib. v.
Beside the authors already mentioned to have written in the Doric dialect, we might add Archytas of Tarentum, Bion, Callinus, Simonides, Bacchylides, Cypselas, Alcman, and Sophron.
Most of the medals of the cities of Græcia Magna, and Sicily, favour of the Doric dialect in their inscription: witness, AMBARIOTAN, APOAONIAN, AXEPONTAN, AXPTITAN, EPAXAEITAN, EPAXINION, OEPMITAN, KATAONIAN, KOHIATAN, TATPOMENITAN, &c. Which shows the countries wherein the Doric dialect was used.
The general rules of this dialect are thus given by the Port-royalists.
D's Hro, d'ugrand, d'i, de l' d' u' l' fait le Doric.
D'i fait v'ra; d'u, u; & d'u au fait encore.
Ost de l'infini: & pour le singular
Se sert au féminin du nombre pluriel.
But they are much better explained in the fourth book of Rulandus; where he even notes the minuter differences of the dialects of Sicily, Crete, Tarentum, Rhodes, Lacedæmon, Laconia, Macedonia, and Thessaly.
The a abounds every where in the Doric; but this dialect bears so near a conformity with the Æolic, that many reckon them but one.
Doric Mode, in music, the first of the authentic modes of the ancients. Its character is to be severe, tempered with gravity and joy; and is proper upon religious occasions, as also to be used in war. It begins D, la, sol, re. Plato admires the music of the Doric mode, and judges it proper to preserve good manners as being masculine; and on this account allows it in his commonwealth. The ancients had likewise their subdoric or hypodoric mode, which was one of the plagal modes. Its character was to be very grave and solemn: it began with re, a fourth lower than the doric.