The Datives in <AI> and <OI> in Thessalian Dedications and Epitaphs in Epichoric Alphabet (6th-5th c. BCE)
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It is known that, in the Thessalian inscriptions in epichoric alphabet of the sixth and fifth centuries BCE, one may find a dative singular -ᾱι, often simplified in -ᾱ for female and male names in /-a/, or a dative singular -ōι simplified in -ō for names in /-ο/. Nevertheless, in many inscriptions of this period, in particular in the epitaphs, these datives have often been interpreted as genitives of male nouns. An exhaustive inventory of these inscriptions confirms that the funerary formulas actually used the dative, in association with nouns such as στάλα, µνᾶµα, µνάµειον, σᾶµα and with verbs such as ἔσστᾱσε, ὀνεθε̄κε or even the simple ἔµµι. The use of these datives in -ᾱι / ᾱ and -ōι /-ō provides us with information on the history of the dialect, but also on the way in which one used to express the relationship of the living and the deceased to the funerary monument.
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