A book by A. Giacomelli provides occasion for this review-article where recent dialectological research on the inscriptions of Achaean colonies in Magna Graecia is critically surveyed. The problems addressed include some idiosyncratic uses of and , linguistic contact in Magna Graecia (pre-Achaean remnants, convergence, Doric Koiná), nom. H(έ)ρακλες, etc. Special attention is paid to the debate of whether the Achaean dialect originally belonged in the Doris mitior with a system of seven long vowels, as the evidence furnished by recent inscriptions in Peloponnesian Achaea seems to suggest, or -to judge from the scanty data available for the colonies- in the Doris severior with only five long vowels. Contrary to current opinion, it is the mother city which must have preserved the original situation.A book by A. Giacomelli provides occasion for this review-article where recent dialectological research on the inscriptions of Achaean colonies in Magna Graecia is critically surveyed. The problems addressed include some idiosyncratic uses of and , linguistic contact in Magna Graecia (pre-Achaean remnants, convergence, Doric Koiná), nom. H(έ)ρακλες, etc. Special attention is paid to the debate of whether the Achaean dialect originally belonged in the Doris mitior with a system of seven long vowels, as the evidence furnished by recent inscriptions in Peloponnesian Achaea seems to suggest, or -to judge from the scanty data available for the colonies- in the Doris severior with only five long vowels. Contrary to current opinion, it is the mother city which must have preserved the original situation
