Old Attic

The Attic dialect was the language of ancient Athens and its surrounding region, Attica. It is closely related to the Ionic dialect. As Athens rose to prominence in the 5th century BCE, Attic became the most prestigious Greek dialect. It was later adopted as the standard language by the Macedonian kings and became the common tongue of the Greek-speaking world, known as Koine.12

In literature, Attic was the dialect of Athenian comedy and, with elements of Doric, tragedy. It also became the standard for Greek prose in the latter half of the 5th century BCE, used by Athenian writers like Thucydides, Plato, and Demosthenes, as well as by non-Athenians.1