Ancient Greek phonology East or West Greek dialects. They both raised Proto-Greek long to (see below). Later on, Attic lowered found immediately after back to , differentiating itself from Ionic. All other East and West Greek dialects retain original . Ionic was spoken around the Aegean Sea, including in Ionia, a region of Anatolia south of Aeolis, for which it was named. Ionic contracts vowels less often than Attic (see below). Attic is the standard dialect taught in modern introductory courses in Ancient Greek, and the one that has the most literature written in it. It was spoken in Athens and Attica, the
Ancient Greek phonology velars . Which one they became depended on dialect and phonological environment. Because of this, certain words that originally had labialized velars have different stops depending on dialect, and certain words from the same root have different stops even in the same Ancient Greek dialect. Near or , the labialized velars had already lost their labialization in the Mycenaean period. Through "psilosis" ('stripping'), from the term for lack of (see below), the was lost even at the beginnings of words. This sound change did not occur in Attic until the Koine period, but occurred in East Ionic and Lesbian Aeolic,