epichoric

Epichoric is an adjective used in epigraphy and Greek paleography to describe a local or indigenous origin of a writing system, especially an early variant of the Greek alphabet. The term derives from the Greek epichorios, meaning native or local. In ancient Greece, epichoric alphabets were regional variants that circulated within a city or region during the archaic period (roughly the 8th to the 5th centuries BCE), before the Ionian-based alphabet became standardized across the wider Greek world. These local alphabets often showed distinctive letter shapes and practices that reflected regional palaeographic traditions and scribal practices; some letters might be represented differently or valued differently than in the standard Ionian script.

Epichoric scripts are known from inscriptions in several regions, including Euboea, Boeotia, Attica, Aegina, Crete, Thessaly, and Corinthia. Over the course of the 5th century BCE, Ionian influence and political centralization led to the gradual replacement of many epichoric variants by the uniform Ionic alphabet, though some local practices persisted in inscriptions for some time and influenced later readings and scholarly interpretations.

In modern scholarship, identifying an inscription as epichoric helps researchers date objects, trace literacy levels, and reconstruct patterns of contact and cultural exchange in ancient Greece. The concept can also be applied more broadly to other local writing systems to denote origin from a particular place rather than a borrowed or standardized form.