Deductive reasoning (as Hipponax composed choliambic verses in a psilotic Ionic, his Hellenistic imitators must also have reproduced psilosis in their choliambic works), the comparison with Theoc. Idyllls 28–31 (where he imitated the psilotic Aeolic dialect of Alcaeus) and above all the attested psilotic words in the verses of Phoenix of Colophon, Herodas and Callimachus suggest that the entire Hellenistic choliambic poetry was written in an Ionic characterised by psilosis.