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Ancient Macedonian language

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This article is about the language used in antiquity. For the unrelated Slavic language, see Macedonian language.

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The Ancient Macedonian language was the language of the Ancient Macedonians. It was spoken in Macedon during the 1st millennium BC. Marginalized from the 5th century BC, it was gradually replaced by the common Greek dialect of the Hellenistic Era. It was probably spoken predominantly in the inland regions away from the coast. Ancient Macedonian was an Indo-European language closely related to Greek, but its exact relationship is unclear: possibly a dialect of Greek; a sibling language to Greek; or a close cousin to Greek, and perhaps related to some extent, to Thracian and Phrygian languages.

Knowledge of the language is very limited because there are no surviving texts that are indisputably written in the language, though a body of authentic Macedonian words has been assembled from ancient sources, mainly from coin inscriptions, and from the 5th century lexicon of Hesychius of Alexandria, amounting to about 150 words and 200 proper names, similar to standard Greek, but a small minority might not easily reconciled with standard Greek phonology.

The Pella curse tablet, a text written in a distinct Doric Greek idiom, found in 1986, dated to between mid to early 4th century BC, has been forwarded as an argument that the ancient Macedonian language was a dialect of North-Western Greek, part of the Doric dialects (O. Masson, 1996). Before the discovery it was proposed that the Macedonian dialect was an early form of Greek, spoken alongside Doric proper at that time (Rhomiopoulou, 1980).

The Pella curse tablet (Greek katadesmos): from Prof. Radcliffe G. Edmonds III, Bryn Mawr College


Properties

From the few words that survive, only a little can be said about the language. A notable sound-law is that the Proto-Indo-European voiced aspirates (/bʰ, dʰ, gʰ/) appear as voiced stops /b, d, g/, (written Template:Polytonic), in contrast to all known Greek dialects, which have unvoiced them to /pʰ, tʰ, kʰ/ (Template:Polytonic) with few exceptions[1].

The same treatment is known from other Paleo-Balkan languages, e.g. Phrygian brater, Illyrian (and Elean, North-West dialect, by exception) bra[3] but Attic phrater and phratra all from PIE *bhrater- brother. Since these languages are all known via the Greek alphabet, which has no signs for voiced aspirates, it is unclear whether de-aspiration had really taken place, or whether Template:Polytonic were just picked as the closest matches to express voiced aspirates.

If Template:Polytonic gotán ('pig') is related to *gwou ('cattle'), this would indicate that the labiovelars were either intact, or merged with the velars, unlike the usual Greek treatment (Attic Template:Polytonic boûs). Such deviations, however, are not unknown in Greek dialects; compare Doric (Spartan) Template:Polytonic glep- for common Greek Template:Polytonic blep-, as well as Doric Template:Polytonic gláchōn and Ionic Template:Polytonic glēchōn for common Greek Template:Polytonic blēchōn.[4]

A number of examples suggest that voiced velar stops were devoiced, especially word-initially: Template:Polytonic kánadoi, 'jaws' (<PIE *genu-); Template:Polytonic kómbous, 'molars' (<PIE *gombh-); within words: Template:Polytonic arkón (Attic Template:Polytonic argós); the Macedonian toponym Akesamenai, from the Pierian name Akesamenos (if Akesa- is cognate to Greek agassomai, agamai, "to astonish"; cf. the Thracian name Agassamenos).

In Aristophanes' The Birds, the form Template:Polytonic keblēpyris ('red-cap bird') is found, showing a Macedonian-style voiced stop in place of a standard Greek unvoiced aspirate: Template:Polytonic keb(a)lē versus Template:Polytonic kephalē ('head').

Classification

Due to the fragmentary attestation various interpretations are possible.[5] The discussion is closely related to the reconstruction of the Proto-Greek language. The suggested historical interpretations of Macedonian include:[6]

Indo-European close to Greek

Meillet and other Indo-Europeanists consider Macedonian an Indo-European language in its own right, close to Greek but perhaps not of unambiguously Greek stock, and treat it as other, so-called "Paleo-Balkans languages"[citation needed] which might include Thracian, Phrygian and/or other poorly attested languages[citation needed] of some geographical proximity. Those who look towards "Thraco-Phrygian" (as I. I. Russu, 1938) do so sometimes, at the cost of unwarranted segmentations such as that of Ἀλέξανδρος into †Ἀλε- and †ξανδ-. The name is attested as early as the Mycenaean Greek period (c. 1600 -1100 BC) next to the feminine a-re-ka-sa-da-ra (Greek Ἀλέξανδρα).[8] Schwyzer[11] and others hypothesize that linguistically Macedonian was between Illyrian and Thracian, a kind of intermediary language linking the two, in the sense of a dialect continuum or Sprachbund, since a genetic Thraco-Illyrian unity is highly uncertain and cannot be proven on grounds of the surviving evidence. In 1999, A. Garrett has surmised that Macedonian may at an early stage have been part of a dialect continuum which spanned the ancestor dialects of all south-western Indo-European languages (including Greek), but that it then remained peripheral to later areal processes of convergence which produced Greek proper. He argues that under this perspective sound-change isoglosses such as the deaspiration of voiced stops may be of limited diagnostic value, while ultimately the question of whether Macedonian belongs or does not belong to a genetic union with Greek is moot.[12]

Hellenic language

Brian Joseph [5] and other modern linguists [13] consider that the Macedonian tongue was a sibling language to all the Ancient Greek dialects, perhaps not on par as other Greek dialects. If this view is correct, then Macedonian and Greek would be the two subbranches of a group within Indo-European, forming a Greco-Macedonian supergroup, "which could more properly be called Hellenic".[5] This terminology may lead to misunderstandings, since the "Hellenic branch of Indo-European" is also used synonymously with the Greek branch (which contains all ancient and modern Greek dialects) in a narrower sense.

A number of the Macedonian words, particularly in Hesychius' lexicon, are disputed (i.e., some do not consider them actual Macedonian words) and some may have been corrupted in the transmission. Thus abroutes, may be read as abrouwes (Template:Polytonic), with tau (Template:Polytonic) replacing a [[digamma|digamma (Template:Polytonic)]].[14] If so, this word would perhaps be encompassable within a Greek dialect; however, others (e.g. A. Meillet) see the dental as authentic and think that this specific word would perhaps belong to an Indo-European language different from Greek.

Greek dialect

Another school of thought favours Macedonian as an explicitly Greek dialect. Those who favour a purely Greek nature of Macedonian as a northern Greek dialect are numerous and include early scholars like H. Ahrens, O. Hoffmann or A. Fick.[15] A recent proponent of this school was Professor Olivier Masson, who in his article on the ancient Macedonian language in the third edition of the Oxford Classical Dictionary tentatively suggested that Macedonian was related to North-Western Greek dialects:[8]

In our view the Greek character of most names is obvious and it is difficult to think of a Hellenization due to wholesale borrowing [...]The small minority of names which do not look Greek [...] may be due to a substratum or adstratum influences (as elsewhere in Greece).Macedonian may then be seen as a Greek dialect, characterized by its marginal position and by local pronunciations. Yet in contrast with earlier views which made of it an Aeolic dialect [...] we must by now think of a link with North-West Greek [...] We must wait for new discoveries, but we may tentatively conclude that Macedonian is a dialect related to North-West Greek.

As to Macedonian Template:Polytonic = Greek Template:Polytonic, Claude Brixhe[16] suggests that it may have been a later development: The letters may already have designated not voiced stops, i.e. [b, d, g], but voiced fricatives, i.e. [β, δ, γ], due to a voicing of the voiceless fricatives [φ, θ, x] (= Classical Attic [pʰ, tʰ, kʰ]). Brian Joseph sums up that "[t]he slender evidence is open to different interpretations, so that no definitive answer is really possible", but cautions that "most likely, Ancient Macedonian was not simply an Ancient Greek dialect on a par with Attic or Aeolic".[5] In this sense, some authors also call it a "deviant Greek dialect."

Macedonian in Classical sources

Further information: Ancient Macedonians

Among the references that have been discussed as possibly bearing some witness to the linguistic situation in Macedonia, there is a sentence from a fragmentary dialogue, apparently between an Athenian and a Macedonian, in an extant fragment of the 5th century BC comedy 'Macedonians' by the Athenian poet Strattis (fr. 28), where a stranger is portrayed as speaking in a rural Greek dialect. His language contains expressions such as ὕμμες ὡττικοί for ὑμείς αττικοί "you Athenians", ὕμμες being also attested in Homer, Sappho (Lesbian) and Theocritus (Doric), while ὡττικοί appears only in "funny country bumpkin" contexts of Attic comedy.[17]

Another text that has been quoted as evidence is a passage from Livy (lived 59 BC-14 AD) in his Ab urbe condita (31.29). Describing political negotiations between Macedonians and Aetolians in the late 3rd century BC, Livy has a Macedonian ambassador argue that Aetolians and Macedonians were "men of the same language".[18] This has been interpreted as referring to their common North-West Greek speech (as opposed to Attic Koiné).[19]

Quintus Curtius Rufus, Philotas's trial[20].

Adoption of the Attic dialect

As southern Greek influence increased, Macedonians increasingly began to adopt the Attic dialect first as an official, and then as a vernacular in its koine form. It is estimated that ancient Macedonian became supplanted by the 4th century BC.[21]

James L. O'Neil's (University of Sydney) pointed out : Beside Pella curse tablet three other, very brief, 4th century inscriptions are also indubitably Doric. These show that a Doric dialect was spoken in Macedon, as we would expect from the West Greek forms of Greek names found in Macedon. And yet later Macedonian inscriptions are in Koine avoiding both Doric forms and the Macedonian voicing of consonants. The native Macedonian dialect had become unsuitable for written documents (Pella curse tablet#Dating and significance)

Greek Epigraphy

The below list includes only those regions and elements that may be related or have been written by Macedonians before 350 BC.Early evidence from coastal cities dates back to 600-550 BC in Central Macedonia (Sane[22],Therme[23]) ~ 550 BC East Macedonia (Neapolis)[24] and 5th c.BC West side(Pydna)[25].There is also a Carian inscription found in Therme 6th c. BC[26].


Macedonian words in epigraphy

  • Macedonian onomasticon : the earliest massive epigraphical documents are, the second Athenian alliance decree with Perdiccas II (~417-413 BC), the decree of Kalindoia,~335-300 BC) and seven curse tablets of the 4th c.BC bearing mostly names[28][29].
  • Macedonian sound-law : it is restricted to names and one epithet of Artemis.
    • Berenika priestess of Demetra ca. 350 BC is the oldest evidence.However it never turned into Pherenike in Macedon or Egypt.On the contrary Attic Pherenik- became Berenik- ; hence popular Athenian name Berenikides after 3rd c.BC[30].
    • Bila Brateadou (Attic Phile , Doric Phila Prateadou or Phrateadou (Aigai ca. 350-300 BC[31].
    • Phylomaga (Attic Phylomache) (Methone,Pieria ca. 350-300 BC)[32].
    • Lamaga , Laomaga (Attic Laomache)[33]

Glossary

Macedonian influence on Koine

The phrase of Athenaeus (3.122.a) makedonizontas t' oida pollous tôn Attikôn dia tên epimixian (I am also aware of many Attic authors using Macedonian because of the admixture) may refer to Macedonian vocabulary[53] or rather speaking in forms of Koine[54].Various words of Attic changed their meaning in Hellenistic period;some of them due to Macedonian influence[55].

  • Template:Polytonic parembolê (Attic insertion) (Macedonian encampment,barracks) a word attested as military camp 6 times in Epigraphy and 2 times in New Testament.Phrynichus calls it δεινῶς Μακεδονικὸν very Macedonic.Parembole was also the name of various Hellenistic toponyms.(wiki Parembole)
  • Template:Polytonic rhumê (Attic rush,onset,flux) (Macedonian lane, alley, street) a word attested with the second meaning 3 times in Epigraphy and 2 times in New Testament.

Hesychius Glossary

The below words of unknown date, out of the single Hesychius manuscript, are marked as Macedonian.For the words of Macedonian Amerias, see Glossary of Amerias.Terms that occur in epigraphy are transferred above.

(Template:Polytonic , Crasis) kai and,together,simultaneously + anô up (anôchmon hortatory password)

Other Sources

Proposed

A number of Hesychius words are listed orphan; some of them have been proposed as Macedonian[74]

Political controversy

Though no scholar connects Ancient Macedonian to the Slavic Modern Macedonian language, the classification of the language has come to have political overtones in the Macedonia naming dispute and the Macedonian language naming dispute.

See also

References

  1. ^ Exceptions to the rule:
  2. ^ Greek Questions 292e - Question 9 - Why do Delphians call one of their months Bysios[1].
  3. ^ Reported as Elean and later proposed as Illyrian.
  4. ^ Albrecht von Blumenthal, Hesychstudien, Stuttgart, 1930, 21.
  5. ^ a b c d B. Joseph (2001): "Ancient Greek". In: J. Garry et al. (eds.) Facts about the world's major languages: an encyclopedia of the world's major languages, past and present. Online paper
  6. ^ Mallory, J.P. (1997). Mallory, J.P. and Adams, D.Q. (eds.) (ed.). Encyclopedia of Indo-European Culture. Chicago-London: Fitzroy Dearborn. pp. p. 361. ISBN 1-884964-98-2. {{cite book}}: |editor= has generic name (help); |pages= has extra text (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: editors list (link)
  7. ^ A. Meillet [1913] 1965, Apeçu d'une histoire de la langue grecque, 7th ed., Paris, p. 61. I. Russu 1938, in Ephemeris Dacoromana 8, 105-232. Quoted after Brixhe/Panayotou 1994: 209.
  8. ^ a b c d Masson, Olivier (2003) [1996]. "[Ancient] Macedonian language". In Hornblower, S. and Spawforth A. (eds.) (ed.). The Oxford Classical Dictionary (revised 3rd ed. ed.). USA: Oxford University Press. pp. pp. 905-906. ISBN 0-19-860641-9. {{cite encyclopedia}}: |edition= has extra text (help); |editor= has generic name (help); |pages= has extra text (help)
  9. ^ Hammond, N.G.L (1993) [1989]. The Macedonian State. Origins, Institutions and History (reprint ed. ed.). USA: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-814927-1. {{cite book}}: |edition= has extra text (help)
  10. ^ Ahrens, F. H. L. (1843), De Graecae linguae dialectis, Göttingen, 1839-1843 ; Hoffmann, O. Die Makedonen. Ihre Sprache und ihr Volkstum, Göttingen, 1906.
  11. ^ Griechische Grammatik, Munich 1939, vol. 1, 69-71.
  12. ^ Andrew Garrett (1999): "A new model of Indo-European subgrouping and dispersal". In: Chang, S. S, Liaw, L. and Ruppenhofer, J, Proceedings of the Twenty-Fifth Annual Meeting of the Berkeley Linguistics Society, February 12-15, Berkeley: Berkeley Linguistics Society, 146-56, 1999. Online paper (PDF)
  13. ^ The Linguist List is classifying ancient Macedonian with Greek (all known ancient and modern dialects) under a Hellenic supertree.
  14. ^ Olivier Masson, "Sur la notation occasionnelle du digamma grec par d'autres consonnes et la glose macédonienne abroutes", Bulletin de la Société de linguistique de Paris, 90 (1995) 231-239.
  15. ^ H. Ahrens, De Graecae linguae dialectis, Göttingen, 1843; O. Hoffmann, Die Makedonen. Ihre Sprache und ihr Volkstum, Göttingen 1906.
  16. ^ Claude Brixhe, "Un «nouveau» champ de la dialectologie grecque: le macédonien", in: A. C. Cassio (ed.), Katà diálekton. Atti del III Colloquio Internazionale di Dialettologia Greca (A.I.O.N., XIX), Napoli 1996, 35-71.
  17. ^ Steven Colvin, Dialect in Aristophanes and the politics of language in Ancient Greek, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999. 279.
  18. ^ Livy 31.29.15 (in Latin).
  19. ^ A. Panayotou: The position of the Macedonian dialect. In: Maria Arapopoulou, Maria Chritē, Anastasios-Phoivos Christides (eds.), A History of Ancient Greek: From the Beginnings to Late Antiquity, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 2007. 433-458 (Google Books).
  20. ^ E. Kapetanopoulos, "Alexander’s patrius sermo in the Philotas affair", The ancient world 30 (1999) 117-128. PdforHtm
  21. ^ In the Shadow of Olympus: The Emergence of Macedon - Eugene N. Borza (citing Hammond)
  22. ^ [2]
  23. ^ [3]
  24. ^ [4]
  25. ^ [5]
  26. ^ [6]
  27. ^ Thucydides and Pindar: Historical Narrative and the World of Epinikian Poetry [7] by Simon Hornblower
  28. ^ Athens,bottom-IG I³ 89 -- Kalindoia-Meletemata 11 K31 -- Pydna-SEG 52:617,I (6) till SEG 52:617,VI - Mygdonia-SEG 49:750
  29. ^ Greek Personal Names: Their Value as Evidence [8] by Simon Hornblower, Elaine Matthews
  30. ^ Google [9] -http://epigraphy.packhum.org Βερενικ- Athens:190 Egypt:155 Northern Greece:5 Syria: 1
  31. ^ Bila Brateadou[10]
  32. ^ Phylomaga [11]
  33. ^ Beroia — ca. 150-100 BC Laomaga[12] - Pydna early 2nd c. BC Lamaga[13]
  34. ^ Amphipolis SEG 49:855 B (2.8.)[14] -- Kassandreia SEG 49:722 (17.20.)[15] cf. Polybius, Histories, 5.65.2
  35. ^ A Thessalonian in Thasos Aliki — ca. 2nd c.AD[16]
  36. ^ Skydra Epigraphical Database
  37. ^ Smith, Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology > v. 1, page 83[17]
  38. ^ The Learned Banqueters III.106e-V III.106e-V
  39. ^ Delos[18]-Cyprus [19]-Alexandria[20]
  40. ^ Lete— ca. 350-300 BC[21] -- Amphipolis late 3rd/early 2nd c. BC B, 26 -- Amphipolis — ca. 300-275 BCAntigonos of Kallas
  41. ^ Amphipolis Epigraphical Database frg B.col I,2
  42. ^ Beroia Kynagidas Epigraphical Database
  43. ^ Thessalian Template:Polytonic[22]
  44. ^ Lete ca. 150 BC[23]
  45. ^ late 3rd/early 2nd c. BC Amphipolis SEG 49:855 (A.11.17.23.27)[24] -- Kassandreia SEG 49:722 (12.37.50.54)[25]
  46. ^ Amphipolis Epigraphical Database frg B.col I,3
  47. ^ Blumenthal, Hesychstudien, Stuttgart, 1930.
  48. ^ Elimeia,skoidou [26] [27] -- Skoidia Roman-era Naxian fem.name hapax[28]
  49. ^ http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=shed
  50. ^ Beroia and a Thessalonian in Philippopolis — 2nd/3rd century AD[29]-[30]
  51. ^ line 4 Mygdonia — ca. 357-350 BC Meletemata 22, Epig. App. 4[31] -- Mt. Cholomon — 294-287 BC SEG 46:738 [32]
  52. ^ Eordea ~180 BC [33],12 Amphipolis-SEG 49:855 B,6 Meletemata 22, Epig. App. 12 ,col II 3,8[34])(Kassandreia-SEG 49:722 ,18)
  53. ^ Athenaeus.The Learned Banqueters [35] by S Douglas Olson
  54. ^ A History of Ancient Greek: From the Beginnings to Late Antiquity2.c
  55. ^ Remarks on the Synonyms of the New Testament[36] by Johann August Heinrich Tittmann
  56. ^ Les anciens Macedoniens. Etude linguistique et historique by J. N. Kalleris
  57. ^ [37]
  58. ^ http://www.theoi.com/Daimon/Arai.html
  59. ^ Pokorny[38]
  60. ^ Poetae scenici graeci, accedunt perditarum fabularum fragmenta[39]
  61. ^ Pokorny Query madh[40]
  62. ^ Pokorny's dictionary [41]
  63. ^ (Izela) Die Makedonen, Ihre Sprache und Ihr Volkstum[42] by Otto Hoffmann
  64. ^ Blumenthal, Hesychstudien, Stuttgart, 1930.
  65. ^ http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=leek
  66. ^ Deipnosophists 14.663-4 (pp.1059-1062) [43]
  67. ^ Alexandre le Grand dans Athénée de Naucratis (livre IV)[44]
  68. ^ Athenaeus Deipnosophists 3.114b.
  69. ^ Deipnosophists 10.455e.
  70. ^ Pokorny,Pudna[45]
  71. ^ Zeitschrift der Deutschen morgenländischen Gesellschaft[46]
  72. ^ The Dorians in Archaeology by Theodore Cressy Skeat[47]
  73. ^ Poetics (Aristotle)-XXI [48]
  74. ^ Otto Hoffmann ,Page 270 (bottom)[49]

Further reading

  • Die Makedonen: Ihre Sprache und ihr Volkstum by Otto Hoffmann
  • Babiniotis, G. "Ancient Macedonian: The Place of Macedonian among the Greek Dialects", Macedonian Hellenism, edited by A.M. Tamis. Melbourne, 1990, pp. 241–250.
  • Brixhe C., Panayotou A. (1994) Le Macédonien in Bader, F. (ed.) Langues indo-européennes, Paris:CNRS éditions, 1994, pp 205–220. ISBN 227105043-X
  • Chadwick, J. The Prehistory of the Greek Language. Cambridge, 1963.
  • Hammond, Nicholas G.L. "Literary Evidence for Macedonian Speech", Historia: Zeitschrift für Alte Geschichte, Vol. 43, No. 2. (1994), pp. 131–142.
  • Katičić, Radoslav. Ancient Languages of the Balkans. The Hague; Paris: Mouton, 1976.
  • Neroznak, V. Paleo-Balkan languages. Moscow, 1978.
  • Rhomiopoulou, Katerina. An Outline of Macedonian History and Art. Greek Ministry of Culture and Science, 1980.
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