Ancient Macedonian language

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Macedonian
RegionMacedon
EthnicityAncient Macedonians
Era1st millennium BC[1]
Language codes
ISO 639-3xmk
xmk
GlottologNone

Ancient Macedonian was the language of the ancient Macedonians which was either a dialect of Ancient Greek or a separate Hellenic language. It was spoken in the kingdom of Macedonia during the 1st millennium BC and belonged to the Indo-European language family. It gradually fell out of use during the 4th century BC, marginalized by the use of Attic Greek by the Macedonian aristocracy, the Ancient Greek dialect that became the basis of Koine Greek, the lingua franca of the Hellenistic period.[5] It became extinct during either the Hellenistic or Roman imperial period, and was entirely replaced by Koine Greek.[6]

While the bulk of surviving public and private inscriptions found in ancient Macedonia were written in Attic Greek (and later in Koine Greek),

Northwest Doric Greek, and occasionally as an Aeolic Greek dialect or a distinct sister language of Greek
.

Classification

Due to the fragmentary attestation of this dialect or language, various interpretations are possible.

classifications of ancient Macedonian include:[14][15]

Properties

Because of the fragmentary sources of Ancient Macedonian, only a little is understood about the special features of the language. A notable sound-law is that the

aspirates (/bʰ, dʰ, gʰ/) sometimes appear as voiced stops /b, d, g/, (written β, δ, γ), whereas they were generally unvoiced as /pʰ, tʰ, kʰ/ (φ, θ, χ) elsewhere in Ancient Greek.[28]

  • Macedonian δάνος dánοs ('death', from PIE *dhenh2- 'to leave'), compared to Attic θάνατος thánatos
  • Macedonian ἀβροῦτες abroûtes or ἀβροῦϝες abroûwes, compared to Attic ὀφρῦς ophrûs for 'eyebrows'
  • Macedonian Βερενίκη Bereníkē, compared to Attic Φερενίκη Phereníkē, 'bearing victory' (Personal name)
  • Macedonian ἄδραια adraia ('bright weather'), compared to Attic αἰθρία aithría, from PIE *h2aidh-
  • Macedonian βάσκιοι báskioi ('fasces'), compared to Attic φάσκωλος pháskōlos 'leather sack', from PIE *bhasko
  • According to
    Herodotus 7.73 (c. 440 BC), the Macedonians claimed that the Phryges were called Bryges before they migrated from Thrace to Anatolia
    (around 8th–7th century BC).
  • According to Plutarch, Moralia[29] Macedonians use 'b' instead of 'ph', while Delphians use 'b' in the place of 'p'.
  • Macedonian μάγειρος mágeiros ('butcher') was a loan from Doric into Attic. Vittore Pisani has suggested an ultimately Macedonian origin for the word, which could then be cognate to μάχαιρα mákhaira ('knife', < PIE *magh-, 'to fight')[30]

If γοτάν 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 βοῦς boûs). Such deviations, however, are not unknown in Greek dialects; compare Laconian Doric (the dialect of Sparta) γλεπ- glep- for common Greek βλεπ- blep-, as well as Doric γλάχων gláchōn and Ionic γλήχων glēchōn for common Greek βλήχων blēchōn.[31]

A number of examples suggest that voiced

toponym Akesamenai, from the Pierian
name Akesamenos (if Akesa- is cognate to Greek agassomai, agamai, "to astonish"; cf. the Thracian name Agassamenos).

In

Autonomous University of Madrid, wrote that "the voicing of voiceless stops and the development of aspirates into voiced fricatives turns out to be the outcome of an internal development of Macedonian as a dialect of Greek" without excluding "the presence of interference from other languages or of any linguistic substrate or adstrate", as also argued by M. Hatzopoulos.[33]

A number of the Macedonian words, particularly in Hesychius of Alexandria' 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 (αβρουϝες), with tau (Τ) replacing a digamma.[34] 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.[citation needed]

A. Panayotou summarizes some features generally identified through ancient texts and epigraphy:[35]

Phonology

  • Occasional development of voiced aspirates (*bh, *dh, *gh) into voiced stops (b, d, g) (e.g. Βερενίκα, Attic Φερενίκη)
  • Retention of */a:/ (e.g. Μαχάτας), also present in Epirotic[36]
  • [a:] as a result of contraction between [a:] and [ɔ:]
  • Apocope of short vowels in prepositions in synthesis (παρκαττίθεμαι, Attic παρακατατίθεμαι)
  • Syncope (hyphairesis) and diphthongization are used to avoid hiatus (e.g. Θετίμα, Attic Θεοτίμη; compare with Epirotic Λαγέτα, Doric Λαογἐτα).[36]
  • Occasional retention of the pronunciation [u] of /u(:)/ in local cult epithets or nicknames (Κουναγίδας = Κυναγίδας)
  • Raising of /ɔ:/ to /u:/ in proximity to nasal (e.g. Κάνουν, Attic Κανών)
  • Simplification of the sequence /ign/ to /i:n/ (γίνομαι, Attic γίγνομαι)
  • Loss of aspiration of the consonant cluster /sth/ (> /st/) (γενέσται, Attic γενέσθαι)

Morphology

Ancient Macedonian morphology is shared with

Thessalian (e.g. Epitaph for Pyrrhiadas, Kierion[38]
).

  • First-declension masculine and feminine in -ας and -α respectively (e.g. Πεύκεστας, Λαομάγα)
  • First-declension masculine genitive singular in -α (e.g. Μαχάτα)
  • First-declension genitive plural in -ᾶν
  • First person personal pronoun dative singular ἐμίν
  • Temporal conjunction ὁπόκα
  • Possibly, a non-sigmatic nominative masculine singular in the first declension (ἱππότα, Attic ἱππότης)

Onomastics

Anthroponymy

M. Hatzopoulos and Johannes Engels summarize the Macedonian anthroponymy (that is names borne by people from Macedonia before the expansion beyond the Axios or people undoubtedly hailing from this area after the expansion) as follows:[39][40]

  • Epichoric (local) Greek names that either differ from the phonology of the introduced Attic or that remained almost confined to Macedonians throughout antiquity
  • Panhellenic (common) Greek names
  • Identifiable non-Greek (Thracian and Illyrian) names
  • Names without a clear Greek etymology that can't however be ascribed to any identifiable non-Greek linguistic group.

Common in the creation of ethnics is the use of -έστης, -εστός especially when derived from sigmatic nouns (ὄρος > Ὀρέστης but also Δῖον > Διασταί).[35]

Per Engels, the above material supports that Macedonian anthroponymy was predominantly Greek in character.[40]

Toponymy

The toponyms of Macedonia proper are generally Greek, though some of them show a particular phonology and a few others are non-Greek.

Calendar

The Macedonian calendar's origins go back to

Greek gods.[41] Most of them combine a Macedonian dialectal form with a clear Greek etymology (e.g Δῐός from Zeus; Περίτιος from Heracles Peritas (“Guardian”) ; Ξανδικός/Ξανθικός from Xanthos, “the blond” (probably a reference to Heracles); Άρτεμίσιος from Artemis etc.) with the possible exception of one, which is attested in other Greek calendars as well.[41] According to Martin P. Nilsson, the Macedonian calendar is formed like a regular Greek one and the names of the months attest the Greek nationality of the Macedonians.[41]

Epigraphy

Macedonian onomastics: the earliest epigraphical documents attesting substantial numbers of Macedonian proper names are the second

curse tablets of the 4th century BC bearing mostly names.[42][43]

About 99% of the roughly 6,300 inscriptions discovered by archaeologists within the confines of ancient Macedonia were written in the Greek language, using the Greek alphabet.[45] The legends in all currently discovered coins also in Greek.[45] The Pella curse tablet, a text written in a distinct Doric Greek dialect, found in 1986 and 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 dialect group.[46]

Hesychius' glossary

A body of idiomatic 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, though the number of considered words sometimes differs from scholar to scholar. The majority of these words can be confidently assigned to Greek albeit some words would appear to reflect a dialectal form of Greek. There are, however, a number of words that are not easily identifiable as Greek and reveal, for example, voiced stops where Greek shows voiceless aspirates.[47]

⟨†⟩ marked words which have been corrupted.

Other sources

Proposed

A number of Hesychius words are listed orphan; some of them have been proposed as Macedonian[70]

  • ἀγέρδα agerda wild pear-tree (Attic ἄχερδος acherdos).
  • ἀδαλός adalos charcoal dust (Attic αἴθαλος aithalos, ἄσβολος asbolos)
  • ἄδδεε addee imp. hurry up ἐπείγου (Attic thee of theô run)
  • ἄδις adis 'hearth' (Hes. ἐσχάρα eskhára, LSJ Attic αἶθος aîthos 'fire, burning heat')
  • αἰδῶσσα aidôssa (Attic aithousa portico, corridor, verandah, a loggia leading from aulê yard to prodomos)
  • βάσκιοι baskioi 'fasces' (Hes. Attic δεσμοὶ φρῡγάνων desmoì phrūgánōn, Pokorny βασκευταί baskeutaí, Attic φασκίδες phaskídes, Attic φάσκωλος pháskōlos 'leather sack', PIE *bʰasko-)
  • βίξ bix sphinx (Boeotian phix), (Attic sphinx)
  • δαλάγχα dalancha sea (Attic thalatta) (Ionic thalassa)
  • δεδάλαι dedalai package, bundle (Attic dethla, desmai)
  • ἐσκόροδος eskorodos tenon (Attic tormos σκόρθος skorthos tornos slice, lathe)
  • Εὐδαλαγῖνες Eudalagines Graces Χάριτες (Attic Εὐθαλγῖνες Euthalgines)
  • κάναδοι kanadoi 'jaws' nom. pl. (Attic γνάθοι gnathoi, PIE *genu, 'jaw') (
    Laconian
    καναδόκα kanadoka notch (V) of an arrow χηλὴ ὀϊστοῦ)
  • λαίβα laiba shield (Doric λαία laia, λαῖφα laipha) (Attic aspis)
  • λάλαβις lalabis storm (Attic lailaps)
  • ὁμοδάλιον homodalion isoetes plant (θάλλω thallô bloom)
  • ῥουβοτός rhoubotos potion (Attic rhophema) rhopheo suck, absorb rhoibdeô suck with noise.

Macedonian in Classical sources

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

Lesbian) and Theocritus (Doric), while ὡττικοί appears only in "funny country bumpkin" contexts of Attic comedy.[71]

Another text that has been quoted as evidence is a passage from

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, Acarnanians and Macedonians were "men of the same language".[72] This has been interpreted as referring to a shared North-West Greek speech (as opposed to Attic Koiné).[73] In another passage, Livy states that an announcement was translated from Latin to Greek for Macedonians to understand.[74]

Quintus Curtius Rufus, Philotas's trial[75] and the statement that the Greek-speaking Branchidae had common language with the Macedonians.[76]

Over time, "Macedonian" (μακεδονικός), when referring to language (and related expressions such as μακεδονίζειν; to speak in the Macedonian fashion) acquired the meaning of Koine Greek.[77]

Contributions to the Koine

As a consequence of the Macedonians' role in the formation of the Koine, Macedonian contributed considerable elements, unsurprisingly including some military terminology (διμοιρίτης, ταξίαρχος, ὑπασπισταί, etc.). Among the many contributions were the general use of the first declension grammar for male and female nouns with an -as ending, attested in the genitive of Macedonian coinage from the early 4th century BC of Amyntas III (ΑΜΥΝΤΑ in the genitive; the Attic form that fell into disuse would be ΑΜΥΝΤΟΥ). There were changes in verb conjugation such as in the Imperative δέξα attested in Macedonian sling stones found in Asiatic battlefields, that became adopted in place of the Attic forms. Koine Greek established a spirantisation of beta, gamma and delta, which has been attributed to the Macedonian influence.[78]

See also

Notes

  1. (vol. IX) p. 153

References

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  4. ^ Meier-Brügger, Michael (2003). Indo-European Linguistics. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter. ISBN 978-3-11-017433-5.
  5. . One can only speculate that that [Ancient Macedonian] dialect declined with the rise in use of standard koinē Greek. The main language of formal discourse and official communication became Greek by the fourth century [BC]. Whether the dialect(s) were eventually replaced by standard Greek, or were preserved as part of a two–tiered system of speech—one for official use, the other idiomatic for traditional ceremonies, rituals, or rough soldiers' talk—is problematic and requires more evidence and further study.
  6. . However, with respect to the discussion in this chapter it seems to be quite clear that (a) ancient Macedonian at some date during the Hellenistic or Roman imperial era was completely replaced by koine Greek and died out, and (b) that ancient Macedonian has no relationship with modern Macedonian which together with Bulgarian belongs to the eastern branch of southern Slavonic languages.
  7. . Many surviving public and private inscriptions indicate that in the Macedonian kingdom there was no dominant written language but standard Attic and later on koine Greek.
  8. .
  9. ^ Sarah B. Pomeroy, Stanley M. Burstein, Walter Donlan, Jennifer Tolbert Roberts, A Brief History of Ancient Greece: Politics, Society, and Culture, Oxford University Press, 2008, p.289
  10. ^ .
  11. .
  12. ^ . Family: Ancient Greek is generally taken to be the only representative (though note the existence of different dialects) of the Greek or Hellenic branch of Indo-European. There is some dispute as to whether Ancient Macedonian (the native language of Philip and Alexander), if it has any special affinity to Greek at all, is a dialect within Greek (...) or a sibling language to all of the known Ancient Greek dialects. If the latter view is correct, then Macedonian and Greek would be the two subbranches of a group within Indo-European which could more properly be called Hellenic. Related Languages: As noted above, Ancient Macedonian might be the language most closely related to Greek, perhaps even a dialect of Greek. The slender evidence is open to different interpretations, so that no definitive answer is really possible; but most likely, Ancient Macedonian was not simply an Ancient Greek dialect on a par with Attic or Aeolic (...).
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  27. ^ Exceptions to the rule:
  28. ^ Greek Questions 292e – Question 9 – Why do Delphians call one of their months Bysios [1].
  29. ^ Česko-jihoslovenská revue, Volume 4, 1934, p. 187.
  30. ^ a b Albrecht von Blumenthal, Hesychstudien, Stuttgart, 1930, 21.
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  35. ^ a b Packard Institute epigraphic database Archived 2007-11-21 at the Wayback Machine
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  37. ^ Roberts, E.S., An Introduction to Greek Epigraphy vol. 1 no. 237
  38. ^ Greek Personal Names: Their Value as Evidence, Elaine Matthews, Simon Hornblower, Peter Marshall Fraser, British Academy, Oxford University Press (2000), p. 103
  39. ^ .
  40. ^ .
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Further reading

External links