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21.Zeitschrift der Deutschen morgenländischen Gesellschaft


==Further reading==
==Further reading==

Revision as of 12:44, 2 October 2007

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 tongue 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. It is as yet undetermined whether the language was a dialect of Greek, a sibling language to Greek, or an Indo-European language which is a close cousin to Greek and also related 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. Most of these are confidently identifiable as Greek, but some of them are not easily reconciled with standard Greek phonology. The 6,000 surviving Macedonian inscriptions are in the Greek Attic dialect.

The Pella curse tablet, a text written in a distinct Doric Greek idiom, found in Pella 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 katadesmos: from Prof. Radcliffe G. Edmonds III, Bryn Mawr College

The classification of the language as "Greek" or not is of some importance in the context of the Macedonia naming dispute (see also Macedonian language naming dispute).

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 language-voiced aspirates appear as voiced stops, written Template:Polytonic, Template:Polytonic, Template:Polytonic in contrast to all known Greek dialects, which have unvoiced them to Template:Polytonic, Template:Polytonic, Template:Polytonic.

The same treatment is known from other Paleo-Balkan languages, e.g. Phrygian bekos ('bread'), Illyrian bagaron ('warm'), but Attic Template:Polytonic phōgō ('roast'), all from PIE *bheh3g-. 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.[1]

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.[2] The discussion is closely related to the reconstruction of the Proto-Greek language. The suggested historical interpretations of Macedonian include:[3]

Independent Palaeo-Balkans language

Meillet and other Indo-Europeanists consider Macedonian an Indo-European language in its own right, not especially close to Greek, and identify it as one of the "Paleo-Balkans" group which also includes Thracian, Phrygian and other poorly attested languages. Schwyzer[8] 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.[9]

Hellenic (Graeco-Macedonian) Group

Some linguists consider that the Macedonian tongue was a sibling language to all the Ancient Greek dialects, and not simply a Greek dialect. If this view is correct, then Macedonian and Greek would be the two subbranches of a group within Indo-European, forming a Graeco-Macedonian supergroup, "which could more properly be called Hellenic".[2] 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.[10]

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)]].[11] 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.

Ancient Greek dialect

Another school of thought maintains that Macedonian was a 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 and O. Hoffmann.[12] 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:[5]

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[13] 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".[2] In this sense, some authors also call it a "deviant Greek dialect."

Macedonian in Classical sources

Further information: Ancient Macedonians

There are some classical references that have led a number of scholars to believe the ancient Macedonians were viewed as a non-Hellenic tribe prior to the 4th century BC. Thus, the late (1st century AD) historian Quintus Curtius suggests that the Macedonian language was not intelligble to the average speaking person (Hist. Alex. 6.11.4): "He (sc. Philotas) found the country people of Phrygia and Paphlagonia ridiculous, and he was not ashamed, though born in Macedonia, to have an interpreter with him when listening to people speaking his own language."[14] The "Hellenic" status of the Macedonians appears to have been a disputable matter in the 5th century BC at least, as Herodotus (5.22)[1] relates how Alexander I's accession in Olympics was disputed by some other Greeks, but successfully he argued that he was a Greek of Argive descent after all.

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.[15]

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".[16] This has been interpreted as referring to their common North-West Greek speech (as opposed to Attic Koiné).[17]

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.[18]


“General Paulus of Rome surrounded by the ten Commissioners took his official seat surrounded by the whole crowds of Macedonians…Paulus announced in Latin the decisions of the Senate, as well as his own, made by the advice of his council. This announcement was translated into Greek and repeated by Gnaeus Octavius the Praetor-for he too was present. ---

T. Livius, XLV

[2]

Sample glossary

See also



References

  1. ^ Albrecht von Blumenthal, Hesychstudien, Stuttgart, 1930, 21.
  2. ^ a b c 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
  3. ^ 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)
  4. ^ 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.
  5. ^ a b c 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)
  6. ^ 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)
  7. ^ Ahrens, F. H. L. (1843), De Graecae linguae dialectis, Göttingen, 1839-1843 ; Hoffmann, O. Die Makedonen. Ihre Sprache und ihr Volkstum, Göttingen, 1906.
  8. ^ Griechische Grammatik, Munich 1939, vol. 1, 69-71.
  9. ^ 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)
  10. ^ Linguist List is classifying ancient Macedonian with Greek (all known ancient and modern dialects) under a Hellenic supertree.
  11. ^ 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.
  12. ^ H. Ahrens, De Graecae linguae dialectis, Göttingen, 1843; O. Hoffmann, Die Makedonen. Ihre Sprache und ihr Volkstum, Göttingen 1906.
  13. ^ 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.
  14. ^ E. Kapetanopoulos, "Alexander’s patrius sermo in the Philotas affair", The ancient world 30 (1999) 117-128. Online paper
  15. ^ Steven Colvin, Dialect in Aristophanes and the politics of language in Ancient Greek, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999. 279.
  16. ^ Livy 31.29.15 (in Latin).
  17. ^ 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).
  18. ^ In the Shadow of Olympus: The Emergence of Macedon - Eugene N. Borza (citing Hammond)
  19. ^ Blumenthal, Hesychstudien, Stuttgart, 1930.
  20. ^ Blumenthal, Hesychstudien, Stuttgart, 1930.

21.Zeitschrift der Deutschen morgenländischen Gesellschaft

Further reading

  • 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.
  • [4] LinguistList: Family tree of Hellenic languages.
  • [5] Encyclopedia Britannica: Greek language (1911 edition)
  • [6] Jona Lendering, Ancient Macedonia web page on livius.org
  • [7] Greek Inscriptions from ancient Macedonia (Epigraphical Database)
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