Ancient Macedonian language

Macedonian
Macedonian
Region	Macedon
Ethnicity	Ancient Macedonians
Era	1st millennium BC
Language family	Indo-European Hellenic Doric? Northwest Doric? Macedonian; ; ; ;
Language codes
ISO 639-3	xmk
Linguist List	xmk
Glottolog	None

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),^[7]^[8] fragmentary documentation of a vernacular local variety comes from onomastic evidence, ancient glossaries and recent epigraphic discoveries in the Greek region of Macedonia, such as the Pella curse tablet.^[9]^[10]^[11] This local variety is usually classified by scholars as a dialect of Northwest Doric Greek, and occasionally as an Aeolic Greek dialect or a distinct sister language of Greek.

^ Macedonian at MultiTree on the Linguist List
^ 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.
^ Blažek, Václav (2005). "Paleo-Balkanian Languages I: Hellenic Languages", Studia Minora Facultatis Philosophicae Universitatis Brunensis 10. pp. 15–34.
^ Meier-Brügger, Michael (2003). Indo-European Linguistics. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter. ISBN 978-3-11-017433-5.
^ Borza, Eugene N. (28 September 1992) [1990]. "Who Were the Macedonians?". In the Shadow of Olympus: The Emergence of Macedon. Princeton University Press (published 1992). p. 94. ISBN 978-0-691-00880-6. 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.
^ Engels, Johannes (2010). "Macedonians and Greeks". In Roisman, Joseph; Worthington, Ian (eds.). A Companion to Ancient Macedonia. Wiley-Blackwell. p. 94. ISBN 978-1-4051-7936-2. 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.
^ Joseph Roisman; Ian Worthington (7 July 2011). A Companion to Ancient Macedonia. John Wiley & Sons. p. 94. ISBN 978-1-4443-5163-7. 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.
^ Lewis, D. M.; Boardman, John (2000). The Cambridge ancient history, 3rd edition, Volume VI. Cambridge University Press. p. 730. ISBN 978-0-521-23348-4.
^ 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
^ Crespo, Emilio (2017). "The Softening of Obstruent Consonants in the Macedonian Dialect". In Giannakis, Georgios K.; Crespo, Emilio; Filos, Panagiotis (eds.). Studies in Ancient Greek Dialects: From Central Greece to the Black Sea. Walter de Gruyter. p. 329. ISBN 978-3-11-053081-0.
^ Hornblower, Simon (2002). "Macedon, Thessaly and Boiotia". The Greek World, 479-323 BC (Third ed.). Routledge. p. 90. ISBN 0-415-16326-9.

[linglist-1] Macedonian at MultiTree on the Linguist List

[2] 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.

[3] Blažek, Václav (2005). "Paleo-Balkanian Languages I: Hellenic Languages", Studia Minora Facultatis Philosophicae Universitatis Brunensis 10. pp. 15–34.

[4] Meier-Brügger, Michael (2003). Indo-European Linguistics. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter. ISBN 978-3-11-017433-5.

[5] Borza, Eugene N. (28 September 1992) [1990]. "Who Were the Macedonians?". In the Shadow of Olympus: The Emergence of Macedon. Princeton University Press (published 1992). p. 94. ISBN 978-0-691-00880-6. 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] Engels, Johannes (2010). "Macedonians and Greeks". In Roisman, Joseph; Worthington, Ian (eds.). A Companion to Ancient Macedonia. Wiley-Blackwell. p. 94. ISBN 978-1-4051-7936-2. 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.

[RoismanWorthington2011-7] Joseph Roisman; Ian Worthington (7 July 2011). A Companion to Ancient Macedonia. John Wiley & Sons. p. 94. ISBN 978-1-4443-5163-7. 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.

[CambridgeAncientHistory-8] Lewis, D. M.; Boardman, John (2000). The Cambridge ancient history, 3rd edition, Volume VI. Cambridge University Press. p. 730. ISBN 978-0-521-23348-4.

[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

[Crespo2017-10] Crespo, Emilio (2017). "The Softening of Obstruent Consonants in the Macedonian Dialect". In Giannakis, Georgios K.; Crespo, Emilio; Filos, Panagiotis (eds.). Studies in Ancient Greek Dialects: From Central Greece to the Black Sea. Walter de Gruyter. p. 329. ISBN 978-3-11-053081-0.

[Hornblower2002-11] Hornblower, Simon (2002). "Macedon, Thessaly and Boiotia". The Greek World, 479-323 BC (Third ed.). Routledge. p. 90. ISBN 0-415-16326-9.

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