Ancient Macedonian language

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Ancient Macedonian, the language of the ancient Macedonians, either a dialect of Ancient Greek, or a separate Hellenic language, was spoken in the kingdom of Macedonia during the 1st millennium BC and belongs 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.^[4]

The surviving public and private inscriptions found in Macedonia indicate that there was no other written language in ancient Macedonia but Ancient Greek,^[5][6] and recent epigraphic discoveries in the Greek region of Macedonia, such as the Pella curse tablet, suggest that ancient Macedonian might have been a variety of North Western Ancient Greek.^[7][8][9] Older scholars, such as Vladimir I. Georgiev, maintained the position that although Ancient Greek was the language of literacy, the vernacular was a separate language, although closely related.^[10][11]

Classification[]

Due to the fragmentary attestation of this language or dialect, various interpretations are possible.^{[12][page needed][13]} Suggested phylogenetic classifications of Macedonian include:^[14][15][16]

• A Greek dialect, part of the North-Western (Locrian, Aetolian, Phocidian, Epirote) variants of Doric Greek, suggested amongst others by N.G.L. Hammond (1989), Olivier Masson (1996), Michael Meier-Brügger (2003), Johannes Engels (2010), M. B. Hatzopoulos (2011), J. Méndez Dosuna (2012), and Emilio Crespo (2017).^{[8][17][18][19][20][21][22]}
• A Greek dialect with a non-Indo-European substratal influence, suggested by M. Sakellariou (1983) and M. Hatzopoulos (2011).^[23]
• A sibling language of Greek within Indo-European, according to a scheme in which Macedonian and Greek are the two branches of a Greco-Macedonian subgroup (sometimes called "Hellenic")^[24] suggested by Joseph (2001), Georgiev (1966),^[10] and Hamp & Adams (2013).^[25]

Properties[]

Because of the fragmentary nature of Ancient Macedonian, only a little is understood about the special features of the language. A notable sound-law is that the Proto-Indo-European voiced 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.^[26]

• Macedonian δάνος dánοs ('death', from PIE *d^henh₂- 'to leave'), compare to Attic θάνατος thánatos
• Macedonian ἀβροῦτες abroûtes or ἀβροῦϝες abroûwes compare to Attic ὀφρῦς ophrûs for 'eyebrows'
• Macedonian Βερενίκη Bereníkē compare to Attic Φερενίκη Phereníkē, 'bearing victory' (Personal name)
• Macedonian ἄδραια adraia ('bright weather'), compare to Attic αἰθρία aithría, from PIE *h₂aid^h-
• Macedonian βάσκιοι báskioi ('fasces'), compare to Attic φάσκωλος pháskōlos 'leather sack', from PIE *b^hasko
• 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^[27] 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 *mag^h-, 'to fight')^[28]

If γοτάν gotán ('pig') is related to *g^wou ('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.^[29]

A number of examples suggest that voiced velar stops were devoiced, especially word-initially: κάναδοι kánadoi, 'jaws' (< PIE *genu-); κόμβους kómbous, 'molars' (< PIE *gombh-); within words: ἀρκόν arkón (Attic ἀργός 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 κεβλήπυρις keblēpyris ('red head', the name of a bird, perhaps the goldfinch or redpoll) is found,^[30] showing a Macedonian-style voiced stop in place of a standard Greek unvoiced aspirate: κεβ(α)λή keb(a)lē versus κεφαλή kephalē ('head').

E. Crespo 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 argued also by M. Hatzopoulos.^[31]

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.^[32] 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.

A. Panayotou summarizes some features generally identified through ancient texts and epigraphy:^[33]

Phonology[]

• Occasional development of voiced aspirates (*b^h, *d^h, *g^h) into voiced stops (b, d, g) (e.g. Βερενίκα, Attic Φερενίκη)
• Retention of */a:/ (e.g. Μαχάτας), also present in Epirotic^[34]
• [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).^[34]
• Occasional retention of the pronunciation [u] οf /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 /st^h/ (> /st/) (γενέσται, Attic γενέσθαι)

Morphology[]

Ancient Macedonian morphology is shared with ancient Epirus, including some of the oldest inscriptions from Dodona.^[35] The morphology of the first declension nouns with an -ας ending is also shared with Thessalian (e.g. Epitaph for Pyrrhiadas, Kierion^[36]).

• 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 summarizes 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:^[37]

• 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).^[33]

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 names of about half or more of the months of the ancient Macedonian calendar have a clear and generally accepted Greek etymology (e.g. Dios, Apellaios, Artemisios, Loos, Daisios), though some of the remaining ones have sometimes been considered to be Greek but showing a particular Macedonian phonology (e.g. Audunaios has been connected to "Haides" *A-wid and Gorpiaios/Garpiaios to "karpos" fruit).

Epigraphy[]

Macedonian onomastics: the earliest epigraphical documents attesting substantial numbers of Macedonian proper names 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 century BC bearing mostly names.^[38][39]

• 

  Octadrachm of Alexander I of Macedon, early 5th century B.C.

• 

  Stater of Perdiccas II of Macedon, mid to late 5th century B.C.

• 

  The Pella curse tablet, 4th century B.C.

• 

  Binding spell, 4th century B.C., Oraiokastro^[40]

• 

  Funerary stele, with an epigram on the top, mid 4th century B.C., Vergina

About 99% of the roughly 6,300 Macedonian-period inscriptions discovered by archaeologists were written in the Greek language, using the Greek alphabet.^[41] 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.^[42]

Hesychius Glossary[]

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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.^[43]

⟨†⟩ marked words which have been corrupted.

• ἄβαγνα abagna 'roses amaranta (unwithered)' (Attic ῥόδα rhoda, Aeolic βρόδα broda roses). (LSJ: amarantos unfading. Amaranth flower. (Aeolic ἄβα aba 'youthful prime' + ἁγνός hagnos 'pure, chaste, unsullied) or epithet aphagna from aphagnizo 'purify'.^[44] If abagnon is the proper name for rhodon rose, then it is cognate to Persian باغ bāġ, 'garden', Gothic