Macedonian language

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Macedonian (†)

Spoken in

Macedonia (historical region)
Linguistic
classification
Language codes
ISO 639 -1

-

ISO 639 -2

ine

ISO 639-3

xmk

The Macedonian is an extinct Indo-European language , which can be reconstructed little and is difficult to determine their position within this language group. It was spoken in the historical region of Macedonia . The difficulties in classifying Macedonian result from the sparse tradition and poor sources. All certificates received are written in Greek characters. In some Greek sources, Macedonian place names and personal names have been handed down, as well as a few individual words.

The question of whether Macedonian was a Greek dialect or an independent language closely related to Greek is still debated .

According to the linguist Otto Hoffmann (1906), the name material, especially the personal name, but also the place and month names, indicate that Macedonian is a Greek dialect. The linguist RA Crossland calls this conception questionable, since one cannot infer an entire language with certainty from about 130 names and inscriptions, and claims that Macedonian was an independent language. Leading linguists and historians of our time also hold this view (CG Thomas, P. Green). In Macedonia there are indeed inscriptions that are written in Greek letters, but this does not allow any conclusions to be drawn about the language itself (E. Borza).

The Macedonians were sometimes referred to as barbarians by the Greeks (not so Hesychios , frg. 5), which in Greek antiquity primarily expressed linguistic diversity, i. H. Macedonian was partially not recognized as Greek by the Greeks. The few more than a hundred words that have survived show that the sound structure partly differed considerably from the Greek (cf. Macedonian danos vs. Greek θάνατος thánatos , both “death”), but partly also shows clear similarities (Macedonian Hüerberetos “ Regenbringer , December”). The Macedonian notation shows that the φ is replaced by the β, e.g. B. in Βερενίκη ( Berenike ) in Greek Φερενίκη (Pherenike), which indicates a fricative pronunciation of β as in modern Greek. The lists of names (tombstones, historians) show a large proportion of names of Greek origin, also outside the upper class, which was accepted by more Greeks than Greek (see Herodotus' list of kings ).

Macedonian was most widely used in the 4th century BC. Under Philip II and Alexander the Great . Its speakers gradually assimilated to the now emerging Greek koine during the Hellenistic period .

literature

  • Nikolaos P. Andriotis : Το Ομόσπονδο Κράτος των Σκοπίων και η γλώσσα του. Athens 1957, reprints Thessaloniki 1960, Μουσείο Μακεδονικού Αγώνα, Thessaloniki 1989; third edition, with a foreword by Apóstolos Vakalópoulos, Ekdosi Trochalia, Athens 1992. - German translation: The federal state of Skopje and its language . Second edition, Athens 1966. Book review: Ανέστης Π. Χαριτάντης, in: Αυριανή (Μακεδονίας – Θράκης) , February 8, 1992 ( PDF online ).

  • Ernst Badian : Greeks and Macedonians. In: Macedonia and Greece in Late Classical and Early Hellenistic Times. In: Studies in the History of Art, Vol. 10. Washington DC 1982, pp. 33-51. ISBN 0-89468-005-6 .
  • Eugene N. Borza: Greeks and Macedonians in the Age of Alexander. The Source Traditions. In: Transitions to Empire. Essays in Greco-Roman History, 360-146 BC, in honor of E. Badian. University of Oklahoma Press, Norman 1996, pp. 122-139. ISBN 0-8061-2863-1 . (Contra Hammond.)
  • Nicholas GL Hammond: Literary evidence for Macedonian speech. In: Historia. Ancient History Journal. Volume 43, Issue 2 (1994), pp. 131-142. ISSN  0341-0056 .
    (Believes the Macedonians were Greek and spoke Greek.)
  • Otto Hoffmann: The Macedonians, their language and their nationality. Goettingen 1906.
  • Rolf Ködderitzch: Brygian, Peonian, Macedonian . In: Balkansko ezikoznanie 28, No. 4, 1985, pp. 17-41, spec. 24-36.

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