The Macedonian Language is GREEK

[pankration]

I've been checking out the links at the top of this page and found one that uses excerpts from the Oxford English Dictionary (you can't get more scholarly or thorough than that). The following excerpt succintly describes the evolution of the "Macedonian" language and proves yet again that Macedonians are Greek in language, custom and religion.



"After more than a century we recognise among linguists two schools of thought.

Those who reject the Greek affiliation of Macedonian prefer to treat it as an Indo-European language of the Balkans, located geographically and linguistically between Illyrian in the west and Thracian in the east. Some, like G.Bonfante (1987), look towards Illyrian; others, like I.I.Russu (1938), towards "Thraco-Phrygian" (at the cost, sometimes, of unwarranted segmentations such as that of "Ale3avdros" into "+ale-" and "+3avd").
Those who favour a purely Greek nature of Macedonian as a northern Greek dialect are numerous and include early scholars like A.Fick (1874) and O.Hoffmann (1906). The Greek scholars, like G.Hatzidakis (1897, etc.) and above all J.Kalleris (1964 and 1976), have turned this assumption into a real dogma, with at times nationalistic overtones. This should not prevent us, however, from inclining towards this view.
For a long while Macedonian onomastics, which we know relatively well thanks to history, literary authors, and epigraphy, has played a considerable role in the discussion. In our view the Greek character of most names is obvious and it is difficult to think of a Hellenization due to wholesale borrowing. "Ptolemaios" is attested as early as Homer, "Ale3avdros" occurs next to Mycenaean feminine a-re-ka-sa-da-ra- ('Alexandra'), "Laagos", then "Lagos", matches the Cyprian 'Lawagos', etc.

The small minority of names which do not look Greek, like "Arridaios" or "Sabattaras", may be due to a substratum or adstatum influences (as elsewhere in Greece).

Macedonian may then be seen as a Greek dialect, characterised by its marginal position and by local pronunciations (like "Berevika" for "Ferevika", etc.).

Yet in contrast with earlier views which made of it an Aeolic dialect (O.Hoffmann compared Thessalian) we must by now think of a link with North-West Greek (Locrian, Aetolian, Phocidian, Epirote). This view is supported by the recent discovery at Pella of a curse tablet (4th cent. BC) which may well be the first 'Macedonian' text attested (provisional publication by E.Voutyras; cf. the Bulletin Epigraphique in Rev.Et.Grec.1994, no.413); the text includes an adverb "opoka" which is not Thessalian.

We must wait for new discoveries, but we may tentatively conclude that Macedonian is a dialect related to North-West Greek."



O.Masson,

"Oxford Classical Dictionary," 3rd ed. (1996), pp.905,906



If you haven't already, I recommend that you take a look at the Macedonia links above.

[paniskos]

in the macedonia highlands under the hellenic sky

[nsminc]

Bravo re Pete.

[PhiliptheUniterchaeronea]

Pankration always states the facts and truths.