While the bulk of surviving public and private inscriptions found in ancient Macedonia were written in Attic Greek (and later in Koine Greek),[8][9] fragmentary documentation of a vernacular local Macedonian variety comes fromonomastic evidence, ancientglossaries, and recentepigraphic discoveries in theGreek region of Macedonia, such as the curse tablets fromPella andPydna.[10][11][12][13]
Scholars have variously proposed that ancient Macedonian was a dialect of Greek, a sister language or an independent Indo-European language, and the disputes have sometimes had modern nationalistic overtones.[14] Research has also considered the extent of influence from Thessalian Aeolic Greek and non-Greek substrata or adstrata, such as Phrygian, Illyrian, and Thracian. There has been some recent scholarly agreement, often expressed as cautious or tentative, that ancient Macedonian belongs to the Northwest Greek group.[15][4][16] A minority of scholars, however, continue to view the language as a separate Indo-European language related to but not part of the Greek language.[17][18] Suggestedclassifications include:[19][20]
Among those who support that ancient Macedonian was a Greek dialect, Angelos Boufalis suggests that "several features can be established as local and most of them seem indeed to be shared with the NW Doric and/or the Thessalian dialect", and also that "rather than a monolithic dialect throughout, different local or regional idioms may have had been spoken in this extensive geographical area".[35] Sowa suggests that "it seems also possible that the inhabitants of theLower Macedonia spoke an Aeolic dialect, and those fromUpper Macedonia a north-western Greek dialect".[32] Hammond suggests that in the region of Upper Macedonia, the tribes ofElimiotes,Orestes,Lyncestae, andPelagones, were allEpirotic tribes speaking the Northwest Greek dialect.[36]
Because of the fragmentary sources of Ancient Macedonian, only a little is understood about the special features of the language. A notable sound-law is that thevoiced aspirates (/bʰ, dʰ, gʰ/) ofProto-Indo-European sometimes appear as voicedstops /b, d, g/, (writtenβ, δ, γ), whereas they were generally unvoiced as /pʰ, tʰ, kʰ/ (φ, θ, χ) elsewhere in Ancient Greek.[notes 1]
Macedonianδάνοςdánοs ('death', from PIE*dhenh₂- 'to leave'), compared toAtticθάνατοςthánatos
Macedonianἀβροῦτεςabroûtes orἀβροῦϝεςabroûwes, compared to Atticὀφρῦςophrûs for 'eyebrows'
MacedonianΒερενίκηBereníkē, compared to AtticΦερενίκηPhereníkē, 'bearing victory' (Personal name)
Macedonianἄδραιαadraia ('bright weather'), compared to Atticαἰθρίαaithría, from PIE*h₂aidh-
Macedonianβάσκιοιbáskioi ('fasces'), compared to Atticφάσκωλοςpháskōlos 'leather sack', from PIE*bhasko
According toPlutarch,Moralia[37] Macedonians use 'b' instead of 'ph', whileDelphians use 'b' in the place of 'p'.
Macedonianμάγειροςmágeiros ('butcher') was a loan from Doric intoAttic. Vittore Pisani has suggested an ultimately Macedonian origin for the word, which could then be cognate toμάχαιραmákhaira ('knife', < PIE*magh-, 'to fight')[38]
Macedonian shared withThessalian, Elean, andEpirote, an "oddity" of cases where voiced stops (/bdg/, written⟨β ð ɣ⟩) appear to correspond to Proto-Indo-European voiced aspirates,[39]/bʰdʰɡʰ/. In most Greek, the Proto-Indo-European aspirates were devoiced to voiceless aspirates/pʰtʰkʰ/,[40] written⟨ɸ θ χ⟩ (though these would later becomefricatives in Attic Koine around the first century AD[41]). As with Macedonian, this phenomenon is sometimes attributed to non-Greek substrate and adstrate influence, with some linguists attributing such an influence on Epirote to Illyrian.[42][39] Filos, however, notes, that the attribution of⟨β⟩,⟨ð⟩ and⟨ɣ⟩ for specifically voiced stops is not secure.[39] Hatzopoulos supports the hypothesis of a (North-)'Achaean' substratum extending as far north as the head of theThermaic Gulf, which had a continuous relation, in prehistoric times, both inThessaly andMacedonia, with the Northwest Greek-speaking populations living on the other side of thePindus mountain range, and contacts became cohabitation when the Argead Macedonians completed their wandering fromOrestis to Lower Macedonia in the 7th c. BC. According to this hypothesis, Hatzopoulos concludes that the Ancient Macedonian dialect of the historical period, attested in inscriptions such as Pella curse tablet, is a sort of koine resulting from the interaction and the influences of various elements, the most important of which are the North-Achaean substratum, theNorthwest Greek idiom of theArgead Macedonians, and theThracian andPhrygian adstrata.[43]
Ifγοτάνgotán ('pig') is related to theProto-Hellenic noun*gʷous, and hence to thePIE noun*gʷṓws ('cattle'), this would indicate that thelabiovelars were either intact, or merged with the velars, unlike the usual Greek treatment (Atticβοῦςboûs). Such deviations, however, are not unknown in Greek dialects; compareLaconian Doric (the dialect of Sparta)γλεπ-glep- for common Greekβλεπ-blep-, as well as Doricγλάχωνgláchōn andIonicγλήχωνglēchōn for common Greekβλήχωνblēchōn.[44]
A number of examples suggest that voicedvelar stops were devoiced, especially word-initially:κάναδοιkánadoi, 'jaws' (< PIE*genu-);κόμβουςkómbous, 'molars' (< PIE*gombh-); within words:ἀρκόνarkón (Atticἀργόςargós); the MacedoniantoponymAkesamenai, from thePierian nameAkesamenos (ifAkesa- is cognate to Greekagassomai,agamai, "to astonish"; cf. the Thracian nameAgassamenos).
InAristophanes'The Birds, the formκεβλήπυριςkeblēpyris ('red head', the name of a bird, perhaps thegoldfinch orredpoll) is found,[45] showing a Macedonian-style voiced stop in place of a standard Greek unvoiced aspirate:κεβ(α)λήkeb(a)lē versusκεφαλήkephalē ('head'). Emilio Crespo, a researcher at theAutonomous University of Madrid, 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 also argued by M. Hatzopoulos.[46]
A number of the Macedonian words, particularly inHesychius of Alexandria's lexicon, are disputed (i.e., some do not consider them actual Macedonian words) and some may have been corrupted in the transmission. Thusabroutes may be read asabrouwes (αβρουϝες), with tau (Τ) replacing adigamma.[47] 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.[citation needed]
A. Panayotou summarizes some features generally identified through ancient texts and epigraphy:[48]
Ancient Macedonian morphology is shared withancient Epirus, including some of the oldest inscriptions fromDodona.[50] The morphology of the first declension nouns with an -ας ending is also shared withThessalian (e.g. Epitaph for Pyrrhiadas, Kierion[51]).
First-declension masculine and feminine in -ας and -α respectively (e.g.Πευκέστας,Λαομάγα)
First-declension masculine genitive singular in -α (e.g.Μαχάτα)
First-declension genitive plural in -ᾶν
First person personal pronoun dative singularἐμίν
Temporal conjunctionὁπόκα
Possibly, a non-sigmatic nominative masculine singular in the first declension (ἱππότα, Atticἱππότης)
M. Hatzopoulos and Johannes Engels summarize the Macedonian anthroponymy (that is names borne by people from Macedonia before the expansion beyond theAxios or people undoubtedly hailing from this area after the expansion) as follows:[52][53]
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 aclear 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 alsoΔῖον > Διασταί).[48]
Per Engels, the above material supports that Macedonian anthroponymy was predominantly Greek in character.[53]
The Macedonian calendar's origins go back toGreek prehistory. The names of the Macedonian months, just like most of the names of Greek months, are derived from feasts and related celebrations in honor of theGreek gods.[54] Most of them combine a Macedonian dialectal form with a clear Greek etymology (e.gΔῐός fromZeus;Περίτιος fromHeracles Peritas ("Guardian") ;Ξανδικός/Ξανθικός from Xanthos, "the blond" (probably a reference to Heracles);Άρτεμίσιος fromArtemis etc.) with the possible exception of one, which is attested in otherGreek calendars as well.[54] According toMartin P. Nilsson, the Macedonian calendar is formed like a regular Greek one and the names of the months attest the Greek nationality of the Macedonians.[54]
Macedonian onomastics: the earliest epigraphical documents attesting substantial numbers of Macedonian proper names are the secondAthenian alliance decree withPerdiccas II (~417–413 BC), the decree ofKalindoia (~335–300 BC) and sevencurse tablets of the 4th century BC bearing mostly names.[55][56]
Funerary stele, with an epigram on the top, mid 4th century B.C.,Vergina
About 99% of the roughly 6,300 inscriptions discovered by archaeologists within the confines of ancient Macedonia were written in the Greek language, using theGreek alphabet. The legends in all currently discovered coins also in Greek.[58] ThePella curse tablet, a text written in a distinctDoric Greek dialect, found in 1986 and dated to between mid to early 4th century BC, has been forwarded as an argument that ancient Macedonian was a dialect of North-Western Greek, part of the Doric dialect group.[23][59]
A body of idiomatic words has been assembled from ancient sources, mainly from coin inscriptions, and from the 5th century lexicon ofHesychius 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. However, some words are not easily identifiable as Greek and reveal, for example, voiced stops where Greek shows voiceless aspirates.[60]
⟨†⟩ marked words which have been corrupted.
ἄβαγναabagna 'roses amaranta (unwithered)' (Atticῥόδαrhoda,Aeolicβρόδαbroda roses). (LSJ:amarantos unfading.Amaranth flower. (Aeolicἄβαaba 'youthful prime' +ἁγνόςhagnos 'pure, chaste, unsullied) or epithetaphagna fromaphagnizo 'purify'.[61] Ifabagnon is the proper name forrhodon rose, then it is cognate toPersianباغbāġ, 'garden',Gothic𐌱𐌰𐌲𐌼𐍃bagms 'tree' andGreekbakanon 'cabbage-seed'. Finally, aPhrygian borrowing is highly possible if we think of the famous Gardens ofMidas, where roses grow of themselves (see Herodotus 8.138.2, Athenaeus 15.683)
ἀγκαλίςankalis Attic 'weight, burden, load' Macedonian 'sickle' (Hes. Atticἄχθοςákhthos,δρέπανονdrépanon,LSJ Atticἀγκαλίςankalís 'bundle', or in pl.ἀγκάλαιankálai 'arms' (body parts),ἄγκαλοςánkalos 'armful, bundle',ἀγκάληankálē 'the bent arm' or 'anything closely enfolding', as the arms of the sea, PIE*ank 'to bend') (ἀγκυλίςankylis 'barb'Oppianus.C.1.155.)
ἄδδαιaddai poles of a chariot or car, logs (Atticῥυμοὶ rhumoi) (Aeolicusdoi, Attic ozoi, branches, twigs)PIE*H₂ó-sd-o-, branch
ἀδῆadē 'clear sky' or 'the upper air' (Hes.οὐρανόςouranós 'sky',LSJ andPokorny Atticαἰθήρaithēr 'ether, the upper, purer air', hence 'clear sky, heaven')
ἀκόντιονakontion spine or backbone, anything ridged like the backbone: ridge of a hill or mountain (Atticrhachis) (Atticakontion spear, javelin) (Aeolic akontion part of troops)
ἀκρέαakrea girl (Atticκόρη korê, Ionic kourê, Doric/Aeolic kora, Arcadian korwa, Laconian kyrsanis (Ἀκρέα, epithet of Aphrodite in Cyprus, instead of Akraia, of the heights). Epithet of a goddess from an archaic Corcyraic inscription (ορϝος hιαρος τας Ακριας).
ἀκρουνοίakrounoi 'boundary stones' nom. pl. (Hes.ὃροιhóroi,LSJ Atticἄκρονákron 'at the end or extremity', fromἀκήakē 'point, edge', PIE*ak 'summit, point' or 'sharp')
ἀλίηalíē 'boar orboarfish' (Attic kapros) (PIE*ol-/*el- "red, brown" (in animal and tree names)[62] (Homericellos fawn, Atticelaphos 'deer',alkê elk)
ἀορτήςaortês, 'swordsman' (Hes. ξιφιστής;Homerἄορáor 'sword'; Atticἀορτήρaortēr 'swordstrap',Modern Greekαορτήρaortír 'riflestrap'; henceaorta) (According toSuidas: Many now say the knapsackἀβερτὴabertê instead ofaortê. Both the object and the word [are] Macedonian.
γοτάνgotan 'pig' acc. sing. (PIE*gʷou- 'cattle', (Atticβοτόνbotón ' beast', in pluralβοτάbotá 'grazing animals') (Laconiangrôna 'sow' female pig, and pl. grônades) (LSJ:goi, goi, to imitate the sound of pigs) (goita sheep or pig)
ἨμαθίαÊmathia ex-name of Macedonia, region ofEmathia from mythologicalEmathus (Homericamathosêmathoessa, river-sandy land, PIE*samadh.[66] Generally the coastal Lower Macedonia in contrast to mountainousUpper Macedonia. Formeadow land (mē-2, m-e-t- to reap), see Pokorny.[67]
ΘαῦλοςThaulos epithet or alternative ofAres (ΘαύλιαThaulia 'festival inDoricTarentum,θαυλίζεινthaulizein 'to celebrate likeDorians',ThessalianΖεὺς ΘαύλιοςZeus Thaulios, the only attested in epigraphy ten times,AthenianΖεὺς ΘαύλωνZeus Thaulôn, Athenian familyΘαυλωνίδαιThaulônidai
ἴλαξílax 'the holm-oak, evergreen or scarlet oak' (Hes. Atticπρῖνοςprînos,Latinilex)
ἰν δέᾳin dea midday (Atticendia, mesêmbria) (Arcadian alsoin instead of Atticen)
κἄγχαρμονkancharmon having the lance upτὸ τὴν λόγχην ἄνω ἔχον (Hes.ἄγχαρμονancharmonἀνωφερῆ τὴν αἰχμήνἔχωνIbyc?Stes?) having upwards the point of a spear)
Macedonian 'gate, door' (Cf.karphos any small dry body,piece of wood (Hes. Attic 'meat roasted over coals'; Attickarabos 'stag-beetle'; 'crayfish'; 'light ship'; hence modern Greekκαράβιkarávi)
'the worms in dry wood' (Attic 'stag-beetle, horned beetle; crayfish')
'a sea creature' (Attic 'crayfish, prickly crustacean; stag-beetle')
καρπαίαkarpaia Thessalo-Macedonian mimic military dance (see alsoCarpaea)Homerickarpalimos swift (for foot) eager, ravenous.
λακεδάμαlakedámaὕδωρ ἁλμυρὸν ἄλικι ἐπικεχυμένον salty water withalix, rice-wheat or fish-sauce.(Cf.skorodalmê 'sauce or pickle composed of brine and garlic'). According to Albrecht von Blumenthal,[44]-ama corresponds to Atticἁλμυρόςhalmurós 'salty';CretanDorichauma for Attic halmē;laked- is cognate toProto-Germanic*lauka[70]leek, possibly related isΛακεδαίμωνLaked-aímōn, the name of theSpartan land.
λείβηθρονleíbēthron 'stream' (Hes. Atticῥεῖθρονrheîthron, alsoλιβάδιονlibádion, 'a small stream', dim. ofλιβάςlibás; PIE *lei, 'to flow'); typical Greek productive suffix-θρον (-thron) (Macedonian toponym, PierianLeibethra place/tomb ofOrpheus)
ματτύηςmattuês kind of bird (ματτύηmattuê a meat-dessert of Macedonian or Thessalian origin) (verbmattuazo to prepare themattue) (Athenaeus)[71]
παραόςparaos eagle or kind of eagle (Attic aetos,Pamphylian aibetos) (PIE*por- 'going, passage' +*awi- 'bird') (Greek para- 'beside' + Hes.aos wind) (It may exist as food inLopado...pterygon)
περιπέτειαperipeteia orπερίτιαperitia Macedonian festival in month Peritios. (Hesychius textπερί[πε]τ[ε]ια)
καυσίαkausiafelt hat used by Macedonians, forming part of theregalia of the kings.
κοῖοςkoios number (Athenaeus[75] when talking aboutKoios, theTitan of intelligence;and the Macedonians use koios as synonymous witharithmos (LSJ:koeô mark, perceive, hearkoiazô pledge, Hes. compose s.v.κοίασον, σύνθες) (Laocoön,thyoskoos observer of sacrifices,akouô hear) (All fromPIE root *keu[76] to notice, observe, feel; to hear).
ΠύδναPúdna,Pydna toponym (Pokorny[78] Atticπυθμήνputhmēn 'bottom, sole, base of a vessel'; PIE*bʰudʰnā; Atticπύνδαξpýndax 'bottom of vessel') (Cretan,Pytna[79]Hierapytna, Sacred Pytna[80])
In his comedyThe Macedonians, the 5th century BC Athenian poetStrattis has a character speak in a non-Attic dialect, but little has survived.[84]
In his historyAb urbe conditaLivy (59 BC – 14 AD) has a Macedonian ambassador in the late 3rd century BC argue that Aetolians,Acarnanians and Macedonians were "men of the same language".[85]
In hisHistories of Alexander the Great,Quintus Curtius Rufus (1st century AD) relates an argument between Alexander and Philotas, an accused man, as to whether Philotas shoud address those assembled in a "foreign tongue" (peregrina lingua) or his "native idiom" (patrius sermo).[86][87]
In hisLife of Antony,[90]Plutarch (c. AD 40 – 120s) presentsCleopatra (70/69 – 30 BC) as speaking many foreign languages, in contrast with her royal predecessors, some of whom had even ceased to "Macedonise" (μακεδονίζειν,makedonizein).[91]
As a consequence of the Macedonians' role in the formation of the Koine, Macedonian contributed considerable elements, unsurprisingly including some military terminology (διμοιρίτης, ταξίαρχος, ὑπασπισταί, etc.). Among the many contributions were the general use of the first declension grammar for male and female nouns with an -as ending, attested in the genitive of Macedonian coinage from the early 4th century BC ofAmyntas III (ΑΜΥΝΤΑ in the genitive; the Attic form that fell into disuse would beΑΜΥΝΤΟΥ). There were changes in verb conjugation such as in the Imperativeδέξα attested in Macedonian sling stones found in Asiatic battlefields, that became adopted in place of the Attic forms. Koine Greek established a spirantisation of beta, gamma and delta, which has been attributed to the Macedonian influence.[92]
^abLockwood, W. B. (1972).A Panorama of Indo-European Languages. Hutchinson University Library London, Hellenic, Macedonian. p. 6.It is generally held that the evidence suggests rather an aberrant form of Greek than an independent language
^Joseph, B. (2001). "Ancient Greek". In Garry, J.; 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 Brunensis10. 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.ISBN978-0-691-00880-6.One can only speculate that that [Ancient Macedonian] dialect declined with the rise in use of standardkoinē 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 2010, p. 94: "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 bykoine 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."
^Engels 2010, p. 94: "Many surviving public and private inscriptions indicate that in the Macedonian kingdom there was no dominant written language but standard Attic and later onkoine Greek."
^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
^abGiannakis 2017, p. 18: "Recent scholarship has established the position of (ancient) Macedonian within the dialect map of North-West Greek (see, among others, Méndez Dosuna 2012, 2014, 2015; Crespo 2012, 2015). Here belongs the study by M. Hatzopoulos, who offers a critical review of recent research on the Macedonian dialect, arguing that all available evidence points to the conclusion that this is a Greek dialect of the North-West group."
^Friedman, Victor A.; Joseph, Brian D. (2025). The Balkan Languages. Cambridge University Press.
^abcJoseph, Brian D. (2001)."Ancient Greek". In Garry, Jane; Rubino, Carl;Bodomo, Adams B.; Faber, Alice; French, Robert (eds.).Facts about the World's Languages: An Encyclopedia of the World's Major Languages, Past and Present.H. W. Wilson Company. p. 256.ISBN978-0-8242-0970-4. Archived fromthe original on 1 October 2016. Retrieved6 June 2022.Family: Ancient Greek is generally taken to be the only representative (though note the existence of different dialects) of the Greek or Hellenic branch of Indo-European. There is some dispute as to whether Ancient Macedonian (the native language of Philip and Alexander), if it has any special affinity to Greek at all, is a dialect within Greek (...) or a sibling language to all of the known Ancient Greek dialects. If the latter view is correct, then Macedonian and Greek would be the two subbranches of a group within Indo-European which could more properly be called Hellenic. Related Languages: As noted above, Ancient Macedonian might be the language most closely related to Greek, perhaps even a dialect of Greek. The slender evidence is open to different interpretations, so that no definitive answer is really possible; but most likely, Ancient Macedonian was not simply an Ancient Greek dialect on a par with Attic or Aeolic (...).
^Michael Meier-Brügger,Indo-European linguistics, Walter de Gruyter, 2003, p.28,on Google books
^abEngels 2010, p. 95: "This [i.e.Pella curse tablet] has been judged to be the most important ancient testimony to substantiate the theory that Macedonian was a north-western Greek and mainly a Doric dialect (...)."
^Dosuna, J. Méndez (2012). "Ancient Macedonian as a Greek dialect: A critical survey on recent work (Greek, English, French, German text)". In Giannakis, Georgios K. (ed.).Ancient Macedonia: Language, History, Culture. Centre for Greek Language. p. 145.ISBN978-960-7779-52-6.
^Babiniotis, Georgios (2014)."Ancient Macedonian: A case study".Macedonian Studies Journal.1 (1). Australia: 7.On all levels (phonological, grammatical and lexical) common structural features of Macedonian and Doric lead us to classify Macedonian within the Doric, especially the Northwestern group of Doric dialects.
^Sowa, Wojciech (2007). "A note on Macedonian ἄλιζα".Greek and Latin from an Indo-European Perspective. Vol. 32. Cambridge Philological Society. p. 182.ISBN978-0-906014-31-8.Nowadays, ancient Macedonian is treated as one of the dialects of Greek, originally of Aeolic provenance, with strong influences from the north-western dialects as well as from the non-Greek languages of the northern Balkans. The inscription from Pella published by Dubois in 1995, considered to be the first native epigraphic monument of Macedonian, seems to confirm such an assumption (cf. the use of characteristic Dorisms, e.g. the preservation of the long /a:/, οποκα 'as soon as' with an optative and τελος in the meaning of γάμος 'marriage'). Unfortunately, owing to the lack of other epigraphical or literary evidence, we are left with glosses as our chief testimony of the vernacular speech of the region. This group of c. 150 lexemes comprises forms which are obviously Greek (of Attic origin), Macedonianhapax legomena, and forms which 'have Greek cognates, but differ from them in their phonemic shape to an extent which goes far beyond the limits of dialectal variation in ancient Greek' (Katičić (1976) 111). It seems, however, that many of these Macedonian features can be explained also within the frames of Greek dialectology; in particular, there are interesting links between Macedonian and Thessalian vocabulary (García Ramón (2004) 236 n. 2, 242, 253; Sowa (2006) 118).
^Sowa, Wojciech (2018).Studies in Greek Lexicography. De Gruyter. pp. 189–190.ISBN978-3-11-062274-4.Such an assumption would certainly agree with certain current views on the status of Ancient Macedonian, according to which it should be interpreted as a Greek dialect of Northwest provenance which absorbed non-Greek elements (Brixhe/Panayotou 1994, 205–220), or perhaps of an Aeolic provenance, with strong influences from the northwestern dialectal area as well as from the non-Greek languages of the Northern Balkans (e.g. Peters 2000, 383) – an assumption which seems to be supported by the analysis of the material yielded by ancient literary sources. Cf. also the claims of classical historians such as Hammond, that "the Macedonians from Lower Macedonian spoke an Aeolic dialect, those from Upper Macedonia a "north-western" Greek dialect" (Hammond 1994, 131–134).
^abSowa, Wojciech (2022)."Macedonian glosses and their Balkan context: the linguistic assessment of the secondary evidence".In recent scholarship, however, especially in dialectology of the Ancient Greek, the Macedonian has been interpreted as one of the dialects of Greek (a sort of para-Greek), originally of an Aeolic provenance, with strong influences from the north-western dialectal area as well as from the non-Greek languages of the Northern Balkans. It seems also possible that the inhabitants of the Lower Macedonia spoke an Aeolic dialect, and those from Upper Macedonia a north-western Greek dialect. The inscription from Pella published in 1995, which is the single epichoric monument of Macedonian, seems to verify positively such an assumption, cf. the use of characteristic Dorisms, along with some 'local' features.
^Vladimir Georgiev, "The Genesis of the Balkan Peoples",The Slavonic and East European Review44:103:285–297 (July 1966) "Ancient Macedonian is closely related to Greek, and Macedonian and Greek are descended from a common Greek-Macedonian idiom that was spoken till about the second half of the 3rd millennium BC. From the 4th century BC on began the Hellenization of ancient Macedonian."
^Boufalis, Angelos. "The Epigraphy of Archaic and Classical Macedonia." CHS Research Bulletin 13 (2025). "Several features can be established as local and most of them seem indeed to be shared with the NW Doric and/or the Thessalian dialect (Méndez Dosuna 2014; Hatzopoulos 2018). However, it seems that on the spatially and chronologically sparse available evidence the classification of the 'Macedonian' dialect should probably remain an open question, as there appears to be no uniformity throughout the area. Rather than a monolithic dialect throughout, different local or regional idioms may have had been spoken in this extensive geographical area."https://nrs.harvard.edu/URN-3:HLNC.ESSAY:106297565.
^Hammond 2001, p. 158: "Pelagones in the region of Prilep, the Lyncestae in the region of Florina, the Orestae in the region of Kastoria, and the Elimeotae in the region of Kozani. These tribes were all Epirotic tribes and they talked the Greek language but with a different dialect, the Northwest Greek dialect, as we know now from the local questions which were put to the god of Dodona."
^Greek Questions 292e – Question 9 – Why do Delphians call one of their months Bysios[1].
^Česko-jihoslovenská revue,Volume 4, 1934, p. 187.
^Vit Bubenik (2018). "40. The phonology of Greek". In Fritz, Matthias; Joseph, Brian; Klein, Jared (eds.).Handbook of Comparative and Historical Indo-European Linguistics. De Gruyter Mouton. p. 639.ISBN978-3-11-054036-9.
^Vit Bubenik (2018). "40. The phonology of Greek". In Fritz, Matthias; Joseph, Brian; Klein, Jared (eds.).Handbook of Comparative and Historical Indo-European Linguistics. De Gruyter Mouton. pp. 646–647.ISBN978-3-11-054036-9.
^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. Also proposed by O. Hoffmann and J. Kalleris.
^abA history of ancient Greek: from the beginnings to late antiquity, Maria Chritē, Maria Arapopoulou, Cambridge University Press (2007), pp. 439–441
^Eric Lhote (2006) Les lamelles Oraculaires de Dodone. Droz, Geneve.
^Roberts, E.S., An Introduction to Greek Epigraphy vol. 1 no. 237
^Greek Personal Names: Their Value as Evidence,Elaine Matthews, Simon Hornblower, Peter Marshall Fraser, British Academy, Oxford University Press (2000), p. 103
^"...but we may tentatively conclude that Macedonian is a dialect related to North-West Greek.", Olivier Masson, French linguist, "Oxford Classical Dictionary: Macedonian Language", 1996.
^J. P. Mallory & D.Q Adams –Encyclopedia of Indo-European culture, Chicago-London: Fitzroy Dearborn. pp. 361.ISBN1-884964-98-2
^Les anciens Macedoniens. Etude linguistique et historique by J. N. Kalleris
^Curtius Rufus, Quintus; Curtius Rufus, Quintus (2004). Yardley, John (ed.).The history of Alexander. Penguin classics (Repr. with updated bibliography ed.). London: Penguin Books. 6.9.34–6.9.36, 6.10.23.ISBN978-0-14-044412-4.
^Engels 2010, p. 95: "Philotas is mocked in the Assembly of Macedonians for not speaking in Macedonian."
^Bosworth, A. Brian (1978). "Eumenes, Neoptolemus and PSI XII 1284".GRBS.19:227–237.
^George Babiniotis (1992) The question of mediae in ancient Macedonian Greek reconsidered. In: Historical Philology: Greek, Latin, and Romance, Bela Brogyanyi, Reiner Lipp, 1992 John Benjamins Publishing)
Chadwick, John,The Prehistory of the Greek Language. Cambridge, 1963.
Crossland, R. A., "The Language of the Macedonians",Cambridge Ancient History, vol. 3, part 1, Cambridge 1982.
Hammond, Nicholas G.L., "Literary Evidence for Macedonian Speech",Historia: Zeitschrift für Alte Geschichte, Vol. 43, No. 2. (1994), pp. 131–142.
Hatzopoulos, M. B. "Le Macédonien: Nouvelles données et théories nouvelles",Ancient Macedonia, Sixth International Symposium, vol. 1. Institute for Balkan Studies, 1999.
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