Was Macedonian a Greek Dialect? 🇬🇷

Did Alexander the Great speak Greek natively? Was the Macedonian language a dialect of Classical Greek like Attic and Doric, or was it a different language entirely? Let's take a look at one of the most important pieces of evidence discovered in the last century that gives us a very clear answer!

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Sources: see below.

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Intro and outro music: Overture of Die Zauberflöte (The Magic Flute) by Mozart

SOURCES

Greek: A History of the Language and its People, by Geoffrey Horrocks

Livy, The History of Rome, 31.29.15

Michael Meier-Brügger, Indo-European linguistics, Walter de Gruyter, 2003, p.28

Hatzopoulos, Miltiades B. (2020). "The speech of the ancient Macedonians". Ancient Macedonia.

Masson, Olivier (2003). "[Ancient] Macedonian language". In Hornblower, Simon; Spawforth, Antony (eds.).

Roisman, Worthington, 2010, "A Companion to Ancient Macedonia", Chapter 5: Johannes Engels, "Macedonians and Greeks", p. 95:"This (i.e. Pella curse tablet) has been judged to be the most important ancient testimony to substantiate 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)"

#greek #macedonian #alexanderthegreat

[polyMATHY_Luke]

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[nikoking]

We have a lot of examples of Greeks lobbing charges of being "barbarians" at each other. Athenians even accused eachother of that.

[stevied]

Only Greeks could participate in the Ancient Greek Olympics. Macedonians participated in the Ancient Greek Olympics. Therefore, Macedonians were Greek.

[JohnyTanguero]

As a native modern Greek, and having been brought up with the Demotiki language and pronunciation, I find it sometimes very difficult to understand older people from Thessaly when they speak with a heavy accent. And when Demosthenes called those "tall guys" (Makednos) from up north barbarians, I guess it was meant more like "hillbillies" rather than the literal meaning of the word. Χαίρε και υγίαινε!!

[parisstylianou]

Am from the island of Cyprus, we speak the cyprus dialect which it origins from the ancient greek with some words that a remnants from the colonization of other nations on the island . If i speaknto a greek from Athens for example with heavy cypriot accent he will only understand 60% of what am saying but i speak to someone from the islands of Rodos or Crete they will undrstand me 99%

[GSP]

To the fellow Greeks who got clickbaited, no worries, YES the Macedonians were a northern Greek people and YES they spoke a rough but intelligible dialect of Greek. The overwhelming majority of archaeological evidence supports that, and as far as Demosthenes is concerned, the words of one of their Athenian sworn enemies should be taken with a huge grain of salt. That's all.

[olgaolga]

There is not such a language.
The real Macedonians were Greeks. They spoke the ancient greek language.
Our stupid politicians created this non- existent language.

[bernanners]

It’s so fun seeing someone walk around my home city talking about Greek where my Greek family moved to when they came here in the 70s

[Alex-mnfb]

A lot of Greeks did not speak the same dialect as the later standardized Koine (Common) Greek, derived from the Attic dialect, which is why the standardized version was needed and ended up so popular and widespread. Ancient Macedonian was definitely a version of Ancient Greek, their names and words have clear Greek based origin and etymology. Much love to beautiful and immortal Greece from Serbia 💙🤍💙🤍💙🤍

[neon-kitty]

I once read that the names of Ptolemaic nobility (who were largely Macedonian) were mostly Doric which would also support the idea that the old Macedonian language was Doric or related to Doric. Apparently it was still spoken among the elites at some Hellenistic courts, at least during the early Hellenistic period.

[papertoyss]

A modern Greek can read and almost fully understand the text on the Pella Curse Tablet. None can beat this.
Thank you polýMATHY.

[manos]

7:00 In modern day Greece, there are at least 5 dialects (from Crete to Macedonia) that a non local Greek will be hard pressed to understand the spoken language, so the premise of this video holds true to this day.

[arnorrian]

IF Macedonian was outside the Greek language continuum we would have found evidence for that. Also, love the shirt.

[zoebaggins]

Are you kidding me? Yes it was. Alexander's dynasty was called Argead, which means from Argos. In fact, when Macedonians had to compete in the Olympics, they had to prove their Greekness and they did.

[panosfloyd]

The name Alexander originates from the Greek: Ἀλέξανδρος (Aléxandros; 'defending men'[2] or 'protector of men'). It is a compound of the verb ἀλέξειν (aléxein; 'to ward off, avert, defend')[3] and the noun ἀνήρ (anḗr, genitive: ἀνδρός, andrós; meaning 'man').

Philip, also Phillip, is a male given name, derived from the Greek Φίλιππος (Philippos, lit. "horse-loving" or "fond of horses"[1][2]), from a compound of φίλος (philos, "dear", "loved", "loving") and ἵππος (hippos, "horse").

So, Alexander and his father had both Greek compound names but maybe they were speaking a.... Martian language.Who knows? 🙂

"For me every virtuous foreigner is a Greek and every evil Greek worse than a Barbarian. ”
--- Alexander the Great ---


I liked that "bar bar bar" part 😂

[valmarsiglia]

Even with my limited Ancient Greek I was able to make out a fair amount of the Pella Curse Tablet.

[deniszt.]

5:42 As you say, the term “barbarian” did mean foreigner and/or non Greek-speaking, indeed. However, word meanings have all sorts of nuances. Thus, “barbarian” also came to mean uneducated, primitive, less developed in matters of language and culture compared to what was perceived as the norm. As such, it could—and indeed was—used for Greek peoples too, especially those who lived at the frontiers of the Greek world and couldn’t rival the erudition of classical Athens. Remember, the Greek world was an amalgamation of ethnic groups (Ionians, Dorians, Aeolians) with all sorts of dialects, local customs and history, geopolitical affiliations and government systems—not a nation-state. Macedonians were not unique in this regard.

οἱ δὲ Θρᾷκες καὶ Ἰλλυριοὶ καὶ Ἠπειρῶται καὶ μέχρι νῦν ἐν πλευραῖς εἰσιν: ἔτι μέντοι μᾶλλον πρότερον ἢ νῦν, ὅπου γε καὶ τῆς ἐν τῷ παρόντι Ἑλλάδος ἀναντιλέκτως οὔσης τὴν πολλὴν οἱ βάρβαροι ἔχουσι, Μακεδονίαν μὲν Θρᾷκες καί τινα μέρη τῆς Θετταλίας, Ἀκαρνανίας δὲ καὶ Αἰτωλίας τὰ ἄνω Θεσπρωτοὶ καὶ Κασσωπαῖοι καὶ Ἀμφίλοχοι καὶ Μολοττοὶ καὶ Ἀθαμᾶνες, Ἠπειρωτικὰ ἔθνη.

And even to the present day the Thracians, Illyrians, and Epeirotes live on the flanks of the Greeks; indeed most of the country that at the present time is indisputably Greece is held by the barbarians—Macedonia and certain parts of Thessaly by the Thracians, and the parts above Acarnania and Aetolia by the Thesproti, the Cassopaei, the Amphilochi, the Molossi, and the Athamanes—Epeirotic tribes.

Strabo, Geography 7.7.1

As you can see, not only are Greek/Hellenized tribes like the Athamanians are called barbarians, probably for their obscure origin and cultural backwardness (from their part, they identified as Greeks, of course), but Macedonia is listed among the par excellence Greek territories that are partly held by the barbarians, namely Thracians.

[kostasp]

Another Fact... Alexander The Great was a member of the Argead Dynasty which came from Argos in Peloponnese which is even more south than Athens... In Greece... CAPITO?

[aarengraves]

Saying Macedonians are not Greek, its like saying Austrians are not Germanic.

[scotsthistle]

Hope this reaches Luke: In southern Italy there is a very ancient dialect of greek still spoken (Salento and Calabria), grecanico, a variant of greek descendant from the Magna Graecia and the Byzantine times. Maybe grecanico is hundreds if not thousands years old! but now is fighting to survive.