Verbreitung der "griechischen" Schriftsysteme und Dialekte - Update!
Auf unserem Mein-Makedonien.Blog ist dieses Thema ("Sammelsurium" würde es wohl eher treffen) ursprünglich zu finden, und gehört zu den meist gelesenen Artikeln. Deshalb haben wir uns entschlossen das Thema nochmal mit einem Update zu versehen. Das Update ist weiter unten zu finden, viel Spass beim lesen:
Laut der Modernen griechischen Propaganda, "haben Makedonen schon immer griechisch gesprochen", hier werden (seriöse) Quellen aufgezeigt die diese Behauptungen bei der Komplexität der ganzen Thematik um die Sprache der antiken Makedonen, ziemlich Plump erscheinen lassen:
Haarmann H., München (2002)
[...]Das Mazedonische hatte seine größte Verbreitung im 4. Jh. v. Chr. durch die Ausdehnung des mazedonischen Königreichs unter Philipp II. (reg. 359-336 v.Chr.) und seinem Sohn Alexander dem Großen (reg. 336-323 v. Chr.) Das mazedonische Sprachgebiet grenzte damals im Süden an das griechische, im Westen an das illyrische, im Norden an das thrakische und im Osten ebenfalls an dieses oder an phrygisches Gebiet. In welchem sprachverwandtschaftlichem Verhältnis das Mazedonische zum Altgriechischen stand, ist nicht genau bekannt. Dies liegt in erster Linie an der spärlichen Überlieferung. Das Mazedonische wurde nicht geschrieben. Amts- und Bildungssprache des Königreichs Makedonien war das attische Griechisch. In griechische Quellen sind mazedonische Orts- und Personennamen überliefert, außerdem wenige Einzelwörter. Die Lautstruktur des Mazedonischen wich deutlich von der des Griechischem ab. (vgl. mazedon. danos `Tod´ vs. griech. thanatos `dass´). Es gibt auch mazedonische Wörter, die keine Parallelen im griechischen Wortschatz haben und deren Herkunft obskur bleibt.
Universität Frankfurt:
edited by Anna Giacalone Ramat and Paul Ramat, 1998
Seite 230
Wikipedia:
Verbreitungsgebiet der altgriechischen Dialekte um 400 v.Chr.
Als Vergleich eine Karte über eine spätere Epoche:
Distribution of Greek dialects during the late Byzantine Emptire, 12-15th centuries.
Description:
yellow, late Byzantine Koine Greek, which formed the foundation of Modern Greek;
orange, Pontic Greek;
green, Cappadocian Greek.
Zitate aus antike Quellen, Überlieferungen, etc.:
The episode of the trial of Filota in 330 BC, he decided to speak on helenic for the need to be coprehended by those who are not Macedonians.
Quintus Curtius Rufus
IV. 33-36
On the feast in Marakanda in 328 BC during the quarrel between Alexander and Kleitos, Alexander called for his body guards in Macedonian.
Plutarchus
Alexander 51
The Macedonian soldiers bid farewell to Alexander on Macedonian language.
Pseudo-Call
V. 32. 13.
The soldiers on Macedonian language saluted the general Eumen who by descent was a Helen. That same Eumen when was needed to send emissary at the Macedonian Neoptolem in 321 BC, the task entrusted to Kseonija whose mother language was Macedonian.
Plutarchus
Alexander. 51.
Atenai speaking about the bilingualism upon the citizens of Athens, said that many of them were speaking on Macedonian because of the merging and amalgamation after the Corinthian Treaty and the Universal Peace. Quintus Curtius Rufus also states that the ?acedonians had the need of a translator to understand the helenic language.
Athen. III. 121
Quintus Curtuis Rufus VI. II. 4
In one occasion the Messenians upon the clothes and barbaric language coprehended that they were fighting aganist Macedonians and not Lakeidaimonians.
Paus.
IV. 29
One information at Tit Livi obviously taken from the act of Thucydides, states that the Macedonians spoke on a similar barbaric language as the Aetolians and Akarnaneans. The same thing was stated by Thucydides who also wrote that the language of the Aetolians was barbaric and inexplicable for the Helens.
Liv. XXXI. 29
Thuc. III. 94
Some called it Macedonia the region that stretches as far as Corcyra, because of the people from those parts have exploited similar language dialects, clothes, beliefs, hair-cuts, etc, things which were barbaric for the Helens.
Strab.
VII. 7. 8.
The language of the Macedonians and Epirians was barbaric for the Helens.
Strab. IX. 434
Polyb. XVIII. 47. 6.
I know too, of many Attic writers who use idioms of the Macedonians as a result of intercourse with them.
Athen. Deipnosophistae, III. 121-122
If the modern Greeks want to deny the ancient Macedonians their spoken language, then, they need to rewrite the history to suit their version.
[1] Quintus Curtius Rufus "The History of Alexander"
"Alexander the Great speaks in front of the Macedones of his army: "The Macedonians are going to judge your case," he said. "Please state whether you will use your native language before them."
Philotas: "Besides the Macedonians, there are many present who, I think, will find what I am going to say easier to understand if I use the language you yourself have been using, your purpose, I believe, being only to enable more people to understand you."
Then the king said: "Do you see how offensive Philotas find even his native language? He alone feels an aversion to learning it. But let him speak as he pleases - only remember he as contemptuous of our way of life as he is of our language". [p.138]
This is Alexander himself talking about "our way of life" and "our language""Macedonians are going to judge your case" There is no need for any explanation.
[2] Eugene Borza. "The lesson is clear: the use of the Greek language as a form of written expression does not by itself identify the ethnicity of a culture". ("In the Shadow of Olympus -The Emergence of Macedon", p. 94.)
"As the Macedonians settled the region following the expulsion of existing peoples, theyprobably introduced their own customs and language(s); there is no evidence that theyadapted any existing language, even though they were now in contact with neighboringpopulations who spoke a variety of Greek and non-Greek tongues."
"Hammond's firm conclusion that the Macedonian spoke a distinctive dialect of Aeolic Greek is unconvincing to me, resting as it does on an interpretation of a bit of myth quoted by Hellanicus, who made Aeolus the father of the legendary progenitor Macedon". ("In the Shadow of Olympus" p.92.)
"The handful of surviving genuine Macedonian words - not loan words from a Greek - do not show the changes expected from a Greek dialect. And even had they changed at some point it is unlikely that they would have reverted to their original form". ("In the Shadow of Olympus" p.93.)
"As a question of method: why would an area three hundred miles north of Athens - notcolonized by Athens - used an Attic dialect, unless it were imported? That is, the Atticdialect could hardly be native, and its use is likely part of the process of Hellenization. To put the question differently: if the native language of the Macedonians is Greek, what is its Macedonian dialect?"
"On the matter of language, and despite attempts to make Macedonian a dialect of Greek, one must accept the conclusion of linguist R.A.Crossland in the recent CAH, that an insufficient amount of Macedonian has survived to know what language it was".
[3] Earnst Badian "Stadies in the History of Art vol. 10: Macedonia and Greece In Late Classical and Early Hellenistic Times"
Regarding the Cleitus' episode, Ernst Badian writes: "He used the only language in which his guards could be addressed".. [Note: The guards could be addressed in Macedonian language.]
Episode #2. Eumenes of Cardia. In 321 B.C., Greek commander Ambiance, with cavalry and light arms only, faced the Macedonian noble, Neoptholemus, with the Macedonian phalanx. To avoid battle Xennias, a man whose speech was Macedonian, was sent by Eumenes to negotiate with the commander of the phalanx. Badian analyzes:
"Now, Xennias' name at once shows him to be a Macedonian. Since he was in Ambiance entourage he was presumably a Macedonian of superior status, who spoke both standard Greek and his native language. He was the man who could be trusted to transmit Ambiance' message. This clearly shows that the phalanx had to be addressed in Macedonian, if one wanted to be sure (as Ambiance certainly did) that they would understand. And almost equally interesting - he did not address them himself, as he and other commanders normally address soldiers who understood them, nor did he sent a Greek. The suggestion is surely that Macedonian was the language of the infantry and that Greek was a difficult, indeed a foreign language to them. We may thus take it as certain that, when Alexander used Macedonian in addressing his guards, that too was because it was their normal language, and because (like Ambiance) he had to be sure he would be understood".
[4] Ulrich Wilcken in his book 'Alexander the Great' on p.22 notes that "linguistic science has at its disposal a very limited quantity of Macedonian words"
[Wilken mentions Macedonian and not Greek words]
[5] "The Tumult and the Shouting: Two Interpretations of the Cleitus Episode", (published by APA in The Ancient History Bulletin, Vol. 10, number 1, 1996)
[I will not endeavor myself with "their" Hammond-Bosworth fight, for obvious reasons. What I will do, however, is lift certain references where these giants, specifically, deal/address the ancient Macedonian language in question.]
[6] p.20, line 23. "Alexander shouted out in Macedonian, and called the hypaspists in Macedonian".
[7] p.25, line 4. "In my view", writes Bosworth, " there is nothing at all surprising in the use of Macedonian. Alexander was calling his hypaspists, who were Macedonians, and headdressed them in their native language/dialect. In Hammond's view, however, the hypaspists would normally have been addressed in standard Greek. Macedonian proper he restricts to the people of the old kingdom, Lower Macedonian, while the tribes of the mountain districts of Pindus (Upper Macedonia) spoke a dialect of West Greek. The evidence for this hypothesis is decidedly tenuous."
[8] p.25 elaboration: Bosworth cont. "I deliberately refrain from adopting any position on the linguistic status of ancient Macedonians. It has little significance outside the nationalistic propaganda of the contemporary Balkan states, in which prejudice and dogma do duty for rational thought. What matters for the present argument is the fact, explicit in Curtius, that Macedonian was largely unintelligible to non-Macedonians. Macedonians might understand Greek, and some Greek (like Eumenes) with experience of Macedon might speak Macedonian. However, even Eumenes took care that a vital message was conveyed to the phalangites of Neoptholemus by a man fluent in Macedonian."
[9] p.30, line 28, we find the final statement by Bosworth: "He used Macedonian because the troops would instantly understand and (he expected) would react immediately. There is no need for more complicated explanation."
CONCLUSION
It should be no surprise that Alexander introduced the standard koine Greek language for his multi-ethnic empire. For that Greek language was already the only international language on which the people in antiquity communicated prior to the Macedonian conquest (just like English is international language today). The Macedonians were smart enough to keep this international Greek language for the Persians, Egyptians, Jews, and all the nations of his empire to communicate. Forcing all those people to learn now a new foreign Macedonian language (or any other one) would have only provoked an additional hatred and multi-ethnic resistance for the Macedonian occupation of Asia, Egypt, and Greece, which the Macedonians did not wanted to face. Unlike the Roman Empire, there was no single powerful centralized Macedonian Empire, but three main Macedonian kingdoms (Macedonia, Asia, Egypt) which were in conflict occasionally among each other, and the Macedonians needed such language standardization to help them maintain their power. That of course, does not mean that although the Macedonians, Persians, Egyptians, Jews, now communicated in Greek, that they all turned into Greeks, just like the African nations did not turn into French and English because of their usage of those two languages to communicate among themselves.
It should be no surprise that Alexander introduced the standard koine Greek language for his multi-ethnic empire. For that Greek language was already the only international language on which the people in antiquity communicated prior to the Macedonian conquest (just like English is international language today). The Macedonians were smart enough to keep this international Greek language for the Persians, Egyptians, Jews, and all the nations of his empire to communicate. Forcing all those people to learn now a new foreign Macedonian language (or any other one) would have only provoked an additional hatred and multi-ethnic resistance for the Macedonian occupation of Asia, Egypt, and Greece, which the Macedonians did not wanted to face. Unlike the Roman Empire, there was no single powerful centralized Macedonian Empire, but three main Macedonian kingdoms (Macedonia, Asia, Egypt) which were in conflict occasionally among each other, and the Macedonians needed such language standardization to help them maintain their power. That of course, does not mean that although the Macedonians, Persians, Egyptians, Jews, now communicated in Greek, that they all turned into Greeks, just like the African nations did not turn into French and English because of their usage of those two languages to communicate among themselves.
What is for certain is that Alexander spoke Macedonian with his own Macedonian troops and used Greek in addressing the Asians and Greeks. After all, the Macedonians were his kinsmen (precisely the way he calls them), not the Greeks. All these sources, both ancient and modern, specifically refer to Macedonian as a language and not as a dialect of Greek,and Alexander himself specifically calls the Macedonian - "our native language". During the trial of Philotas, Alexander himself clearly distinguishes his native Macedonian language from the Greek language which as a second language at the Macedonian court alongside with Macedonian, was used in diplomacy, a fact we found in the Philotas trial (Q. Curtius Rufus).
"What did others say about Macedonians? Here there is a relative abundance of information", writes Borza, "from Arrian, Plutarch (Alexander, Eumenes), Diodorus 17-20, Justin, Curtius Rufus, and Nepos (Eumenes), based upon Greek and Greek-derived Latin sources. It is clear that over a five-century span of writing in two languages representing a variety of historiographical and philosophical positions the ancient writers regarded the Greeks and the Macedonians as two separate and distinct peoples whose relationship was marked by considerable antipathy, if not outright hostility."
The conclusion is thus complete – ancient Macedonian was a separate Indo-European language, different from ancient Greek, just like the Macedonians were a separate nation different from the ancient Greek nation, and the claim that Macedonian was a "dialect of Greek" and that "Macedonians were Greeks", a claim that today is supported only by the modern Greeks and only out of political reasons, is absurd and ridiculous.
UPDATE
“The Ancient Languages Of Europe”
by Roger D. Woodward, 2008, published by Cambridge University Press.
Summary:
This book, derived from the acclaimed Cambridge Encyclopedia of the World’s Ancient Languages, describes the ancient languages of Europe, for the convenience of students and specialists working in that area. Each chapter of the work focuses on an individual language or, in some instances, a set of closely related varieties of a language. Providing a full descriptive presentation, each of these chapters examines the writing system(s), phonology, morphology, syntax and lexicon of that language, and places the language within its proper linguistic and historical context. The volume brings together an international array of scholars, each a leading specialist in ancient language study. While designed primarily for scholars and students of linguistics, this work will prove invaluable to all whose studies take them into the realm of ancient language.
by Tentov
The Macedonian public knows very little about the dozens of historians that have described the history of ancient Macedonia in detail, and other states as well. Some are contained in written manuscripts, but these material proofs are not readily accessible to today’s reader. Unlike many numerous works by ancient authors, Greek and others, these manuscripts are not found on the internet, nor are they easily found in libraries.
However, a good portion of original historical materials, written by ancient Macedonian historians, have been found in the private collection of the German professor, Felix Jacoby (1876 – 1959). A professor of classical philology in Kiel for 30 years, he resumed teaching at Oxford in 1939. During his career, he collected several thousand fragments from texts by ancient writers, most of which have been transmitted by successive authors. Among these are fragments of the writings of 15 ancient Macedonian historians. The Macedonian ethnic identity of these historians is evident by the attachment of the identifier, “The Macedonian”, added to the writer’s name, or by a particular Macedonian topographic name denoting their place of birth.
Today Prof. Jacoby’s collection is accessible in a costly electronic form. Access to this material was made possible when Prof. Maria Kubaiska (in honour of her daughter Emilia Doneva Kubaiska) kindly acquired it and placed it at the disposal of the author of this article.
The initial survey of this material, containing fragments from the lost works of more than 850 ancient historians, clearly reveals the names of 15 Macedonians. Among them are: Marcia from Pela, Kriton of Pieria, Anhang the Macedonian, Antigon the Macedonian, Antioch the Aegean, Antipater the Macedonian, Marcia from Philipi, Phillip from Amphipole, Pole the Aegean, Ptolomy the son of Lag, and others. Prof. Jacoby’s collection contains several hundred additional ancient historians. It is very probable that some of these writers too are ethnic Macedonians, an issue which has yet to be scientifically deciphered, since their names have yet to be ethnically or geographically defined.
Regarding the contents of the lost works by ancient Macedonian historians, we know that Prof. Jacoby carefully compiled them from the preserved fragments of other ancient writers. These fragments provide compelling evidence that most of these writers dealt with the history of ancient Macedonia. For example, the ancient Macedonian historian Marcia from Pela, who is described as a Macedonian aristocrat, is also referred to as the one who created the “most detailed patriotic history of his time” (“The Dictionary of the History of Ideas” Electronic Text Center; University of Virginia Library, 2003).
The upcoming release of these materials to the public will illuminate new findings in Macedonian historiography.
Seite 111. Ausgabe 1, Hermann Kinder and Werner Hilgemann
“The Homeric MACEDONIAN SPEAKING LANGUAGE was increasing and gradually evolving into a more modern language, spreаding and using a distinctive dialect from wich later came russian, polish, chroatian, slovakian, bulgarian, and other tongues, today they are known as slavic languages, based on the MACEDONIAN”.
...he switched from his usual Greek speech to yell at his guards in Macedonian. Later still his soldiers mocked an officer on trial for adressing them in Greek rather than normal Macedonian of the ranks.
Macedonians were known for their odd words and strange pronunciation - they could never quite get Greek sounds right even when they tried...
Macedonians were known for their odd words and strange pronunciation - they could never quite get Greek sounds right even when they tried...
by Mauro Orbini
A Study of Identity in Pre-Nationalist Croatia, Dalmatia, and Slavonia in the Medieval and Early - Modern Periods
John V. A. Fine, Jr.
