The Ancient Macedonian Language

[Pelister]

“HIDE NOW
PEOPLE, BAD AS DOGS
WHO COME DISGUISED,
ARE COMING AGAIN.”

The clay plate, according to Marija Gimbutas, dates back to c.5000 BC. According to Bulgarian archaeologists, it dates back to c. 3500 BC.

http://www.unet.com.mk/ancient-macedonians-part2/spomenici11-e.htm

Ancient Macedonian !!??

[Pelister]

http://agema-makedonin.blogspot.com/2007/10/athenaeus-deipnosophistae.html

"As we can see, the translations provided by some Authors of Atheneus is not proper. They translate the Quote as "Macedonian Idiom" while in reality Atheneus is refering to "Macedonian speech i.e. language" in Greek μακεδονιζοντας; a participle of of μακεδονιζειν. It is also interesting that the mentioning of the Macedonian language is mentioned on the same level as the Persian language i.e Barbaric langauge influencing the Greek language."

For references, see How the ancient Greeks differentiate the languages of the Peoples.

This to me is the key.

[Soldier of Macedon]

Ancient Macedonian Words and Names

Most of the following names do not appear to be used prior to the reign of the ancient Macedonians, although I haven't researched extensively, so if anybody can shed some more information please do.

• Phillip
• Parmenion
• Attalus
• Nicanor
• Philotas
• Bolon
• Antigonus
• Antioch
• Seleucus
• Cassander
• Lysimachus
• Amyntas
• Berenika
• Alexander (Apparently used alternatively with Paris by Homer)

[Soldier of Macedon]

There was a region in Macedonia called 'Antigonea', which stems from the Greek version of the ancient Macedonian male name 'Antigonus', which is recorded in earlier times as the female name 'Antigone'.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antigonia_(Paeonia)

Antigonia (Greek: Αντιγόνεια) also transliterated as Antigonea and Antigoneia was a Hellenistic city in Paeonia, Macedon, placed in the Peutinger Table between Stena and Stobi. (Scymnus, 631; Pliny iv. 10. s. 17; Ptolemy iii. 13. § 36.)

The region in Macedonia still exists, going by the local name of 'Negotino'. It is interesting how the word appears re-arranged when it is presented in its Macedonian form, particularly due to the fact that the exact same process seems to be followed with the Greek word 'Megalo' when compared to the Macedonian equivalent of 'Golemo'.

Antigonus - Negotino
Megalo - Golemo

[TerraNova]

Most of the following names do not appear to be used prior to the reign of the ancient Macedonians, although I haven't researched extensively, so if anybody can shed some more information please do.

• Phillip
• Parmenion
• Attalus
• Nicanor
• Philotas
• Bolon
• Antigonus
• Antioch
• Seleucus
• Cassander
• Lysimachus
• Amyntas
• Berenika
• Alexander (Apparently used alternatively with Paris by Homer)

Some of them,like Alexander or Cassandra can be found already in Homer.
For the others, possibly they are local Macedonian names.
(with Greek etymology of course)

[Soldier of Macedon]

Greek etymology or mutating words to be Greek sounding exists for literary purposes, it has been done with non-Macedonians also.

Can you tell me the Greek etymology of the name Parmenio(n)?

[TerraNova]

Greek etymology or mutating words to be Greek sounding exists for literary purposes, it has been done with non-Macedonians also.

Can you tell me the Greek etymology of the name Parmenio(n)?

They are Greek names.
Like it or not.

It's the same etymology with this of Parmenion of Mytilene (a Greek island...),the Olympic winner, and of Parmenon the Greek comic actor.

[Soldier of Macedon]

Repeating to yourself that they are 'Greek' hardly makes them so. Greek variants of these names exist and are commonly replicated due to their exposure via literature, but native names also exist for many so-called 'Greek' names.

So Parmenio(n) means nothing in Greek then? Must be another one of the words like Corinth and Athena.

[TerraNova]

So Parmenio(n) means nothing in Greek then? Must be another one of the words like Corinth and Athena.

Ok.
Your conclusion is great.
Corinthians and Athenians were not Greeks then ...

[TerraNova]

I m sure if you dig deeper in Macedonian soil,you ll find some Goran, Zlatko and Stoiko ....

Oh those ancient Macedonians...were identical to you...

[Soldier of Macedon]

Ok.
Your conclusion is great.
Corinthians and Athenians were not Greeks then ...

My conclusion is that the words Corinth and Athena are not Greek by origin nor do they have any etymological meaning in the Greek language. Ok?

I m sure if you dig deeper in Macedonian soil,you ll find some Goran, Zlatko and Stoiko

Probably not in such forms, but as the records are minimal one cannot really say. I can say for certain that there were no Karamans, Karadzaferis, Oglous, Souvlakis, Tzatsikis and Hellenic coffee though

[TerraNova]

My conclusion is that the words Corinth and Athena are not Greek by origin nor do they have any etymological meaning in the Greek language. Ok?

So,what's the surprise?
Some placenames and other words survived in Greece,as they were in the pre-hellenic languages.
Exactly the same about Macedonia,of course. In the sea of Greek names,placenames,words you may find really few that survived from the pre-hellenic languages or are loans.
The sea though remains GREEK.

So..ok the capital of Attica is Athens.

What about the ancient capital of Macedon. AIGAI.
Why does it have a GREEK name ... ?

[Soldier of Macedon]

no suprise, Athena and Corinth are not Greek words by origin nor do they mean anything in the Greek language. Claim what you create and not what you steal you parasite.

[Napoleon]

My conclusion is that the words Corinth and Athena are not Greek by origin nor do they have any etymological meaning in the Greek language.

Exactly SOM, I don't know about 'Corinth', but I do remember reading somewhere that 'Athens' is Semetic (Ata Neith) meaning 'house of the Goddess Neith. This is consistent with Herodotus who said that almost all of the ancient Greek gods were Egyptian and connected Athena directly with Neith.

Most of the following names do not appear to be used prior to the reign of the ancient Macedonians, although I haven't researched extensively, so if anybody can shed some more information please do.

Phillip
Parmenion
Attalus
Nicanor
Philotas
Bolon
Antigonus
Antioch
Seleucus
Cassander
Lysimachus
Amyntas
Berenika
Alexander (Apparently used alternatively with Paris by Homer)

SOM...these names except for one (Bolon) all belong to the Macedonian Royal house or aristocracy. They could either be Greek interpretations of ancient Macedonian names or they could simply just be Greek names which the ancient Macedonians adopted as it is no secret that they admired Greek culture. What we do not have is the ordinarly names used by ordinary Macedonians. It is reasonable to conclude that they might have been similar to the ancient Illyrian names listed below. Replace many of the 'ius' or 'os' endings with 'ic' and you'll find the majority of the ancient Illyrian names listed below are still in use today by Serbs and Croats mostly as surnames.


Adena
Antis
Batina
Bato
Bardurius
Boiken
Breigos
Colatina
Cralus
Creveni
Cursulavia
Dussona
Drigissa
Glavus
Liccaius
Longarus
Madena
Malavicus
Marica
Murco
Oplica
Panes
Panto
Posantio
Pravaius
Verica
Verzo
Zanatis
Zorata
Zupricus

*All from 'The Illyrians' by John Wilkes.

[Soldier of Macedon]

Hi Napoleon,

You are correct on all points. The point about the ancient Macedonian names is that one's such as Phillip ONLY appear during the reign of the Macedonians, which indicates to me that they are more likely to have been native names of the region given a Greek adaptation. In the case of Phillip, this is further strengthened by the existence of the local Thracian placename of Pulpudeva in parallel with Philipopolis, 'Phillip's city'.

As for the Illyrian names, I recall an interesting discussions about them in the past with yourself, I have been re-visiting the book of John Wilkes over the last few weeks and been meaning to add something about the Illyrian language here, if you have anything that pertains to ancient Balkans names as such then post it here if you can, so we can consolidate all of that information in one place.

http://www.macedoniantruth.org/forum/showthread.php?t=703