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Indo-European studies

Hellenic is the branch of the Indo-European language family that includes Greek.^[1] In traditional classifications, Hellenic consists of Greek alone,^[2][3] but some linguists group Greek together with various ancient languages thought to have been closely related, or distinguish varieties of Greek that are distinct enough to be considered separate languages.^[4][5]

Greek and ancient Macedonian

A family under the name "Hellenic" has been suggested to group together Greek proper and the ancient Macedonian language, which is barely attested and whose degree of relatedness to Greek is not well known. The suggestion of a "Hellenic" group with two branches, in this context, represents the idea that Macedonian was not simply a dialect within Greek but a "sibling language" outside the group of Greek varieties proper.^[4][6] Other approaches include Macedonian as a dialect of Greek proper, or as an unclassified Paleo-Balkan language.

Modern Greek languages

In addition, some linguists use the term "Hellenic" to refer to mainstream modern Greek in a narrow sense together with certain other, divergent modern varieties deemed separate languages on the basis of a lack of mutual intelligibility.^[7] Separate language status is most often posited for Tsakonian,^[7] which is thought to be uniquely a descendant of Doric rather than Attic Greek, followed by Pontic and Cappadocian Greek of Anatolia.^[8] The Griko or Italiot varieties of southern Italy are also not readily intelligible to speakers of standard Greek.^[9] Separate status is sometimes also argued for Cypriot, though this is not as easily justified.^[10] In contrast, Yevanic (Jewish Greek) is mutually intelligible with standard Greek but is sometimes considered a separate language for ethnic and cultural reasons.^[10] Greek linguistics traditionally treats all of these as dialects of a single language.^[2][11][12]

Language tree

Classification

Hellenic constitutes a branch of the Indo-European language family. The ancient languages which might have been most closely related to it, ancient Macedonian^[13] and Phrygian,^[14] are not well enough documented to permit detailed comparison. Phrygian is sometimes linked instead with Thracian, but with "heavy Greek influence".^[15] Among Indo-European branches with living descendants, Greek is often argued to have the closest genetic ties with Armenian^[16] (see also Graeco-Armenian) and the Indo-Iranian languages^[17] (see Graeco-Aryan).^[18]

See also

• Ancient Greek dialects
• Varieties of Modern Greek

References