DORIAN HELLENIC

John M. Akamatis Assistant Professor of Aristotle University of Thessaloniki:

The language being spoken by the Macedonian people was for a long time a fervent topic of multiple discussions & of different approaches. Few scientists like the American professor Borza and his students suggested that all Greek epigraphs found in the great area of Touba belonged to the loyal family relatives, since these tombs are royal-style and hence the language used is naturally Greek since only the royal family and the upper class were hellinizated.
But was this the reality? It is obvious that this argument would fail if we had found Greek scripts originated from common daily people of that time, chronologically dated before the era of Great Alexander (i.e before the mid of 4th century bc)
The early cemetery of Agora in Pella, provided us with the most significant findings such as the tomb shaft of Xanthos, a relatively poor child, dated in the end of 5th century bc. In this tomb a piece of marble was used with the inscription “Ξάνθοs” (the son) / “Δημητρίου” (father’s name) / “Αμαδίκας” (mother’s name) son.
The name of the mother “Αμαδίκας” stems from the Homeric verb “αμά-ω” (αμά = crop) & the Macedonian ending “-δίκα” (instead of the ending “-δίκη” as in the case of the Macedonian name “Ευρυδίκα” instead of “Ευριδίκη” which was used in the rest of Greece).
There were also other findings in Pella cemetery like the two gold leafs with the names of two dead persons. In the one leaf was the name “Ηγησίσκα”, instead of “Ηγησίσκη” (both names stem from the Greek verb “ηγούμαι” = lead) and was the name of a little girl while in the other leaf there was the name of “Φιλοξένα”.
In the same area, archaeologists found also a “κατάδεσμο” which is an inscribed lead foil considered to be by many, as the most important finding in recent years in Macedonia. This script can help decisively all scholars to understand Macedonian dialect, since it is considered the only Macedonian true dialect script representation and belonged to a lower society person. It’s significance is denoted also by its extent and it will be surely a matter of prolonged discussions among linguisticians in the near future.
As can one see from this finding, the Macedonian (dorian) script has a lot of similarities with the attic (Ionian) dialect but it defers from it into the following areas:
1. The letter “α” replaces commonly used letter “η” in Ionian dialect like in the words “Θετίμα” instead of Θετίμη, “γάμαι” instead of “γήμαι”, “έρημα” instead of “έρημη” (deserted) and “κακά” instead of “κακή” (bad)
2. The synezisis of letters “α” and “ο” becomes no longer “ω” but “α”, like “χηράν” instead of “χηρών” (hands)
3. Taking into account the above differences and the particularities found all over the script, imply that this dialect to be originated from NW dorian Greek dialects. This dialect was also the mother language of Great Alexander through which he communicated with his soldiers and it was the prevailing language of ancient Macedonia.
So Pella seems to have become in the last years the epicentre of revelations for the Macedonian life and history in general. It was the capital of the Macedonian kingdom of Phillipos, Great Alexander and their successors and its findings support the assertion of Xenophon that it was the greatest of all Macedonian cities. It was the capital of the biggest, until that time, empire world has ever seen. Their leader’s ingeniousness in politics and military tactics created the Hellenistic world and brought Hellenism to Vaktria and Indian peninsula. This empire established over 70 cities between Mediterranean coasts and India diffusing Greek civilization all over the known world. This empire extension paved also the way for the establishment of the attic dialect as the main communication channel among various civilizations, also enabling afterwards the spread of the roman & west culture to these worlds.
One major & effective component of the Macedonian politics is the existence of a tolerant policy to all occupied civilizations and it was the logic sequence of its previous similar strategy versus their enemies in Greece. Its cosmopolitan spirit replaced the old discriminative pattern that Greeks had towards foreigners, whom they regarded as barbarians. In many cases, this unique administrative pattern (always stemming from Pella) was well ahead from its era, and this open-minded and pioneering policy is considered today as an astonishing phenomenon in world history.
Furthermore, the Pella example does not only provide us with multiple new information about the Makedonian language, religion, customs but also emerges itself as the cradle of modern world way of thinking. Furthermore the citizens of Pella seem to have adopted a more unique language pattern than other Greeks did, despite the different beliefs of some scholars. Almost all their institutions and Gods temples were accessible by all citizens and the sentiment of tolerance and assimilation of different ideas from other civilizations in their world, made them a guideline of today’s human-oriented societies.
Closing let us recall an abstract of the great Athenian rhetorician Isocrates (lived somewhere between 5th & 4th century bc): «Ομολογείται μεν γαρ την
Μακεδονίαν πόλιν αρχαιοτάτην είναι και ελληνικοτάτην και μεγίστην και πάσιν
ανθρώποις ονομαστοτάτην» which translated means that it is widely acceptable that Makedonia is an ancient land, completely Greek and the most widely known among all people!
These words emphasize our great Greek heritage but also our great proportionally responsibility.