Macedonia (terminology) - Linguistics

Linguistics

As language is one of the elements tied in with national identity, the same disputes that are voiced over demographics are also found in linguistics. There are two main disputes about the use of the word Macedonian to describe a linguistic phenomenon, be it a language or a dialect:

The origins of the Ancient Macedonian language are currently debated. At this time it is not conclusively determined whether the language / dialect was a Greek dialect related to Doric Greek and/or Aeolic Greek dialects among others, a sibling language of ancient Greek forming a Hellenic (i.e. Greco-Macedonian) supergroup, or viewed as an Indo-European language which is a close cousin to Greek (and perhaps somewhat related to Thracian and/or Phrygian languages). The scientific community generally agrees that, although sources are available (e.g. Hesychius' lexicon, Pella curse tablet) there is no decisive evidence to exclude any of the above hypotheses.

Modern Macedonian language,N- a south Slavic language, is unrelated to the Ancient Macedonian language. It is currently the subject of two major disputes. The first is over the name (alternative ways of referring to this language can be found in the terminology by group section and in the article Macedonian language naming dispute). The second dispute is over the existence of a Macedonian language distinct from Bulgarian, the denial of which is a position supported by nationalist groups, Bulgarian and other linguists and also by many ordinary Bulgarians.

Macedonian is also the name of a dialect of Modern Greek, a language of the Indo-European family. Additionally, Macedo-Romanian is an Eastern Romance language, spoken in Southeastern Europe by the Aromanians.