Editing Openai/692f079d-f9d8-8002-88e1-85bb3ea56480 (section)

=== Assistant: Below is a clear, evidence-based reply to the claim you provided, written in a calm, scholarly tone and sticking to wha… ===
Below is a clear, evidence-based reply to the claim you provided, written in a calm, scholarly tone and sticking to what mainstream historical-linguistic research actually supports.

==== Reply to the Claim ====

The argument you present combines several ancient passages, but the conclusions drawn from them do not align with how historians, classicists, or historical linguists interpret these sources today.

Here are the key points:

==== 1. “Bilingual barbarians” does not mean Macedonians spoke a non-Greek language ====

Thucydides (4.109) indeed says that some cities on the Athos peninsula were populated by mixed groups—Pelasgians, Bisaltians, Crestonians, Edoni, and some Chalcidians—and that they were bilingual.

But Thucydides is describing the inhabitants of those specific peninsula towns, not Macedonians as a whole.
These people were from Thracian and Pelasgian groups—not ethnic Macedonians.

Nothing in this passage claims that:
* Macedonians were bilingual, or
* Macedonians spoke Pelasgian, or
* Macedonians could not understand other Greeks.

This is a misapplication of the text.

==== 2. Herodotus never says “Greeks are not native to Greece” ====

Herodotus 2.56 says the land that is now called Hellas was once called Pelasgia. This is a very old tradition that the Pelasgians were an earlier population.

But Herodotus does not say that Greeks “came from the Middle East” or were not native.
Herodotus explicitly says (8.144) the Hellenic people were:
* “always speaking the same language”
* “of shared blood”
* “native to the land”

Herodotus’ own view is that Greeks developed in Greece, even if earlier populations existed there.

==== 3. Herodotus 1.57: The Pelasgian language was not Greek — this does NOT make Macedonian Pelasgian ====

Herodotus is speaking about Pelasgians in the remote past, not Macedonians of the Classical period.

Most importantly:
* No ancient author ever says “Macedonians speak Pelasgian.”
* No ancient author ever says Macedonian is Pelasgian.

This link is not made in antiquity; it is a modern invention.

==== 4. Apollodorus: Mythology is not linguistic or ethnographic evidence ====

Mythological genealogy (e.g., Pelasgus → Lycaon → Macedon) is not historical evidence about languages.

Greek writers often gave every people a divine ancestor:
* Dorians from Heracles
* Ionians from Ion
* Aeolians from Aeolus
* Macedonians from Macedon
* Pelasgians from Pelasgus

Mythological descent is not used in scholarship to prove language relationships.

==== 5. Plutarch does NOT say “Greeks could not understand Macedonian” ====

Plutarch (Alexander 51.4) only says:
* Alexander used the Macedonian dialect when angry.

“Dialect” here refers to a Greek dialect.
This is explicitly confirmed by all modern linguistic analysis: Macedonian was a North-Western Greek dialect, close to Doric.

There is no ancient statement that Macedonian was unintelligible to Greeks.

==== 6. Pre-Greek place names do NOT prove Macedonian was non-Greek ====

Many place names in all of Greece (Athens, Corinth, Larissa, Thessaly, Olympia, etc.) are Pre-Greek.

Beekes’ “pre-Greek substrate” refers to Bronze Age languages predating ALL Greeks, not specifically Macedonians.

Having pre-Greek toponyms does not make the later inhabitants non-Greek.

This applies to:
* Macedonia
* Thessaly
* Attica
* The Peloponnese
* Crete
* Euboea

Every part of Greece has pre-Greek names—it says something about pre-Indo-European peoples, not about classical Macedonians.

==== 7. Justin’s description does NOT say Macedonians, Pelasgians, Paeonians, and Bryges spoke “the same language” ====

Justin summarizing older traditions says:
* Early inhabitants were Pelasgians
* The land was called Paeonia
* Bryges lived there at one time

This is simply a list of older populations, not evidence of one language.

He nowhere claims:
* They were all Macedonians
* They spoke Macedonian
* Macedonian ≠ Greek

==== 8. Scholarly consensus: Ancient Macedonian was a Greek dialect ====

Every modern field agrees:
* Historical linguistics
* Epigraphy
* Onomastics
* Ancient testimonies

===== The evidence: =====
* All Macedonian personal names are Greek.
* All royal inscriptions are in Greek.
* Macedonian month names are Greek.
* Linguistic features match North-Western Greek dialects.

Macedonian was not Thracian, not Pelasgian, and not a separate non-Greek language.

==== Conclusion ====

The ancient passages you cite are real, but the interpretation is not consistent with mainstream historical or linguistic research.

===== What the evidence actually supports: =====
* Pelasgians were a pre-Greek people.
* Many pre-Greek place names survived everywhere in Greece, including Macedonia.
* Macedonian was a Greek dialect, not Pelasgian.
* “Bilingual barbarians” in Thucydides refers to mixed Thracian–Pelasgian populations, not to Macedonians.
* No ancient author states Macedonians spoke a non-Greek language.

If you want, I can also provide:

📌 A breakdown of all Macedonian words we have
📌 A full list of ancient testimonies about Macedonian language
📌 A linguistic comparison between Macedonian and Greek

Just tell me!