What languages did Alexander speak?

[matz]

I've been really intrigued by the words of Charles Bryant-Abrahams for some time:
http://www.prah.net/europaveneta/august ... ti.htm"The passage that caught my eye and that I would bring to the attention of our fellow Augustan, Dr. Jozko +áavli, and his co-authors of Veneti, Prof. Matej Bor and Father Ivan Tomazic, occurs in Anna Panagiotou's study (pp. 187-188), "He Glossa ton Archaion Epigraphon tes Makedonias," "'The Language of the Ancient Inscriptions of Macedonia." I urge Dr. Savli and his colleagues to reexamine the known Macedonian inscriptions -- there are some 6,000 of themthrough the prism of Slovenian diachronic dialectology, ..."So, where are these inscriptions?BTW, besides Ilyrians, Tharcians & Brygians, there were other tribes in the region (Philip's Macedonia) such as Lyncests, Desarets, Pelagons, Peons, Orests, Mygdonians....which according to some all originally came out of the Brygian core. I wonder whether all these spoke Northern dialects of ancient Greek, and if not where would have been the "border" delineating Greek and non-Greek speaking tribes.

[matz]

...in Macedonia (missed the last bit).

[tino]

From my understanding, Charles Bryant-Abrahams is a specialist in Biblical/Jewish Studies, Macedonian Greek does not seem to be his area of expertise. There are indeed many, many inscriptions, yet they do not require a "Slovenian diachronic dialectology"
just a good understanding of ancient Greek.
So, where are these inscriptions?There were it seems many ancient peoples who occupied the Macedonian kingdom. I believe there is no evidence on what these inhabitants spoke. Perhaps time will tell.

[Dikigoros]

Now that's ridiculous: Today's "Macedonian" is a Slavic dialect, rather close to Bulgarian. The "Macedonian" language of Alexander's time was a Hellenic dialect, not too far from Attic, maybe a little more apart than British, and American English, but certainly less than Bavarian, and Prussian German, perhaps rather like Polish, and Ukrainian. Therefore, "Koine" was just the lingua franca spoken between Alexander's soldiers who came from all Hellenic tribes. But I reckon that Alexandros might have spoken at least a little Persian, too.

[Link]

what you wrote is ridiculously hellenocentric. typical.59075Toubias to Apollonios, greeting. As you wrote to me to send [gifts for the king in the] month of [Xandikos], I have sent on the tenth of Xandikos [Aineias] our agent [bringing] two horses, six dogs, one wild mule bred from an ass, two white Arab donkeys, two wild mules' foals, one wild ass's foal. They are all tame. I have also sent you the letter which I have written to the king about the gifts, together with a copy for your information. Farewell. Year 29, Xandikos 10.Month-Attic-----Delian----Delphic---------MacedonianMAR-Elaphebolion-Galaxion-Theoxenios-----Xandikos