| Hellenic | |
|---|---|
| Greek | |
| Geographic distribution: |
Greece, Cyprus, Italy, Anatolia and the Black Sea |
| Linguistic classification: | Indo-European
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| Proto-language: | Proto-Greek |
| Subdivisions: | |
| ISO 639-5: | grk |
Hellenic, as a technical term in historical linguistics, is the branch of the Indo-European language family that includes Greek (in other contexts, "Hellenic" and "Greek" are mostly used as synonyms). According to most traditional classifications, Hellenic contains only Greek as a single language alone in its branch,[1][2] and is as such co-extensive with "Greek". However, the term is also sometimes used to group together Greek proper with closely related languages thought to be distinct enough to constitute separate languages, either in antiquity or among the modern descendants of ancient Greek.
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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 dialects proper.[3][4] Other approaches include Macedonian as a dialect of Greek proper, or as an unclassified Paleo-Balkan language.
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.[5] Separate language status is most often posited for Tsakonian,[5] which is thought to be uniquely a descendant of Doric rather than Attic Greek, followed by Pontic and Cappadocian Greek of Anatolia.[6] The Griko or Italiot varieties of southern Italy are also not readily intelligible to speakers of standard Greek.[7] Separate status is sometimes also argued for Cypriot, though this is not as easily justified.[8] In contrast, Yevanic (Jewish Greek) is mutually intelligible with standard Greek but is considered a separate language for ethnic and cultural reasons.[8] Greek linguistics traditionally treats all of these as dialects of a single language.[1][9][10]
| Hellenic |
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Hellenic constitutes a branch of the Indo-European language family. The ancient languages which might have been most closely related to it, ancient Macedonian[11] and Phrygian,[12] are not well enough documented to permit detailed comparison. Phrygian is sometimes linked instead with Thracian, but with "heavy Greek influence".[13] Among Indo-European branches with living descendants, Greek is often argued to have the closest genetic ties with Armenian[14] (see also Graeco-Armenian) and the Indo-Iranian languages[15] (see Graeco-Aryan).[16]