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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). While according to most traditional classifications, Hellenic contains only Greek as a single language alone in its branch, and is as such equivalent to Greek language the term is also sometimes used to group together Greek proper, as in the Ancient Greek dialects, and the Ancient Macedonian language, and perhaps also the Phrygian language. Greco-Phrygian isn't however normally discussed under "Hellenic" but under the wider Graeco-Armenian hypothesis.

A family under this name has been suggested to group together Greek proper and ancient Macedonian language, which is barely attested and whose degree of relatedness to Greek is not well known.^[1][2] In addition, some linguists make a distinction among the modern descendants of ancient Greeks, distinguishing mainstream modern Greek in a narrow sense from certain other, divergent varieties deemed separate languages on the basis of a lack of mutual intelligibility. Greek linguistics traditionally treats all of these as dialects of a single language.^[3][4][5]

Modern Greek dialects/languages

An entirely different issue is the question of whether Greek should be considered a single language, or a family of several languages. Separate language status is most often posited for Tsakonian,^[6] which is thought to be uniquely a descendant of Doric rather than Attic Greek, followed by Pontic and Cappadocian Greek of Anatolia.^[7] The Griko or Italiot varieties of southern Italy are also not readily intelligible to speakers of standard Greek;^[8] separate status is sometimes also argued for Cypriot, though this is not as easily justified.^[9] In contrast, Yevanic (Jewish Greek) is mutually intelligible with standard Greek but is considered a separate language for ethnic and cultural reasons.^[9]

Suggested Tree of Hellenic Languages

Classification

Hellenic constitutes a branch of the Indo-European language family. The ancient languages which might have been most closely related to it, ancient Macedonian^[10] and Phrygian,^[11] are not well enough documented to permit detailed comparison. Phrygian is sometimes linked instead with Thracian, but with "heavy Greek influence".^[12] Among Indo-European branches with living descendants, Greek is often argued to have the closest genetic ties with Armenian^[13] (see also Graeco-Armenian) and the Indo-Iranian languages^[14] (see Graeco-Aryan).^[15]

See also

• Ancient Greek dialects
• Varieties of Modern Greek

References