From: karageorgiou@scsuc.ctstateu.edu (Voodoo Man : member XMAK)
Subject: Re: Confusions...
News-Software: VAX/VMS VNEWS 1.41    
Organization: Southern Connecticut State University - Computer Center
Date: Tue, 15 Sep 1992 15:19:00 GMT

In article <BuL58r.41H@gabriel.keele.ac.uk>, cla04@seq1.keele.ac.uk (A.T. Fear) writes...
>From article <14SEP199212590347@scsuc.ctstateu.edu>, by karageorgiou@scsuc.ctstateu.edu (Voodoo Man : member XMAK):
> 
>> 	Question that comes to mind is , after Alexander the Great conquered
>> Asia, the language that was spoken was "KOINI" which was a simplified
>> version of Classic/Greek.
> 
>This is partially true, but don't forget that large amounts of
>Hellenistic Asia continued to use Aramaic as a lingua franca too. I'm
>not sure how this bears on the question at issue though.
> 
> By defualt hte language that a conquering army
>> speaks is not that of the adjutant scholars ( Only a Greek army ever had those
>> :-) but that of the average foot soldier. Does this mean that the average
>> foot soldier of the Macedonian army spoke Greek?
> 
>Well it depends which bit of the army you mean, there seems to have been
>a sharp distinction in Alexander's army between the Greek part and the
>Macedonian part. Of course understanding a language and speaking it are
>rather different things. No doubt Greek was intelligible to the vast
>majority of Macedonian soldiers, but this doesn't mean it was their
>native tongue. All members of the French Foreign Legion can speak
>French, but this tells us nothing about their ethnic background.
>
	Also all members of the foreign legion are NOT french. So you want
more to chew upon. When Philip II conquered (united:-)) Greece was there any
record of his soldiers speaking a different Language ?


>> Of course it does, if it wasn't
>> the case then there would be neither communication nor a Hellinistic period
> 
>I hope this isn't implying that Greek was uniformly spoken across Asia
>in the Hellenistic period and that it was the only lingua franca of the time, because it wasn't. Aramaic was also in common
>use. Communication can take place on several levels and in several
>languages. In this the Hellenistic Empires were different from the
>Roman, or for that matter the British Empire. An interesting piece on
>the reception of Greek Culture in Asia was writing by Fergus Millar in
>Proc. Cambridge Philological Society 209 (1983) I commend it to you. 
> 
> 
>> 	What about the Greeks of constantinopolis that brought the ancient
>> teachings to Europe and caused the Rennaissance? Will you say something
>> about those too?
> 
>Not too keen on saying a lot about periods I don't know much about, but I
>would suggest that Byzantium contain a synthesis of Roman and Greek
>culture rather than being a simple continuation of Greek culture, after
>all the Byzantines styled themselves Rhomaioi not Hellenes. Also of
>course the Arabs had a fair bit to do with the transmission of aspects
>of classical Greek culture too. 
> 
>
	The modern Greeks Still call themselves RWMIOI (romans) the Byzantine
language was Greek and the culture also.Yes the Arabs did transmit some
after they burned the Library of Alexandria,whatever was left over lead
them to their renaissance.

>> As for the name of the Skopjeans. They came to the region at the
>> 6th century A.D. Even if the ancient Macedonians were not Greek which of
>> course is not the case. These people have no right or claim to this name. 
> 
>Well the English arrived in Britain (celtic name) at about the same
>time, yet we think we have a fairly good claim on the name, and I
>suspect this is a pretty widespread view elsewhere too.
> 
> 
	Well after the pogroms they indulged in, nationaly and internationaly
 :-)

>> 	As for the Greekiness of the Macedonians how come they all had 
>> Greek names? Yet something else to chew upon.
> 
> 
>As most English Christian names are Greek or Jewish does this make most
>Englishmen Greeks or Jews? I think not.
> 
	Well if they were speaking the same language, believed in the same gods,
followed the same traditions,had the same names, they could have applied:-).
> 
>Andy

	Another point. True Macedonians wear black, so do 
Cretans,Cypriots,Pontians that are definitely Greek. Something to say on that?

One more time ,You are biased.

Yeian & Eytyxeian
ANgelos Karageorgiou
Peace = Eirini
Newsgroups: soc.culture.greek