Hellenic languages
| Hellenic | |
|---|---|
| Geographic distribution | Greece and the eastern Mediterranean |
| Linguistic classification | Indo-European
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The term Hellenic languages is sometimes used to refer to a branch of the Indo-European language family thought to include Greek and closely related languages. It is used mainly to describe the relationship between Greek proper and Ancient Macedonian, a barely attested extinct variety whose degree of affinity with mainstream Greek is not well known.
Among the modern descendants of ancient Greek, the moribund Tsakonian dialect is sometimes described as a language separate from Modern Greek proper, as it is frequently believed to be a descendant of the ancient Doric dialect rather than the Attic Koine, the ancestor of all other Modern Greek dialects, and because it is not readily intelligible to speakers of standard Modern Greek.(Voegelin and Voegelin 1977).
| Hellenic |
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