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.34 Modern Greek languages

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 Tsakonian5 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.9110 Language tree Hellenic   Greek   Ionic-Attic 

Standard Modern Greek

Yevanic

Cypriot Greek

Pontic

Crimean Greek (Mariupolitan)

Cappadocian Greek (a mixed language) Romano-Greek (a mixed language) Griko (Doric-influenced) Aeolic (extinct) Arcado-Cypriot (extinct; related to Mycenaean) Pamphylian (extinct) Mycenaean (extinct)  Doric  Tsakonian (Doric-influenced Koine moribund) Ancient Macedonian (extinct) Classification Hellenic constitutes a branch of the Indo-European language family. The ancient languages which might have been most closely related to it ancient Macedonian11 and Phrygian12 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 Armenian14 (see also Graeco-Armenian) and the Indo-Iranian languages15 (see Graeco-Aryan).16 See also Ancient Greek dialects Varieties of Modern Greek References a b Browning (1983) Medieval and Modern Greek Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Joseph Brian D. and Irene Philippaki-Warburton (1987): Modern Greek. London: Routledge p. 1. B. Joseph (2001): "Ancient Greek". In: J. Garry et al. (eds.) Facts about the World's Major Languages: An Encyclopedia of the World's Major Languages Past and Present. (Online Paper) Linguist List a b Mosely Christopher (2007): Encyclopedia of the World's Endangered Languages. London: Routledge p. 232. Ethnologue: Family tree for Greek. N. Nicholas (1999) The Story of Pu: The Grammaticalisation in Space and Time of a Modern Greek Complementiser. PhD Disseration University of Melbourne. p. 482f. (PDF) a b Thorsten Roelcke (2003) Variationstypologie. G. Horrocks (1997) Greek: A History of the Language and its Speakers. London: Longman. P. Trudgill (2002) Ausbau Sociolinguistics and Identity in Greece in: P. Trudgill Sociolinguistic Variation and Change Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. Roger D. Woodard. "Introduction" The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the World's Ancient Languages ed. Roger D. Woodard (2004 Cambridge University Press pp. 1-18) pp. 12-14. Benjamin W. Fortson. Indo-European Language and Culture. Blackwell 2004 p. 405. Johannes Friedrich. Extinct Languages. Philosophical Library 1957 pp. 146-147. Claude Brixhe. "Phrygian" The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the World's Ancient Languages ed. Roger D. Woodard Cambridge University Press 2004 pp. 777-788) p. 780. Benjamin W. Fortson. Indo-European Language and Culture. Blackwell 2004 p. 403. Philip Baldi. An Introduction to the Indo-European Languages. Southern Illinois University Press 1983 p. 167. James Clackson. Indo-European Linguistics: An Introduction. Cambridge University Press 2007 pp. 11-12. Benjamin W. Fortson. Indo-European Language and Culture. Blackwell 2004 p. 181. Henry M. Hoenigswald "Greek" The Indo-European Languages ed. Anna Giacalone Ramat and Paolo Ramat (Routledge 1998 pp. 228-260) p. 228. BBC: Languages across Europe: Greek External links Waterloo Institute for Hellenistic Studies