From: Mark Odegard
Message: 545
Date: 1999-12-11
... Phrygian was IMO non-satemic. ... Some member of this group may disagree, but I think both ancient Macedonian and Phrygian should be included in the Hellenic branch -- Macedonian as a close cousin of Greek and Phrygian as a more distant relative. I can't see any real evidence for a "Thraco-Phrygian" cluster.
I've been having a few thoughts in this direction myself.
Some unite Greek and Armenian into a Graeco-Armenian superbranch. Armenian, however, has its own troubles as it's earliest secure attestation is in the 500s CE, and has obviously been through a massive number of changes, not the least being a more than 1,000 year Iranian adstratum that's even bigger and more far-reaching than what we get in English from French; there is an equally massive Urartian substratum. As I understand it, Armenian has also joined the Caucausian sprachbund, which makes its phonology decidedly un-Indo-European looking.
EIEC says Igor Diakonoff looks for the proto-Armenians in the Muski (caron/hacek over s). This term was applied to Phyrgians.
The entry of the proto-Greeks into Greece is hotly debated. The dates run anywhere from ca 2200 down to 1600 BCE. The entry of Armenian/Phyrgian into Anatolia is not stated by my sources, but this was sometime before 1200 BCE, probably earlier. The implication is Armenian-Phrygian entered after Greek.
Macedonian is a mystery. We read how Alexander had to learn proper Greek at Aristotle's knee. And while Greek was the chancery language, you nonetheless wonder just what was the language they were speaking. Likely, it really was a kind of Greek; you'd think Ptolomy or Aristotle or the such would have told us if it wasn't -- and the ancient slanders about how 'Greek' the Macedonians really were would have had considerably more teeth to them.
Mark.