It is a well-documented phenomenon in psycholinguistics that, under conditions of extreme emotional arousal—whether sudden rage or acute physical pain—a speaker reverts to their mother tongue, often involuntarily. Historical evidence demonstrates that this linguistic reflex can have concrete consequences. For instance, an intelligence agent during the First World War was reportedly exposed precisely because, in the throes of labor, she spoke in her native language rather than the language of her operational environment. Pain, in this context, acts as an unmediated conduit for identity, stripping away learned or imposed linguistic behavior. Plutarch’s account of Alexander the Great provides a compelling historical illustration of this principle. When, in a moment of uncontrollable anger, Alexander struck Cleitus, he reportedly called out “in Macedonian. Such an observation is not a mere anecdotal flourish; it is indicative of a broader linguistic truth: under extreme emotional duress, e...
By Γιώργος Μίχας (Geórgios Míchas) ARVANITIC, THE LANGUAGE OF THE ANCIENT MACEDONIANS Plutarch tells us that Alexander the Great, after killing Cleitus in a moment of drunken rage, called out to his guards “in Macedonian.” This statement has been known for centuries. It is clear. It is explicit. And yet it is systematically neutralized, relativized, or explained away—because it is inconvenient. If “Macedonian” were simply Greek, Plutarch’s remark would be meaningless. Authors do not specify a language unless there is a contrast. No one writes that a man shouted “in Greek” when Greek is the only language in the room. The very need to name Macedonian presupposes linguistic difference. This is not an interpretation; it is elementary logic. So the question is unavoidable: what was this Macedonian language? It could not have been Slavic. This should not even be a subject of discussion, yet it is endlessly recycled. Slavs appear in the Balkans roughly a millennium after Alexander. To project...