The 'Macedonian language' (македонски јазик, ''makedonski jazik'') is a
language in the Eastern group of
South Slavic languages and is the official language of the
Republic of Macedonia. It is also referred to by several
alternative names, many formed with the word Slavic. Macedonian is closely related to and
mutually intelligible with
Standard Bulgarian. It also has some similarities with standard
Serbian and the intermediate
Torlakian and
Shop dialects spoken mostly in southern Serbia and in western Bulgaria (and by speakers in the north and east of Macedonia).
Both Bulgarian and the Macedonian language share
typological similarities with
Romanian,
Greek, and
Albanian. These five languages make up the ''
Balkan sprachbund'', even though the last three are from different language groups (Romanian is a
Romance language, whilst Greek and Albanian each comprise their own separate branches of the
Indo-European family).
Bulgarian and Macedonian are the only
Slavic languages not to use
noun cases (except for the
vocative, and apart from some traces of once living inflections still found scattered throughout the languages). They are also the only Slavic languages with a definite article (Macedonian in fact has three). This last feature is shared with the other languages in the Balkan sprachbund.
Classification and related languages
The Macedonian language belongs to the eastern sub-branch of the South Slavic branch of the
Slavic branch of the
Indo-European family of languages. The closest relative of Macedonian is Bulgarian, spoken in
Bulgaria, parts of the
Republic of Macedonia,
Greece and
Turkey. Bulgarian and Macedonian properly form a
dialect continuum and share a set of grammatical features which set them apart from other Slavic languages, with the Bulgarian standard being based on the more eastern dialects, and the Macedonian standard being based on the more western dialects. Macedonian is
mutually intelligible with
Bulgarian and the
Torlakian dialects, which are spoken in parts of
Bulgaria and
Serbia. Following that, the next closest languages are
Serbian,
Bosnian and
Croatian. Macedonian is also a constituent language of the
Balkan Sprachbund, a group of languages which share grammatical and lexical features based on geographical, rather than genetic proximity.
Geographical distribution
The population of the
Republic of Macedonia was 2,022,547 in
2002, with 1,344,815 speaking Macedonian as the native language . Outside of the Republic, there are Macedonians living in other parts of the
geographical area of Macedonia. There are
ethnic Macedonian minorities in neighbouring
Albania, in
Bulgaria and in
Greece. In Bulgaria the number of people professing the Macedonian language in the last census was 3,518 . In Greece, although groups may be considered to be speaking dialects
heteronomous with standard Macedonian, they do not all identify their language with their national identity. The Slavic speaking minority in Greece varies on how it describes its language - most describe it as
Slavic and proclaim a Greek national identity, although there are smaller groups, some of which describe it as Macedonian and espouse an ethnic Macedonian national identity, and some who describe it as
Bulgarian and espouse a Bulgarian national identity. Some prefer to identify as ''dopii'' and their dialect as ''dopia'' which mean ''local'' or ''indigenous'' in Greek .
A large number of Macedonians live outside the traditional
Macedonian region in the Balkans, with
Australia,
Canada and the
USA having the largest emigrant communities. According to a 1964 estimate, the number of Macedonians living outside of the Republic of Macedonia numbers approximately 580,000 , over 30% of the total population. The Macedonian spoken by communities outside the republic dates back to before the standardisation of the language and retains many dialectic though, overall, mutually intelligible variations.
The Macedonian language has the status of official language only within the
Republic of Macedonia. The language is taught in some universities in
Albania,
Australia,
Canada,
Croatia,
Russia,
Serbia,
United States and the
United Kingdom among other countries.
Dialects
Based on a large group of features, the Macedonian dialects can be divided into Eastern and Western groups (the boundary runs approximately from
Skopje and
Crna Gora along the rivers
Vardar and Crna). In addition, a more detailed classification can be based on the modern reflexes of the Proto-Slavonic reduced vowels ("
yers"), vocalic sonorants and the back nasal (o). That classification distinguishes between the following 5 groups :
Western Dialects:
★ 'Ohrid - Prespa Group' consisting of the Lower Prespa region,
Ohrid,
Struga, Radožda, and Vevčani.
★ 'Debar Group' consisting of the Drimkol - Golobrdo region,
Debar, Mala Reka, Reka,
Gora, and Skopska Crna Gora.
★ 'Polog Group' consisting of
Gostivar (Upper Polog), and
Tetovo (Lower Polog), as well as the entire West Central region (
Prilep,
Kičevo,
Bitola,
Kruševo,
Lerin)
★ 'Kostur - Korcha Group' consisting of
Korcha,
Kostur, and Nestram.
Eastern Dialects:
★ 'Eastern Group' consisting of the entire eastern part of the Macedonian region including the
Kumanovo -
Kriva Palanka,
Štip -
Strumica,
Tikveš -
Mariovo, Maleševo - Pirin, Lower Vardar (
Voden,
Kukush,
Postol,
Solun), and the
Serres -
Nevrokop sub regions.
It must be noted that the
Seres-
Nevrokop group is in fact located mostly outside of the Republic of Macedonia (in Greece and Bulgaria, respectively) and hence its identification as a group of ''Macedonian'' dialects is an especially controversial issue. Bulgarian linguists regard both as East Bulgarian dialects, more specifically as part of a ''Rupski'' dialect group that stretches through Southern
Thrace up to the
Black Sea .
Variation in vowels
The vocalic inventories of the West Central dialects consist of five vowels, . Most of the remaining dialects also have phonemic . In addition, phonemic , , and and vocalic and occur in various dialects.
Most dialects have from original ě (
yat), but the Eastern region is characterised by the development of ě to after : Eastern ''cal'', Western ''cel'' (whole). Besides that, in easternmost
Greek Macedonia and the
Blagoevgrad Province of
Bulgaria ě gives or under stress. In the dialects of Greek Macedonia, this happens regardless of the environment, whereas the dialects of the Blagoevgrad province have (just like standard Bulgarian and its eastern dialects) if there is a back vowel in the following syllable, and if there is a front vowel. For example, 'white' (sing. - plur.) sounds in the following way in these dialects:
Serres-
Drama: - , Suho and Visoka: - , Nevrokop: - . In Korca, ě becomes under stress.
Variation in consonants
As far as consonantal features are concerned, the entire Western region is distinguished from the East by loss of (except
Tetovo, Gora and Korca) and the loss of in the intervocalic position (except Mala Reka and parts of Kostur-Korca): (head) = , (heads) = . The Eastern region preserves (except Tikves-Mariovo and Kumanovo-Kriva Palanka) and intervocalic . The East is also characterised by the development of epenthetic before original where the West has epenthetic : Eastern (''coal'') but Western . The diphonemic reflexes are most characteristic of the dialects of
Greek Macedonia and
Blagoevgrad province, Kostur-Korca and
Ohrid-
Prespa. The
Serres-
Nevrokop dialects have a series of phonemically palatalised consonants.
Variation in word stress and its effects on vowels
The Western dialects generally have fixed stress, antepenultimate in the Republic of Macedonia, and penultimate in
Greece and
Albania. The Eastern region, along with the neighbouring Bulgarian dialects, has various non-fixed stress systems. In Lower Vardar and
Seres-
Nevrokop unstressed are reduced (raised) to . The reduction of unstressed vowels (as well as the aforementioned allophonic palatalisation of consonants) is characteristic of East Bulgarian as opposed to West Bulgarian dialects, so these dialects are regarded by Bulgarian linguists as transitional between East and West Bulgarian ..
Phonology
The phoneme inventory of standard literary Macedonian contains 31
phonemes. These consist of five
vowels, one
semivowel, three
liquid consonants (which are also called "
semivowels" by Lunt 1952) three
nasal consonants, three pairs of
fricatives, two pairs of
affricates, a non-paired voiceless fricative, nine pairs of voiced and unvoiced consonants and four pairs of
stops .
Vowels
In addition, the
schwa may appear in certain dialects or
loanwords.
Consonants
At the end of a word, the voicing opposition is neutralised and all consonants are pronounced as voiceless.
In cases when is
syllabic, the sign ' is used before the letter <р>. For example: 'рж (), за'ржи (), 'рт (), 'рбет (), 'ркулец () etc.
Neither Lunt (1952) nor Friedman (2001) recognise the existence of a palatalised () or palatal () lateral in standard Macedonian. This is in contrast with the surrounding related languages (
Bulgarian,
Serbo-Croatian language). Instead, a sequence is supposed to occur (except in rapid speech). Both of these scholars also assert that there is a phonemic contrast between the
velarised lateral and the nonvelarised . While they admit that and (both written 'л') occur mainly before front and non-front vowels, respectively, they state that, at least in the prescribed norm (Friedman 2001) or in some words (Lunt 1952), (written 'љ') may also occur before non-front vowels. Hence
minimal pairs like бела "white,
feminine" vs беља "trouble" express this contrastiveness.
Word stress
The
word stress in Macedonian is antepenultimate, meaning it falls on the third from last
syllable in words with three or more syllables, and on the first or only syllable in other words. This is sometimes disregarded when the word has entered the language more recently and from a foreign source. For example: ''Meнаџмент'' (Management) is pronounced with the stress falling on the last syllable.
Example: планина ; планината ; планинарите etc.
Further examples include:
★
Disyllabic words are stressed on the second-to-last syllable.
''Examples'': дé-те, мáj-кa, тáт-ко - ''déte, májka, tátko'' (child, mother, father)
★
Trisyllabic and
polysyllabic words are stressed on the third-to-last syllable.
''Examples'': тáт-ко-то, тáт-ков-ци, тат-кóв-ци-те, ма-кé-до-нец - ''tátkoto, tátkovci, tatkóvcite, makédonec'' (the father, fathers, the fathers, Macedonian [nationality, male gender])
Deviations include:
★
Verbal adverbs: викáјќи, одéјќи - vikájki, odéjkji (shouting, walking)
★ Foreign
loanwords: клишé, генéза, литератýра - ''klishé, genéza, literatúra'' (cliché, genesis, literature)
Grammar
Main articles: Macedonian grammar
As with the
Bulgarian grammar, the grammar of Macedonian is markedly
analytic in comparison with other Slavic languages, having lost the common Slavic case system. The Macedonian language shows some special and in some cases unique characteristics due to its central position in the Balkans.
Literary Macedonian is the only South Slavic literary language that has three forms of the definite article, based on the degree of proximity to the speaker, and a past tense formed by means of an
auxiliary verb "to have", followed by a
past passive participle in the
neuter.
Both
double object and mediative (sometimes referred to as ''
renarrative'' or ''admirative'')
mood are also found in the Bulgarian language, although the use of double object is much more restricted in the Bulgarian standard (see also
Bulgarian syntax).
Nouns
Definiteness (article)
The article is postfixed, as in
Bulgarian,
Albanian and
Romanian. One feature that has no parallel in other standard Balkan languages is the existence of three definite articles pertaining to position of the object, ''unspecified'', ''proximate'' (or ''close'') and ''distal'' (or ''distant''). Bulgarian only has the basic (unspecified) form, although three definite article forms also exist in certain Bulgarian dialects, notably the vernaculars of
Tran and parts of the
Rhodopes .
| The definite articles |
|---|
| Gender | Distance | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Unspecified | Close (''this'') | Distant (''that'') |
|---|---|---|
| Masculine (Singular) | -от [-ot] | -ов [-ov] | -он [-on] |
|---|---|---|
| Feminine (Singular) | -та [-ta] | -ва [-va] | -на [-na] |
|---|---|---|
| Neuter (Singular) | -то [-to] | -во [-vo] | -но [-no] |
|---|---|---|
| Masculine and Feminine (Plural) | -те [-te] | -ве [-ve] | -не [-ne] |
|---|---|---|
| Neuter (Plural) | -тa [-ta] | -вa [-va] | -нa [-na] |
|---|---|---|
Examples
★ 'книга' (kniga) - a book
★
★ 'книгата' (knigata) - the book
★
★ 'книгава' (knigava) - this book; the book over here
★
★ 'книгана' (knigana) - that book; the book over there
★ 'книги' (knigi) - books
★
★ 'книгите' (knigite) - the books
★
★ 'книгиве' (knigive) - these books; the books over here
★
★ 'книгине' (knigine) - those books; the books over there
Gender and number
Nouns in Macedonian have
gender -''masculine'', ''feminine'' and ''neuter'' and inflect for number. The gender opposition does not exist in the plural . Adjectives agree in gender and number with the nouns they modify.
Vocative case
The
vocative case is formed by adding the endings -o (usual in feminine nouns), -u (usual in masculine monosyllabic nouns) and -e (usual for masculine polysyllabic nouns). Example: пријател ''priyatel'' (friend) > пријателe ''priyatele'' (O friend!). Compare with other languages in the Balkan sprachbund: Bulgarian: приятел ''priyatel'' - приятелю ''priyatel'u'', Serbo-Croatian: prijatelj/пријатељ - prijatelju/пријатељу, Greek: φίλος ''fílos'' - φίλε ''fíle'', Romanian: prieten - prietene. The vocative is used almost only for singular masculine and feminine nouns.
Pronouns
Personal pronouns (nominative):
| | Singular | Plural |
|---|
| 1st person | јас | ние |
|---|
| 2nd person | ти | виe |
|---|
| 3rd person (M) | тoј | тиe |
|---|
| 3rd person (F) | таа |
|---|
| 3rd person (N) | тоа |
|---|
Verbs
Perfect tense
In Macedonian the
perfect tense is formed by a
clitic which agrees in number and gender with the object of the sentence, followed by има "to have", and the passive participle of the verb in its uninflected form. This is common in
Germanic and
Romance languages, along with other languages in the Balkan Sprachbund, such as
Albanian and
Greek. For example, the sentence "I have read the book" reads:
| Јаc | ја | имам | прочитано | книгата |
| Jas | ja | imam | pročitano | knigata |
| ''I'' | ''it (clitic)'' | ''have'' | ''read'' | ''book-the'' |
In contrast, in other Slavic languages that have the perfect tense, it is almost universally built with the verb "to be" and a past active participle; that is also an option in Macedonian. The older common Slavic form with сум "to be" is predominant in the east of the country, while the form with "to have" is more widespread in the west, but has spread in the younger generations due to the influence of the standard language . The sentence "I have seen" reads:
| 'New perfect' | 'Old perfect' |
| имам видено | сум видел |
| ''imam videno'' | ''sum videl'' |
Being replaced by the new construction, the "old perfect" tends to become an expression of the
renarrative mood (aka ''nonconfirmative status'') in Western Macedonia and in the standard language.
Aorist
The aorist, called in Macedonian either aorist or ''minato opredeleno svršeno vreme'', i.e., past definite complete tense, is a form which refers to a completed action in the past tense. It most often corresponds to the simple past tense in English: I read the book, I wrote the letter, I ate my supper, etc. In contemporary standard Macedonian, the aorist is formed almost exclusively from perfective verbs.
The formation of the aorist for most verbs is not complex, but there are numerous small subcategories which must be learned. While all verbs in the aorist (except ''sum'') take the same endings, there are complexities in the aorist stem vowel and possible consonant alternations.
All verbs (except sum) take the following endings in the aorist:
| jas -v | nie -vme |
| ti -# | vie -vte |
| toj -# | tie -a |
The sign # means that there is a zero ending, i.e., nothing is added after the stem vowel."
Future tense
The future tense is formed by means of the clitic ''ќе'' and an inflected present tense form of the verb. Thus, "I will come" reads:
| ќе | доjдам |
| kje | dojdam |
| will (clitic) | I come (perfective aspect) |
:I will come.
In this respect, both Macedonian and Bulgarian differ from other
Slavic languages. In Macedonian, as in other
Balkan Sprachbund languages (
Bulgarian,
Greek and
Albanian) the clitic is fixed, whereas in
Serbo-Croatian it inflects for person and number . In both cases the clitic is derived from a verb meaning "to want".
Future-in-the-past is expressed by means of the same clitic and a past tense inflected form of the verb:
| ќе | доjдеше |
| kje | dojdeše |
| will (clitic) | he came (imperfective aspect) |
:He would come/he would have come.
In this respect, Macedonian is different from Bulgarian: Macedonian is consistent in the use of ќе as a clitic, whereas the equivalent Bulgarian construction involves the inflection of the clitic for tense, person and number as a regular verb (щях да дойда - št'ah da dojda - I would [have] come; щеше да дойде - šteše da dojde - he would [have] come).
An interesting fact is that a past tense form of the verb can be used in a future sense as well, although this construction is mostly limited to older speakers.
Examples:
Те oтепав, чим ќе те фатам. - Te otepav, čim ќe te fatam. (lit. "I have killed you, when I get you")
Те фатам ли, те казнив. - Te fatam li, te kazniv. (lit. "As soon as I grab you, I have punished you")
Syntax
The canonical
word order of Macedonian is Subject-Verb-Object (SVO).
Vocabulary
As a result of the close relatedness with Bulgarian, Macedonian shares a large percentage of its lexicon with this language. Other languages which have been in positions of power, such as
Serbian,
Turkish and increasingly
English also provide a significant proportion of the
loan words. Prestige languages, such as
Old Church Slavonic and
Russian also provided a lexical source.
During the standardisation process, there was deliberate care taken to try and purify the
lexicon of the language. "Serbisms" and "Bulgarisms", which had become common due to the influence of these languages in the region were rejected in favour of words from native dialects and
archaisms. One example being the word for "event", ''nastan'' which was found in certain examples of folk poetry. The Bulgarian and Serbian words that had been in common use were ''sobitie'' and ''događaj'' respectively. This is not to say that there are no Serbisms or Bulgarisms in the language, but rather they were discouraged on a principle of "seeking native material first" .
Writing system
Main articles: Macedonian alphabet
The Macedonian alphabet, as any Slavic
Cyrillic alphabet, is ultimately based on the Cyrillic alphabet of
Saints Cyril and Methodius; it is an adaptation of
Vuk Karadžić's phonetic alphabet, which is the official alphabet of the Serbian language. It differs from Serbian Cyrillic in the letters
Ќ and
Ѓ (which have distinct
phonetic values from their Serbian counterparts
Ћ and
Ђ), while
Dze (Ѕ, ѕ) is a unique letter preserved from
Old Church Slavonic in Macedonian Cyrillic.
History
Main articles: History of the Macedonian language
The region of
Macedonia and the
Republic of Macedonia are located on the
Balkan peninsula. The
Slavs first came to the Balkan Peninsula in the sixth and seventh centuries CE. In the ninth century, the
Greek Byzantine monks
Saints Cyril and Methodius developed the first writing system for the Slavonic languages. At this time, the Slavic dialects were so close as to make it practical to develop the written language on the dialect of a single region. There is dispute as to the precise region, but it is likely that they were developed in the region around
Thessaloniki.
In the fourteenth century, the Ottoman Turks invaded and conquered most of the Balkans, incorporating Macedonia into the
Ottoman Empire. While the written language, now called
Old Church Slavonic, remained static as a result of Turkish domination, the spoken dialects moved further apart. Only very slight traces of written Macedonian survive from the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.
During the increase of national consciousness in the Balkans, standards for the languages of
Slovenian,
Serbo-Croatian and
Bulgarian were created. As Turkish influence in Macedonia waned, schools were opened up that taught the Bulgarian standard language in areas with significant Bulgarian population. (see
Demographic History of Macedonia)
In 1845 the
Russian scholar
Viktor Grigorovič travelled in the Balkans in order to study the south Slavic dialects of Macedonia. His work announced to the world for the first time the existence of two separate
Bulgarian dialects: Eastern and Western. According to his findings, the Western Bulgarian variety, spoken in Macedonia, was characterized by traces of Old Slavic nasal vowels . It wasn't until the works of
Krste Misirkov that parts of what had been regarded as West Bulgarian dialects were defined as a separate 'Macedonian' language. Misirkov was born in a village near
Pella in
Greek Macedonia. Although literature had been written in the Slavic dialects of Macedonia before, arguably the most important book published in relation to the Macedonian language was Misirkov's ''On Macedonian Matters'', published in 1903. In that book, he argued for the creation of a standard literary Macedonian language from the central dialects of Macedonia which would use a
phonetic orthography.
After the first two Balkan wars, the region of Macedonia was split between Greece, Bulgaria and the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. The
Kingdom of Yugoslavia occupied the area that is currently the Republic of Macedonia incorporating it into the Kingdom as "Southern Serbia". During this time, Yugoslav Macedonia became known as
Vardar Banovina (Vardar province) and the language of public life, education and the church was Serbo-Croatian. In the other two states,
Greece and
Bulgaria, the respective national languages were imposed, in Bulgaria, the local dialects were described as dialects of Bulgarian.
During the
second World War, Yugoslav Macedonia was occupied by the Bulgarians, who were allied with the Axis. The Bulgarian language was reintroduced in schools and
liturgies. The Bulgarians were initially welcomed as "liberators" from Serbian domination. However, as a result of unpopular
assimilation policies, reminiscent of what Serbian practice had been since the
first World War, they were quickly seen as "conquerors".
There were a number of groups fighting the Bulgarian occupying force, some advocating independence and others union with Bulgaria. The eventual outcome was that almost all of
Vardar Banovina (i.e. the areas which geographically became known as
Vardar Macedonia) was incorporated into the
Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia as a constituent
Socialist Republic with the Macedonian language holding official status within both the Federation and Republic. The Macedonian language was proclaimed the official language of the Republic of Macedonia at the First Session of the Assembly for the National Liberation of Macedonia, held on
August 2,
1944. The first official Macedonian grammar was developed by Krume Kepeski. One of the most important contributors in the standardisation of the Macedonian literary language was
Blaže Koneski. The first document written in the literary standard Macedonian language is the first issue of the
Nova Makedonia newspaper in 1944.
Examples
'
Lord's Prayer'
:'Оче наш'
:''Оче наш којшто си на небото,''
:''да се свети името Твое,''
:''да биде кралството Твое,''
:''да биде волјата Твоја,''
:''како на небото, така и на Земјата!''
:''Лебот наш насушен дај ни го денес''
:''и прости ни ги долговите наши''
:''како што им проштеваме и ние''
:''на нашите должници.''
:''И не воведи нè во искушение,''
:''но избави нè од лукавиот.''
:''Амин!''
:'Oče naš'
:''Oče naš, kojšto si na neboto''
:''da se sveti imeto Tvoe,''
:''da bide kralstvoto Tvoe,''
:''da bide voljata Tvoja,''
:''kako na neboto, taka i na Zemjata!''
:''Lebot naš nasušen daj ni go denes''
:''i prosti ni gi dolgovite naši''
:''kako što im proštevame i nie''
:''na našite dolžnici.''
:''I ne vovedi nè vo iskušenie,''
:''no izbavi nè od lukaviot.''
:''Amin!''
Political views on the language
Main articles: Political views on the Macedonian language
As with the issue of
Macedonian ethnicity, the politicians, linguists and common people from Macedonia and neighbouring countries have opposing views about the existence and distinctiveness of the Macedonian language.
According to the Macedonian view, now prevalent and official in the books in Republic of Macedonia, Macedonian was the first official language of the Slavs, thanks to the
Saints Cyril and Methodius's introduction of
Slavic literacy language through the
Glagolitic script, that was based on the Southern Macedonian dialect of
Thessaloniki .
Bulgaria recognised the Macedonian language between 1944 and 1948, the date of the
Tito-Stalin split . This date also coincided with the first references efforts of Bulgarian linguists to the
Serbianisation of the Macedonian language . Although Bulgaria was the first country to recognise the independence of the Republic of Macedonia, it has since refused to recognise the existence of a separate Macedonian nation and a separate Macedonian language. Serbia gradually accepted both, although extreme nationalistic views still exist.
Both Bulgarian and Serbian linguists and nationalist commentators regards Macedonian as merely a dialect of their own respective languages. Although described as being dialects of Bulgarian prior to the establishment of the standard, the current academic consensus outside Bulgaria and Serbia is that Macedonian is an
autonomous language within the South Slavic dialect continuum .
Alternative names
Main articles: Macedonian language naming dispute
Bulgarian
In most sources before WWII, the dialects covered by the modern Macedonian language were referred to as
Bulgarian dialects. This is based on the fact that until
World War II, the
southern Slavonic dialect continuum covering the area of today's
Republic of Macedonia was referred to as Bulgarian by its speakers and by its non-speakers. After WWII the question about the "Macedonian language" was forgotten in the name of the Bulgaro-Yugoslavian ''friendship'' under the pressure of the
Soviet Union
Greece
According to the linguistic publication
Ethnologue, alternative names include 'Macedonian Slavic' and (in Greece) '
Slavic'
[1]. The use of the name ''Macedonian'' for the language is considered offensive by Greeks, who assert that the
ancient Macedonian language is the only "Macedonian language" and that it was a northern Greek dialect. Greeks object to the use of the "Macedonian" name in reference to the modern Slavic language, calling it "Slavomacedonian" (Macedonian: славомакедонски јазик,
Greek: σλαβομακεδονική γλώσσα), a term introduced and accepted by the Slavic-speaking community of northern Greece itself, or "Skopian", which, since the 1990s, are considered pejorative terms by ethnic Macedonians (i.e. people with that national identity). Terms such as 'Slav Macedonian' have also been used.
See also
★
Ausbausprache - Abstandsprache - Dachsprache
★
Balkan linguistic union
★
Bulgarian language
★
Macedonian alphabet
★
Romanisation of Macedonian
★
Slavic language (Greece)
★
Sociolinguistics
★
Torlakian dialect
Notes
# Although the precise number of speakers is unknown, figures of between 1.6 million
[2] and 2-2.5 million have been cited, see Topolinjska (1998) and Friedman (1985). The general academic consensus is that there are approximately 2 million speakers of the Macedonian language, accepting that "it is difficult to determine the total number of speakers of Macedonian due to the official policies of the neighbouring Balkan states and the fluid nature of emigration" (Friedman 1985).
#
Who Are the Macedonians?, , Hugh, Poulton, C. Hurst & Co. Ltd., 1995, 2000, ISBN 0253345987
#
Eurominority
#
Euromosaic
#
Historiography in the Former and New Yugoslavia, , Robert, Stallaerts, , 1999,
#
Three Zones of Social Reconstruction in War-traumatized Societies, , Malvern, Lumsden, , 2003,
#
Romanian and the Balkans: Some Comparative Perspectives, , Brian D., Joseph, , 1999,
# Popis na Naselenie, Domaćinstva i Stanovi vo Republika Makedonija, 2002 - Vkupno naselenie na Republika Makedonija spored majčin jazik.
# Преброяване 2001 - Окончателни резултати - Население към 01.03.2001 г. по области и етническа група
#
Greek Helsinki Monitor - Report about Compliance with the Principles of the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities
# Topolinjska, Z. (1998). "In place of a foreword: facts about the Republic of Macedonia and the Macedonian language" in ''International Journal of the Sociology of Language''. Issue 131. pp. 1-11
# Bernard Comrie and Greville G. Corbett. (2002) ''The Slavonic Languages'' (''p. 247. The Macedonian Language'') (New York: Routledge Publications)
# Стойков, С. (2002) ''Българска диалектология'', 4-то издание. стр. 143, 186. Also
available online.
# ibid. стр. 140, 143.
# Lunt, H. (1952) ''Grammar of the Macedonian Literary Language'' p. 1
# Стойков, С. (2002) ''Българска диалектология'', 4-то издание. стр. 127. Also
available online.
# Friedman, V. (2001) ''Macedonian'' (SEELRC), p.17.
# Friedman, V. (2001) ''Macedonian'' (SEELRC), p.40.
#
Christina E. Kramer (1999), ''Makedonski Jazik'' (The University of Wisconsin Press);
# Tomić, O. (2003) "Genesis of the Balkan Slavic Future Tenses" in ''
Formal Approaches to Slavic Linguistics: The Ottawa Meeting 2003'' (Michigan : Michigan Slavic Publications)
# Friedman, V. (1998) "The implementation of standard Macedonian: problems and results" in ''International Journal of the Sociology of Language''. Issue 131. pp. 31-57
# Lunt, H. (1953) "A Survey of Macedonian Literature" in Harvard Slavic Studies, Vol. 1, pp. 363-396
#
Seriot, P. (1997) "Faut-il que les langues aient un nom? Le cas du macédonien", in Andrée Tabouret-Keller (éd.) ''Le nom des langues. L'enjeu de la nomination des langues'', Vol. 1, pp. 167-190 (Louvain : Peeters) (in
French)
#
Encyclopaedia Britannica - Old Church Slavonic
# Mahon, M. (1998) "The Macedonian question in Bulgaria" in ''
Nations and Nationalism'' Vol. 4, No. 3, pp. 389-407
# Friedman, V. (1998) "The implementation of standard Macedonian: problems and results" in ''International Journal of the Sociology of Language''. Issue 131. pp. 31-57
# Trudgill, P. (1992) "Ausbau sociolinguistics and the perception of language status in contemporary Europe" in ''International Journal of Applied Linguistics''. Vol. 2, No. 2, pp. 167-177
# Although acceptable in the past, current use of this name in reference to both the ethnic group and the language can be considered
pejorative and offensive by ethnic Macedonians. In the past, the Macedonian Slavs in Greece seemed relieved to be acknowledged as "Slavomacedonians". A native of Greek Macedonia, a pioneer of ethnic Macedonian schools in the region and local historian, Pavlos Koufis, says in ''Laografika Florinas kai Kastorias'' (Folklore of Florina and Kastoria), Athens 1996, that, “[During its Panhellenic Meeting in September 1942, the KKE mentioned that it recognises the equality of the ethnic minorities in Greece] the KKE recognised that the Slavophone population was ethnic minority of Slavomacedonians]. This was a term, which the inhabitants of the region accepted with relief. [Because] Slavomacedonians = Slavs+Macedonians. The first section of the term determined their origin and classified them in the great family of the Slav peoples.” The
Greek Helsinki Monitor reports: "... the term Slavomacedonian was introduced and was accepted by the community itself, which at the time had a much more widespread non-Greek Macedonian ethnic consciousness. Unfortunately, according to members of the community, this term was later used by the Greek authorities in a pejorative, discriminatory way; hence the reluctance if not hostility of modern-day Macedonians of Greece (i.e. people with a Macedonian national identity) to accept it."
References/Bibliography
#
Kramer, Christina (2003), ''Macedonian: A Course for Beginning and Intermediate Students.'' Revised and expanded second edition. University of Wisconsin Press. May 2003. ISBN 9780299188047
# Dorian, Nancy, (1992), ''"Investigating Obsolescence: Studies in Language Contraction and Death"'', ISBN 0-521-43757-1
# Friedman, V. (2001) ''Macedonian'' (SEELRC)
# Lunt, H., (1952), ''Grammar of the Macedonian Literary Language'' (Skopje)
External links
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A grammar of Macedonian by Victor Friedman
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Macedonian - English, Greek, Albanian, German, French, Italian translator
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BBC Education - Languages: ''Macedonian, Makedonski''
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The Macedonian Language
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Macedonian - English Dictionary
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Reading and Pronouncing Macedonian: An Interactive Tutorial
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Otto Kronsteiner. The Collapse of Yugoslavia and the Future Prospects of the Macedonian Literary Language
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UCLA Language materials project: Macedonian profile
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Krste Misirkov - Za Makedonckite Raboti (Complete text of the book)
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Nature of Standard Macedonian lanuage by Mladen Srbinovski
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The Macedonian nationality
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