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This article is about a Slavic language. For the language spoken in the ancient world, see Ancient Macedonian language.

error: ISO 639 code is required (help) The Macedonian language (Македонски, Makedonski) is a language in the Eastern group of South Slavic languages and is the official language of the Republic of Macedonia. Macedonian is also spoken in Australia, Canada, USA, Greece, Albania, Serbia and Montenegro, Turkey and some European countries. The total number of native Macedonian speakers is estimated around 2 million.

Not to be confused with the ancient Macedonian language (which is, however, a language with disputed origin), the modern, Slavic, Macedonian language is most closely related to the Bulgarian language. Macedonian also has similarities with Serbian, particularly Old Serbian. Bulgarian and Macedonian share typological similarities with Romanian, Greek, and Albanian. These five languages make up the Balkan language league, even though they are all from different language families (Romanian is a Romance language, while Greek and Albanian comprise their own branches in the Indo-European family).

Macedonian is the official language in the Republic of Macedonia, and officially recognized in the District of Korçë in Albania. Native speakers are also found in Serbia and Montenegro, Greece and Albania. Along with Bulgarian, Macedonian is the only Slavic language not to generally use noun cases in quite the same respect as the others. The only case used is vocative, however three different definite articles are used (as suffixes). It should also be noted that only Macedonian contains the three definite articles pertaining to position of the object; all other languages have the basic form.

A modified Cyrillic script, Macedonian Cyrillic with 31 letters, is used for writing.

While the transliteration to Latin script is easy in principle, there is currently a lot of confusion about which standard to use. When Macedonia was part of former Yugoslavia, Macedonian was typically written using the Latin script used for Serbo-Croatian. For example, the Cyrillic letter ж was written as ž. Since then, the use of "zh" or simply "z" has gained currency. Especially problematic is the Cyrillic letter џ, which can be found transliterated into Latin as "dž", "dzh", "dz" or even "x".

Macedonian language is taught as a subject in several of the university centres of the world, and is currently taught in all universities of the former Yugoslavia.

History

Historically speaking, in the recent history there were three branches of Macedonian linguists in the history of Slavic Macedonia. The first one was called the "Bulgarophiles", and it tried to reach the linguistical and political unity with Bulgaria. This group tried, in the 19th century, accompanied by pan-Slavic nationalism, to make the first attempt to resolve the question of linguistic norms in what they considered the Bulgarian-Macedonian diasystem. Bulgarophile writers from Macedonia advocated a common Bulgarian language based on the Slavic dialects in Macedonia or on a compromise between the upper-Bulgarian (northeastern Bulgarian) and the western Macedonian dialects. Writers from northern Bulgaria, however, insisted on the adoption of the northeastern Bulgarian dialect only. The establishment of an autonomous Bulgarian principality north of the Stara Planina led eventually to the adoption of the Eastern literary variant although the preservation of the letters ѣ and ѫ even after the codification of the Bulgarian language in 1899 maintained some differences between eastern Bulgarian and western Bulgarian and Macedonian dialects. At the same time, the Serbian scholars and a considerable number of intellectuals from Macedonia, called the "Serbophiles", considered the Macedonian language merely a southernmost dialect of Serbian language, thus forcing this idea that become prevalent in Vardar Macedonia after the Balkan Wars and World War I. Between the world wars in Serbia Macedonian dialects was treated as a Serbian dialects. Literary Serbo-Croatian was the language of education, media, and public life; even so Macedonian literature was tolerated as a local dialectal folkloristic form. The "Serbophile" idea was later abandoned in favour of the formation of separate Macedonian language in 1945, when the third group of linguists, led by Blaže Koneski, codified the Macedonian literary language. The idea of the separate Macedonian language, which is neither Bulgarian nor Serbian in essence, is called "Macedonism", and it has been official, prevalent and deeply rooted into the minds of the Macedonians ever since. Nowadays, Macedonian shares the similar features both with Serbian (lexical fund, slang, script, melody and accentuation, present tense forms, use of "deeprichastie" etc.) and Bulgarian (lack of cases, definite article, formation of future tense etc.), but also posesses some unique features.

Different political views on the language

Macedonian view

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 St. Cyril and St. Methodius's introduction of Slavic literacy language through the Glagolitic script, that was based on Southern Macedonian dialect from the neighbourhood of Thessaloniki (Solun), the home of the two saints. Later on, Macedonia fell under the reign of Bulgarians, and the Byzantines regarded all Slavic Macedonians as Bulgarians. Samuil's realm in the early Middle Ages was the first Macedonian Slavic state. During the Serbian Empire, the Macedonians embraced the Slavic rule and did not oppose the fact that they were called Serbs, and even started using the name "Serb" among themselves. The Serbian aristocracy was given land in Macedonia, so even the greatest Serbian epic hero, Prince Marko (in Serbian: Kraljević Marko), became king of an independent Macedonia, known as Krale Marko, the greatest epic hero of Macedonians, too. The Turkish rule led to the ban and later dropping of the Serbian name, so the Macedonians once again started to call themselves "Christians" ("Risjani") or "Macedonian Slavs". The Ohrid Archbishops, controlled by the Phanariotic Greek movement, put much efforts to hellenize all the Macedonian Slavs, which almost completely succeded in Aegean Macedonia, where the assimilated Slavs after 1912 became fierce Greek nationalists. The formation of the Bulgarian Exarchate in 1870 spread the Bulgarian propaganda in Eastern Serbia and the whole of Macedonia, and the Bulgarian schools and libraries ("chitalishtes") were open all across Macedonia, forcing the idea of Bulgarian ethnicity of Macedonians and Eastern Serbians. Before the Balkan wars, the situation changed, and Serbian, Greek and Bulgarian propaganda started to prepare the Macedonians to the Partition of Macedonia in 1912-13. After that, thousands of Macedonians fled from Greece to Serbia and Bulgaria, in an attempt not to be hellenized. The assimilation of Macedonians was almost finished in Bulgaria, and the Greek government expelled hundreds of thousands of Slavs from Macedonia, who settled finally in Vardar Macedonia under Yugoslav control, where in 1945, the local language became official, according to the decision made in 1944. Approximately 1/3 of the present inhabitants of Macedonia are the descendents of the Aegean Macedonian refugees. (All references by Krste Misirkov, Za Makedonckite Raboti, 1903). The macedonian point of view also emphasises that assimilated Macedonians live in Pirin Macedonia (Bulgaria) and Aegean Macedonia (Greece) where they have no rights to use their own language. Also, some of the Macedonian nationalists think that the inhabitants of Gora and Kačanik (Serbian province of Kosovo) and Vranje (Central Serbia) should be called Macedonians too. The everyday Macedonian life is full of reminescences to the painful partition of Macedonia in 1912, and a big portion of the population frequently keeps repeating that "Macedonians are Slavs, and Bulgarians are Tataro-Asiatic by origin, so that they have no ethnic connections", which is not entirely corect, having in mind that the relatively small number of Proto-Bulgarians had been assimilated by more numerous Slavs.

Bulgarian view

The Bulgarian insistence on the non-existence of a separate 'Macedonian' language is rooted in their daily experiences. Bulgarians point out that there is no language barrier or room for linguistic misunderstanding when citizens and politicians of the two countries speak to each other - be it colloquially or at academic level. Although it was the first country to recognize the independence of the Republic of Macedonia, Sofia has refused to recognize the existence of a separate Macedonian nation and a separate Macedonian language. Bulgaria argues that the differences are so minor, they can be explained as regional variations and, therefore, that the language of the Macedonians should be regarded as a Bulgarian dialect. According to Bulgarian academics, the contemporary literary language of Macedonia was created after 1945 by Yugoslav linguists who wanted to create a separate Macedonian nationality within the federal republic and thus divide Macedonian Bulgarians from those in Bulgaria. After almost a century of futile attempts to eradicate its perceived Bulgarian character and to Serbianize Macedonia, Yugoslavia had apparently decided to apply the tried Roman maxim "divide and conquer" instead. In codifying the new language, the Yugoslav communists introduced a slight variation of the Cyrillic alphabet and a large number of Serbian lexis; they also did everything possible to create grammatical differences from literary Bulgarian.

Bulgaria also considers that contemporary Macedonian linguists resort to falsifications and deliberate misinterpretations of history and documents in order to further the opinion that there was a consciousness of a separate Macedonian language before that time. The publication in the Republic of Macedonia of the folk song collections Bulgarian Folk Songs by the Miladinov Brothers and Songs of the Macedonian Bulgarians by Serbian archaelogist Verkovic under the "politically correct" titles Collection and Macedonian Folk Songs are some of the examples quoted by the Bulgarians.

Apart from such historical arguments, the supporters of the Bulgarian view often state that the differences between Bulgarian and Macedonian, from an everyday and/or linguistic point of view, are insufficient to justify the recognition of the latter as a separate language. They also argue over about half a million refugees from the region of Macedonia that emigrated to free Bulgaria in the period 1879 to 1944 integrated with minimum effort in Bulgarian society and are indistinguishable from other Bulgarians; in fact, many Bulgarians take pride in having a Macedonian ancestor, the number of people with Macedonian lineage is especially great in the capital (Sofia).To assess the validity of these arguments in a broader perspective, see dialect and the history of Bulgaria.

Serbian view

The Serbian view on the Macedonian language changed over time, according to political climate. In the past, it was essentially the same as the Bulgarian view, just with the terms "Bulgarian" and "Serbian" interchanged. However, with the recognition of Macedonian nation and the breakup of Yugoslavia, the majority of Serbs accepted Macedonian language and national identity as separate from Serbian, and two peoples maintain generally good relations (with the exception of church conflict). A considerable number of linguists sees the Macedonian language as a continuation of Timok-Prizren Serbian dialects (Torlakian dialect) which stretch from the Romanian-Serbian border to the Albanian-Serbian border. By a nationalist extension to this point of view, Macedonian is the southernmost dialect of Serbian. It is indeed very similar to the Serbian dialects of Kosovo, Niš, Vranje or Leskovac, and those dialects share the basic features with Macedonian – the lack of cases, the same vocal system, and are mutually comprehensible. The general point of view in Serbia found among the common people is that "Macedonian is merely Serbian with no cases used" (although the majority recognizes the Macedonian separate identity, which is an apparent paradox), and it expression is used sometimes as a joke (as a "quick model" for learning Macedonian"), and sometimes as a "true fact". To the Bulgarian argument of half a million refugees from Macedonia easily incorporated into Bulgaria, the Serbs usually say that the Great Migration of Serbs from 1690 (led by Partiarch Arsenije Čarnojević) from Kosovo and Macedonia to present-day Vojvodina was in fact the migration of (mostly) Macedonians, who with no effort have been incorporated into the Serbian nation. The number of Serbs in Vojvodina and Northern Serbia (Belgrade, Smederevo, Šabac and Šumadija regions) with Macedonian lineage is, according to the Serbian Orthodox Church birth notes from the 17th century, about 50%. Austrian Emperor Leopold even proclaimed Jovan Monastirlija from Bitola (then Monastir) a Vojvoda (Military chieftain) of the Serbian nation in Austria in 1691. Here's the excerpt proving it: "1667 Emperor Leopold gave some privileges to the Greeks (Graeci) and Serbs (Rasciani) who emigrated toward Northern Hungary and most of them arrived from Macedonia (Praesertim autem ex Macedonia adventum). (Vitković,G. "Glasnik Srpskog učenog društva" (Serbian Academy Herald"),67,1887, pp.128; pp.131)

Greek view

The name of the language is considered offensive by many Greeks, who assert that the ancient Macedonian language is the only "Macedonian language" and that it was a northern Greek dialect. They further argue that, since Slavic immigration to the region did not begin until around 900 years after the decline of the Macedonian Empire, it is historically inaccurate to refer to a Slavic language as Macedonian. In some respects, the arguments correspond to the Bulgarian view, namely that the name 'Macedonian' was created for political reasons after the end of WWII by Tito, in order to consolidate a separate identity for the southernmost Yugoslav Republic and to lay claim over areas of Greek Macedonia and Bulgaria. Most Greeks in Greek Macedonia tend to refer to the language either as ντόπια (dopia = local tongue in Greek) or as "Slavomacedonian" in order to highlight the Slavic nature of the language. There is hardly any reference to a 'Macedonian' language before the 20th century; the Slavic idiom spoken in northern Greece and in geographical Macedonia was referred to as merely "Slavic", from the Slavic settlement until the rise of Bulgarian Empire, then Bulgarian. The Greek autors described the Slavic language in Macedonia like "Slavic" or "Bulgarian" until the 19th Century, when two groups of linguists appeared, using terms "Bulgarian" or "Serbian" to describe their political ambitions (according to the historian Krste Misirkov, in 1903 and his book Za Makedonckite Raboti). The name of the language depended on its speakers and their political attitude, but the formation of the Bulgarian Exarchate in 1870 and its popularity in these regions definitely led some foreign travellers and Greeks to consider all the Slavomacedonians (and a good portion of present Eastern Serbs) as Bulgarians.

Outside of Greece, most international news organizations and language scholars refer to the language as "Macedonian". See Republic of Macedonia for more on the related naming dispute.

Alphabet

The Macedonian alphabet, as any Slavic Cyrillic alphabet, is ultimately based on the Cyrillic alphabet of Saint Cyril and Saint Methodius; it is an adaptation of Vuk Karadžić's phonetic alphabet.

Common Phrases

Classification and related languages

The Bosnian, Serbian, Croatian, Slovenian and Bulgarian languages are related to Macedonian, but they are significantly different, except for Bulgarian which is mutually intelligible, with some difficulties, with Macedonian. They all compose the South Slavic dialect continuum for the Southern branch of the Slavic languages. The exact classification of the Macedonian language is a political issue.

With Serbia's standard language being based a good distance from Macedonia's border, the transitional language linking Macedonian and Bulgarian on the one hand with Serbo-Croat and Slovenian on the other is the Torlakian which is spoken in Northern Macedonia and North-Western Bulgaria and Southern Serbia. The Bulgarian linguists use to emphasise that a lexicological comparison between Macedonian and Bulgarian reveals that roughly 15% of the whole vocabulary of both languages is different, although most words usually exist in the other language with a different or slightly modified meaning. 65% of the words are only differently accented, and 20% are identical. Lexical differences are owing to a great extent to loanwords borrowed by Bulgarian from Russian and by Macedonian from Serbian in the middle and the end of the 20th century. According to them, compared to other languages the statistical differences between Bulgarian and Macedonian are similar to those between Afrikaans and Dutch.

On the other hand, the fact is that the people of Macedonia usually understand better the Southern Serbian dialects or literary Serbian itself, because of the cultural and historical links with Serbia (and they speak Serbian more or less fluently due to historical reasons). The modern slang of Macedonian is usually identical with the Serbian slang, thus increasing the Macedonian-Bulgarian differences.

Nowadays, after some decades of Bulgarian and also Serbian attemps to pronounce Macedonian merely a dialect of their own language, Macedonian is now officially accepted as a language on its own that stands approximately right between Bulgarian and Serbian in features.

Some unique features of the Macedonian language

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The Macedonian language shows some unique characteristics due to its central position in the Balkans. Examples from grammar are the mediative mood and the double object. The mediative is the mood that designs the transmission of thoughts and enounciations which have been pronounced by another person, but the locutor has heard them through rumors or gossip. The -l form is a mood for expression of the metaphoric category. According to the French linguist Claude Hagège, an indigenous North American language, central Pomo, possesses this category.

Another unique phonetic characteristic of Macedonian speech is the permanent short stress falling on the syllable third from last, and gradually moving along each time the word lengthens:

ZAmina (vozot) - (The train) departed; zaMInuvaj - Go from here! (imperative); zamiNUvanje - Departure ; ZaminuVAnjeto - The departure. Even so, this tends not to be the case when the word has entered the language more recently and from a foreign source (chiefly English). Menadžment (Management) is pronounced Me-naj-MENT.

The use of the sound "dz" is also a unique characteristic of the Macedonian language. The unique Macedonian letter written as the latin "S" is associated to that sound. Neither the Bulgarian nor any other Slavic language posseses that characteristic sound and letter (please compare the Misplaced Pages or other published alphabets of Slavic languages).

External links

• Macedonian - English, Greek, Albanian, German, French, Italian translator]
• Ethnologue report for Macedonian
• BBC Education - Languages: Macedonian, Makedonski
• The Macedonian Language
• Macedonian - English Dictionary
• Reading and Pronouncing Macedonian: An Interactive Tutorial
• Otto Kronsteiner. The Collapse of Yugoslavia and the Future Prospects of the Macedonian Literary Language

• UCLA Language materials project
• Krste Misirkov - Za Makedonckite Raboti (Complete text of the book)

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• South Slavic languages
• Languages of the Republic of Macedonia
• Languages of Greece
• Languages of Bulgaria
• Languages of Serbia and Montenegro
• Languages of Albania