Abecedar

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 The neutrality of this article is disputed.
Please see the discussion on the talk page.(February 2008)
Please do not remove this message until the dispute is resolved.
Abecedar

The first page of the Abecedar published in 2006 in Thessaloníki.
Country Greece
Language Slavic (1925 edition)
Macedonian, Greek, English (2006 edition)
Publisher Batavia, Thessaloniki
Publication date 1925/2006
Media type Paperback
Pages 96 (1925 edition)
ISBN ISBN 960-89330-0-5 (2006 edition)
Note: "Abecedar" is also the name of the primer (1st grade school book) in Romanian.

The Abecedar was a school book first published in Athens, Greece in 1925. The book became the subject of controversy with Bulgaria and Serbia when cited by Greece as proof it had fulfilled its international obligations towards Slavic-speaking minority, because it had been printed in the Latin alphabet rather than the Cyrillic alphabet used by the Slavic languages of the southern Balkans.

Contents

[edit] First printing and controversy

Following the Treaty of Bucharest in 1913, the southern part of the historic region of Macedonia was annexed by the Kingdom of Greece, of which at that time it consisted a 10% Slavic minority[1] of the region, consisting of 10% of the total population, into the Greek state. Under the 1920 Treaty of Sèvres, Greece opened schools for minority-language children, and in September 1924 Greece agreed to a protocol with Bulgaria to place its Slavic-speaking minority under the protection of the League of Nations. However, the Greek parliament refused to ratify the protocol due to objections from Serbia, considering the Slavic-speakers to be Serbs rather than Bulgarians, and from Greeks who considered the Slavic-speakers to be Slavicized Greeks rather than ethnic Slavs.[2]

The Greek government went ahead with the publication in May 1925 of the Abecedar, described by contemporary Greek writers as a primer for "the children of Slav speakers in Greece ... printed in the Latin script and compiled in the Macedonian dialect." [3] The book was commissioned by the Department for the Education of Foreign-Speakers in the Greek Ministry of Education. It was submitted by the Greek government to the League of Nations to support its assertion that it fulfilled obligations towards the Slavic-speaking minority.[2]

The book's publication sparked controversy in Greek Macedonia, along with Bulgaria and Serbia. The Bulgarians and Serbs objected to the book being printed in Latin, despite the Bulgarian and Serbian languages being written predominately in the Cyrillic alphabet. The Bulgarian representative to the League of Nations criticized it as "incomprehensible."[4] Although some books reached villages in Greek Macedonia, it was never used in their schools. In one village, threats by local police led to residents throwing their copies into a lake.[2] In January 1926, the region of Florina saw extensive protests by Greek and pro-Greek Slavic speakers campaigning against the primer's publication, demanding the government change their policies on minority education.[5]

Professor Loring Danforth argues the Abecedar was printed in the Latin alphabet "precisely to ensure [sic] that it would be rejected by all parties concerned" so "it would not contribute to the development of ties between the Slavic-speaking people of northern Greece and either Serbia or Bulgaria." The Republic of Macedonia argues it demonstrated a separate Macedonian language and people existed in northern Greece in 1925, and the Greek government recognized it as such.[2]

According to Victor Roudometof, the incident led to significant change in the Greek government's stance toward Slavic-speaking citizens. Henceforth, they were deemed to be neither Serbs nor Bulgarians, and their difference was regarded as solely linguistic, not ethnic or political.[5]

[edit] Second and third editions

The Abecedar has been republished twice. A 1993 edition was published by the Macedonian Information Center in Perth, Western Australia.[4] In 2006, an edition was published in Thessaloníki on the initiative of the ethnic Macedonian political party Rainbow. The latest edition contains the text in the modern Macedonian language together with translations in Greek and English, and material about reactions to the book and its history.[citation needed] Rainbow argues that the Abecedar is one of a number of "official Greek documents which long before 1945 defined 'Macedonian' as something different from 'Greek.'" [6]

[edit] Main characteristics of the Abecedar

The first edition Abecedar was based on the Bitola-Florina dialect, and the vocabulary is mainly extracted from that dialect.[4] The main characteristic of the Abecedar is the text uses the Latin alphabet, differing from the modern Macedonian language, which was standardized nearly two decades later in neighboring Yugoslavia, and uses the Cyrillic alphabet.

The alphabet in the Abecedar contains 29 letters. Two letters are unique for the alphabet because they represent sounds not found in standard Macedonian, Îî and Üü, pronounced as /ɘ/ and /ʏ/. The book also uses particular diagraphs to represent some sounds. The digraphs gj, kj, nj, lj and dz represent the sounds /gʲ/, /kʲ/, /ɲ/, /ʎ/ and /dz/ respectively, corresponding to the Cyrillic letters Ѓ, Ќ, Њ, Љ and Ѕ. The book also includes a section about Macedonian grammar. All the material is supported by corresponding texts extracted and inspired by the daily life of the people for better understanding and learning.

  • Digraphs: јa /ja/, јe /je/, јo /jo/, kja /kʲa/, lja /ʎа/, nja /ɲa/, kjo /kʲo/, ljo /ʎо/, njo /ɲо/, gja /gʲа/, gjo /gʲo/, ae /ae/, ei /ei or oj/, oi /oi or oj/.

In the second edition of the book, besides the old version, the new version of the book used explanations and texts written in the Macedonian Cyrillic alphabet.

[edit] Examples from the book

  • Našata kukja je visoka. (Macedonian in latin script: Našata kuḱa e visoka. Macedonian Cyrillic: Нашата куќа е висока. English: Our house is tall.)
  • Gjorče et edno arno dete. (Macedonian in latin script: Ǵorče et edno arno dete. Macedonian Cyrillic: Ѓорче е едно добро дете. English: Gjorče is one good child.)
  • Moite brakja set vo čusdžina. (Macedonian in latin script: Moite braḱa se vo tuǵina. Macedonian Cyrillic: Моите браќа се во туѓина. English: My brothers are abroad.)

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ A. Angelopoulos, Population Distribution of Greece Today according to Language, National Consciousness and Religion, Balkan Studies, 20 (1979), pp.123-132, "When Greek Macedonia was liberated in 1913 43% of the population was Greek, 40% Moslem and 10% Bulgarian"
  2. ^ a b c d Danforth, Loring M. The Macedonian Conflict: Ethnic Nationalism in a Transnational World, p. 70. Princeton University Press, 1995. ISBN 0691043566
  3. ^ Andonovski, Hristo. "The First Macedonian Primer between the Two World Wars - The Abecedar". Macedonian Review. 6:64-69
  4. ^ a b c Poulton, Hugh. Who are the Macedonians?, pp. 88-89. C. Hurst & Co, 2000. ISBN 1850655340
  5. ^ a b Roudometof, Victor. Collective Memory, National Identity, and Ethnic Conflict: Greece, Bulgaria, and the Macedonian Question, p. 102. Greenwood Publishing Group, 2002. ISBN 0275976483
  6. ^ "Rainbow Sends Letter to Nimetz: Recognition of a Separate Macedonian Identity". Macedonian Information Agency, Skopje, 27 February 2008.

[edit] External links