Political views on the Macedonian language

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

The existence and distinctiveness of the Macedonian language is disputed among the politicians, linguists and common people from Macedonia and neighboring countries. Macedonian dialects are indeed a part of dialectal continuum which stretches from Croatian, Bosnian and Serbian Shtokavian dialect through Torlakian on the northwest, to western and eastern Bulgarian dialects on the East, and the Macedonian language, like Bulgarian, Serbian, Croatian and Bosnian, is a standardized form of (some of) these dialects.

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[edit] 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, the home of the two saints.[1] Later on, Macedonia fell under the rule of Bulgarians, and the Byzantines regarded all Slavic Macedonians as Bulgarians. According to a minority view, supported in the Republic of Macedonia, Samuil's realm in the early Middle Ages was allegedly the first Macedonian Slavic state.[citation needed] However, Krste Misirkov, who allegedly set the principles of the Macedonian literary language in the late 19th century, stated: "We speak a Bulgarian language and we believed with Bulgaria is our strong power."[2]

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 8-10% of the present inhabitants of the Republic of Macedonia are the descendants of the Aegean Macedonian refugees.[citation needed]

[edit] Bulgarian view

Main article: Bulgarian views on the Macedonian language

Although Bulgaria was the first country to recognize the independence of the Republic of Macedonia, it has refused to recognize the existence of a separate Macedonian nation and a separate Macedonian language. This view is shared by most Bulgarian academics and by the majority of the Bulgarian public [3]. More particularly, official Bulgaria holds the view that Macedonian is one of three “norms” of the language, the other two being standard Bulgarian and the language of the Banat Bulgarians.

According to the Bulgarian view, the dialects spoken in Macedonia (along with those in northern Greece and parts of Albania and Serbia) are Bulgarian. The shared features of these dialects are cited as proof of that.[4] Bulgarian scholars also claim that the overwhelming majority of the Macedonian population had no conscience of a Macedonian language separate from Bulgarian before 1945. Russian scholars cite the early references to the language in Slavic literature from the middle of 10th century to the end of 19th century as "bulgarski" or "bolgarski" as proof of that claim.[5] (Please see the main article for facsimiles of those early texts.) From that, the conclusion is drawn that modern standard Macedonian is not a language separate from Bulgarian either but just another written "norm" based on a set of Bulgarian dialects. See dialect and dialect continuum to assess the validity of these arguments. Bulgarian linguists, as well as Otto Kronsteiner, an Austrian linguist, assert that the Macedonian linguists who codified the new language did everything possible to create differences from literary Bulgarian and bring it closer to Serbian. [6][7]. They are also said to have resorted to falsifications and deliberate misinterpretations of history and documents in order to further the opinion that there was a consciousness of a separate Macedonian ethnicity before 1944.[8] In the Government of Bulgaria officially recognised[1] the Macedonian Language which has proved beneficial to both countries. This recognition was unpopular with many members of the opposition and many Bulgarian scholars.

[edit] Serbian view

Serbia officially recognises the Macedonian Language as separate language to Bulgarian. In the 2002 census c.26,000 people declared themselves as Macedonians.[2]

A map of Balkan dialects published in 1914 by Serbian philologist, Aleksandar Belić.
A map of Balkan dialects published in 1914 by Serbian philologist, Aleksandar Belić.

[edit] Greek view

From the Greek point of view, there can be only one meaning for the term Macedonia, and that is in reference to Ancient Macedonia and the Macedonia in Greece.[9] It follows that this denial extends to the use of Macedonian in talking about the Macedonian language. [10]

Books have been published in Greece which purport to expose the "artificial character" [11] of the Macedonian language. Certain Greeks believe that the language which is sometimes referred to as Macedonian spoken in Northern Greece is a mixture of Slavic and Greek [12] (see Slavic language (Greece)).

[edit] Other views

Italian linguist Vittore Pisani stated: "The Macedonian language is actually an artefact produced for primarily political reasons". [13]

[edit] References

  1. ^ 1999/02/22 23:50 Bulgaria Recognises Macedonian Language
  2. ^ SN31


  1. ^  Encyclopædia Britannica - Old Church Slavonic language
  2. ^  Mahon, M. (1998) "The Macedonian question in Bulgaria" in Nations and Nationalism. Vol. 4, No. 3, pp. 389-407.
  3. ^  "Единството на българския език в миналото и днес", Български език, XXVIII, 1978.
  4. ^  Струкова, К. П. Общественно-политическое развитие Македонии в 50-70-е гг XIX века, Российская Академия наук, Москва 2004, стр. 85-136. ISBN 5-7576-0163-9
  5. ^  Otto Kronsteiner, The Fathering of the Macedonian Literary Language
  6. ^  Ив. Кочев и Ив. Александров, ДОКУМЕНТИ ЗА СЪЧИНЯВАНЕТО НА МАКЕДОНСКИЯ КНИЖОВЕН ЕЗИК (Bulgarian)
  7. ^  Коста Църнушанов, Македонизмът и съпротивата на Македония срещу него, Унив. изд. "Св. Климент Охридски", София, 1992
  8. ^  Vitković,G. "Glasnik Srpskog učenog društva" (Serbian Academy Herald"),67,1887, pp.128; pp.131
  9. ^  Danforth, L. (1997) The Macedonian Conflict: Ethnic Nationalism in a Transnational World (Princeton : Princeton University Press) ISBN 0-691-04356-6
  10. ^  Floudas, D. Pardon? A Conflict for a Name? FYROM'S Dispute With Greece Revisited (available online here)
  11. ^  Roudometof, V. (1996) "Nationalism and Identity Politics in the Balkans: Greece and the Macedonian Question" in Journal of Modern Greek Studies Vol. 14, pp. 253-302.
  12. ^  Pisani, V. "Il Macedonico, Paideia, Rivista Letteraria di informazione bibliografica", vol. 12, p. 250, 1957
  13. ^  Misirkov, K. "On the Macedonian Matters", Sofia 1903

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