Slavic dialects of Greece

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The Slavic dialects of Greece are the dialects of Macedonian or Bulgarian spoken by minority groups in the regions of Macedonia and Thrace in northern Greece. Linguistically, these dialects are classified as either Bulgarian in Thrace, Transitional dialects in East Macedonia and Macedonian in Central and West Macedonia.

[edit] Linguistic Opinions

According to Peter Trudgill,^[2]

According to Roland Schmieger,^[3]

[edit] Self-Identification

The linguistic affiliation of these varieties with either of the two neighbouring standard languages is a matter of some discussion, as is the ethnic affiliation of their speakers. Locally and in the Greek language they are often referred to simply as "Slavic" (σλάβικα slávika) or "local" (εντόπια Entópia, Dópia). Among self-identifying terms, both makedonski ("Macedonian") and bălgarski ("Bulgarian") are also used ^[4] along with "Naši" (our own) and "Stariski" (old)^[5].

[edit] Classification and Dialects

It is generally accepted that both Macedonian and Bulgarian are both spoken in the north of Greece. They are split into three major groups: Macedonian, transitional dialects, and Bulgarian.

[edit] Macedonian Language

Further information: Dialects of the Macedonian language

Distribution of the Macedonian language according to the Harvard Encyclopedia of American Ethnic Groups

A map showing the various Dialects of Macedonian as spoken in Greece.

Various dialects of the Macedonian Language are spoken in the Peripheries of West and Central Macedonia^[6]. The Dialects of the Macedonian language spoken in Greece include the Upper and Lower Prespa dialects, the Kastoria Dialect, the Nestram-Kostenar dialect, the Florina variant of the Prilep-Bitola dialect and the Salonica-Edessa Dialect.^[7] Certain characteristics of the these dialects include the changing of the suffix ovi to oj creating the words лебови> лебој (lebovi> leboj/ bread).^[8] Often the intervocalic consonants of /v/, /g/ and /d/ are often lost, changing words from polovina >polojna (a half) and sega > sea (now).^[9] In other Phonological and Morphological Characteristics they remain similar to the other South-Eastern dialects spoken in the Republic of Macedonia and Albania.^[10]

[edit] Transitional Dialects

The Ser-Drama-Lagadin-Nevrokop dialect is considered one of the two main transitional dialects between Macedonian and Bulgarian. It is spoken in the peripheral region of East Macedonia along with a small population in Bulgaria^[11]. This dialects contains many distinct Macedonian and Bulgarian features in Morphological and Phonological Characteristics. While the Bulgarian vowels of я /ja/ and Й /ji/ are kept transforming words such as николаи/nikolai into николай/nikolaĭ and Кои/Koj into Кой/Koĭ. Macedonian words like Бел/Bel convert to the Bulgarian form of бял /bʲal/ (white).^[12] The Bulgarian short [i]-like vowel of ь /ə/ is also dropped and words such as Добър/dóbər become Добaр/dobar and Пьрво/părvo becomes Прво/prvo. The sound х/h also adopts the Bulgarian pronunciation of х/kh. The dialect's also have many similarities to both the Bulgarian and Macedonian diasystems are often placed in both.^[13]

[edit] Bulgarian Language

The Yat split in the Bulgarian Language.

The Bulgarian Language is used in Western Thrace. It is used by many of the Pomak speakers on either side of the Bulgarian-Greek border. The dialects spoken include the Thracian Dialect and the Pomak Dialect. The dialects are on the jat side of the Bulgarian split yet many pockets of e speakers remain.

Many Greek linguists do not classify the Slavic languages spoken in Greece to be part of any diasystem or any particular Language.^[14]

[edit] Usage of Slavic Languages in Greece

The use of any Slavic language in the area now known as Greece has been prominent since the invasion of Slavic tribes in the 5th and 6th centuries. Although many Slavs were Hellenized or assimilated over time, many especially in the north of the country were not. As languages were codified in the 19th and 20th century many people began to identify their language as Bulgarian and later Macedonian. After the Balkan wars many Slavs from Greek Macedonia who identified as Bulgarians left Greece for Bulgaria^[15]. After the Second World War many Macedonian Language speakers also left Greece. The 1951 Greek Census reported c.40,000 people who declared their mother language to be Slavic or Slav-Macedonian^[16]. Since then no Greek census has asked questions regarding mother language.

[edit] Distribution

Traditional non-Greek languages zones in Greece. Note: Greek is the dominant language throughout Greece; inclusion in a non-Greek language zone does not necessarily imply that the relevant minority language is still spoken there.^[17]

The Distribution of the Macedonian language and Bulgarian language in Greece varies widely. Much of the population is concentrated in the Greek prefectures of Florina, Kastoria, Pella, Kilkis Prefecture and Imathia. With a smaller Bulgarian speaking population in Thrace. Their has never been a large Slavic speaking population in the Chalcidice, Pieria and the Kavala Prefecture^[18]

[edit] Population Estimates

The exact numbers of speakers in Greece is hard to ascertain. Jacques Bacid estimates in his book that "over 200,000¹ Macedonian speakers remained in Greece"^[19]. Other sources put the numbers of speakers at 180,000^2[20][21], 220,000^1[22] 250,000^[23]and 300,000^[24].The Encyclopedia Brittanica^[25]2 and the Reader's Digest World Guide¹. both put the figure of Ethnic Macedonians in Greece at 1.8% or c.200,000 people, they put the figure for Pomaks at .9% or c.100,000 people, with the native language roughly corresponding with the figures. The UCLA also states that there is 200,000 Macedonian speakers in Greece and 30,000 Bulgarian speakers.^[26][27]. The European Commission on language states no official number but acknkowledges that the languages (Macedonian and Bulgarian) spoken number into the hundreds of thousands.^1[28]

¹ This refers to speakers regardless of Ethnic identity. ² No information is given regarding how the figures were obtained.

[edit] Education

A Slavic language Abecedar schoolbook.

Distribution of races in the Balkan Peninsula and Asia Minor in 1922, Racial Map Of Europe by Hammond & Co. "Macedonian Slavs" shown as Bulgarians and Serbs

Greek ethnographic map of south-eastern Balkans, showing the Macedonian Slavs as a separate people, by Professor George Soteriadis, Edward Stanford, London, 1918.

Under the Treaty of Sèvres in 1920 (which was never ratified [2]), Greece undertook the obligation to open schools for minority-language children. In 1925 the government of Greece submitted copies of a schoolbook called Abecedar, which was written in the Slavic language for the Slavophone children and published by the Greek Ministry of Education, to the League of Nations as evidence that they were carrying out these obligations. Abecedar was written in a newly adapted variety of the Latin alphabet for the Slavic language in Greece, and not in the Cyrillic alphabet which was the official alphabet of neighboring Bulgaria and Serbia - this also shows the intent of the Greek government to create a distinctively Slavic minority, not a Bulgarian or Serbian minority; the result being that Bulgaria and Serbia would have no right to interfere in Greece's internal affairs.

In October 2006 [3] [4] [5], the Rainbow Party in Greece reprinted the original Abecedar Slavic language primer in Thessaloníki, Greece, which was printed in Athens in 1925 and was based on the Florina/Lerin dialect, as well as an up to date primer in the standardized Macedonian language and script as taught in the Republic of Macedonia and presented it to the Greek Ambassador to the OSCE, Mr Manesis [6] [7]. The book is being distributed to people who identify as Macedonian speakers in northern Greece and it has been successfully promoted in the city of Thessaloníki [8].

At present there is no formal teaching of this language within Greece^[29] but it is possible to attain a private tutor. The language is used primarily in the home and within informal situations.^[30].

[edit] The Metaxas regime

On the 4th August 1936 the authoritarian regime of General Metaxas came to power, and a new state sponsored policy of Hellenisation was enacted. The aim was to Hellenise all the non-Greek speaking Orthodox Christian populations within the Greek state's territory; other Balkan countries (Serbia, Bulgaria, Romania and Albania) respectively followed similar policies. In Greece, the ensuing result left the Slavic speakers (and other minority speech communities) forcibly suppressed, and their privileges under the Treaty of Sèvres withdrawn. Policies of the Metaxas regime included forcible Hellenization of Personal and Surnames, Punishment for speaking a non-Greek language and changing of all Slavic toponyms^[31][32].

[edit] Present situation

At present, the number of Slavophones in Greece is unknown. In the latest census posing a question on mother tongue (1951), 41,017 people declared themselves speakers of Slavic. Almost all Slavic speakers today in Greek Macedonia also speak Greek^{[citation needed]} and most regard themselves as ethnically and culturally Greek. Many of those for whom a non-Greek identity was particularly important have tended to leave Greece during the past eighty years^{[citation needed]}. Very few speakers can understand written Macedonian and Bulgarian and according to Euromosaic, the dialects spoken in Greece are mutually intelligible ^[33] as is the case with the Macedonian and Bulgarian languages..

[edit] Political Representation

A political party that promotes the concept and rights of the "Macedonian minority in Greece", and refers to the Slavic language as Macedonian - the Rainbow Party (Ουράνιο Τόξο) - was founded in September 1998, and received 2,955 votes in the region of Macedonia in the 2004 elections. Rainbow didn't participate in the Greek legislative election, 2007 citing financial reasons ^[34].Similarly, a pro-Bulgarian political website, known as Bulgarian Human Rights in Macedonia (Βουλγαρικά Ανθρώπινα Δικαιώματα στη Μακεδονία) was founded in June 2000, promoting the concept and rights of what they describe as the "Bulgarian minority in Greece", and prefers to designate the local Slavic language as Bulgarian. Currently this political party operates only a website.

[edit] See also

• Greece
• Aegean Macedonians
• Macedonia (Greece)
• Bulgarian language
• Macedonian language
• Bulgarians
• Macedonians (ethnic group)
• Slavic speaking minority of Greece
• Slavic peoples
• Slavic languages

[edit] References

[edit] Bibliography

• Trudgill P. (2000) "Greece and European Turkey: From Religious to Linguistic Identity" in Language and Nationalism in Europe (Oxford : Oxford University Press)
• Iakovos D. Michailidis (1996) "Minority Rights and Educational Problems in Greek Interwar Macedonia: The Case of the Primer 'Abecedar'". Journal of Modern Greek Studies 14.2 329-343 [9]