Macedonian grammar

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

The grammar of Macedonian is, in many respects, similar to that of some other Balkan languages (constituent languages of the Balkan sprachbund), especially Bulgarian. Macedonian exhibits a number of grammatical features that distinguish it from most other Slavic languages, such as the elimination of case declension, the development of a suffixed definite article, and the lack of an infinitival verb, among others.

The first printed Macedonian grammar was published by Gjorgjija Pulevski in 1880.[1]

Orthography

The Macedonian orthography (правопис, pravopis) encompasses the spelling and punctuation of the Macedonian language.

Alphabet

Main article: Macedonian alphabet

The modern Macedonian alphabet was developed by linguists in the period after the Second World War, who based their alphabet on the phonetic alphabet of Vuk Stefanović Karadžić, though a similar writing system was used by Krste Misirkov in the late 19th century. The Macedonian language had previously been written using the Early Cyrillic alphabet and later using Cyrillic with local adaptations from either the Serbian or Bulgarian alphabets.

The following table provides the upper and lower case forms of the Macedonian alphabet, along with the IPA value for each letter:

Cyrillic
IPA
А а
/a/
Б б
/b/
В в
/v/
Г г
/ɡ/
Д д
/d/
Ѓ ѓ
/ɟ/
Е е
/ɛ/
Ж ж
/ʒ/
З з
/z/
Ѕ ѕ
/dz/
И и
/i/
Cyrillic
IPA
Ј ј
/j/
К к
/k/
Л л
/ɫ/, /l/
Љ љ
/l/
М м
/m/
Н н
/n/
Њ њ
/ɲ/
О о
/ɔ/
П п
/p/
Р р
/r/
С с
/s/
Cyrillic
IPA
Т т
/t/
Ќ ќ
/c/
У у
/u/
Ф ф
/f/
Х х
/x/
Ц ц
/ts/
Ч ч
/tʃ/
Џ џ
/dʒ/
Ш ш
/ʃ/

The cursive version of the alphabet is slightly different:

Punctuation

Punctuation (интерпункција, interpunkcija) marks are one or two part graphical marks used in writing, denoting tonal progress, pauses, sentence type (syntactic use), abbreviations, et cetera.

Marks used in Macedonian include periods (.), question marks (?), exclamation marks (!), commas (,), semicolons (;), colons (:), dashes (–), hyphens (-), ellipses (...), different types of inverted commas and quotation marks ( ‚‘, „“), brackets ((), [], {}) (which are for syntactical uses), as well as apostrophes (',’), solidi (/), equal signs (=), and so forth.

Syntax

The canonical word order of Macedonian is SVO (subject–verb–object), but word order is variable. Word order may be changed for poetic effect (inversion is common in poetry).

Generally speaking, the syntactic constituents of the language are::

sentence or clause- the sentence can be simple and more complex.
noun phrase or phrase - one or more words that function as single unit.
complex sentence - a combination of two sentences and clauses.
text - a set of sentences that are syntactically and semantically linked.

Morphology

The Macedonian word classes. Open word class is in blue, whereas in green is the closed word class.

Words, even though represent separate linguistic units, are linked together according to the characteristics they possess. Therefore, the words in Macedonian can be grouped into various groups depending on the criteria that is taken into consideration. Macedonian words can be grouped according to the meaning they express, their form and their function in the sentence. As a result of that, there are three types of classification of the Macedonian words: semantic, morphological and syntactic classification.

According to the semantic classification of the words, in the language there are eleven word classes: nouns, adjectives, numbers, pronouns, verbs, adverbs, prepositions, conjunctions, particles, interjections and modal words.

Nouns, adjectives, numbers, pronouns and verbs belong to the open word class, whereas the prepositions, adverbs, conjunctions, particles, interjections and modal words belong to the closed word class. This is the morphological classification of the words. Finally, there are two large groups according to the syntactic classification. The larger part of the words belong to group of lexical words, and such words are: nouns, adjectives, numbers, pronouns, verbs, adverbs and modal words. The prepositions, conjunctions, particles and interjections belong to the group of function words.

Nouns

Macedonian nouns (именки, imenki) belong to one of three genders (masculine, feminine and neuter) and are inflected for number (singular and plural), and marginally for case. The gender opposition is not distinctively marked in the plural .

The Macedonian nominal system distinguishes two numbers (singular and plural), three genders (masculine, feminine and neuter), case and definiteness. Definiteness is expressed by three definite articles pertaining to the position of the object (unspecified, proximate and distal) which are suffixed to the noun.

Definiteness

The article (член, člen) is postfixed, as in Bulgarian, Albanian and Romanian. In Macedonian there is only the definite article. One feature that has no parallel in any other standard Balkan language[2] is the existence of three definite articles pertaining to position of the object: medial and/or unspecified, proximal (or close) and distal (or distant).

The definite articles
Singular Plural
Masculine Feminine Neuter Masculine Feminine Neuter
Medial −от (−ot) −та (−ta) −то (−to) −те (−te) −те (−te) −та (−ta)
Proximal −ов (−ov) −ва (−va) −во (−vo) −ве (−ve) −ве (−ve) −ва (−va)
Distal −он (−on) −на (−na) −но (−no) −не (−ne) −не (−ne) −на (−na)

Examples:

Vocative case

Macedonian lost the traditional (Slavic) grammatical cases during its development and became an analytic language. The case endings were replaced with a complex system of prepositions; however, there are still some traces left of the vocative case in contemporary Macedonian. The vocative case is formed by adding the endings '–o' (for feminine nouns), '–u' (for masculine monosyllabic nouns), and '–e' (for masculine polysyllabic nouns). For example, пријател [ˈprijatɛɫ] ('friend') takes the form of пријателе [priˈjatɛlɛ] ('friend!').[3] The vocative is used almost exclusively for singular masculine and feminine nouns.

Pronouns

Main article: Macedonian pronouns

Macedonian pronouns decline for case ('падеж'), i.e., their function in a phrase as subject (ex. јас 'I'), direct object (него 'him'), or object of a preposition (од неа 'from her').

Based on their meaning and their function in a sentence, pronouns fall into one of the following categories:

Types of pronouns Examples
Demonstrative pronouns ова (ova, 'this'), она (ona, 'that'), овде (ovde, 'here'), таму (tamu, 'there')
Indefinite pronouns некој (nekoj, 'somebody'), нешто (nešto, 'something')
Interrogative pronouns кој (koj, 'who'), кого/ кому (kogo/ komu, 'whom'), што (što, 'what')
Personal pronouns јас (jas, 'I'), ти (ti, 'you'), тој (toj, 'he'), таа (taa, 'she'), тоа (toa, 'it'), ние (nie, 'we')
Possessive pronouns мој (moj, 'my'), твој (tvoj, 'your'), нејзин (nejzin, 'her'), негов (negov, 'his'), наш (naš, 'our')
Relative pronouns кој (koj, 'who'), којшто (kojšto, 'which'), што (što, 'that'), чиј (čij, 'whose'), чијшто (čijšto, 'whose')
Reflexive pronoun
and reciprocal pronouns
себе (sebe, 'himself, herself'), сe (se, 'self')
Universal pronouns сите (site, 'all'), секој (sekoj, 'everybody', 'each'), сешто (sešto, 'everything'), секаде (sekade, 'everywhere')

Verbs

Macedonian has a complex system of verbs (глаголи, glagoli). Generally speaking Macedonian verbs have the following characteristics, or categories as they are called in the Macedonistics: tense, mood, person, type, transitiveness, voice, gender and number.

According to the categorization, all Macedonian verbs are divided into three major subgroups: a-subgroup, e-subgroup and i-subgroup. Furthermore, the e-subgroup is divided into three more subgroups: a-, e- and i-subgroups. This division is done according to the ending (or the last vowel) of the verb in the simple present, singular, third person.

The Macedonian simple verb forms are:

  • Present tense (сегашно време)
  • Imperfect (минато определено несвршено времe, 'past definite incomplete tense')
  • Aorist (минато определено свршено време, 'past definite complete tense')
  • Imperative (заповеден начин)
  • Verbal l-form (глаголска л-форма)
  • Verbal adjective (глаголска придавка)
  • Verbal noun (глаголска именка)
  • Verbal adverb (глаголски прилог)

The Macedonian complex verb forms are:

  • Perfect of imperfective verbs (минато неопределено несвршено време, 'past indefinite incomplete tense')
  • Perfect of perfective verbs (минато неопределено свршено време, 'past indefinite complete tense')
  • Past perfect tense (предминато време)
  • Future tense (идно време)
  • Future-in-the-past (минато-идно време)
  • Future perfect tense (идно прекажано)
  • Potential mood (можен начин)
  • Have-construction (има-конструкција)
  • Be-construction (сум-конструкција)
  • To-construction (да-конструкција)

Simple verb forms

Present tense
The Macedonian Present tense represented on a timeline. The red colour denotes fact, the blue denotes current event and the green notes future event.

The Present tense (сегашно време, segašno vreme) is used to express present actions and actions that overlap with the moment of speaking and this meaning is expressed with the use of imperfective verbs. Besides that, the Present tense can be formed with the perfective verbs as well, but then it is not true present action, but more likely future in the past. Besides the present action, with the forms of present tense there is possibility to express:

The forms of the Present simple in Macedonian are made by adding suffixes to the verb steams. In the following tables are shown the suffixes that are used in Macedonian and one example for each verb subgroup.

singular plural
1. − м
− m
− ме
− me
2. − ш
− š
− те
− te
3. − ат
− at

Note: indicates a zero ending.

A-subgroup
гледа (see)
I-subgroup
носи (carry)
E-subgroup
јаде (eat)
Јас
I
гледам
gledam
носам
nosam
јадам
jadam
Ти
You
гледаш
gledaš
носиш

nosiš
јадеш
jadeš
Тој, таа, тоа
He, she, it
гледа
gleda
носи
nosi
јаде
jade
Ние
We
гледаме
gledame
носиме
nosime
јадеме
jademe
Вие
You
гледате
gledate
носите
nosite
јадете
jadete
Тие
They
гледаат
gledaat
носат
nosat
јадат
jadat

Here are some examples where the usage of Present tense in Macedonian is applied:

Јас јадам леб. (Jas jadam leb., 'I eat bread.')
Додека тој јаде, ти чисти ја собата. (Dodeka toj jade, ti čisti ja sobata., 'While he eats, you clean the room.')
Автобусот за Скопје тргнува во 5 часот. (Avtobusot za Skopje trgnuva vo 5 časot., 'The bus for Skopje leaves at 5 o'clock.')
Ако ја грееш водата, таа врие. (Ako ja greeš vodata, taa vrie., 'If you heat the water, it boils.')
Секој ден јас гледам сериски филм. (Sekoj den jas gledam seriski film., 'Every day I watch a serial film.')
Imperfect
The Macedonian Imperfect represented on a timeline. The blue colour denotes witnessed action, the green denotes past conditional action and the red denotes past progressive event.

The imperfect, or referred to as 'past definite incomplete tense' (минато определено несвршено време,minato opredeleno nesvršeno vreme), is used to express past actions where the speaker is a witness of it or took participation in it. In order to express such an action or state, imperfective verbs are used. Also, there is a possibility to express an action with perfective verbs, but then before the verb there should be some of these prepositions or particles: ако (ako, 'if'), да (da, 'to') or ќе (ḱe, 'will'). It is important to mention that when perfective verbs are used, then there is expression of conditional mood, past-in-the-future or other perfective aspects, but not witnessed past actions. Besides the basic usage of the Imperfect, with this tense in Macedonian can be expressed and:

The suffixes used to make the Imperfect are:

singular plural
1. − в
− v
− вме
− vme
2. − ше
− še
− вте
− vte
3. − ше
− še
− а / − jа*
− a / − ja

* - The suffix -ja is used for verbs of I- and E-subgroups where the word steam ends on vowel,
for example mie - mieja (wash - were washing), pee - peeja (sing - were singing).

A-subgroup
гледа (see)
I-subgroup
лови (hunt)
E-subgroup
јаде (eat)
Јас
I
гледав
gledav
ловев
lovev
јадев
jadev
Ти
You
гледаше
gledaše
ловеше
loveše
јадеше
jadeše
Тој, таа, тоа
He, she, it
гледаше
gledaše
ловеше
loveše
јадеше
jadeše
Ние
We
гледавме
gledavme
ловевме
lovevme
јадевме
jadevme
Вие
You
гледавте
gledavte
ловевте
lovevte
јадевте
jadevte
Тие
They
гледаа
gledaa
ловеа
lovea
јадеа
jadea

As an exemplification of the mentioned usages, here are some sentences:

Јас ловев зајаци. (Jas lovev zajaci., 'I was hunting rabbits.')
Ако не брзаше, ќе немаше грешки. (Ako ne brzaše, ḱe nemaše greški., 'If you weren't rushing, you would not make mistakes.')
Да ми помогнеше малку? (Da mi pomogneše malku?, 'What about helping me a bit?')
Секој ден стануваше во 7 часот и готвеше кафе. (Sekoj den stanuvaše vo 7 časot i gotveše kafe., 'He was getting up every day at 7 o'clock and making coffee.')
Aorist
The Macedonian Aorist represented on a timeline. The red colour denotes finished action, where as the blue uncertain future finished action.

The aorist, also known as 'past definite complete tense' (минато определено свршено време, minato opredeleno svršeno vreme), is a verb form that is used to express past finished and completed action or event, with or without speakers participation in it. The duration of the action that is expressed with the aorist can be long or short. For aorist, in Macedonian are used perfective verbs, but sometimes, though very rarely, in non-standard folk speech there may be usage of imperfective verbs. Besides this basic usage, the aorist also can be used to express:

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 сум) take the same endings, there are complexities in the aorist stem vowel and possible consonant alternations.

singular plural
1. − в
− v
− вме
− vme
2. − вте
− vte
3. − а / − ја
− a / − ja

Note: indicates a zero ending. The suffix -ja is used for verbs of the I-division of I-subgroup and for the division of E-subgroup without vowel, i.e. izmi - izmija (wash - washed)

The following tables show the paradigm of the aorist for all three major verb subgroups and their divisions:

A-subgroup
прочита (read)
I-sugroup
I-division
прати (send)
I-subgroup
E-division
оздрави (heal)
I-subgroup
A-division
издржи (hold on)
Јас
I
прочитав
pročitav
пратив
prativ
оздравев
ozdravev
издржав
izdržav
Ти
You
прочита
pročita
прати
prati
оздраве
ozdrave
издржа
izdrža
Тој, таа, тоа
He, she, it
прочита
pročita
прати
prati
оздраве
ozdrave
издржа
izdrža
Ние
We
прочитавме
pročitavme
пративме
prativme
оздравевме
ozdravevme
издржавме
izdržavme
Вие
You
прочитавте
pročitavte
пративте
prativte
оздравевте
ozdravevte
издржавте
izdržavte
Тие
They
прочитаа
pročitaa
пратија
pratija
оздравеа
ozdravea
издржаа
izdržaa

E-subgroup
A-division
стане (stand up)
E-subgroup
E-division
сотре (wipe out)
E-subgroup
O-division
дојде (come)
E-subgroup
without vowel
измие (wash)
Јас
I
станав
stanav
сотрев
sotrev
дојдов
dojdov
измив
izmiv
Ти
You
стана
stana
сотре
sotre
дојде
dojde
изми
izmi
Тој, таа, тоа
He, she, it
стана
stana
сотре
sotre
дојде
dojde
изми
izmi
Ние
We
станавме
stanavme
сотревме
sotrevme
дојдовме
dojdovme
измивме
izmivme
Вие
You
станавте
stanavte
сотревте
sotrevte
дојдовте
dojdovte
измивте
izmivte
Тие
They
станаа
stanaa
сотреа
sotrea
дојдоа
dojdoa
измија
izmija

In the following section are given some examples about the mentioned usage above:

Ние прочитавме книга. (Nie pročitavme kniga, 'We read a book.')
Го положив ли испитот, те честам пијачка. (Go položiv li ispitot, te čestam pijačka., 'Should I pass the exam, I'll treat you to a drink.')
Една вечер спав надвор. (Edna večer spav nadvor., 'One night I slept outside.')

Complex verb forms

Perfect of perfective verbs
The Macedonian Present Perfect represented on a timeline. The action is finished, but it is not specified when the action took place.

The Macedonian tense минато неопределено свршено време (minato neopredeleno svršeno vreme, 'past indefinite complete tense'), or referred to as 'perfect of perfective verbs', functions similarly as the English Present perfect simple. The forms of the Macedonian present perfect are formed with the forms of 'to be' in present tense plus the L-form of the conjuncted verb, which is always perfective. Important to note is that for third person singular there is no presence of the verb 'to be'. This form of the Macedonian perfect is sometimes called 'sum-perfect'. The declination of one perfective verb in Macedonian looks as the following one, which is the verb прочита (pročita, 'read'):

singular plural
1. Јас сум прочитал
Jas sum pročital
Ние сме прочитале
Nie sme pročitale
2. Ти си прочитал
Ti si pročital
Вие сте прочитале
Vie ste pročitale
3. Тој прочитал
Toj pročital
Таа прочитала
Taa pročitala
Тоa прочиталo
Toа pročitalо
Тие прочитале
Tie pročitale

As an example of this tense, the sentence "I have read the book" is taken and translated in Macedonian:

Јаcсумјапрочиталкнигата.
Jassumjapročitalknigata.
Iamit (clitic)readbook-the

Macedonian developed an alternative form of the sum-perfect, which is formed with the auxiliary verb 'to have' and a verbal adjective in neutral, instead of the verb 'to be' and verbal l-form. This is sometimes called 'ima-perfect'.

singular plural
1. Јас имам прочитано
Jas imam pročitano
Ние имаме прочитано
Nie imame pročitano
2. Ти имаш прочитано
Ti imaš pročitano
Вие имате прочитано
Vie imate pročitano
3. Тој има прочитано
Toj ima pročitano
Таа има прочитано
Taa ima pročitano
Тоa има прочитано
Toа ima pročitano
Тие имаат прочитано
Tie imaat pročitano

There is a slight difference in meaning between 'sum-perfect' and 'ima-perfect'.

Perfect of imperfective verbs
The Macedonian Present Perfect Progressive represented on a timeline. The action is past and progressive, but there is not information about the results and when it happened.

The English tense 'Present perfect continuous' functions similarly as the Macedonian tense минато неопределено несвршено време (minato neopredeleno nesvršeno vreme, 'past indefinite incomplete tense') or known as 'perfect of imperfective verbs'. This perfect tense is formed similarly as the perfect of perfective verbs i.e. with the present tense forms of 'to be' and the L-form of the conjuncted verb, but this time the verb is imperfective. Important to note is that for third person singular there is no presence of the verb 'to be'. The declination of one imperfective verb in Macedonian looks as the following one, which is the verb чита (read):

singular plural
1. Јас сум читал
Jas sum čital
Ние сме читале
Nie sme čitale
2. Ти си читал
Ti si čital
Вие сте читале
Vie ste čitale
3. Тој читал
Toj čital
Таа читала
Taa čitala
Тоa читалo
Toа čitalо
Тие читале
Tie čitale

As an example of this tense, the sentence "I have been reading the book" is taken and translated in Macedonian:

Јаcсумјачиталкнигата.
Jassumjačitalknigata.
Iamit (clitic)readbook-the

Like the perfect of perfective verbs, Macedonian also developed an alternative form of the sum-perfect, which is formed with the auxiliary verb 'to have' and a verbal adjective in neutral, instead of the verb 'to be' and verbal l-form. This is sometimes called 'ima-perfect'.

singular plural
1. Јас имам читано
Jas imam čitano
Ние имаме читано
Nie imame čitano
2. Ти имаш читано
Ti imaš čitano
Вие имате читано
Vie imate čitano
3. Тој има читано
Toj ima čitano
Таа има читано
Taa ima čitano
Тоa има читано
Toа ima čitano
Тие имаат читано
Tie imaat čitano

There is also a slight difference in meaning between 'sum-perfect' and 'ima-perfect' regarding perfect of imperfective verbs. Ima-perfect usually denotes resultative meaning.

Future tense
The Future tense represented on a timeline. The action is expected to occur after the moment of speaking.

With the forms of future tense in Macedonian are expressed actions that are planned to happen in future. Usually, when we speak about future, we mean expressing events that should happen soon, however, there is a special form in Macedonian to express future events from past perspective, or event that happened after some other event and this is treated as separate tense called 'Future-in-the-past'.

The simple future tense is formed by adding the clitic ќе (ḱe, 'will') to the inflected present tense form of the verb. In this respect, both Macedonian and Bulgarian differ from other South Slavic languages, since in both the clitic is fixed, whereas in Serbo-Croatian it inflects for person and number . The negative form of the future tense in Macedonian is made by adding the particles нема да (nema + da) or just не (ne) before the verb pattern, whereas the interrogative form is made by adding the question word дали (dali), also before the verb pattern. When we use the negative form nema da, there is not presence of the clitic ḱe. Usually, ḱe in English is translated with the modal verb 'will', and vice versa. When an event is expressed with the use of ḱe, then it is considered normal future, but there is a stronger future event as well which is made with the construction: има (ima, 'have') + да ('da', 'to') + present simple form of the verb.

игра (igra, play)
affirmative
носи (nosi, bring)
ne-negation
везе (veze, embroider)
nema da-negation
Јас
I
ќе играм
ḱe igram
не ќе носам
ne ḱe nosam
нема да везам
nema da vezam
Ти
You
ќе играш
ḱe igraš
не ќе носиш
ne ḱe nosiš
нема да везеш
nema da vezeš
Тој, таа, тоа
He, she, it
ќе игра
ḱe igra
не ќе носи
ne ḱe nosi
нема да везе
nema da veze
Ние
We
ќе играме
ḱe igrame
не ќе носиме
ne ḱe nosime
нема да веземе
nema da vezeme
Вие
You
ќе играте
ḱe igrate
не ќе носите
ne ḱe nosite
нема да везете
nema da vezete
Тие
They
ќе играат
ḱe igraat
не ќе носат
ne ḱe nosat
нема да везат
nema da vezat

Besides the main usage, the future tense is used to express:

Some of these mentioned rules, can be recognized in the following examples:

Јас ќе одам во Скопје. (Jas ḱe odam vo Skopje) – I will go to Skopje.
Јас отидов во визбата и што ќе видам, сето вино беше на подот. (Jas otidov vo vizbata i što ḱe vidam, seto vino isteklo na podot., 'I went to the basement and, lo and behold, all of the wine was spilled on the floor.')
Ќе ме слушаш и ќе траеш. (Ḱe me slušaš i ḱe traeš., 'You will listen to me and you will say no words.')
Колку е стар твојот дедо? Ќе да има 70 години. (Kolku e star tvojot dedo? Ḱe da ima 70 godini., 'How old is your granddad? He'd have to be [at least] 70 years old.')
Ќе направам сè само да се венчам со Сара. (Ḱe napravam sè samo da se venčam so Sara., 'I'd do anything just to marry Sara.')
Ќе одиш на училиште и крај! (Ḱe odiš na učilište i kraj!, 'You will go to school, and that’s it!')
Future-in-the-past
The Macedonian Future-in-the-past represented on a timeline. The arrow represents the aspectuality, which means the clause carries future reference.

Future-in-the-past is expressed by means of the same clitic ќе (ḱe, 'will') and a past tense forms of the verb:

ќедоjдеше
ḱedojdeše
will (clitic)he came (imperfective aspect)
He would come/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:

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, 'I would [have] come'; щеше да дойде, 'he would [have] come').

Adjectives

Adjectives (придавки, pridavki) agree with nouns in gender, number and definiteness with their noun and usually appear before it.

Comparison

Adjectives have three degrees of comparison (степенување на придавки, stepenuvanje na pridavki) – positive, comparative and superlative. The positive form is identical to all the aforementioned forms. The other two are formed regularly, by prepending the particle по and the word нај directly before the positive to form the comparative and superlative, respectively, regardless of its comprising one or two words.

Positive Comparative Superlative
тежок (heavy) потежок (heavier) најтежок (heaviest)
долг (long) подолг (longer) најдолг (longest)

Macedonian only has one adjective that has an irregular comparative – многу.

Positive Comparative Superlative
многу (a lot) повеќе (more) најмногу (the most)

A subtype of the superlative – the absolute superlative – also present in some other South Slavic languages and Romance languages (such as Italian and Spanish), expresses the highest quality without comparison. It is formed by prefixing the particle пре (pre) to an adjective, roughly corresponding to the English 'very + adjective' or 'too + adjective' combinations.

Prepositions

Prepositions (предлози, predlozi) are part of the closed word class that are used to express the relationship between the words in a sentence. Since Macedonian lost the case system, the prepositions are very important for creation and expression of various grammatical categories. The most important Macedonian preposition is на (na, 'of', 'on' or 'to'). Regarding the form, the prepositions can be: simple (vo, na, za, do, so, niz, pred, zad, etc.) and complex (zaradi, otkaj, nasproti, pomeǵu, etc.). Based on the meaning the preposition express, they can be divided into:

Type Prepositions Example Question words
prepositions of place на [na] ('on'), под [pɔd] ('under'), etc. Топката е под масата.
The ball is under the table.
They can be determined by the question word каде [ˈkadɛ] ('where').
prepositions of time ќе [cɛ] ('will'), во [vɔ] ('in', 'at'), etc. Тој беше во Тетово во 1999.
He was in Tetovo in 1999.
They can be determined by the question word кога [ˈkɔɡa] ('when').
prepositions of manner на [na] ('on'), со [sɔ] ('with'), etc. Тој го кажа тоа со иронија.
He said that with irony.
They can be determined by the question word како [ˈkakɔ] ('how').
prepositions of quantity многу [ˈmnɔɡu] ('a lot'), малку [ˈmalku] ('a few'), etc. Тој научи малку англиски зборови.
He learned a few English words.
They can be determined by the question word колку [ˈkɔlku] ('how much/ how many').

Having in mind the fact that the preposition "на" is the most frequently used in the language, it may be used to express different meaning:

Particles

The particles (честички, čestički) are closed word class that have grammatical function. The particles are used to determine other words, form some grammatical categories and emphasize some words or phrases. Regarding the function of the particles, they can be divided into the following groups:

e.g. барем [ˈbarɛm] ('at least'), само [ˈsamɔ] ('just'), сè [sɛ] ('all'), etc.
e.g. само [ˈsamɔ] ('only'), единствено [ɛˈdinstvɛnɔ] ('solely'), исклучиво [isˈklut͡ʃivɔ] ('only'), etc.
e.g. исто [ˈistɔ] ('same'), исто така [ˈistɔ taka] ('also'), притоа [ˈpritɔa] ('besides that'), etc.
e.g. речиси [ˈrɛt͡ʃisi] ('almost'), скоро [ˈskɔrɔ] ('almost', 'nearly'), точно [ˈtɔt͡ʃnɔ] ('right'), рамно [ˈramnɔ] ('equal'), etc.
e.g. имено [ˈimɛnɔ] ('namely'), токму [ˈtɔkmu] ('precisely'), etc.
e.g. −годе [-ɡɔdɛ], −било [-bilɔ], − да е [da ɛ]. These particles should be combined with other words, they do not stand on their own.
e.g. еве [ˈɛvɛ] ('here'), ене [ˈɛnɛ] ('there), ете ˈɛtɛ ('there'), etc.
e.g. не ('no', 'not'), ниту [ˈnitu] ('neither'), нити [ˈniti] ('neither') and ни [ni] ('nor').
e.g. ли [li], дали [ˈdali], зар [zar], али [ˈali] and нели[ˈnɛli] (question tag)
e.g. да [da] ('to') and нека ˈnɛka ('let')

Numerals

Main article: Macedonian numerals

The Macedonian numbers (броеви, broevi) have gender and definiteness. The first ten cardinal and ordinal numerals in the Macedonian are:

Symbol Cardinal numeral
(masc.)
Cardinal numeral
(fem.)
Cardinal numeral
(neu.)
0 нула (nula) нула нула
1 еден (eden) една (edna) едно (edno)
2 два (dva) две (dve) две (dve)
3 три (tri) три три
4 четири (četiri) четири четири
5 пет (pet) пет пет
6 шест (šest) шест шест
7 седум (sedum) седум седум
8 осум (osum) осум осум
9 девет (devet) девет девет
10 десет (deset) десет десет

Symbol Ordinal numeral
(masc.)
Ordinal numeral
(fem.)
Ordinal numeral
(neu.)
0. нулти (nulti) нулта (nulta) нулто (nulto)
1 прв (prv) прва (prva) прво (prvo)
2 втор (vtor) втора (vtora) второ (vtoro)
3 трет (tret) трета (treta) трето (treto)
4 четврти (četvrti) четврта (četvrta) четврто (četvrto)
5 петти (petti) петта (petta) петто (petto)
6 шестти (šestti) шестта (šestta) шестто (šestto)
7 седми (sedmi) седма (sedma) седмо (sedmo)
8 осми (osmi) осма (osma) осмо (osmo)
9 деветти (devetti) деветта (devetta) деветто (devetto)
10 десетти (desetti) десетта (desetta) десетто (desetto)

Phraseology

The group of words that are used in the language as one unit, word construction, are called phraseological units or in Macedonian фразеологизми (frazeologizmi). The phraseological units have special linguistic characteristics and meaning. Within one sentence, the words may be joined together in order to create units of various types. For instance, the word nut can be combined with many adjectives, such as big nut, small nut etc. Moreover, the word nut can be combined with other parts of speech as well, such as with verbs as in the sentence I ate a nut.

These types of combinations are led by the general principles of the phraseology, which states that the words in the sentences can be freely combined. Within these combinations or collocations, each word keeps its original meaning, so the meaning of the whole construction is equal to the meaning of its constituents.

Besides the word construction with loose connections, in Macedonian there are word constructions that are not freely combined, which means they are permanently combined together. As an illustration of these two types of connections are the following sentences, where the noun phrase "hard nut" is used:

In the first sentence, "hard nut" is a common collocation, where the words are connected freely and can be changed with other words in different contexts. On the other hand, in the second sentence the noun phrase "hard nut" (i.e. a hard nut to crack) is an expression that means "strong, unbreakable" and the words are in strong connection and they are not changed with other words. If these words are changed, the meaning of the phrase will be lost.

Onomastics

Macedonian onomastics (Macedonian: Македонска ономастика, makedonska onomastika) is a part of Macedonistics that studies the names, surnames and nicknames of the Macedonian language and people. This is relatively new linguistic discipline. In Macedonia, and in the Macedonistics in general, it developed during the 19th century, where the first few research results have been provided. The Onomastics for a long period of time has been considered as part of various different scientific disciplines, such as Geography, History or Ethnography, until it became a discipline on its own in the 20th century. The Macedonian Onomastics, generally speaking, is divided into toponomastics and anthroponomastics.

See also

Notes

  1. Gjorgjija Pulevski on the site of MANU.
  2. Standard Bulgarian has only the unspecified form, although three definite article forms exist in certain Bulgarian dialects, notably the vernaculars of Tran and parts of the Rhodopes .
  3. Compare with other languages in the Balkan sprachbund; Bulgarian: приятел and приятелю; Serbo-Croatian: prijatelj and prijatelju; Greek: φίλος and φίλε; Romanian: prieten and prietene.

References

  1. ^ Christina E. Kramer (1999), Makedonski Jazik (The University of Wisconsin Press).
  2. ^ Friedman, V. (2001) Macedonian (SEELRC), p. 17.
  3. ^ Friedman, V. (2001) Macedonian (SEELRC), p. 40.
  4. ^ Lunt, H. (1952) Grammar of the Macedonian Literary Language, Skopje.
  5. ^ Tomić, O. (2003) "Genesis of the Balkan Slavic Future Tenses" in Formal Approaches to Slavic Linguistics: The Ottawa Meeting 2003 (Michigan : Michigan Slavic Publications).
  6. ^ Бојковска, Стојка; Минова-Ѓуркова, Лилјана; Пандев, Димитар; Цветковски, Живко (December 2008). Саветка Димитрова, ed. Општа граматика на македонскиот јазик. Скопје: АД Просветно Дело. OCLC 888018507.
  7. ^ Стојка Бојковска, Димитар Пандев, Лилјана Минова - Ѓуркова, Живко Цветковски (2001). Македонски јазик за средно образование. Скопје: Просветно Дело АД.
  8. ^ Кепески, К. (1946), Македонска граматика, Скопје, Државно книгоиздавателство на Македонија.
  9. ^ Конески, Блаже (1967). Граматика на македонскиот литературен јазик. Скопје: Култура.
  10. ^ Стойков, С. (2002) Българска диалектология, 4-то издание. стр. 127. Also available online.

External links

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